Im interested in learning the keyless Irish Flute and I’m not sure where to start. 
Which flutes are good to begin with?
How are they like the tin whistle? (which i also plan to start as soon as my slow mailing service delivers it to my anxiouse arms)
Thank You 
There’ll be plenty of more knowledgeable people to tell you about the flute side of things, but the fingering used on a whistle is the same as is used on a six-hole flute. So you can start with the whistle, confident you won’t have to “unlearn” your fingering if/when you expand your horizons … good luck
Welcome! Where are you located? You can fill in your Location profile …
OK, with my Magical Mod powers I can tell where you are, and I know there’s an active session in your area. Introducing yourself there would be a great place to start.
Second the suggestion to start with just the whistle. You might want to wait till you have a couple of tunes down until you take the plunge and fork out the bigger bucks for a flute (though a search for beginner flute on this site will give you plenty of good suggestions on what to do once you are ready). In my opinion the whistle has a shallower learning curve as well, and is a great introduction to the tunes and session culture. For the latter you might want to attend your local session a couple of times with no instrument, just open ears (and a recording device if no one objects) to get a feel for what tune selections and settings are more common in your area.
Best of luck on your journey. It can be frustrating at times, but it is a great feeling to actually be able to play the music you love.
Might look up this guy’s site for a good starte flute.
Thank you all so much for the advice Whats a ‘local session’? And how do I get involved in my local session? It seems like a really good oportunity.
Find it on Amazon. 
Local session is a buncha folks playing Irish traditional music. Be forewarned, there are social structures and guidelines to sessions that may not be apparent on first view. If/when you find your local session, might be good to just go and listen and observe for a bit before attempting to jump in.
However, it’s probably the best learning experience for this type of music.
Best wishes.
Steve
Thank you I hope I find a session in my town.
Just did a quick google and found this:
http://web.mac.com/pubscouts/THE_PUB_SCOUTS/THE_PUB_SCOUTS.html
Sounds like fun!
Yep, that’s the one hinted at in my previous post. 
Oh my goodness! That so awsome! Thank you guys so much
There are some excellent, top-notch Irish Trad players in Chico (at least one fine fluter and a piper/whistler as well). Met them and played a bit with them. Fine folk.
Here’s another online resource: thesession.org . Lists tunes, sites of sessions, recordings, etc.
Listen, read, search, play, practice, soak it up.
Best of luck to you.
Hi coralgene,
You might want to check out the thread I opened on Simple and keyless flutes. There are a couple of recommendations for beginner flutes, mainly wooden ones though. I am not very fond of PVC in general, therefore I don’t have that much information concerning plastic flutes, but judging from most youtube comments i came across, many people start out with a plastic flute (Yamaha or Aulos).
As for the wooden flutes, the Casey Burns Folk Flute got quite a few recommendations.
I’m not sure whether I’d recommend starting with “just the whistle”. As a (German) flute player, I find it relatively hard to transfer the relatively similar fingering to the whistle. However, when I hold the whistle like a transverse flute, my fingering is much more fluent. I would never have thought that changing the position of the arms can have such an impact. To make a long story short, if you want to play the flute (only), it might not make sense to start with a whistle.
However, you might also have a very different experience.
I agree with you, Nachteule, it does make a surprising difference just having your arms in a different place. I moved from whistle to flute a couple of years back, and it took me ages to get used to what amounts to essentially the same fingering.
Still, who wouldn’t want to play both whistle and flute?
I started with the whistle, then picked up the flute. For me, I thought it was nice–learning the flute can be frustrating sometimes . It’s nice sometimes to play the whistle and just learn a new tune without having to worry about embouchure.
What I’m discovering though is that there are differences in technique; the ornamentation I do on one might not work as well on the other.., but maybe that’s part of the fun.
Cheers,
Eric
Personally, as a whistle player (and not really a fluter), I agree completely, though some may disagree. Of course, it’s possible to just transfer your flute reflexes and have it sound OK. But whistle (esp. high whistle) is its own beast. It has a different role in the instrument zoo. Register breaks and chirps behave differently. And whistle can tolerate and actually shine with a degree of “fussiness” - a more ornamented style - that may sound overdone on flute. Conversely, dynamic tricks, articulations, and “floating octaves” that work on flute don’t work on whistle.
I can sometimes tell when a whistle player is not primarily a whistle player, but a fluter or piper just doubling on whistle as a toss-off secondary instrument. The ones who do it well may still betray their heritage as fluters or pipers, but they’ve also devoted time and care to respecting and exploring the whistle on its own terms.
I can sometimes tell when a whistle player is not primarily a whistle player, but a fluter just doubling on whistle as a toss-off secondary instrument. quote]
Is it when they try to blow in the top of the fipple as opposed to the end? 
M
I for one am nosey enough to ask. How did you come to decide to want to play the irish flute? Just a guess on my part but you don’t seem to be embedded in irish culture. (I’m not either. I just like the instruments.)