Date: 2020-08-29 05:09 pm (UTC)
annathepiper: (Default)
From: [personal profile] annathepiper
The flutes I have in different keys are all keyless; they're my carbon fibers. They're all essentially designed the same way, i.e., six primary fingerholes. I still have keyed flutes (the one I bought in college, as well as my keyed piccolo), but I don't play them as often just because I like the tonality of the carbon fibers better when I'm playing in session.

So the fingering works essentially the same way on each keyless flute. But if I put all fingers down on a G flute, I get G. But if I want to get a G out of the D flute, it's the left hand fingers (the upper holes) all down.

The part that keeps throwing me is less a question of pitch and more of a question of muscle memory. Usually I play my D flutes (usually the small ones, the piccolo-sized ones) as that's most generally useful in session and I can usually handle tunes on it in G and A as well...

But there's a caveat. That caveat is the range of the tune. If it goes below D over middle C, then I can't play the whole thing on a D flute. So I have to rearrange what notes I'm playing. Or, I have to try playing it on the G or A as appropriate, as those go lower in pitch.

But my muscle memory is still locked in on the D arrangement of fingers. I've gotten better at learning tunes by ear the last few years, but my brain is going "okay I know that's a B, B means first finger down"... but that's assuming I'm on a C/D flute. B is four fingers down on the G or five fingers down on the A.

I'm pretty sure this is a problem I can solve just by practicing on the G or A flutes more often and teaching my muscle memory to adjust to those flutes as necessary. :)

I can distinguish differences in pitch, no problem. I can go "yeah, that note is higher than that one", and like I said, I'm getting better at learning things by ear after participating in regular workshops. What I have trouble with though is remembering "if the note is this pitch, that means it's A". My brain goes instead "if the note is this pitch, that means I put the fingers in these places".
This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

Looking For ... ?

my posts on:


Page generated Jul. 20th, 2025 05:18 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios