I Love My Azumi

I'd like to mess with people and tell them I have a Japanese girlfriend, but too bad most of them already know I was going to get a flute. Well, here's the actual piece, played by the lady who sold it to me (she plays much better than me, of course). Susan took the time to record a flute test for me and answered a load of my questions, and it was great doing business with her! I wasn't planning to get a flute till the end of the year, but 2nd hand Azumis in good condition are rare (actually 2nd hand Azumis are rare to start with), so after some prayer and consideration, I decided to go for it. It's a lovely flute. You can visit Susan's website at http://flutastic.com/. She's got a bunch of other instruments for sale. No more Azumis at this point of writing though.

Anyway, without further ado, here's the video:

Dizi Head for Boehm Flute

Ok. This is weird. I play the Dizi and the Boehm, but the way this tries to make East and West meet takes the cake (and I thought Quena headjoints for Boehm flutes was weird).



I think he ought to play Chinese music instead of classical and see how it sounds.

How to Build a God

I'm not out of tune. You are!

Well, that depends on your point of reference, really.

I play the Irish whistle (which in itself isn't always a well-tuned instruments, especially the cheapies) and it's been hard getting the rest of the mini orchestra I play in for church to accept it. Nice as it sounds, I can't seem to match the pitch with the other instruments on a note-by-note basis. Some people tell me that every note is a little "out of tune" and has to be handled differently from other notes in order to play in tune, if at all possible. "Some people", I say, because there are others who tell me that the instrument is not tuned to the Equal Temperament tuning system which pianos and most other orchestral instruments use. There are whistles that come in Equal Tempered tuning, of course, but others use Just Intonation. The latter differs from the former on a note-by-note basis and could be the reason why my whistles seem out of tune with other instruments.

But Equal Temperament is a compromise system, so, in a sense, you can say they are out of tune. In an effort to create a tuning system where music can be easily transposed to different keys without sounding out of tune, Equal Temperament was developed. It is most prominent in pianos, which need to be able to play in all different keys without the need for retuning (which could be helluva lot of work!) between playing different pieces. It is a compromise because in order for it to work, some notes are tuned in a way that they don't sound "perfect" (they may be sharp or flat based on other tuning systems).

So too bad for me. I can't control my whistles that perfectly as to vary my pitch to match the other instruments for each and every note (and my hearing isn't trained to that level yet to be able to tell pitch differences very well), if at all possible. And I can't afford the more expensive whistles that come in the imperfect Equal Tempered tuning. Maybe the problem is everyone else is "out of tune" with me. Haha... But I guess in this case, the majority wins.

(Some information on tuning systems here).

How Flutes Are Made

Pronomos Flute (aka Complex Flute) - quartertones and all

Ok, I know I have an interest in flutes, but this one takes the cake.

I subscribe to a flutemakers Yahoo group and often get updates from people who make simple flutes (6-hole flutes, usually Irish flutes). Here is one of the more recent posts:

The newest addition to the Boehm flute world is the Complex Flute designed by Istvan Matuz, improved by Julian Elvira, and built by the British flutemaker, Stephen Wessel. It can be played as a regular Boehm flute, but it also enables quarter-tones, multiphonics, and sound vocabularly of many types of non-western flutes and flute-like instruments. Elvira refers to it as "an advanced instrument, taking the Boehm instrument to its limits." It is now known as the Pronomos flute. For more information about the flute see:

http://www.wessel-flutes.co.uk/complex_flute/a_brief_history/

-  Susan Maclagan, "A Dictionary for the Modern Flutist," Scarecrow Press, April 2009.

 As if mastering semitones on a Boehm flute isn't hard enough, here's one that offers you quartertones!  I'd sure like to see James Galway play this thing. Lol!

Handmade Bamboo Flutes