Newby taking the plunge...
Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 7:29 pm
Hello everyone. My name is Bob Garcia and I live in Sacramento, California. I thought I would introduce myself since I am about to jump into the world of the Irish flute with both feet. I just purchased my first Irish flute from this forum's own veritable Doc, Patrick Jones, and am anxiously awaiting it's arrival.
After several weeks of exhaustively researching this forum and listening to as many sound samples as I could find, I decided to buy a Copley & Boegli 3 piece blackwood without the tuning slide. Since I don't personally know anyone who plays the Irish flute, this forum was a great resource of information for me. I tend to research things I am interested in until I'm bleary-eyed and about ready to fall out of my chair, so I think I've made a good decision for a relative beginner without breaking the bank.
I have a long history of teaching myself various instruments and currently have been playing the silver Boehm flute for about 8 years. My silver flute is a Muramatsu EX with open holes, offset G, split E, and a B foot. I absolutely love the wonderful dark tone of the Muramatsu's. I've been playing some Irish tunes on it but really love the reedy sound of the traditional Irish flute and decided to try it out. I hope some of my silver flute experience will help with the learning curve, but from what I have read here, it sounds like I am in for a challenge!
I really appreciate the time that many of you have taken on this forum to give advise to beginners. I even learned a lot from the more "opinionated threads" about wood vs Delrin, tuning slide or no tuning slide, various embouchure cuts (elliptical, improved elliptical, 2 semi-circles, rounded rectangle, "modern"...), Prattens, Rudalls, hybrids, and keys vs keyless, and on and on...to the point that my head was beginning to spin. And then there were all the different makers and all of their lovely flutes, each with their adoring owners!
I was concerned about hand size and ease of playability. I can span an octave on the piano but don't consider my hands to be large, more medium sized for a male. And they have taken a beating from over 35 years of technical rockclimbing, and I have begun to have some joint pain recently, to the point that I have stopped climbing for a few months and they are much, much better. I'm about to return to climbing so we'll see if I've got a few more years on the rock or if age is tapping me on the shoulder.
Finally, I thought, enough of this, Bob, just get yourself a nice quality flute from a trusted maker or dealer and get to playing. It came down to a McGee GLP or Rudall Refined or a Copley and, of course, availability. I found myself returning often to the Copley sound sample Doc has on his site. It seemed to have a balance of reediness and sweetness that I found attractive, and there were many glowing posts from veterans and beginners alike who love their Copley flutes. So a Copley it will be. Doc will ship it out Monday
I have taught myself quite a few instruments over the years including a little guitar, piano, recorder, harmonica, silver flute, and most recently didgeridoo, of which I now have 9: 6 that I purchased and 3 that I have made. For Christmas I received a Freeman Tweaked Mellow Dog C/D whistle and an African djembe from loved ones who tolerate my obsessions, and I am having great fun with those. I seem to be a jack-of-many-instruments and master of none, but all of these musical journeys have been wonderful.
I would love to learn to play ITM well enough to join in with a few others at some point. That would be a most satisfying goal. At the ever ripening age of 61, this may be like trying to teach an old dog some new tricks, but what the heck...the older I get, the more every day seems to be a blessing...
Best to all in the New Year,
Bob
.
After several weeks of exhaustively researching this forum and listening to as many sound samples as I could find, I decided to buy a Copley & Boegli 3 piece blackwood without the tuning slide. Since I don't personally know anyone who plays the Irish flute, this forum was a great resource of information for me. I tend to research things I am interested in until I'm bleary-eyed and about ready to fall out of my chair, so I think I've made a good decision for a relative beginner without breaking the bank.
I have a long history of teaching myself various instruments and currently have been playing the silver Boehm flute for about 8 years. My silver flute is a Muramatsu EX with open holes, offset G, split E, and a B foot. I absolutely love the wonderful dark tone of the Muramatsu's. I've been playing some Irish tunes on it but really love the reedy sound of the traditional Irish flute and decided to try it out. I hope some of my silver flute experience will help with the learning curve, but from what I have read here, it sounds like I am in for a challenge!
I really appreciate the time that many of you have taken on this forum to give advise to beginners. I even learned a lot from the more "opinionated threads" about wood vs Delrin, tuning slide or no tuning slide, various embouchure cuts (elliptical, improved elliptical, 2 semi-circles, rounded rectangle, "modern"...), Prattens, Rudalls, hybrids, and keys vs keyless, and on and on...to the point that my head was beginning to spin. And then there were all the different makers and all of their lovely flutes, each with their adoring owners!
I was concerned about hand size and ease of playability. I can span an octave on the piano but don't consider my hands to be large, more medium sized for a male. And they have taken a beating from over 35 years of technical rockclimbing, and I have begun to have some joint pain recently, to the point that I have stopped climbing for a few months and they are much, much better. I'm about to return to climbing so we'll see if I've got a few more years on the rock or if age is tapping me on the shoulder.
Finally, I thought, enough of this, Bob, just get yourself a nice quality flute from a trusted maker or dealer and get to playing. It came down to a McGee GLP or Rudall Refined or a Copley and, of course, availability. I found myself returning often to the Copley sound sample Doc has on his site. It seemed to have a balance of reediness and sweetness that I found attractive, and there were many glowing posts from veterans and beginners alike who love their Copley flutes. So a Copley it will be. Doc will ship it out Monday
I have taught myself quite a few instruments over the years including a little guitar, piano, recorder, harmonica, silver flute, and most recently didgeridoo, of which I now have 9: 6 that I purchased and 3 that I have made. For Christmas I received a Freeman Tweaked Mellow Dog C/D whistle and an African djembe from loved ones who tolerate my obsessions, and I am having great fun with those. I seem to be a jack-of-many-instruments and master of none, but all of these musical journeys have been wonderful.
I would love to learn to play ITM well enough to join in with a few others at some point. That would be a most satisfying goal. At the ever ripening age of 61, this may be like trying to teach an old dog some new tricks, but what the heck...the older I get, the more every day seems to be a blessing...
Best to all in the New Year,
Bob
.