Flute Myths Exploded!

Like every other field of human endeavour, the flute world is liberally sprinkled with
myths, misconceptions and, shame to say, some downright mistruths. Some of these
stem from folklore, some from promotional spin and some, well, who knows where.
But whatever their source or nature, our task here is to debunk them where they need
debunking.

Who to trust?

Inevitably, from time to time, I'll be in disagreement with other sources in books, on
the internet, or at your local session. So why trust me and not your other source?
Answer, no good reason! But if the matter in contention matters to you, raise my
disagreement with your other adviser and invite them to take it up with me. If they
can convince me they're right, I'll graciously back down. Needless to say, I'll expect
the same of them!

And, if there are questions that are bothering you that are not answered below, feel
free to spring them on me.

Our topics

I've broken them down into several categories, each including a number of topics:

About flutes

About flute care

About flute-making methods and materials

About flutes
Pick a flute that is played by a professional you admire

Nice idea, but, like most things , it's not that simple. Professional players tend to be
rather gifted individuals (or we'd all be doing it!), genetically predisposed to flute (or
they'd be playing an instrument they were predisposed to). They also tend to be
rather more disciplined and devoted than most of us (or we'd all be doing it!) and put
in more hours per day practice than most of us can manage in a week.

I spent a pleasant hour with Cathal McConnel, at the Boxwood Flute Festival in 2002
where he was a tutor and I was a flute-maker in residence. Cathal tried out my various
flutes, and pronounced them very good, prompting me to ask him for a blast on the
flute he was playing, a Rudall & Rose that, well, seemed to involve rather more rubber
bands and electrical tape than I remember on most of their work. Cathal passed it
over, smiling, and predicted I wouldn't get a note out of it. He was impressed when I
got down to the A, reasonably firmly, but not much below it. He took it back and
effortlessly filled the room with great playing. Genetically predisposed.
The reality is that most professional players could play a broomstick, and indeed,
some of them do. Playing the same make and model of flute that your hero plays is no
guarantee whatsoever that you will ever sound like them. Finding the flute that best
suits you is the surest and fastest way to success and satisfaction.

My own experience is that you may need something easy at first. My first wooden
flute (in about 1971) was a Boosey Prattens in less than perfect condition. It
exhausted me and I could not keep it up. In London in 1974 I bought a midsize holed
B&S flute from Paul Davis which I could manage. Years later I went back to the
Prattens.

Good flutes should be hard to play

Who came up with this one? Who knows, but it resurfaces from time to time. Seems
the underlying idea is that a really good flute is hard to play but if you can get on top
of it, it brings some advantages (usually unspecified) over wimpy flutes that are easy
to play. But the reality is that some flutes suit some people better and a flute you find
hard to play or unsatisfying in some other regard may be perfectly fine for somebody
else. It probably goes to the matter of flexibility in embouchure (yours, not the
flute's!).

If you're finding your flute hard to play, and you've put a reasonable amount of effort
trying, then it's pretty likely it isn't the flute for you. Don't let anyone bully you into
persevering with it, stop wasting your time on it and invest that time looking for the
flute that is the right flute for you.

Wooden flutes are harder to play than metal flutes

Some of them are. Makers have a technical expression for these - we call them "bad
flutes". There is no reason why a well-made wooden flute in good condition should be
any harder to play than a well-made metal flute in good condition. Indeed, metal flute
owners often have wooden head-joints made for them and are often astonished how
well they play. I've made a number of such heads and have always received that
response - I think we excavators have a bit more room to move than the fabricators.

The materials a flute is made of make no difference

Ah, at last we can pin down a source for this one - John Coltman, Baltimore flute
researcher. John published the result of an experiment in Scientific American which is
often touted as being the last word on this topic. Unfortunately it isn't, and for easily
understandable reasons.

John's experiment involved (from memory) three flutes made of three different
materials, the most outlandish being concrete. I seem to remember that only the
bodies differed, but I can't be sure, and it doesn't really impact on our findings.
Essentially, an assembled audience was unable to tell the difference between the
sound of the three flutes. The conclusion reached is that materials a flute is made of
makes no difference.

