headjoint cork

[Burke]

I have a question. What else is new?

My flute has not been playing well at all in the last two or three weeks. Up until last weekend, I attributed the difficulty to my novice status. A flutist of ten years at church played it, however, and she had trouble too. She agreed that the flute was the problem. It seems to sound fine for the first few notes, but then some or all of the notes won't play. Almost nothing comes out, or the note plays as a pathetic sounding harmonic. I can't predict what will happen when I'm playing now.

When I took it back to the place where I bought it Sunday, an employee took it into a practice room and played a few scales. It sounded fine to her, then she brought it out and played it for me. It sounded fine to me too. I don't understand this at all. I'm thinking that she didn't have it long enough to see the problem. She mentioned making sure that the flute was warm enough. I thought of that too, but I know that's not the problem. I'd still say the problem were me if not for my flutist friend at church. She is a wonderfully talented musician, so she would be able to play this flute, if it were playable. This just wasn't a problem a few weeks ago.

Now, I'm thinking about the headjoint cork. I looked down into the headjoint, and wondered what I should be seeing. That's my question. What should the cork should look like when one is looking at it from the perspective of the headjoint tenon aperture. To me, it looks as though there is not a complete seal, and I'm wondering if I damaged it at some point while cleaning the inside of the head joint. Maybe I hit it or something. Can you damage the cork that way?

I'm incredibly depressed right now. I'm supposed to play in church on May 15, but I play this flute when I first wake up in the morning, and all through the day. This is one of the biggest parts of my life, and I really need to address this problem.

[ick27]

Your flute is obviously leaking, so the question is where is it leaking the most. If you can easily slide your headcork around using light pressure then it may indeed be leaky. I expect the true cause of the problem is that your pads aren't sealing over the tone holes properly. You'll just have to take it to a repair person who knows something about flutes and have them work on it (maybe some shimming, repadding, clamping, whatever they want to do.) If your pads don't seal properly playing the flute will be anywhere from unpleasant to impossible.. Anyhow, that's my guess, hope you can get it fixed up soon!

[MeLizzard]

Have any keys become bent? Sounds silly, but students occasionally grumble about unresponsive notes, and I often ask to watch them disassemble and reassemble their flutes. I'm not sure this is your issue, but many of them (newer students) are inadvertently less meticulous in handling the flutes and sometimes squeeze some keys. Even a very tiny realignment of the mechanism can cause pads to seat (well, not seat) incorrectly. Tiny leaks sometimes cause HORRENDOUS response issues. I know we don't mean to punish our flutes, but even when we're careful, and non-flutist store employees have admitted guilt in this department, things can still get a little outta-whack once in a while. The repairman in our store frequently askes flute-repair customers to show him how they assemble their flutes, and almost always, as soon as they start, he yells, "OK, Stop!". He then reminds them to only grab the flute around keyless areas, etc. (This was crazy-annoying a coupla years ago when almost every student flute we got in the store had extremely tight joints for whatever reason; kids sometimes couldn't pull them apart without assistance. Of course, they gradually loosen up.) Have your tech check for leaks all over, just in case. Good luck!

[Burke]

If your pads don't seal properly playing the flute will be anywhere from unpleasant to impossible.. Anyhow, that's my guess, hope you can get it fixed up soon!

Unpleasant is absolutely the word. It's not worth the frustration to even try to play at this point, and I'm suffering from separation anxiety. I'll be able to take it in for repair Thursay though. I might be without it for a week, but that's okay. I'll have it back and in working order soon enough. It's just that it's not soon enough. This has been going on for a couple of weeks, and I'm really starting to miss my friend.

I thought it was a leak too, but I just wasn't sure. I'm actually a little timid about testing the cork as you suggested, but when I take it in Thursday, I'll ask them to do that in front of me so I can see it done before I try it myself. Thanks for your advice. I appreciate it.

[powayflute01]

Just to answer your headjoint cork question, you can check the alignment of it with a cleaning rod. If you look at your cleaning rod, it should have a small line on it toward the very bottom of the rod. If you place the bottom end of the rod into your headjoint until it touches the cork, this line should be directly in the middle of the hole. If it is too far to the right or left, you would need to get it adjusted.
It's entirely possible your flute has a leak (it happens all the time...) I tend not to like the flute repair people working at music stores; occasionally I find my flute returns to me with a few dents and one time they didn't even fix the problem I take mine to an independent repairman now...

[Burke]

Have any keys become bent? Sounds silly, but students occasionally grumble about unresponsive notes, and I often ask to watch them disassemble and reassemble their flutes. Have your tech check for leaks all over, just in case. Good luck!

That's a good question, and one I would have asked too. I'm extremely cautious about the assembly/dissasembly procedure, because of this very concern. I'm nearly religious about not manipulating my flute near the keys, but that doesn't mean I didn't make a mistake at some point without thinking about it. I thought I was being so careful though!

Sure, I could have done something wrong like this. You might be right. I just don't remember doing it, that's all.

[Burke]

Just to answer your headjoint cork question, you can check the alignment of it with a cleaning rod.

That's the first thing I thought to do. The line on the cleaning rod is dead center. I'm thinking that if that were the problem, I would still be able to produce a consistant sound, no? It would be out of tune but consistant. Is my assumption right or wrong? I'm just guessing and I really don't know.

In the case of my flute, I can play a few relatively clear but tinny sounding notes, then the quality of tone degenerates into a fuzzy tone, then generally to nothing but air. If I put the flute down and pick it up a few minutes later, I might be able to do the same thing all over again, or still only be able to produce the sound of air. Sometimes the odd note comes out after that, but for the most part nothing happens except the sound of air. Before the last couple of weeks, this flute produced a more full bodied sound, so even the first few notes aren't sounding right.

[Burke]

I tend not to like the flute repair people working at music stores; occasionally I find my flute returns to me with a few dents and one time they didn't even fix the problem I take mine to an independent repairman now...

I forgot all about this part of your comment, and didn't think about it until I was completely away from my computer late today. I'll be on the lookout for an independent repairman in the future, and I appreciate your advice about this. For now, I've already made arrangements to take it to a store. I'm just hoping at this point to get it back before I need it for church.

[powayflute01]

Yeah, having your flute adjusted can make ALL the difference in your playing. When I started taking lessons with my current teacher, she insisted that I immediately send my flute to her repair guy to have it looked at (I had some anxiety about mailing my flute at first, but I got over it ) The thing about independent repairmen, though, is that most of them tend to advertise by word-of-mouth, so it's a little hard to find them.
Because you recently purchased your flute, it may have been slightly out of alignment at the shop (or even when it was sent from the manufacturer) and maybe the condition worsened as you played it over time.