I received my long searched-for backup Yamaha YFL211. I was surprised by the good tone quality I can get from this student instrument, but most of all, for its ease to produce rather difficult notes as a pp 3rd E on it.

It teaches me something: dealing with expensive, higher grade or professional headjoints may be good to improve many things, but it can make their playing, for an amateur like me, considerably more difficult than with a simpler student HJ of good quality. I can get more projection and dynamics with the Nagahara DA among other advantages, yes, but this has a price to pay in increased playing difficulty in general.

I had not discovered this before because my initial Gemeinhardt M3 was too bad and any instrument change I could do was most welcome. It is now hanging on the wall, I think it merits being there for ever.

Good manufacturers seem to be smarter than I had thought!

My own feeling and explanation for that is:

Yamaha 211 CY headjoint has a low-riser, and it's a simple cut with simple wings! (but good quality student flute of course - almost everybody in the world acclaimed that in the past God knows how many years)

Simple cut gives you plain and normal playing. My English is poor, what I try to say is that 211 CY cut is exactly what you are, no more and no less, it doesn't help you at all, it doesn't give you any push, easiness or cheat. It is you yourself. If you sound well on 211 that means you sound well, if your sound is dull on 211, then you are dull or a weak player.

I have heard many times that Pahud sound so great on 221 and 211! It is his true sound.

I hate to repeat over and over again in the past 2 years, but I still like to quote great players' words:

1) "I prefer a simple flute so that I can put in what I want" - Moyse
2) "I like simple cut, because BPO requires me to make lots of changes and variations" - Pahud

EC has high-riser, with steep drop-off wing, its blowing angle is steep too, needs greater focus, but it gives you some kick and easier to play some notes, but for every help you get, there is a trade-off, you lose something else. It is like God give you fortune, but take away your family, or God give you family, but take away your time to make money. Fair. So how do you choose? The best is in the middle! Confucius said it is the way of the MIDDLE.

Nagahara may give you good projection and good dynamics, but the trade-off could be blowing angle or something else unnatural I don't know.

So plain simple cut is you, you sound exactly what you are on a simple cut. Students should avoid any cheating or help from special cuts or wings, so that they can improve themselves. It is like a teacher always tells you that you should never play in a echo room (with lots of reverb), any ugly playing sounded great in a echoy room, that is not yourself, you should always play in a dry dead-room, so you can hear how ugly you are, and improve, even if it makes you feel sad and ugly at first.

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After you mastered the basic things with basic cut, then you move on to better headjoints.....

Now you know why I sound OK on my videos with this 211.....

Also because there is a saying in China that after playing for a while, the instrument opens itself up and follows its owner, even if it is a metal instrument, it has feeling, like violins, it follows the owner's frequencies and love of it!! (or in physics, its molecule alignment followed my playing frequency - I practiced thousands of times on high E on Poulenc alone, lol)

I also own a GX headjoint - it belonged to a famous China principal flautist who played it for years, his student helped him sold it to me, when I played it, I can hear its own frequency and unique tone, it is not mine, it is the principal's frequency and tone I can feel it.

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Some Chinese researcher and manufacturer are experimenting to feed their flutes with A=440 scales frequencies with loud speakers under water for 2 weeks before selling them, trying to make the playing more easy and more correct. American researchers are trying to drop the temperature to very very low step by step in 48 hours and bring it back step by step, trying to align the molecules of saxophone and flute. But I think the best way is to have good players play on it for sometime! it's like, Here we can buy Blue Jeans wore by Americans for months for you for money, so comfortable but expensive.

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Oh just found the English term: tune in

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I played Poulenc with it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju1CJI_XdoY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6nkqOk5PDo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-CuNZJuXTc

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It is just my small token to help Jose_luis - the great man who helped me a lot in winning a competition!!!

Thank you for your warm concepts towards my little help. You won that competition on your own merits.

Interesting ideas about the headjoints "learning" from their previous players. I must say that I do not believe in weird sciences, but it is also true we do not know everything there's to be known. And we will probably never achieve that complete, universal knowledge.

People in the East have a different approach to knowledge and hard sciences, a position I cannot share but I do respect deeply. But those ancient cultures have being there for millennia, while our modern knowledge is only a few centuries old.

It is also commonly accepted that wood instruments (most particularly valuable violins), should not be left alone for long periods without playing them. I know a violinist who has a Stradivarious. He keeps it in a special basement with recorded music being played just for it, many hours daily (apart from his normal use of it).

This could also apply to metals, though I must say I see it less probable. Anyway, this YFL211 + CY plays admirably well, probably better than my own, normal playing. So it could well be its previous owner left his/her personal stamp in its molecules! (we call this "impronta" in Spanish)

hehe....I agree with you it is too zen. But metal can have fatigue also, there are people found their perfect flutes suddenly become weak and dull after many years of playing.

Yes this is true.
My teacher told me of a case that happened to a pro with a full red gold, hand made flute! There is no explanation to this, as far as I know. It was not related to pad failure or any other mechanic problem. The flute simply lost the good sound quality and being so expensive, was thoroughly studied by best technicians but the original sound could not be recovered.

Still, the quality and materials of a better headjoint matter greatly. Even if it is the same cut. A simple method to explain this is:

- High resistance gives better tone and better low-range. But it's significantly harder to play.
- Low Resistance gives better speed and better high-end. It's easier to play.

There are also wood headjoints, which I have. They have no riser - just the cut. I find it easier to alter my playing on one, but it's also going to do less FOR me as well. ie - I gain flexibility but lose the "bumpers" - if I mess up, it sounds like crap right then and there - fairly unforgiving. But wood is great for folk and jazz where you want a fat,wide tone (IMO of course)

But that said, most often we have a certain "sound" in our minds and what we like the best. I personally love the sound of my wood headjoint. But other people love their (insert brand and type)

Try a bunch and find the one that you like the best - that gives you the best sound. Worry about difficulty less than tone - stamina is easier to attain than tone.

So far I have four HJ to choose from: The old silver plated M3 Gemeinhardt, the silver plated Yamaha CY cut of the YFL211, the silver 925 EC cut of the YFL674 and the silver 950 + white gold far edge by Nahagara. And I will soon (when my hand improves enough) start with the E Bamboo Bansuri.

The choice anyway is not so difficult. For serious playing the Nagahara is by far the best. Then comes the EC cut. But the CY cut is also very good an d easier to play, yes. The M3 Gemeinhardt as I said before just hangs on a wall.