There is good scientific basis for John's findings - the performance of a flute is going to
be principally determined by its shape - the shape of the bore, the shape of the
embouchure hole, the shape of the finger holes. The moving parts of a flute are air
molecules, and the flute itself is simply the container for the vibrating air column.
Providing it's a satisfactory container - it's smooth, it doesn't leak and it's strong
enough not to vibrate and rob energy from the vibrating air column. John's three
materials adequately met those criteria.

But supposing your container wasn't so perfect. To test the difference timber can
make, I made a flute from our local plantation timber - pinus radiata - a coarse, soft,
porous timber used for building framing. It leaked so badly at first I couldn't play a
note below A, and even those notes were weak and noisy. So there's a major
difference immediately! With the typical 4mm walls of a wooden flute, I could suck air
right through the walls! Once heavily oiled (ie we plugged the leakage), it would play
down to the bottom notes, but not with great enthusiasm. I could feel the body of the
instrument vibrating, and that energy has to come from somewhere.

So who's right, John or me? Answer, both of us, because we're looking at slightly
different questions. John was probably aiming his experiment at the metal flute
market, particularly those who spend vast amounts of money on flutes of exotic
metals. It probably didn't occur to him to consider using materials that were
inadequate containers. Why would you do that?

But inadequate containers is wooden flute business. No wood is perfectly smooth,

perfectly airtight and infinitely strong, although most of our flute timbers are
adequately smooth, airtight and strong for our purposes. That's why they are called
flute timbers! But my experiment shows that it is a spectrum, and that a timber not at
the far end can be expected to give slightly different results to a timber at the far end.
Boxwood would be such a timber - about 80% of the density of timbers in the african
blackwood category. Coming back a little more, the "fine furniture timbers" -
rosewoods, walnut, etc are half the density or less, and a good deal coarser in the
grain - we should certainly expect less of them. And that's why they are not normally
used for flute-making.

Should we expect listeners to be able to tell the difference between rosewood,

boxwood and blackwood? Probably not. In my experience listeners listen to the music
and the musician, not the instrument, unless it is very bad indeed. Was it the violinist
Yehudi Menuen who, more than a bit cheezed off with the public attention given to his
Stradivarius, came on stage, played to rapturous applause and then shocked his
audience by smashing the fiddle, which turned out to be a cheap student model.

I would expect an experienced (and blindfolded) player to notice some differences in

the performance of similar flutes made from radically different timbers, and to be
capable of consistent and meaningful discernment.

"Good enough for a beginner"

Arghhh, was there ever a meaner trick than this? A beginner flute player has enough
hurdles to jump over without saddling them with a flute that is hard to play, out of
tune, unreliable or whatever else might make the instrument unsatisfactory for an
advanced player. I learnt to play on a cheap metal Boehm flute and almost gave up
entirely after 6 months (wouldn't that have made a difference to my life!).
Fortunately, I came across a good flute player at a party and tried his flute. I could
play! Next morning found me down at the music shop, trading in my heap of junk on a
good flute. If you have any reason to doubt your flute, ask a good player for an
assessment, or conspire to try out a known good flute. Life's too short, and this music
is too much fun to be missing out.

Only an Eb key is needed for a flute to be fully chromatic

No such luck! Baroque or one-key flutes approximate chromaticism, but at a high

price. The holes are absolutely tiny, the sound very quiet and the player is lipping
notes up and down like mad to try to keep the instrument in tune. The overall effect
can be magnificent in the hands of an experienced and talented player, but never loud
enough for Irish music.

Unfortunately, once the holes are made big enough for the instrument to be able to
compete with fiddles and other session instruments, all hope of chromaticism through
cross-fingering is gone. Some notes on Irish flutes can be successfully half-holed, and
these are fine for accidentals, but playing in keys distant from the basic key of D is not
really on.

A wooden head will make a Boehm flute sound like a wooden (i.e. conical)
flute

Ah, if only! Unfortunately, most of the sound of a wooden (i.e. conical) flute is
traceable to its shape, not the materials from which it's made. In my experience, a
well-made wooden head on a metal flute will make it sound like a better flute, but not
a wooden flute.

