Now that you have made your first flute....

- flute -

Greetings! ^_^

Okay, now let's go over the fingering of your new flute.

Play your flute, and make the first note - the fundamental - with all holes closed. Open the next hole, and make a sound. Keep opening in succession, playing each note, until all holes are opened. Now, finally, to play the last note to complete the octave, have all holes closed except for the one closest to the embouchure - to make this note, you may have to blow more strongly. Depending on the flute you made (all are different), you may have to try this with all holes closed again, but again, blow more strongly.

This is called "overblowing" - go back and start again, all holes closed, and overblow into the next octave.... continue this sharp overblowing as you open each hole in succession to play the notes of the next octave.

Okay, there is your diatonic (8 note) scale (the "do-re-mi.... " scale).

Now, for the chromatic scale, we will use half-fingerings and cross-fingerings.

Sound the fundamental note - next, HALF-OPEN the first hole and play.... this is half-fingering, and may take practice.... next, open it fully and sound the note - then, fully close that hole again, and fully open the next hole - this is cross-fingering. Next, play with both of those first holes open - next, with the first hole open, the second one closed, and the third hole open - next, with the first three fully open - next, the first two open, the third closed, and the fourth hole open - next, with the first four fully open - and so on, until you run out of holes, then start again, overblowing into the next octave.

That is the chromatic (12 note) scale.

Now, you may or may not notice a little trouble once you get to the F hole.

For our next experiment, make another flute, same as before, but this time make the F an F#.... the placement of the centerpoint of this hole would be at about 9 & 1/16".

INSTEAD of making another flute, you may think you want to simply expand the F hole to become an F#... but this will result in a larger hole, and may create problems in your cross-fingering. If you want my opinion, just make another one - you will need these both to refer to in future experiments, anyhow.

Try everything in this post with that flute now. Experiment with mixing half-fingerings and cross-fingerings, especially around this new hole placement.

Which flute do you prefer?

Take notes on these experiments, and write down your experiences.

Alright, that's all for today - the next post will go over a new and better quality flute, with a much clearer, crisper sound, and a much better octave range.... and with an added plus that I think you will enjoy very much - for this nifty little addition, you will need some rice paper, the kind used for roll-your-own cigarettes.

If you cannot get your hands on any, you might just be able to squeeze by with a bit of plastic wrap. Think you know what we're going to do? You might, but I wouldn't be so sure! This comes from a flute of very ancient design, originating from China and India. I hope you will enjoy it.

Until then, have a nice night! ^_^

- flute -