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Also yay for being able to focus more on music 
).I've had my Miyazawa for about a month now, and I LOVE it! It was a bit tricky at first going from closed to open holes, but I've got that pretty much figured out. I still struggle with the lowest 3 notes (B, C, and Db). It seems that the right hand pinky stretch shifts my right hand index finger off its key just barely causing me to miss the note. I assume it will get better with practice, so I just keep working on it. I'm still in awe of the sound this flute can make with much less effort than my old flute. How about you? Yours is a Brannen, right? Was it a big upgrade from your previous flute?cflutist wrote:So how have you been liking your new flute now that you've had it for several months?
I think you got your new flute about the same time I got mine?
I'm feeling optimistic!I've gotten used to my new flute too. I no longer have a problem hitting the Thumb Bb by mistake (it was a lot closer to the thumb key than on my old flute) and can also get the F#3 to speak realiably at pp (had to do that in RK's Antar Symphony). I guess you can say that it was a "big" upgrade ... from a 1972 soldered tone-hole open-hole handmade Haynes to a 14K Brannen with Split-E, C#Trill, D#Roller, 14K rings/toneholes, and silver keys. The Cooper scale on the Brannen is SO much nicer than the old pre-Deveau scale of the Haynes.asoalin wrote:How about you? Yours is a Brannen, right? Was it a big upgrade from your previous flute?
Stop there for a moment. Traditional scale flutes refer to those scalings where A equals a lower pitch: A435-438. Modern scale are those instruments where the scaling has been redone for A440-442. The problem comes in when the pitch standard was raised. Flute makers did not adjust the tone hole positions (shorten the scaling). They just shortened the headjoints until the A produced matched A440. You now have a long scaled instrument with a headjoint length that is too short for its octave length. A shortening of the headjoint that amount is not going to change the lowest register all that much as a percentage of the air column length, so the low register remains flat. The left hand tone holes are moved proportionally much closer to the embouchure hole making open tone holes moving closer to the embouchure increasing in sharpness. These tone holes are also vents for the third register so relatively speaking, the high register is sharp to an already flat low register when playing at A440-442.cflutist wrote:Ok, I need some help from the techies here.
Scale refers to the size and placement of the tone holes. Flute scales are classified as either a modern scale or a traditional scale.
The lipping up and down part is correct for the reasons I described previously, the rest needs a little correction. Traditional scales and Modern scales are both based on Boehm's original schema. The problem did not involve this at all. You can play a "Traditional" scale flute in tune without any embouchure gymnastics if you play it at the pitch it was designed for. If you have an electronic piano, try setting the master tune from 440 down to somewhere in the 435 -438 range, adjust the headjoint draw out to where it should be for a "traditional" scaled flute and you will have no problem playing it in tune. (that is if you can play in tune in the first place!)Most flutes produced after about 1980 have one of several versions of the modern scale, although some companies were slow to change. Tradtional scale flutes (e.g. my 1972 Haynes) were based on Boehm's original Schema to raise it from A=435Hz to A=440. As such, the intonation on these flutes are not as in tune as they are on the modern scale flutes e.g. C# was really sharp, low register was flat. They required the players to "lip up, lip down" various notes.
Louis Deveau was past owner/president of the Wm. S. Haynes company and he designed a new scale in the late 70s? It was supposed to be an improvement for previous Haynes flutes based on Boehm's Schema. But some of my friends prefered the old pre-Deveau Haynes to the Deveau scale Haynes flutes.
Not exactly true. Much more easy to play in tune AT HIGHER PITCH (A440-442)The modern scale flutes e.g. Cooper Scale, Bennett Scale, are much more in tune with themselves and as such much more easy to play in tune. I noticed this immediately with my Brannen versus my old Haynes.
Albert Cooper would have been the first to tell you that he did not invent a scale. There where many that contributed to this including Elmer Cole and others. But Albert made great flutes and other improvements and his name got attached to building a correctly scaled flute at modern pitch. It was not Powell that first used the cooper scale, it was Jon Landell who did after visiting Cooper. He then made a flute for WIBB and then introduced it to America. WIBB tweaked it a bit more for his scale. The rest is, as we say, History.The Cooper scale was devised by Albert Cooper in the 1960s and was further refined. Powell flutes was the first to use the Cooper scale in 1974, Brannen Brothers Flutemakers followed. The Bennett scale is also a popular modern flute scale designed by William Bennett.
Well it was mostly correct, it just needed a little bit of further explanation. ..The dictionary... I've known Susan for many years. I was one of the sources she used in that book. You can find me in the list of contributors.cflutist wrote:I stand corrected, but I got most of this info from the Flute for Dummies Book and the Dictionary for the Modern Flutist.
Cool, that is a neat book.JButky wrote:Well it was mostly correct, it just needed a little bit of further explanation. ..The dictionary... I've known Susan for many years. I was one of the sources she used in that book. You can find me in the list of contributors.cflutist wrote:I stand corrected, but I got most of this info from the Flute for Dummies Book and the Dictionary for the Modern Flutist.