There is one way though in which a metal flute can be made to sound more like a
wooden (conical) flute, and that is by employing an embouchure hole similar to those
on wooden flutes - i.e. elliptical in the case of 19th century flutes, or round in the case
of baroque flutes. (It wouldn't actually matter if the head was metal, plastic or wood,
it's the shape of the hole we're looking for.)

By employing the old-style elliptical or round hole, we reduce the venting, which
reduces the "cut-off frequency", which reduces the power of the upper harmonics,
making the flute sound darker. There is a trade-off though - the reduced venting will
also reduce the efficiency of the flute. Depending on our frame of mind, we can
accept that as baroque refinement, or condemn it as a lack of responsiveness.
Adopting the Irish style intense air stream playing approach will restore overall volume
of sound, at the cost of increased wind noise and player fatigue.

Those two open holes on the foot of an Irish flute are a sign of a good flute.
No they're not - they're just the holes which used to be covered by the C and C# keys
in the 8-key flute which the maker copied. Before the 19th century, flutes went only
down to D, and so didn't have the two holes, and were much shorter. It's perfectly OK
to terminate a modern Irish flute at the length required for D, or to extend it further,
providing a termination hole where needed for D.

More of concern is what happens to the bore down there. Many makers continue to
taper the bore down to near the end, just as the old makers did. There is no point in
this if you don't have the keys to play those low notes. It's smarter to find the bore
dimensions in this area that will give the best D, rather than favouring notes that can't
be played!

About flute care

Synthetic (mineral) oils will rot your flute

This one seems directly attributable to people who sell non-synthetic oils, so we can
hardly expect an unbiased account. I haven't seen evidence of this, nor can I think of
a mechanism that would account for it. Mineral oils are very stable, inert compounds,
not renowned for initiating any activity other than slipperiness.

It's further alleged that some well-known woodwind companies sell and promote the
use of mineral oils as bore oil in order to rot the instruments they have sold to you, in
order that you will have to buy a new one sooner than necessary. If it were true, it
would be a very high-risk strategy - a company whose instruments seemed to rot or
split a long time before the average would quickly get a bad reputation. In reality, it is
in the companies' interest for their products to serve well.

We know water will rot timber, and that soaking your flute in oil before it gets wet
helps repel the water. So it seems that a fairer statement would be "mineral oils
will help stop water rotting your flute".

Moral of the story would seem to be "Seek an independent assessment before

succumbing to snake-oil salespersons".

Sudden temperature changes crack flutes

This one seems to have grown out of the polymer flute business too. The rumour is
that as you dash from your car to your house in winter, your wooden flute - in its case,
stuffed into your arctic-rated sleeping bag and clutched to your body - will nonetheless
spontaneously fragment into a thousand pieces, perforating your rib cage with
shrapnel and causing a lingering and horrible death. Or that if you dare breathe one
note into your flute before it has been warmed to body heat, you will be rewarded with
a loud cracking sound, almost drowned out by the sound of the nearest repairer's cash
register. Relax, it's all rubbish.

And to prove it, I carried out an experiment where I put a flute head into the oven and
then into the freezer, and after both ordeals played it immediately, entirely without
damage (to me or the flute). Read all about it at Effect of heat and cold on flutes.
Polymer flutes don't need swabbing after playing

Certainly, lingering moisture in a polymer (or metal) flute will not cause it to crack, but
it's still not a good idea to put it away dripping. Moisture condensed from our breath is
rich in bacteria and essential nutrients, and a flute that isn't cleaned out routinely
soon starts to smell like a sewer, particularly in warmer climes. Don't go there!

Letting your wooden flute get wet will damage it

Um, have you looked inside, ever, after playing for a while? The inside of your wooden
flute is soon awash with water. If water on the inside doesn't hurt it, why should water
on the outside? Answer is, it won't, unless you leave it there for so long it starts to
soak in. And with these dense, fine timbers, that's a long time.

So if it rains on your flute, wipe it off when the rain stops. If your flute is starting to
smell more like a gym than a musical instrument, wash it out in warm water with some
household detergent added. Just make sure to dry it off, and leave it out to dry, rather
than committing it to its case where any remaining moisture can't escape.

