Any tips on a clear second octave (2nd e to 3rd c) Thanks!

1. Don`t play a fuzzy-toned flute such as Gemeinhardt.
2. Good embouchure and plenty air pressure.

If you are pulling your lips at all tightly against your teeth, this makes the windway between your lips far too short, such that good tone is impossible.

As I think I have referred you to before:

http://www.saxontheweb.net/Resources/FluteLessons2.html
&
http://www.saxontheweb.net/Resources/FluteLessons.html

I was under the impression that Gemeinhardt was a fine flute for anyone going through high school and even into college. It may not be suitable for a professional, but im not a professional, so it works beautifully for me. With enough practice i believe anyone can make any flute sound good, regardless of the brand name stamped on the joints. I can`t be the only one on these boards that`s tired of flutes or instruments in general being judged just because of brand name. I truly dont mean to sound disrespectful, it just comes out that way over the internet. Thanks for your input though.

"1. Don`t play a fuzzy-toned flute such as Gemeinhardt."

Flame-bait... <sigh>.

In cases of fuzziness of tone, the flutist is generally the culprit. One must angle their airflow into the flute otherwise it will strike the liplate and produce a fuzzy tone.

Any skilled flutist should be able to produce either a fuzzy or non-fuzzy tone at will on any flute... otherwise one should question their skills.

That is true, but within reason. Every flute has its limits of what it can do.

Because of the inferior design of the embouchure hole area, when a the player tries to play a note louder than a certain no-much-above-average volume, the note cannot be played much louder. Mostly, all that gets louder is the `fuzzy sound`, which could be likened to the sound of a toilet cistern being filled.

When I am servicing a string of flutes, both Gemeinhardt and Yamaha, it is VERY easy for my assistant to tell which is which when I play test them.

Perhaps I should assure you here, that because I have an analytical approach to playing, and have played thousands of different flutes, I am a VERY versatile player, quite capable of adjusting my embouchure to get very close to the best a student flute has to offer.

We have been through all this before. There seems to be (almost?) universal agreement by those who have plenty experience with both student Yamahas and student Gemeinhardts, that this is so.

It is so true, that in my country, where there is no nationalistic loyalty to Gemeinhardt, almost nobody now buys or plays them. Yet before Yamaha came along with their far superior acoustic design, 2 or 3 decades ago, Gemeinhardt student flutes were the most popular here.

However I still regard Gemeinhardt as a robustly made instrument. A pity about the Bb upper pivot that works loose, and which few technicians seem to have a cure for. Gemeinhardt`s attitude in not dealing with this over the decades matches their inattention to better acoustic design.

As I said before I don`t think there is any nationalist tie to Gemeinhardt as I don`t think most people realize they`re not based in Germany.

I would not have upgraded to my Gemeinhardt from my previous Armstrong if there were issues of fuzz. The Gemeinhardt 3SB happened to be the cheapest solid silver instrument I could find at the time and it played much better than my previous flute.

I have no loyalty to it and I don`t have any plans on upgrading to another Gemeinhardt flute. The flute plays fine. As I said before maybe it`s the flutist.

Your lips were just not made to touch a Gemeinhardt mein freund.

Yeah i didnt want to incite the whole yamaha vs. gemeinhardt arguement again. I keep forgetting how different opinions are in different countries! Thanks for your input, i have already gotten better, but realized it will be slow. Thanks!

keep the E flat key down