Chiff and Fipple Forums

I was thinking of getting a cheap plastic fife to use as go-anywhere flute embouchure practice, but I notice some differences between the 2 main contenders. The Yamaha is the most common, and the layout of its toneholes seems similar to that of renaissance recorder-7 holes, the lowest offset inwards. That looks awkward to me as it would be played by the right hand pinky, but the hole is offset towards the player.
The Aulos looks more flute-like, having the 4th hole split like one of the bottom holes of a baroque recorder.
But which one would be preferable? Also the aulos's soundhole us just that, a hole, albeit somewhat squared off. Whereas the Yamaha's hole has a ridge at the distal end, like the lip plate on a flute.
Are there other low priced options out there?

There is this American supplier - http://www.coopermanstore.com/Plastic-Fife-P7.aspx

Otherwise, I got my German fife of the internet, maybe see what comes up - (& it is easy enough to sterilize plastic ones, if that should worry you).

EDIT: This one looks somewhat like mine :-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alte-Querflo ... Swtc9bzXDL

fatmac wrote:There is this American supplier - http://www.coopermanstore.com/Plastic-Fife-P7.aspx

Otherwise, I got my German fife of the internet, maybe see what comes up - (& it is easy enough to sterilize plastic ones, if that should worry you).

Ah I should have added I'm in the UK

Maybe of interest - aluminium fifes - https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/Wooden-Fifes ... =140533010

Yea but I was looking for something at the low end of the market, hence the 2 items I mentioned.

Well, the Yamaha is playable, but more like a recorder with a lip plate, similar to my plastic fife - the other one is like many an older flute/piccolo/fife in that it just has a tone/blow hole - it doesn't really matter much, as you have to split the air stream on the far edge, like the blade of a fipple, to produce the tones.

I have the Yamaha fife, it's playable by covering the offset bottom hole with the lower portion of your pinky finger tip, but I find half covering the rear thumb hole awkward, though not impossible, & you would likely get used to it.

For the price of the Aulos fife you could have the Dixon high D piccolo & the Yamaha fife.

I have both the Yamaha and the older Aulos 101 fife, and find the Yamaha more comfortable to hold and nicer to blow. I haven't tried the current Aulos fife. I also have one of Jem Hammond's PVC piccolos, which uses whistle/simple system fingering (forked C nat, four-finger F#) rather than Boehm-style (one-finger-no-thumb C, four-finger F) and demands a more focussed embouchure, but sounds great when you get it right!

fatmac wrote:

For the price of the Aulos fife you could have the Dixon high D piccolo & the Yamaha fife.

How is the tone on that Dixon piccolo? See I want a smaller flute-like instrument for practice, something thats easily portable and with no moving parts to break.

In that case, I suggest the Dixon ABS piccolo, it's fairly similar to their high D ABS whistle, & has quite a good tone, fairly easy second octave - & of course has the same fingering as a whistle/simple system flute.

I found the piccolo easier to get going with, than the Dixon ABS one piece low D flute - but I can now play that, (just) - after a little practice.

fatmac wrote:In that case, I suggest the Dixon ABS piccolo, it's fairly similar to their high D ABS whistle, & has quite a good tone, fairly easy second octave - & of course has the same fingering as a whistle/simple system flute.

I found the piccolo easier to get going with, than the Dixon ABS one piece low D flute - but I can now play that, (just) - after a little practice.

Thanks for the info, I'll have a look around.

I've got both old and newer Aulos as well as a Yamaha and the Ferris "clone" of the Yamaha.

For my very basic requirements, the Yamaha is the easiest to get a note out of, but it is very much a "C" instrument, F# can be "trying". By definition the Ferris is much the same.

The early Aulos is clumsy, the flattened finger-pads with two holes in them can be difficult to play consistently, the later Aulos has more conventional finger holes and, to my mind, the nicest tone of all of them, but not quite as easy to play as the Yamaha.

Hope this helps