Be careful of your flute though when crossing water in a boat. It will sink. Polymer
flutes even more so. African Blackwood is 20% heavier than water; acetal 40%.
Boxwood is a gamble at 96%. With ivory will possibly float, with silver will probably
sink!

Tuning slides should not be lubricated

Ah, this one is easy to source and easy to deal with. Boehm flute players are advised
by their flute makers not to lubricate their tuning slides, as it can attract dirt and grit
which gets jammed in the slide. The usual advice is just to keep the slides clean.

But there's a big difference here - Boehm flutes are stored with the head detached at
the slide, but wooden flutes are stored with their head joined to the barrel by the slide.
Engineers will tell you that two pieces of metal (eg a nut and bolt) should never be in
contact without lubrication - to do so invites "metal fret" - a cold-welding process by
which the metal from one piece "picks up" onto the other. Corrosive by-products from
the moisture inside the flute add to this problem, all conspiring to jam your slide
permanently together. Metals rubbing together without lubrication also wear much
faster, and nobody needs a loose slide. Lubrication is the answer, not the problem. A
light smear of cork grease is all you need.

When you feel the slide is no longer moving freely, clean the grease and gunge off
with some methylated spirits (denatured alcohol), and apply a fresh smear. Don't use
bore oil - depending on its formulation it may help stick your slide together.

Air travel is bad for flutes

It's often claimed that travel by aircraft poses a problem for flutes. Let's check it out.

Firstly, forget the old wive's tale that warns of depressurised holds. If it ever was the
case, it certainly isn't now. The air in the hold is exactly the same air that's in the
cabin - only the least of partitions separate them. Your pet travels in the hold - it's
unlikely to survive outside at the pressures and temperatures you'd encounter at
31,000 feet! We mail our flutes to you by air - they travel in the hold and suffer no
consequences.

More of concern is the dryness of the air in both cabin and hold. But take a reality
check - the longest flight is probably not much more than 24 hours - just how much
transfer of water can occur between the ultra-dense, oiled wood of your flute and the
air in that period, especially muffled as it is in its case or bag inside your luggage? If
you are concerned, take out this cheapest and best of all insurance - wrap the pieces
of your flute in cling-wrap, or pop the flute in its case into a sealed plastic bag, or,
sparing no effort or expense, do both!

But while we're on the topic, spare a thought for the poor flute player. Being 75%
water and encased in only a thin membrane, you can transfer moisture content rapidly
between body and air. You will dehydrate, making your blood thicker, making it run
slowly and clear clots slowly. Alcohol, the flute player's instinctive remedy for flute
separation, will increase dehydration. Inactivity will increase the chance of blood
clots, particularly in the legs. One of those comes loose and then gets stuck in the
heart or brain and your flute is looking for a new owner.

So forget about the flute, tucked up comfortably in the luggage, and worry about
yourself. Some "travel socks" (from your pharmacy) to minimise problems in the lower
limbs, some aspirin to thin the blood (check with your doctor first!), and move around
the cabin as much as decorum permits. Avoid Morris Dancing however. While it is
excellent exercise it may well get you ejected through the emergency exit.

The "correct" stopper distance is one diameter of the head bore

Close, but not the complete story. The conventional stopper distance is one diameter
of the head bore - about 19mm for the typical conical flute. But recognise it is a
compromise, not a golden rule. A shorter distance - typically about 16mm - will
enhance the third octave at the expense of the bottom octave. A greater distance - up
to about 23mm - will enhance the bottom notes, at the risk of driving the top of the
2nd octave flat, and making the third octave hard to play and very flat. For Irish
music, I recommend increasing the stopper distance until you find the highest note
you normally play starts to tend flat.

About flute-making methods and materials

Wooden flutes must warp or crack

This one is a favourite of the poly flute makers, but there's no proof for the assertion,
quite the opposite in fact. There are plenty of 18th century wooded flutes in museum
collections surviving quite well, thank you very much, despite no doubt hundreds of
years of indifferent treatment. It's the 19th century instruments that are almost
always cracked, and the causes are usually obvious - almost always because the
heads and barrels are lined with metal that prevents the wood moving with the
weather. By comparison, the lucky 18th century flutes had no liners, and no reason to
crack unless damaged by accident. Choose a flute design that takes into account the
wood's need to move, look after the flute in the usual ways and there's no reason it
won't be in perfect working order in several hundred years time.

