a440, 442 etc
Moderators: Classitar, pied_piper, Phineas
a440, 442 etc
What is the practical use/reason for the alternate tunings of the key of A in idfferent flutes. How does it alter the scale of the flute and under what conditions or reasons would you want/need these alternate scales??
Of course, it's not just the A that is different, the entire scale is shifted higher or lower.. An A 440 flute is designed to play best at A = 440 Hz. while an A 442 flute plays best at A = 442 Hz. The rest of the pitches are similarly scaled. Of course, you can you play a little higher and a little lower than the optimal pitch for your instrument with no problem. If you try to move the pitch too far, the scale on your instrument will start to become problematic. Many symphonies in th US do play at higher pitch (441, 442, or higher), so those flutists prefer to play A 442 instruments usually. Also, pitch tends to rise during performance if anything, and as one of the highest voices in an ensemble, it's important to be able to adjust and not sound flat. If you only play in a group that really sticks to A 440, of course an A 440 flute would be best, but an A 442 does give a little bit more flexibity (since no one goes lower than A 440, only higher.) All this is kind of a subtle difference, and it's really the flutist that mades the flute play in tune, not the instrument itself.