Fluteland.com Flute Message Board

Yamaha 574 HCT (B foot, C# trill, EC hj) new at Fluteworld for just over $2300 would be better value for money than a used 674 IMO.

Welcome back! I sympathise with your problem, having made a middle-aged return to flute playing after 20+ years of not playing myself. The problem for an adult amateur enthusiast is that a lot of advice on what to practice applies to students looking to improve to a very high level as quickly as pos...

I have a Gemmie 5SS from the early 1970s - handmade all silver including keys, plateau, offset, c foot, white gold springs, soldered tone holes (I think), heavy wall, hand cut headjoint. After a recent overhaul the mechanism has a nice solid but smooth feel to it. However, the headjoint is poor by m...

Mendini looks like cheap rubbish. My rule of thumb - don't go anywhere near a flute which is described by counting the number of keys! What will happen here is you will order a cheap, rubbish flute, which has to be returned to the vendor. You will be responsible for all postage and may receive a ref...

Well said fluteguy - couldn't have put it better myself! Marcel Moyse - probably the most influential flute player of the twentieth century - played on a closed hole silver plated flute. I find it hard to believe that anyone would dare question his ability or commitment just because his flute didn't...

Why do you want to play with the holes open? If you are an amateur enthusiast, you will only ever need open holes for special effects such as multiphonics, microtones and slides. Other than that the open holes will only make it harder to play your flute without any benefit at all. As an amateur, I d...

Why not sell all three? You already have two closed hole flutes which should be a step up in quality compared to the intermediate flutes, and you are going to be keeping those. Do you really need to have an open hole flute? In other words do you need to be able to play glissandi, microtones, multiph...

IMHO the 300 and 400 series Yamahas are not much of an upgrade over the 200 series - essentially the same flute in terms of headjoint and mechanism but with progressively more silver content which makes a surprisingly small difference to the sound. If you want to upgrade and stick with Yamaha then y...

In the 1970s and 80s it was very common for serious male woodwind players to grow a moustache or even a beard to avoid the risk of damaging their lips while shaving! So I find it difficult to comprehend why you would consider mutilating a part of your anatomy absolutely crucial to playing a wind ins...

Last time I checked there was a 5SS for sale at winds101.com (listed in the "professional flutes" section), although condition wasn't stated. Going for about $1000 from memory.

All the flutes you mention are high quality instruments and I don't think you could go wrong with any of them. Try them all and choose the one you like the best. I wonder if the "fluteland" website you mention is actually "Fluteworld" as the prices you describe for the Yamahas look very much like th...

IMHO it's a good idea to get some picc skills - can make you a very useful addition to the ensemble especially with concert band. It can also be a lot of fun playing picc! I agree with Phineas about the embouchure. If you allow your picc embouchure to become too tense your picc tone will become thin...