Interestingly, there are many situations in which wood is less affected than polymers -
polymers melt at surprisingly low temperatures, Delrin at 177C, lower than the
temperature at which wood burns. They are affected by creep (changes in dimension
over time), and can be adversely affected by solvents, bleaches, alkalis beyond pH 9
and acids with a pH of less than 4. And delivering mothers might be wise not to play
their polymer flutes after inhaling nitrous oxide!

Incidentally, I have no problem with polymers being used for flutes - I do it myself if
asked. But I do have problems with spreading false rumours about alternative
materials.

Partial Slides will not crack flutes

It's sometimes suggested that partial tuning slides (i.e. those that don't run the full
length of head and barrel) are better in that they don't promote the same cracking full
slides do. Unfortunately and predictably, this isn't completely true. Partial slides crack
flutes partially, but they still crack flutes. French flutes crack in the barrel and in the
lower end of the head where the slide lives. English post-Boehm flutes crack at both
the socket end of the head and the head end of the body, where there are partial
slides tucked into both pieces.

And it's not just slides that crack flutes - silver-lined sockets do it too. So the general
rule is to avoid any situation where metal is entrapped inside wood. Or find some way
to buffer the metal, eg my New Improved Tuning Slide.

Post mounting is better than block mounting

Better for what, one is tempted to ask. We'd need to come up with an agreed list of
criteria for a mounting system before we could fruitfully compare differing systems. If
the aim is to permit free and quiet movement and secure sealing, both systems seem
to fit the bill. Post mounting enthusiasts often claim that blocks are prone to breaking,
but I'd have to say I've seen more broken keys than broken blocks on 19th century
instruments. And I've definitely seen more splits caused by post mounting than by
block mounting, and had to deal with more split or splayed hinge tubes and loose
posts than broken blocks. I'd go with whatever pleases you visually on this one.

African Blackwood is in danger of extinction

Another popular fiction from the polymer lobby! Fortunately capable of easy
dismissal. Declaring species as endangered is the job of CITES (the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). CITES is a body
set up by international agreement between Governments. Its responsibility is to
ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not
threaten their survival.

But don't take my word on it, go to the CITES website and do a run on African
Blackwood, Dalbergia melanoxylon or Mpingo (English, botanical and Swahili). If it's
considered endangered, it should be there.

http://www.cites.org/index.html

While we're on the topic of environmental responsibility, it seems to me that wood is a

renewable resource, while polymers are based on fossil fuels, so if you're looking for
an argument ...

Cocuswood is extinct

This one was almost true. Cocus comes from Cuba, Jamaica and the islands around
them (the "West Indies"). Demand for the timber in the 19th century drove it well
beyond commercial unavailability to the very edge of extinction. Fortunately it did
survive, and is slowly staging a comeback, but not yet in "commercially viable" terms.
Small amounts are available from "boutique" timber dealers. Costs are high,
appropriate to its rarity. Fortunately, we now have a wide range of alternative timbers
for instrument making, so there is no need to seek out and destroy the last cocus tree.
It is wonderful to be able to get pieces to repair 19th century flutes and make
replacements for missing or damaged sections for them in a timber that will match.

Thread is better than cork

Certainly better for darning your socks. As a lapping, I prefer cork - it's more resilient
and doesn't cause the bore to compress. Neither is fatal, so consider anyone who gets
hysterical about either approach potentially dangerous.

Update! Since I wrote that, I've bumped into a lot more flutes whose bores have been
distorted badly by thread wrapping, some very badly indeed. But, make up your own
mind after reading this investigation into the topic.

Leaf springs are outmoded

The old makers invariably used leaf springs - traditionally brass - under their keys.
Some modern makers prefer coil springs, some needle springs. Does it matter?
I think so - I reckon the old makers had it right. With coil or needle springs, the
amount of force required to operate the key increases exponentially the further you
open the key. Problem is, the starting force has to be high enough to ensure the pad is
squashed hard enough against its seat to make it airtight. As you open the key more,
that force increases, giving the keys a heavy kludgy feel. Not good.

