Many people express a preference for open hole flutes and often it is even thought that playing a closed hole flute is not professional. For all those I have news! It is true that in some countries open hole flutes are used almost exclusively but in just as many countries closed hole flutes are the norm. In some of the most famous Orchestras like the Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony and most Eastern European Orchestras, to mention just a few, the open hole flute is the exception and quite sensibly many other orchestras have no preference for either. It's just the standard of playing that counts and that's how it should be.
Many soloists also play closed hole flutes e.g. Karl-Heinz Zöller, who was principal flautist in the Berlin Philharmonic for many years, and not to forget Severino Gazzelloni, the pioneer of avant guarde flute playing. It is true that a handful of multiphonics can not be produced on a closed hole flute (none of these are required in any important piece of the flute repertoire and any serious composer must know what a standard flute can and can't do!) but if you are really serious about multiphonics that you should play a flute like Robert Dick which has "open holes" for every semitone. If you don't specialise in this type of music a closed hole flute will do the job very well and furthermore save you much strain and potentially prevent any pain and injury caused by unnecessary stretching to cover the holes (there are better ways to improve a student's hand position).
Another misconception about open holes is that they make the flute sound better. Firstly the note comes out at the end of the tube, which is primarily the first opened tone hole. The air column ends there and the air spreads out at the tone hole and not several millimeters above. Therefore, compared to a closed hole key, an open hole key will only make a difference to the sound if it is closed and since only five keys can be directly reached by a finger the majority of keys on any flute are closed.
Now even if it were true that the open hole key setup makes a note sound better, this invariably means that you would have more of the notes of lesser sound quality than better ones. In effect what you really get is an uneven scale with some notes sounding different and in my view this defeats the purpose. I'm sure we all agree that the genius of Theobald Böhm's design lies in the fact that his clever mechanism enabled him to place all tone holes in the acoustically optimal position and make them as large as possible, allowing the flute to have the most even scale possible. Now why would anyone want to spoil this by making five keys different from the others? If you really want to feel the holes then why not play a baroque flute.
Recipe: Take two flutes from the same make and model - one open hole and one closed with otherwise identical specifications and you will find that the closed hole flute will have a more homogenous sound throughout the range and it will perhaps sound a little darker or warmer, but that's good because flutes are too shrill anyway. However if you prefer a brighter sound, there are simpler ways of accommodating your taste than drilling holes into some of your keys!
Finding a good second hand flute for a newcomer to the fraternity of flute players is a risky business. If you are an experienced flute player or even better a repairer you have a much better chance to succeed, but if you are not you will have a 90% chance of ending up with a bottomless pit. Why?
Firstly because the good second hand flutes only rarely come on the market as usually when a teacher knows that a student is upgrading from a good beginner's flute, chances are that he/she will have a list of people waiting for a chance like this and the second hand flute will sell before anyone else finds out that is is for sale.
Secondly because even a reasonably good flute player is no expert in judging the mechanical soundness and potential defects in a flute that seems to play OK, let alone it's projected life span. Even some of us experts get it wrong at times.
Thirdly consider this: Why would someone go to the trouble and/or expense to advertise a second hand flute for sale if good ones get snapped up so easily? Because it has a problem of some sort. It may be a well made flute, but the pads are on their last leg; now that could be OK if the price is low enough to allow for at least a $300 re-padding job. If the plating is worn out you can add $150-200 to the bill, but do you really want to be the judge? Are you qualified? I suspect you would not consider yourself that. I wouldn't; I would leave it to an expert repairer.
Finally on rare occasions a good second hand flute gets traded in by a flute shop or a reputable repairer. Now here is a potential good buy, but ask for a warranty of some sort even if it's only three months or a money back guarantee. If your second hand flute has been 'doctored up' any problem will soon make itself noticed and then you are in a position to take it back and have it sorted out. Also always ask how long the padding can be expected to last because this should be reflected in the price! A good quality flute that costs $1000 new can still be worth $800 second hand if the pads are going to last another 10 or 12 years. This comforting to know because it means that on a good flute you will not lose much upon resale. In many cases you could even get your money back and that makes it a good investment in more than one way.
Having said all this, consider if you would not be better off buying a new flute instead. That way you might save yourself lots of hassles and money in the long run. A good quality new flute, bought from a reputable dealer, is not only a much safer proposition but also will give the new flute player a good chance to make a real go of it. A flute that does not work properly is the best way to discouragement, frustration, pain, ultimately leading to potential RSI, permanent injury and giving up the flute and/or music all together. And if you live far away from a good repairer, and they are a scarce commodity world wide, can you imagine how unsatisfactory it is to have a flute that needs fixing all the time? An apparently cheap solution will most likely be a very costly one, so leave buying lemons to your local green grocer. It will save you more than you imagine.
