Chiff and Fipple Forums

Which maker do you recommend as a beginner's fife?

thanks for your time!

If you want to go "cheap", IMHO your best bet is the plastic Cooperman.
I recommend against gettiing a fife made of anything but Rosewood or Grenadilla (Africanblackwood). It is possible, I suppose, to make a playable instrument out of maple, but I have never encountered one. The Cooperman plastic is also cheaper, as well as superior. Check Cooperman's website for the latest price...used to be under US$10.

A Rosewood or Grenadilla Cooperman b-flat military fife in rosewood or Grenadilla will cost about $80 or $100 (again check the website for the exact prices.)

I also recommend, from personal experience, the Sweetheart b-flat military fife made from Rosewood* or Grenadilla. It is even easier to play than the Cooperman, particularly in the 3rd octave, but it is not quite as loud. The price should be the same as for a Cooperman. Sweethear fifes are stocked by The Lark In The Morning which does a large mail order business in folk and antique-style instruments. Check their website. Price should be the same as for a Cooperman.

Ferraray fifes and McDonough fifes are also possibilities, but I have not had personal experience with them. For more information, check the website:
www.fifeanddrum.com

The best fife of all, in my opinion, is a Healy B-flat, but I would not recommend it for a beginner, not only because it is the most expensive (about US$200) but also because it would be more difficult to blow for anyone who has not developed a reasonably decent embouchure.

(*I happen to have a Sweetheart Rosewood fife which is For Sale for US$50. It is like new and a real "sweetheart" to play. The reason I never played it after getting it was that I found I really needed to have an instrument with the 3rd (G) hole offset slightly to accommodate a surgically shortened finger. I haven't been actively peddling it because I figured I'd get a recruit to my reenactment unit someday who would like to take up the fife. However in your case, shipping charges and taxes might push up the cost too much. )

Mal

http://www.beafifer.com
That is one of the best web sites around for fife info. He also sells a 7 dollar plastic fife that plays and sounds real good. You can also get a great fife there for 110 bucks I think. The plastic fife he sells is real easy to play and beats the heck out of the Cooperman rosewood. I haven`t played the Sweetheart but I sure would like to. I know there is a Sweetheart flute of some sort in my future. Maybe a G I don`t know but check out the be a fifer web site, lots of info.

Tom

Tak - if you're wanting to play Irish music on fife with other players at a session like situation, a standard fife in Bb won't do you much good. You'll need to go with a Sweetheart fife in D or G to play well with anything other than other Bb fife players.

Sweetheart makes a nice tunable, conical fife in D for about $75, and a very nice non-tunable renaissance fife in D for $35 (if you're a whistler and make other people tune to you, there is no problem having a non-tunable fife).

FWIW - I think maple, walnut, cherry in the higher D fife sound as good as the rosewood ones. I've not tried a normal fife in these other woods, so there might be a sound difference there. I think high D fifes are a lot like whistles where the wood choice matters less because of their pitch.

Eric

Looks like I'll be looking into Cooperman / Sweetheart....thank you for your advice!

Tak, the best thing to remember when starting the fife is that it is more like a piccolo than a flute, and that you might be playing an octave too low when you start. The Bb military style fife is *loud* when played correctly! Good luck!!

madfifer9