Also free come into one of our agents in JHB and CAPETOWN to play our stock. We are able to demo our flutes for you.
you can listen to us play and see the sound you prefer.
ARTICLE More technical side of flutes
We hope this article will help parents and teachers to make an objective assessment of what should go into the manufacture of a flute, to ensure it provides the quality they need when spending a couple of thousand rand on an instruments, as we realize this is no small commitment
These are not included in a flute teachers training ( I wish I had had them in my training too ) , so we trust it will help everyone concerned.
Read more here
Its the prerogative of a Dealer to decide if they will incur the extra expense on setup locally by a flute workshop before selling a student flute(any brand ) , A invoice will then be produced from the flute workshop to you showing exactly what setup work was done .
you can listen to us play and see the sound you prefer.
ARTICLE More technical side of flutes
We hope this article will help parents and teachers to make an objective assessment of what should go into the manufacture of a flute, to ensure it provides the quality they need when spending a couple of thousand rand on an instruments, as we realize this is no small commitment
These are not included in a flute teachers training ( I wish I had had them in my training too ) , so we trust it will help everyone concerned.
FROM A FLUTE PARTS PERSPECTIVE
Teachers know they were not trained skills to make assessments of metals, parts and so on , and recommending a "famous brand" despite it costing double in many cases " is understandably, a safer way
Teachers know they were not trained skills to make assessments of metals, parts and so on , and recommending a "famous brand" despite it costing double in many cases " is understandably, a safer way
As far as dealers reccomendations Another aspect to is the markup (40%) of more expensive instruments a dealer can make on R8000 ) Clearly this might biase their opinion.
SOUND
From a sound tonal quality perspective, the flute will simply speak for itself when its played . A qualified teacher knows immediately once they try a flute as thats what they are trained to do - play the flute well.
PARTS and MANUFACTURE QUALITY
Some immediate indications of quality are:
ROD SHAFTS ( Silver plated shafts have rods inside them that swivel allowing the key cups to close and open )
1 ) push the long shafts side to side firmly..are they rigid or do they move side to side ? If they move side to side, so will the ky cups and hence , so will the pads, and hence the key pads will have small leaks , lessing the flutes tonal power. This can be fixed but not entirely in all cases. It depends how bad it is.
FREE SHAFT ACTION
Free unhindered shaft action can be felt immediately ..there wont be the slightest "mushy" feeling when opening and closing keys .If the action is entirely free this means either
1) inside the flute shafts the surfaces are smooth not rough and unfinished . Nothing can be done in this case to improve matters
or
2) the flute shaft or rod is incorrectly sized by a fraction. It can be fixed by suaging in some cases but is time consuming and costly
SPRING ACTION
Good blue steel flute springs are so cheap now that even cheaper flutes may have them . But not in all cases. If the flute keys dont spring back firmly but feel mushy, even slightly, on release, then the springs need to be replaced. A delicate and time costing excercise.
METAL QUALITY
Various opinions exist on the preference for fractionally softer metal or harder ones. There is good and bad for both / slightly softer metals on keys can bend back ( BY AN EXPERT ONLY ) more precisely and easily. Hard metals might leave fractionally smaller dents if dropped but all this is fractions .......
HEADJOINT DESIGN
The larger factories "established brand " keep their designs of the embouchure holes depth shape and angles inside the walls consistent
To varying extents on student flutes they will produce headjoints missing some of the following charactersitics and having others
these would be :
Clear ( some in more registers than others )
Powerful
Strong Projection and good depth ( not thin ) in low register
Strong Projection and good depth ( not thin ) in middle register
Strong Projection and good depth ( not thin ) in third register
Sensitivity to soft dynamics , to loud dymnaics
Flexible tonal qualities
Flute teachers will often say - I can hear that student is a playing that brand. Its a personal matter of preference. To choose a players sound for them is not really akin to the creative spirit. Pupils choose the flute because they love the sound and are quite capable no matter how young, of determining for themselves what type of flute sound (brand ) they prefer.
Students should have different flutes played to them before buying and themselves decide the sound more close to their personality.../ heart.
Sound quality is the centre of the flute, its core being, and wil have to be lived with day by day. This is why Proiffesionals will so much money on professional flutes - simply because of the sound quality. But on student flutes there is no "Good " or " bad " quality, Some students prefer brighter or darker , or delicate or powerful. or a balance in ratio according to their heart,, just as they might love red and not like yellow that much or vice versa .