By comparison, a well designed leaf spring doesn't have to increase in pressure as you
open the key; indeed it can drop. It can actually drop so much (if you don't get it
right) that the key will stay open (that's not good either!). The art is getting it "just so"
- so that about the same amount of pressure required to lift the pad off the hole is also
enough to open the key entirely. That gives the key a delightfully "snappy" action.

A little maintenance is needed occasionally to keep this magic working. A spot of cork
grease applied to the tip of the spring will prevent friction and wear.

Needle springs do have their place - on flutes with normally open keys (like the
Boehm). Here the spring force has only to be enough to hold the key open against the
force of gravity. It still increases exponentially as you start to close the key, but the
starting force is so mild you don't notice.

Silver isn't hard enough for a tuning slide

This one must come as a shock to Boehm flute players - they've been using sterling
silver slides for over 150 years. But there is sterling silver and sterling silver...

When sterling silver has been heated to near melting point (eg during a soldering
operation) the metal is left in its "annealed" state and is really soft. You certainly
couldn't use it in this state for a tuning slide - it's so soft you could squeeze it flat
between your fingers.

But when it has been hammered over a mandrel, or drawn through a drawplate or
otherwise mechanically stressed, it assumes a new state, "hardened". In this state it
becomes very hard indeed, and springy. Just the qualities we want in a tuning slide.

Brass, copper and nickel silver are exactly the same - they too have annealed and
hard-drawn states and are only suitable as tuning slides in the hardened condition.
The benefit silver has over them is that it is considerably less prone to corrosion.

A plain cylindrical flute can be in tune

Aw, wouldn't that be handy. We'd all be making and playing flutes from bamboo,
electrical conduit, water pipe, rolled up newspapers, car exhausts and so on.
Unfortunately, it isn't true - the head of a flute must contract for the octaves to be in
tune. In a "cylindrical" flute like the Boehm, the contraction appears as a tapered
head. In a conical flute, it is conspired to look like a cylinder. But it must be there.

You can force a simple cylindrical flute into tune, but recognise you are forcing it. That
is taking processing power from you, and teaching you habits you will have to unlearn
if you then get a well-bored flute. Only you can decide if that's an approach that is
going to work for you.

Conclusion

Well that wraps up my supply of explode-worthy myths at this time, but do feel free to
pass your myths on for processing! And if you don't agree with anything I've said and
still reckon you're right, do please get in touch. I don't claim to be always right,
although I did know someone who was once.

About Terry McGee...

Terry McGee makes wooden flutes for Irish, early and classical music based on the best
of original instruments, including the popular Rudall & Rose, Pratten's Perfected and
Grey Larsen Preferred models. Based in Malua Bay, New South Wales, Australia, Terry
has been a flute maker since the mid seventies and exports his instruments to the four
corners of the globe.

Terry's instruments are one-off craftsman-built instruments using the finest materials
and a combination of traditional and modern techniques. They show the benefit of the
vast and continuing research he has undertaken in Australia and in collections around
the world. The most rigorous attention to tuning makes his instruments the most
precise and vibrant available, and incorporation of new techniques makes them far
more rewarding to play than the best of the originals. On the practical side, he has
developed a new tuning slide which does not cause splitting as did the traditional
slide, and new key shapes to improve ease of playing.

Terry also makes replacement parts and carries out repairs and rebuilds for original
instruments. This site includes extensive information on flute care, history, research,
choosing a flute, fingering charts and links to other important flute resources.

Do feel free to browse the list below for many articles of interest to flute players.

