Flute Range

[fluteguy18]

Hello everyone! This is a question for those flute majors in college,and everyone else who has a good range. I know that the flute normally plays three octaves. However, I have read that some can play in the fourth octave. I know that I can play from the lowest b, to the fourth octave f#(seven ledger lines). This happens to be the highest note that I can find on record (from various professionals like Robert Dick). Is anyone up in the clouds with me, or am I one of the select few?

If you want to try this note here is the fingering: left hand: no pointer finger, no thumb, middle finger down, no ring finger, no pinky.

right hand: no pointer,middle finger down, trill key between the e natural and f# down, and no ring finger, and no pinky.

illustration below:

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Please reply!

Fluteguy18

[Sleeping Turtle]

What is your question? Whether we practice 4th octave notes - sure. I used to play all scales up to the high D every day, and then would often practice the d sharp, E, F and G in the relevant keys. The D is useful and you get in things like th Prok Sonata, but the other notes less so... and the tone quality is rarely pleasant

T

[fluteguy18]

the question was in the last sentence of the first paragraph. "Anyone up in the clouds with me?"

Basically, I wanted to know, is it normal to be able to play all of the notes in the 4th octave, or is it normal to only be able to play a few of them.

My professor can only play up to the D#4, and she is the best around here, so I assume I am lucky to be able to reach the F#4. So can everyone play all of those notes, or just a select few?

[Sleeping Turtle]

I see. It depends on your flute as much as on you. Different makes/bodies etc have slightly different reactions in the 4th octave. I have a yamaha body and handmade silver head and can get all the chromatic notes up to G, though I have very little use for them. I will very rarely use high Ds in improvisation, but they mostly just sound shrill

T

[flutepicc06]

Wait, are you saying you can play a true G4 without moving the headjoint cork?

[fluteguy18]

I was thinking the same thing flutepicc06, but didn't want to start anything........

[flutepicc06]

I don't think it will start anything, but if it's true, it's worthy of recognition...

[fluteguy18]

Yes, Absolutely

[Sleeping Turtle]

When I was bothered about that sort of thing, I managed to get the whole lot, but they are such an awful sound, and it's not great for the rest of the day's practice. I don't even know if I can remember the fingering for anything above high D, apart from the E which was always easy. Does largely depend on your instrument, and I was always quite strong in the top register. In Density 21.5 there are a number of high bits (I did that in my diploma all those years ago.. ah nostalgia is not what it used to be)

T

[sherbert789]

I can't get anything out above D4 . . . I'm jealous of you guys haha.

[flutepicc06]

So you can play a G4 without moving the headjoint cork? I'm interested only because some very talented professionals (among them Robert Dick) tried for years, and concluded that with the cork in the proper position, it's not possible to play a G. There is an area from G4 to Bb4 where the harmonics don't operate properly, and to change that, you have to change the cork, so if you actually could play a G, it would be pretty amazing.

[fluteguy18]

I know the closest I got to an actual G was when I slurred upwards from the f#4. I sustained it for about second, and then it cracked . even then, the note wasn't very clear, and it was flat.

[flutepicc06]

So the closest you got was like an F#+ or a G-?

[fluteguy18]

yeah
it was too sharp to be a f#4 but too flat to be a true g4. I only did it once or twice before my ears told me to stop.

[flutepicc06]

Yeah, you were probably in quarter steps (or some further division of a step) then, and didn't really get the G...