Category: Flute specific

If you’re in a position where you need a new flute, but don’t have a big budget, you might consider buying a new head joint instead. This is considerably cheaper than buying the whole flute, but you do need to think about the pairing of the flute with the head joint. I was wondering whether all head joints are compatible with all flute bodies, so I had a look into it and I’ll talk about what I found out here.

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When you do grade exams on the flute, you have to learn loads of different scales and get tested on just a few of them. Some you’ll find harder than others and there might be particular ones that you hope will come up in your exam, as well as a few you really hope won’t. The scales you find easiest and hardest will, of course, vary between players, but there are definitely some that are harder than others.

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Most people that start learning an instrument for the first time are children, so most beginner music books are aimed at children. If you’re an adult beginner, you might find learning from a book designed for kids a bit grating. I had a look at the books you can use as an adult beginner that are not directed towards a younger audience. I’ll list some here and talk about what’s good about them.

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If someone says the word flute, everyone knows straight away what they mean. Why is a flute called a flute though? The word itself doesn’t really give any clues – it’s just something we’ve learnt. All words come from somewhere, though, so I’ve been reading up on the origins of the word and how it came to mean the instrument we know today.

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I’ve been wondering a lot about why a flute is the shape it is. Why does it have the diameter it does and why are the holes the size they are? What effect would changing these parameters have on the pitch of the flute? Would they also affect the timbre? I’ve done some research on this and have put together some interesting facts.

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If you’re learning the flute and you’re finding a piece you’re learning difficult, you might start thinking about what the hardest piece ever written for flute might be. Is there an obvious piece that is just harder than all the others, or is there a big debate about what the hardest piece is? I’ve been wondering the same, so decided to try to find out.

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If you’re taking up a new instrument, you might be wondering how much progress you can expect to make when you first start. It can be useful to have a rough idea of how long it takes to get to certain stages in your playing to help you motivate yourself. Finding this information can be difficult and it can vary quite a lot between people but I’ll talk about the sort of progress you can expect to see dependent on a variety of factors.

Continue reading “How Quickly Can I Get to Grade 1 on Flute?”

Flutes come in two varieties – open-holed and close-holed, but why is this the case? You don’t see a close-holed clarinet or an open-holed saxophone, so why are there two types of hole for the flute? When buying a flute, one of the most important things you need to decide is whether you want your flute to be open- or close-holed. Some of the reasons for having both varieties are obvious and some a bit more surprising.

Continue reading “Should All Flutes Be Made With Open Holes?”