Fluteland.com Flute Message Board

Ok, finally, the flute is back, and it is amazing! As a matter of fact, I had lots of excuses for bad sound and the like in the past, now, I don't have any. The flutemaker, who had worked on the flute, confirmed the idea of a little bit of oiling eventually, and regular playing. He told me, that a w...

After roughly four weeks of trying, I finally got a recognisable sound out of a persian ney, which is said to be the hardest flute in the world, concerning sound production. On the contrary, it took me about half an hour to get a clearly pitched sound out of a crappy transversal flute with bad respo...

Of course, it is easier to play in scales than in large intervals, because the ways of playing two notes next to each other are much more alike. In order to improve the low C, you can start at a note that you can do with good sound control, then slowly step down, trying to maintain the quality of so...

I am still waiting for the maintenance to be finished... In the meantime, I keep looking for good advise about taking care of wooden flutes. Unfortunately, this is no science, there are as many opinions as writers about this subject. But most of them agree on oiling the inside. I also learned, that ...

It is quite amazing what flute makers can see on a flute without playing a single note. Keep in mind, that flute makers look at many flutes every day and gather much more experience than you ever can. Why don't you get a second opinion from another flute maker? This would be the easiest. 180 Euro is...

I have had years of piano lessons, perhaps two hours or acoustic guitar introduction by my aunt, a couple of drums lessons and now I am learning flute. During the past 35 years or so, I have been playing guitar a lot, also electrical guitar and electrical base in rock bands. I got along nicely and I...

I have a professional wooden flute from my grandfather, which is undergoing thorough maintenance right now. It is in a pretty good shape, except for the pads, and of course, it needs some adjusting too. But I have been told by several professionaly, including my teacher, that I will have a very good...

You should definitely check your flute for air leaks! I got my first and only flute from my grandfather, and it hadn't been played for decades. It was definitely not in a good shape then, but sort of playable. The first few months, I never really knew, if it was me or the flute, when the sound faile...

I have started taking lessons about half a year ago, and I still have trouble with the low C as well. But I noticed, that it becomes better slowly. While I am sure, that it would be possible to put all important information into a short description, it still takes a lot of time for a learner, to put...

There are quite a few wind instruments rooted on other keys than c-major. Of course the next question should be "why are those instruments in such odd keys?", but I don't have a good answer to that, only one guess: Compromise between sound, size and handling. Saxophones in E-flat and B-flat are very...

The first example has an explanation, there is a line marked "1 second". This is obviously the reference for the note durations. I wouldn't call this world crazy because some composers use odd notation systems. This is only due to the fact, that our traditional system is so limited and composers som...

Trembling arms sounds like bad posture. The posture when playing flute is weird at first, and quite uncomfortable, but that is because you need to find out how to assume it. You might even have to acquire higher skills in controlling your limbs individually at first. A lot of this comes automaticall...

It is almost impossible to increase the total volume of your lungs. If you are a smoker, there is a chance to get rid of some tar and other debris, but the volume of an adult human is pretty much set and only decreases with age. So it is important to use the existing capacity effectively and "lighte...

I think, the best is to experiment a few minutes per day, playing long notes until you obtain at least the same sound quality as the last time. It is basically about the direction, speed and size of the air stream. Listen carefully how the sound changes with different blowing styles. Your first obje...