Smaller factories do the had cutting according to their level of expertise. The interesting thing is that they are either not as open , clear, resonant or powerfuil a sound worse, or some times better than "established brands" - but the smaller factories that manufacture heads better are like pearls. few and far between.
there is simp-le test - Play the flute . Any qualified teacher knows immediately
FLUTE ASSEMBLY FACTORS
FLute assembly is not what it should be, on any brand in the student intermediate brand - some less so than others .This is an unfortunate fact. but fortuntely retaiulers can choose to set up flutes to rectify problems that arise ( usually unseen to the average eye and unheard but the average flute player or teacher. )
Major brands are now made in various countries in Asia for the most part. The licensing of a brand to be manufactured in many factories makes for mass manufacture and outsourcing to countries where competition for contracts will usually enable major brands to manufacture cheaper than they can , is a reality.
So how is quality control affected. ?
Smaller factories might in fact have better quality control than major brands in some cases, as they seek to establish themselves. or vice versa.There is no sure way to know until one sees and hears the flutes.
Professional flutes are given more care in final assembly setup. Pads are checked in numerous ways.
If they have wrinkles they are ironed out by hand.
If any of the 4 sides of a flute pad are leaking even slightly it is attended to and adjusted by a system of flagging by hand or using a flat pad insertion approach
Flute Springs are tested by good players and adjusted where uneven.
Where one key is dependant on anothers motion ( for instance the F and F# keys control motion of the B b jey , screw or cork or flagging adjustments are made by hand
Student flutes
Have the above hand attention , on the "best brands" given to them to only some degree on their student or intermediate flutes. On the very cheap flutes, only a to a very small degree is hand attention in ASSEMBLY SETUP given
here is another opinion besides our own
SOUND
From a sound tonal quality perspective, the flute will simply speak for itself when its played . A qualified teacher knows immediately once they try a flute as thats what they are trained to do - play the flute well.
PARTS and MANUFACTURE QUALITY
Some immediate indications of quality are:
ROD SHAFTS ( Silver plated shafts have rods inside them that swivel allowing the key cups to close and open )
1 ) push the long shafts side to side firmly..are they rigid or do they move side to side ? If they move side to side, so will the ky cups and hence , so will the pads, and hence the key pads will have small leaks , lessing the flutes tonal power. This can be fixed but not entirely in all cases. It depends how bad it is.
FREE SHAFT ACTION
Free unhindered shaft action can be felt immediately ..there wont be the slightest "mushy" feeling when opening and closing keys .If the action is entirely free this means either
1) inside the flute shafts the surfaces are smooth not rough and unfinished . Nothing can be done in this case to improve matters
or
2) the flute shaft or rod is incorrectly sized by a fraction. It can be fixed by suaging in some cases but is time consuming and costly
SPRING ACTION
Good blue steel flute springs are so cheap now that even cheaper flutes may have them . But not in all cases. If the flute keys dont spring back firmly but feel mushy, even slightly, on release, then the springs need to be replaced. A delicate and time costing excercise.
METAL QUALITY
Various opinions exist on the preference for fractionally softer metal or harder ones. There is good and bad for both / slightly softer metals on keys can bend back ( BY AN EXPERT ONLY ) more precisely and easily. Hard metals might leave fractionally smaller dents if dropped but all this is fractions .......
HEADJOINT DESIGN
The larger factories "established brand " keep their designs of the embouchure holes depth shape and angles inside the walls consistent
To varying extents on student flutes they will produce headjoints missing some of the following charactersitics and having others
these would be :
Clear ( some in more registers than others )
Powerful
Strong Projection and good depth ( not thin ) in low register
Strong Projection and good depth ( not thin ) in middle register
Strong Projection and good depth ( not thin ) in third register
Sensitivity to soft dynamics , to loud dymnaics
Flexible tonal qualities
Flute teachers will often say - I can hear that student is a playing that brand. Its a personal matter of preference. To choose a players sound for them is not really akin to the creative spirit. Pupils choose the flute because they love the sound and are quite capable no matter how young, of determining for themselves what type of flute sound (brand ) they prefer.
Students should have different flutes played to them before buying and themselves decide the sound more close to their personality.../ heart.
Sound quality is the centre of the flute, its core being, and wil have to be lived with day by day. This is why Proiffesionals will so much money on professional flutes - simply because of the sound quality. But on student flutes there is no "Good " or " bad " quality, Some students prefer brighter or darker , or delicate or powerful. or a balance in ratio according to their heart,, just as they might love red and not like yellow that much or vice versa .
