Look at videos and you’ll see that almost all 8-key players twist the foot joint forward. The problem with that position is that you have to twist the foot joint away from you so that you don’t have keys right where you want to put your pinky (if you don’t have 8 keys, this is not an issue). So, instead of using the thumb, I use the small finger, which most players either leave floating above the flute or plant on the top of the foot joint. Some players, and I am one, find this awkward because the thumb is placed at the back of the flute, rather than supporting it from the bottom as one would on a Boehm. The right hand thumb can be pressed forward to counter the embouchure pressure and thus support the flute. The flute must be lightly pressed against the area just below the embouchure.
#CHIFF AND FIPPLE HOW TO MAKE KEYS FREE#
It is thus essential to hold the flute so that there is forward pressure on the right hand and backward pressure on the left hand to pin the flute in place, leaving the left thumb free to not support the flute. Keyed simple-system flutes have to be held so that you can get on and off the Bb key for any tune that has a Bb - you cannot leave the thumb on the key when not playing Bb as you can on a Boehm. For accidental Bb notes, you use the normal thumb key and either roll up to the Bb key or play B natural with the addition of the Fnat key to get Bb. This allows you to keep the thumb in place, rather than only using the thumb key when you are actually playing Bb, as on a 19th Century flute. For any flatted key, you use the alternate thumb key. When playing in C or any key with sharps, you keep your thumb on one key. To clarify Richard’s point about the Boehm flute, the double key for B and Bb serves an ingenious purpose. Rather than keeping the Eb key depressed, I rested my lower-hand little finger on the wooden block near the key. I played a c1860 London-made 8-key flute for around 20 years, and I used the traditional orchestral grip. Note that orchestral players have the lower-hand little finger pressing on the Eb key whenever the other lower-hand fingers are raised thus there is always at least one lower-hand digit pressing downward. These lower points are balanced or offset by two points of contact coming from above, the lower lip, and the lower-hand little finger. The traditional grip is having the weight of the flute resting on the inner part of the knuckle of the upper-hand index finger, and on the lower-hand thumb (which has no keys to operate). This has been carried over to the grip used on the Boehm flute, where the thumb now has two keys to operate. On the grip traditional to those "English Simple System 8-key Flutes", remember that the upper-hand thumb did not support the flute, but was free to actuate its key.
0 kommentar(er)