N.B.: the cost of repairs and indeed prices of flutes may vary from country to country, the above examples are based on the market in Australia.
How to Pick a Picc for Life - by Thomas Pinschof (Top) It is a very personal thing to find the right piccolo for each person, one sounds terrible with one person and then suits the next to a "T". The piccolo is by its nature a shrill instrument and louder is definitely not better, this is why most players prefer the thinned High Wave heads because they have a little more flexibility. The “wave” helps centering the air stream into the hole and it gives it a bit more reliability and depth in the low register. The size of the hole and shape has something to do with it of course, but a bigger hole probably makes it louder again, so I wouldn't even look at the hole but only judge it by playing; not by playing loudly but by playing some singing type phrases like a slow movement from a Bach Sonata or Mozart Concerto with the main emphasis on beautiful phrasing so that you get used to the ideal airspeed that makes the wood sing and vibrate. It should react like an open string on the cello and if you push too hard it will not ring freely. Only then have you tuned into the head and are able to judge it's real character, sound quality and response.
The secret with piccolo playing is to make a dark sound by relaxing as much as possible particularly the throat and shoulders, not to make too small an embouchure and aim for darker vowels and a raised soft pallet. This will also prevent the notes from cracking and makes for a much more singing quality in the sound. Once you can make it sing you can then test for response in staccato but wait with Tchaikowski No 4 or the solo from Coppelia until you have made the picc ring like a bell without having to push. Now obviously the head joint has to feel comfortable so this is an important issue, so it is important to try out as many as possible but not for hours at a time. This tends to not only be confusing but also make you increasingly tense and that is the one thing a piccolo will not tolerate.
I know, the piccolo can be troublesome so I hope you don't mind my comments that turned out to be a bit of a lecture, but believe me, I have tamed the piccolo very well (I used to play in the Vienna Symphony Orchestra) so I make a bloody good sound on it and have played the Vivaldi Piccolo Concerto many times and now I am only to glad to pass on what I have learned. By the way, one secret, don't practice your piccolo audition passages on the piccolo, learn them on the flute first and then only at the very end, and not for too long at a time, play them on picc. Why? Because the picc is so small that it tends to make one tense as everything is so close together and by getting the nitty gritty and fingering problems out of the way on the flute you get to be playing on the picc when you have them in the bag and can relax right into it!
Pick a picc that you can make sing and you have found your piccolo for life!
For many years now there has been a shortage of oboe and bassoon players both on professional and amateur level.
The main reason for this is that not enough children can take up these instruments at the same early age, as it is possible with other instruments, simply because they are too heavy and/or too large or there is no specific "childrens' size" available like for string Instruments. These other instruments have hadspecial children's programs for many years such as the Suzuki Method. The three instruments that the Suzuki Method does not inclulde are: The Clarinet, the Oboe and the Bassoon. This is where the Kinder Harmony Instruments are able to fill the gap and furthermore we have developed a Program that allows a teacher to start off kids at a very early age when they are still able to learn much easier than as teenagers.
This program features both a "fun" approach to music making and incorporates the vital aspect of "playing together" and creating "harmony" both in musical terms as well as on a human level in interacting and cooperating with the other kids.There is an abundance of repertoire available which can be used and this allows schools to offer a totally new Program of "Harmony Music" leading up from early Baroque and Classical works to the famous and much neglected Serenades of Mozart and even Richard Strauss and Strawinski. This is a much better alternative for gaining experience in ensemble playing than the Wind Bands and other groups typical for Schools, and it is a superb preparation for the experience required to play in a the Symphony Orchestra.
The other reason for the shortage of players of these instruments is the fact that, when they become old enough to actually cope with the weight and size of these instruments, they are at an age when kids have other priorities and the teenage mania breaks loose with all its peer pressures and demands from a change in the" hormone household" of their body.
There are many benefits of starting to learn in instrument at an early age. The most obvious is the well documented fact that children learn much easier before the age of seven. But equally important is the fact that they will become proficient enough, well before the teenage mania, to allow them to even stop playing for a period without loosing their abilities and virtually pick up where they left off!
Another very important effect is that the "kinder harmony program" makes ensures the availability of a full set of woodwind players who are well experienced in playing together in groups and subsequently professional, amateur and school orchestras will not have to struggle, as they do now, to find oboe, and bassoon and clarinet players.
Another misconception about open holes is that they make the flute sound better. Firstly the note comes out at the end of the tube, which is primarily the first opened tone hole. The air column ends there and the air spreads out at the tone hole and not several millimeters above. Therefore, compared to a closed hole key, an open hole key will only make a difference to the sound if it is closed and since only five keys can be directly reached by a finger the majority of keys on any flute are closed. .jpg)