I'm a new guy in this forum and I'd like to introduce myself: My Name is C.Benjahmin Piep and I ' ve found this forum rather by coincidence while googling around on the topic "FLUTE". So zapping through the topics and the vibes, I promptly found the one or other useful piece of advice and decided, to join up here.
My personal musical history is a simple, but nice one: As a young man I decided to pick up the flute and was about to buy one, when a small change in plans made all the difference. I fell in love with a girl an invited her to the cinema. In the film there was a man playing a saxophone and this girl just started to marvel about how much she liked saxophones....
So is there any more to be said ? Of course I went to buy a sax instead of a flute
In fact, that wasn t the worst of all decisions, for I never got to date that girl again BUT I became a very good Sax-player, even a maker and repairsman for woodwinds , specialized on Saxophones. In fact, by now all of my instruments are hand - and homemade and bear uncountable extras and novelties, no industrially-made horn could offer.
Beeing quite busy with the sax in both aspects, as a musician AND as a technician, I forgot about my initial plan.....to play the flute. Anyhow.... as a repairsman for woodwind instruments in general, one runs across flutes just the same concerning the technical aspects of tightening and adjusting keymechanisms, padding, undenting, tuning and so on. So apart of beeing a specialist for Saxes, I became quite a good technician for the very demanding and sensitive flute. Of course, one has to be able to play an instrument at least along its basics, in order to really fix and tune it, but apart of that, I never really got any further into actually PLAYING the flute.
THAT changed about one and a half years ago: After more than twenty years of "Saxing around", I gave up all my bands, my repair-workshop and my dear musical friends in Hamburg - Germany in order to move to Ethiopia and start an alternative textile production, together with my wife.
Of course I took all my Saxophones along, especially since the Sax is a very popular Instrument in Ethiopia, played often even in traditional local music and since , of course I was not wanting to miss out on THAT, no matter Where I go.
For some reason though, the sax sort of ""faded away"" .... it lost taste and fun, became somewhat unsatisfying, no matter how well I would perform on it.....and at the same time..... VERY VERY sneakily and softly....this little thing crept back into my mind...this very special, unique sound....
So long talk but simple matter : I just got hold of a simple but sturdy flute ( won' t tell you the Brand yet ).....fixed it up real nice with some little extras to make it sound and last.... and started practicing.
No....actually I started PLAYING, because the flute simply "jumped" at me, came by itself, as soon as I had mastered the fingering, mainly the third octave, of course, since ther lower ones are closely related to the Fingering of a Saxophone or even a clarinet.
Well, I should have done that 20 years ago !!
I will never complain for having picked up the sax.....but I DO admit my stupidity of having missed out on the flute so long. I get along perfectly and have little difficulties with anything...except for the stability of my very high notes ( Bb, B, and C ). They like to whoosh away still quite often, while everything else goes amazingly well.
Anyhow.... no matter, how well and far Talent may carry.....experience is a mighty factor on the other side, and so I hope to find the one or other Tip here, coming from longterm-experience....in order to add to my autodidactic progress.
I myself won t be able to post too much here, since it is not easy to be online by notebook from the midst of Ethiopia, where I presently live, but in return, I may be able to give some Flute - anekdotes and technical advice from the view of a technician once in a while.
A young Lady once entered the workshop, carrying a flute, which looked as if she had jut saved it out of the wreck of the Titanic. That instrument was simply a more or less solid piece of corroded metal.
Asked, how she had managed to put the instrument into this truly wrecked condition, she replied, that her teacher had told her to put oil into all the screws and hinges.
Since she had no idea, WHERE exactly that may be, she had simply dropped the complete instrument into a gallon of vegetable oil, left it over night, then wiped of the exess oil and left it to rest.
I need not to mention, that edible oil often contains acids and can have a hazardous effect on silver, or silverplated surfaces ....especially in connection with run dry Metal- screws and achsles..... but as a repairsman, I was often confronted with ""accidents"" like this one and also with their repair and resetting.
So maybe I can contribute here by giving the one or other advice concerning repair and maintenance.
Fly on the high notes !!
Benjahmin
The poor flute!!!! Maybe he should have actually told her how to oil the flute or done it for her.
