open holed flutes, Help!!!!

mollykolly · Post by **mollykolly** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 12:31 am

I have been playing an closed hole flute for years and
just borrowed a Gmeinhart(spelling?) open holed. I am having such trouble
getting Ds and E''s out of it. On my old flute I can play just fine. Is this
flute overrated or am I just that bad. I did just come back to the instrument
after many years. I don''t always have trouble getting the notes out,It is
usually when I am going up in scale. It doesn''t seem to be sticking but I
play the same fingering and I get different sounds. Help! I am frustrated.Does
anyone have any advice?

damjan · Post by **damjan** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 1:09 am

Don't be discouraged! When you first start
playing an open hole flute it takes a while (even months!) for your fingers to
get adjusted so that they will cover the holes EVERY time. You get different
sounds because sometimes they do not cover the key-hole completely. If you keep
playing and positioning your fingers correctly, you will be fine - it just takes
time. Regards,

sweetensour · Post by **sweetensour** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 1:13 am

i've been playing the flute for a while now
too, and i've just started playing an open-holed flute a few months ago. and to
add to that, my old flute had an offset g and the open-holed one was inline..
but i'd go with damjan's advice and just keep practicing. maybe start with one
or two holes open, and once you get used to those, open up one more.

damjan · Post by **damjan** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 1:20 am

The above is a good advice! The finger that
will probably adjust last is your right ring-finger. If you have caps that cover
the holes, try closing that one for a while and then open it later when the
other fingers feel comfortable.

mollykolly · Post by **mollykolly** » Sat Jan 18, 2003 12:04 am

Thanks for the encouragement and advice.
Where can I get caps for the wholes? I think I have seen them on other flutes. I
think that I have seen them in mother of pearl?

damjan · Post by **damjan** » Sat Jan 18, 2003 2:38 am

Your local music store should have them (any
that sells flutes). Cheers,

BandSlave · Post by **BandSlave** » Sun Jan 19, 2003 11:21 am

I totally agree with the caps for your
flute. It was very difficult for me to learn how to adjust to the open holed
flutes, but I'm very glad I did. Try to close those you have troubles with and
after a while, open one for a week and see how you do, if you're fine, play
like that for a while and eventually you'll be able to open another, etc! It's
also a great way to get you practicing all of your scales, that's how my flute
teacher got me to get used to the open holes. Good luck! -Abby

tarzaflute · Post by **tarzaflute** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 7:23 am

Hi

Don't worry, open hole flutes do
take getting used to. Firstly, u have to make sure the holes are completely
covered when u use them for a note. That might be what's causing your weird
sounds, cause when they arent covered it sounds weird. From playing a plateau
flute your hand positions wont be in the exact place for an open hole flute so
that will just take getting used to. There are 2 ways that I know of that u can
use to get used to an open hole flute. u can take a plug out one at a time to
get used to each one as u go or u can do wat i did, and just take them all out
at once and just keep playing till u get somewhere, this took me around a week
when I upgraded from my closed hole flute. scales are great for practicing this,
chromatics are good especially! Just like everything it takes practice and
adjusting but its a problem the majority face when changing from closed to open
holes [:)]

boglarka · Post by **boglarka** » Wed Jun 04, 2003 3:49 am

Hey, You got some good advice already...but
I wanted to let you know that the plugs you should be looking for are made
either of cork or plastic. They should be cheap...really no reason to get mother
of pearl ones. Also, there are many different ways of thinking about which one
to remove first. Usually, the ring fingers are the hardest to train (as their
nerves are actually not completely separate from those of the middle finger).
I'd open the left middle finger first. Then, you could continue with the left
ring finger or if you like, the right index (this should be easy). Just go one
at a time, starting with the easy ones (as described above). As Damjan said,
I'd leave the right ring finger to be trained last. Good luck...you'll get it.
Open hole flutes improve technique, so keep that in mind...you're doing
yourself a lot of good. [:)]

Penny · Post by **Penny** » Thu Jul 10, 2003 4:52 pm

Fluteworld sells or at least did sell the
"corks" that fill the open holes. Open holes are good for practicing but the new
view seems to be that they don't improve sound, if anything they make it less
consistant. Just like old time belief about inline being better when actually
offset is better for you and plays the same. Interesting discussion on both
issues at Larry Krantz pages. So unless you need to work on improving your
fingure position or out to impress someone with how your flute looks, a closed
hole offset flute should be your choice. At least that seems to be the
conclusion of the current debate. This becomes personal preference not what is
better. my one and half cents anyway.[:devil:]