Sankyo headjoint problem solved!

[WalterSK]

Holy cow! After struggling with embouchure changes, head joint alignment, breath speed changes, etc. trying to correct splitting on the 2nd octave, especially the 2nd E, F and F#, I went back to my student flute to see why I was able to do that octave fine before. Again, I had no trouble! I started to think that in fact, my new Sankyo CF401 had leaks in the pads or something even worse, but I decided out of desperation to take the hole-plugs, which I had stuck back on the student flute, and switch them to the Sankyo.

Shazzam! I had the 2nd octave back, and the tone was more focused on the 1st and 3rd octaves, too! So the weeks of berating myself and struggling with the embouchure to compensate was not only a waste of time that led to frustration and developing bad habits in tone production, but led to discovery of the actual leaks: inaccurate finger placement that allowed for air to escape!

I'm so happy with the change that I'll keep the hole-plugs in until I regain consistence and confidence in the tone production. I examined my finger tips and found that they are quite hard and may actually be the problem, or it may mean that I just have to learn to be more precise in my finger placement on this flute. Either way, the problem appears to be solved.

[Gandalfe]

There is a kind of prestige to playing open hole. It takes a lot time and in most cases instruction to get that right. Since I just double on flute I put plugs in. When I offered to do the same for my wife (also a doubler) she asked me why. So I just handed her my flute (we have matching flutes both with custom McKenna heads). After playing mine with the plugs, she put them on her flute.

Here is some more reading: http://biskey7.wordpress.com/2010/12/01 ... osed-hole/

[WalterSK]

There is a kind of prestige to playing open hole. It takes a lot time and in most cases instruction to get that right. Since I just double on flute I put plugs in. When I offered to do the same for my wife (also a doubler) she asked me why. So I just handed her my flute (we have matching flutes both with custom McKenna heads). After playing mine with the plugs, she put them on her flute.

Here is some more reading: http://biskey7.wordpress.com/2010/12/01 ... osed-hole/

I have no investment in playing with closed or open holes. I experimented, and found that the only key that was a problem was the G, so that plug is in. The others present no problems. Thanks for the reply and the link.