Introduction, and a close look at an Irish flute

About My Irish Flutes

My Models: D & Eb Bb & B C

Materials

Of Heads and Barrels

About Keys

Foot Considerations

Accessories
Piccolos

New Heads for Existing Flutes

Flutes for Classical Music

About Terry McGee - flute maker

How My Wooden Flutes are Made

My Innovations

The New Improved Tuning Slide

The Modern Cut Embouchure

The McG# Key

The Revised C Foot

The Improved Cleaning Rod

The Smoothflow tone hole

The "Great Australian Bight" Mic Clip

The Minimum Disruption Tenon

Flute Repairs and Restorations

A repair for cracked heads and barrels

A repair for cracked sockets

The immovable slide

Broken and Missing keys, Impossible pads

"Cures" for High Pitch flutes

Flute Information and Resources

Getting the hard dark tone

Gunn, on tone and holding the flute

Nicholson on Flute Tone and holding the flute

Rockstro on Holding the Flute

Rockstro on Tone
Humidifying Flutes

Cocus wood

Real Time Tuning Analysis (RTTA)

RTTA Systems, Polygraph & Flutini

The RTTA Polygraph

RTTA Polygraph Download & Setup

Using the RTTA Polygraph

Customising the RTTA Polygraph

Historical Flute Syndromes

Flute Myths Exploded!

Frequently Asked Flute Questions

Choosing a Flute for Irish Music

A guide to the lengths of flutes

Flute ergonomics New, December 2013

Learning to Play Irish Flute

Learning to use the keys

Breaking in and Getting Used to a New Flute

Care of 19th century flutes

Care of McGee flutes

Fingering Charts:

Modern Keyless Flute

Modern 6-key flute

French Five Key Flute (for Charanga)

Eight Key Flute (19th Century)

Pratten's Perfected Original Fingering Chart

Pseudo Old-System Fingerings

Radcliff flute

Richard Potter's Patent Flute Fingering

Siccama's Fingering Chart (rough - four overlapping pages)

Siccama's Fingering Chart (compiled and reduced to single page)

The Preface, Ceol Rince na hireann, Vol 1

Resources for Irish Flute Players

Miking Your Flute for Stage and Recordings

Flute and Flute-Making Bibliography

Wooden flute plans

How to Repad Your Wooden Flute

Photographing flutes

Recollections of Paul Davies:

About Paul

Terry McGee's Recollections

Other People's Recollections

Historical Flute Studies

Introduction to the Historical Flute Studies

My Research Colleagues

Historical Veracity in the Documentation of the Flute

Interpreting Hole Distribution Charts

An Introduction to Venting Charts

Cents to Hertz conversion

Movers and Shakers in 19th Century 8-key flute development

Sales of flutes in the 19th century

Original 8-key Flute Prices

Gunn, on tone

Charles Nicholson

Nicholson on Flute Tone

C. Nicholson's Improved - the turning point

Development of C. Nicholson's Improved

Nicholson's Own Flutes

Bainbridge's Observations

Thomas Lindsay's: A Few Practical Hints

Rudall, Rose, Carte et al:

Before Rudall met Rose

Before Rose met Rudall

Rudall & Rose: Flute-Making Icons

Rockstro analyses the intonation of a flute from Rudall & Rose

Rudall & Rose No 519 - early success

Rudall and Rose No 742 - a particularly famous Rudall

An Imposition against the Public - a Rudall Fake!

Rudall & Rose Bb flutes

Rudall & Rose 1832 Patent Head

Inside the Patent Head

The Search for Rose's Improved Conoidal Bore

Rose's Perfected Flute?

Rudall Carte 916 - an "old-system" flute

Development of the Rudall flute

Rudall Carte Workshop views (big!)

Some unusual Rudalls

Rudall's Workers

Rose versus Camp at the Old Bailey

A Rudall Carte Transplant

The Rudall, Rose or Carte Models Study

The Questionnaire

The Conclusions

Richard Carte

Carte's "Sketch of the Successive Improvements in the Flute"

"General Remarks" from Rudall Carte's catalogue

Richard Carte - Saint or Sinner?

Introduction and Biography

The Saga of Boehms 1847 Essay

Richard Cartes Claims in Relation to the Exhibition of 1851

Rudall Cartes Comments on Clinton's "Extreme" Holes

Richard Cartes Comments regarding the 1847 Boehm Patent

Claim to Priority as an English-born Player of the Boehm Flute

Cartes Credibility A Summary

Cornelius Ward - Writings and Instruments

Cornelius Ward Contents Page

The Life and Work of John Clinton

Clinton story Contents Page

Alexander Liddle

The Metzlers and their flutes

The Metzler family

Metzler Flutes

The Siccama Flute Story

Introduction to Siccama and his flute

Siccama's 1845 Patent

Siccama's Newly Invented Diatonic Flute

Siccama's 1-key Flute - A Reconstruction

More on Siccama's 1-key flute

Extant Siccama flutes

Siccama-style flutes by other makers

The Pratten Flute Story

Robert Sidney Pratten, the man.