Smaller factories do the had cutting according to their level of expertise. The interesting thing is that they are either not as open , clear, resonant or powerfuil a sound worse, or some times better than "established brands" - but the smaller factories that manufacture heads better are like pearls. few and far between.
there is simp-le test - Play the flute . Any qualified teacher knows immediately
FLUTE ASSEMBLY FACTORS
FLute assembly is not what it should be, on any brand in the student intermediate brand - some less so than others .This is an unfortunate fact. but fortuntely retaiulers can choose to set up flutes to rectify problems that arise ( usually unseen to the average eye and unheard but the average flute player or teacher. )
Major brands are now made in various countries in Asia for the most part. The licensing of a brand to be manufactured in many factories makes for mass manufacture and outsourcing to countries where competition for contracts will usually enable major brands to manufacture cheaper than they can , is a reality.
So how is quality control affected. ?
Smaller factories might in fact have better quality control than major brands in some cases, as they seek to establish themselves. or vice versa.There is no sure way to know until one sees and hears the flutes.
Professional flutes are given more care in final assembly setup. Pads are checked in numerous ways.
If they have wrinkles they are ironed out by hand.
If any of the 4 sides of a flute pad are leaking even slightly it is attended to and adjusted by a system of flagging by hand or using a flat pad insertion approach
Flute Springs are tested by good players and adjusted where uneven.
Where one key is dependant on anothers motion ( for instance the F and F# keys control motion of the B b jey , screw or cork or flagging adjustments are made by hand
Student flutes
Have the above hand attention , on the "best brands" given to them to only some degree on their student or intermediate flutes. On the very cheap flutes, only a to a very small degree is hand attention in ASSEMBLY SETUP given
here is another opinion besides our own
Read more here
Its the prerogative of a Dealer to decide if they will incur the extra expense on setup locally by a flute workshop before selling a student flute(any brand ) , A invoice will then be produced from the flute workshop to you showing exactly what setup work was done .
FROM THE TONAL SOUND QUALITIES PERSPECTIVE of a FLUTE
We understand the flute teachers dilemma in many cases who are often asked to advise parents.
In the last two decades I myself was asked, when I taught the flute to try all manner of flutes by parents and, since I all too often often they came across problems on "cheaper flutes"
Thin sounds, Headjoints requiring a tense over stretched embouchure ( lip position ) to make the flute speak fully as well as various other problems, if one is looking at longer term tonal development. Yet a few headjoints of lesser known brands are more than adequate and some , though far fewer -are exceptional
But rather than go on and on trying these types of flutes with so many names , eventually one comes to the decision only to recommend the "safest option " which is completely understandable in one sense but in another makes flutes that only " big brand names " very unaffordable for parents
In the last two decades I myself was asked, when I taught the flute to try all manner of flutes by parents and, since I all too often often they came across problems on "cheaper flutes"
Thin sounds, Headjoints requiring a tense over stretched embouchure ( lip position ) to make the flute speak fully as well as various other problems, if one is looking at longer term tonal development. Yet a few headjoints of lesser known brands are more than adequate and some , though far fewer -are exceptional
But rather than go on and on trying these types of flutes with so many names , eventually one comes to the decision only to recommend the "safest option " which is completely understandable in one sense but in another makes flutes that only " big brand names " very unaffordable for parents
Its hard for flute teachers to be put in the position of trying so many flutes when they know the big differences in costs sometimes, where one brand might cost double another brand and one doesn't want to disappoint parents and students, but manufacture of musical instruments has seen the biggest boom in the last decade in this century and year by year, some marvelous new instruments appear as do some problematic ones.
And yes the boom is almost entirrely in China who rely on their manufacturing side of their economy to such a large extent. Yamaha flutes are made in china in the Xiaoshan Yamaha Musical Instrument Company located outside Shanghai in China. Click here
Selmer, Conn, Bach, Gemeinhardt, Yamaha, and other major brands are now having many instruments made by Chinese factories. Some cleverly do a small amount of finishing work in the United States or Europe so they can still label them Made in the USA and so on. When China is more acceptable to Westerners, no doubt subtlies like this will no longer be neccessary. China on average produces 600,000 new engineers a year to the USAs 70,000 read more Chinas Tallest stunning beautiful Shanghai Towers is the highest in the world , as are many of their other marvels.
And yes the boom is almost entirrely in China who rely on their manufacturing side of their economy to such a large extent. Yamaha flutes are made in china in the Xiaoshan Yamaha Musical Instrument Company located outside Shanghai in China. Click here
Selmer, Conn, Bach, Gemeinhardt, Yamaha, and other major brands are now having many instruments made by Chinese factories. Some cleverly do a small amount of finishing work in the United States or Europe so they can still label them Made in the USA and so on. When China is more acceptable to Westerners, no doubt subtlies like this will no longer be neccessary. China on average produces 600,000 new engineers a year to the USAs 70,000 read more Chinas Tallest stunning beautiful Shanghai Towers is the highest in the world , as are many of their other marvels.
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