Hi Everyone, I am new here although not new to the Flute:).
I am hoping to meet like minded folk here and hopefully glean some tips along the way.
I have been playing the flute for many many many years and now arthritis has set in and I am hoping to get some tips on how and if it is possible to reconstruct my flute to accommodate the changes in my fingers as I do not wish to give up playing.
Looking forward to reading and learning of which you are never to old to do so .
Hi and welcome to Fluteland. It is possible to modify a flute to accommodate various physical limitations such as arthritis but there are not a lot of flute technicians who can reliably perform such modifications. Some of the more common changes are to add touch plates or extensions to some keys so that it makes the keys easier to reach for those with less flexibility in their fingers. Some modifications are fairly easy to do while some are more difficult if it requires changes to the mechanism. Your best bet would be to find an experienced flute technician that is within driving distance and who has experience with such modifications. Making such changes are sometimes a matter of trial and error to find out whether a particular modification will work for you or not. Part of that process involves determining which finger(s) are the causing the most problems and then adapting the touch piece(s) to make it easier for you to press the flute keys.
Are you on Facebook? If so, there are several flute groups there that would be a good starting place to help find a suitable flute tech. If you are not on Facebook, I might be able to help put you in contact with a few good techs that you could talk to to see which one might be the best match for what you want to do. Let me know if I can assist you with finding a flute tech for this purpose.
- Pied Piper
"Never give a flute player a screwdriver."
--anonymous--
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