Hudson - Pratten's able coadjutor?

Pratten's Perfected Fingering Chart

The Mysterious Anonymous Pratten-style flute

Extant Pratten Flutes

John Pask

John Pask, Flute Maker

Ribas's Improved Flute

Pask defends the old flute

A long-body flute by Pask

American Flutemakers:

American Flute maker, William Hall

An Interesting Collaboration on Firth, Pond & Co

Firth Pond & Co, New York Makers

Christman's Christmas Day

Rockstro:

on Holding the Flute

on Tone

The Radcliff flute

Genesis of the Radcliff Model Flute

Modern Cylindrical Flutes

Boehm's Schema

Boehm Flute Head Bore

Cylindrical flutes - a History of Holes

Some letters from Boehm

Letter to Broadwood from Theobald Boehm, 17 March 1866

Letters to Musical Opinion, 1889-90

Benjamin Wells' letter to Musical Opinion, January 1890

Important Flute Exhibitions:

1851 World Exposition

Flutes at the 1851 Exposition

The 1862 London Exhibition

A Visit to the 1862 London Exhibition

Wind Instrument Exhibitors 1851 1862

Flutes at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890

Richard Potter's Patent Flute

Henry Potter

Ball, Beavon & Co - a Post Boehm cylinder flute

Jordan Wainwright - Australia's First Flutemaker?

An interesting Danish flute

Seor Giorgi's Flute Patent

A Liturgical Look at the Flute

Keith, Prowse & Co - the other perfected 8-key

Later Bb Flutes

Left-Handed Flutes

Flute key marks and makers

Numerical Key Marks

Unusual flutes

The McGee-Flutes Research Collection

Links to other historical flute sites

Flute Research

2002 Self-Indulgent Flute-maker's Tour

Solomon Blackwood - a new woodwind timber?

Purse Pads or Elastic Balls?

The Rise and Fall of English Pitch

Society of Arts Pitch

19th Century Flute Tuning

The Great Flat Foot Experiment

Determining Best Pitch in flutes

C# to D# - a more useful indicator of flute pitch?

Changes in Flute Scaling in the 18th and 19th centuries

Effect of thread wrapping on flute tenons, Series 1

A Survey

Analysis

A test tenon

Recovery

Musings

Restoration Issues

Your flute

Conclusions

Effect of thread wrapping on flute tenons, Series 2

Introduction

Original Bore Shape

Musings

A Plan

Plan B

Plans A & C

Hysteresis?

Plan D

A Test Tube

Ovality
A comparison of flute types

Introduction

Classical Bores (I have known)

A comparison of Venting

A comparison of Scaling

Comparison Summary

Effect of Heat and Cold on Wooden Flutes

Effect of Stopper Position

Effects of Shrinkage on 19th Century Flutes (In progress)

Effects of Humidity on Blackwood

A Comparison of Oils as a Moisture Barrier in Flutes (in progress)

Investigations into flute tone

1. Introduction

2. Analysing an existing recording

...

n. A Picklist of Potential Investigations

Appendix 1 - Technical Resources

Appendix 2 - Further Reading

Appendix 3 - Audio Lab Control Unit

Flute research by others

Acoustic Impedances of Classical and Modern flutes

(University of New South Wales Music Acoustics Group)

Boehm flute "Revised Scale 2011" - Wye, Bennett, Spell

Rick Wilson's Historical Flute Page

Robert Bigio's Flute Pages

Music and Arts

CDs of Wooden Flute Music

Fixing Scratched CDs

Other Interesting Music and Arts Sites in Canberra and Australia

Audio & Electronics

Introduction to Visual Analyser

Visual Analyser - Oscilloscope

Visual Analyser - The Second Channel

Visual Analyser - Calibration