I ran across these notes that were taken from a Trevor Wye master class and found them quite interesting. I thought I would post them here since these subjects tend to pop up on this board every now and then.


FLUTE SCALES IN GENERAL

Plugs in open-holes flatten each note by 1.3 millimeters. Therefore, the scales of open-hole flutes and closed-hole flutes must be different.

OPEN-HOLE PLAYING PROBLEMS

If you have difficulty in reaching the right-hand keys, do daily stretches between your 2nd and 3rd fingers and 3rd and 4th fingers.

SOUND PROBLEMS ON CLOSED-HOLE FLUTE

-Many people think that an open-hole flute has a better sound than a closed-hole flute. They probably got this idea because on most closed hole flutes, the key rise is too low. If the key rises are set correctly, and all other things are equal (except for the scales, which should be different), there should be no sound difference between the two types of flutes.

-If a closed-hole flute doesn't sound good, the keys are too low. Fix the key rise.

-Note that the foot joint has bigger holes, so the keys will need a higher key rise than the those on the middle joint.

DO DIFFERENT MATERIALS INFLUENCE THE FLUTE SOUND?

Some metals make the player respond in a certain way. This makes the player FEEL that there is a difference in sound between various metals. For example, Trevor
knows that when he plays a platinum flute, that it is made from platinum, but the audience can't tell.

Very interesting, thanks

Kara, this is pretty interesting, thanks for sharing!

"Plugs in open-holes flatten each note by 1.3 millimeters." What does that mean? Millimeters is a measure of length. It makes no "cents" (pun intended).

I would expect that it means that this is the equivalent of moving the tone hole 1.3mm down the tube. This is most likely an approximation statement anyway but the amount of actual cents flatter would vary slightly with the location up or down the tube of each tone hole.

Just bumped into a bit about tuning from Trevor Wye on the Yahoo groups LouisLot section.
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/LouisLot/message/1344



~Bilbo
N.E. Ohio