I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately from parents coming in to upgrade their student’s flute about the purpose of open-holed keys on the flute. Truth be told, there are a lot of differing philosophies about this subject, and the trends are different depending on where you are in the world, believe it or not! Here are some of the most basic reasons for why most flutes you’ll encounter, besides student flutes, will have open holes. As flutes evolved from an instrument with no keys but simply holes which were covered by the fingers, to ring keys (similar to a clarinet), to the traditional keys we see on French-style flutes today, open holes have generally been the standard of how keys were constructed, particularly in the United States. Plateau-style, or closed-hole keys, came a bit later and are almost universally used on student flutes, as the player gets used to the proper hand position. Once a flutist upgrades to an intermediate step-up flute or higher, open holes becomes the new standard. This feature requires more accurate finger placement on the keys, which can improve technique. As a flutist transitions from closed to open holes, plugs made of plastic, silicone,

When I wrote a blog post about French pointed key arms back in 2015, most step-up brands that I carried in the shop still came with Y-cup arms, which has been the standard for beginner and intermediate flutes for years. Since then, the intermediate flute world has just exploded with brands, features, and options, and now it is much more common for these level flutes to come with French key arms. In fact, every instrument in the Indy Flute Shop (with the exception of some older closeout models) now has this feature! Read the blog for more information. This week’s burning question: What are French pointed key arms, and how do they differ from “regular” keys?French pointed key arms have traditionally been a feature on semi-professional and professional-grade instruments, due to their handmade features and greater time associated with creating them. Unlike the traditional “Y-cup” arms that are found on student and some step-up instruments, French key arms consist of a pointed tone arm that extends to the center on the pad cup and is soldered to the top of the cup. This type of construction is stronger than the standard “Y” cup mounting where the tonearm is soldered to

A couple of weeks ago, I attempted to dive into the extensive and complicated history of how flutes are built to be in tune with themselves: their scale. To summarize, the flute scale determines how well the notes play in tune to each other, octave to octave, and also determines the timbral balance of the notes. From a mechanical standpoint the flute scale is a function of the following: the diameter of the flute tube or “bore,” the size of each tone hole, the linear location of each tone hole along the flute tube, and the height of each tone hole. Scale should not be confused with the pitch of an instrument. Pitch relates to which “A” the instrument has been designed to produce (e.g., A-440, A-442, etc.) Most instruments made for the U.S. market are typically pitched at A-442, and play well in tune from A-440 to A-444. As we can see, this is a very complex and exact process, and also one with no clear-cut answer or one size fits all method. For flutes that have been built since the mid 1900s, most of them have been constructed using either the Cooper scale or, later, the Bennett scale,

Okay, the title of this post sounds kind of boring, right? Stay with me–I’m not talking about scales in the etude/exercise sense! This week I’m delving into a history of how flutes are built to be in tune with themselves, or its scale. With the help of the justflutes.com blog, I’m going to attempt to break down the different methods and theories of how flutes have evolved in the quest for better intonation throughout history. Let’s first define what exactly we mean by the “scale” of a flute. In its simplest terms, a scale is a set of proportions which, in the instrument world, can be seen in the different placement of frets on a guitar fingerboard and the curve of a rank of organ pipes or piano strings. In equal temperament, these follow a simple mathematical formula. Multiplying by 1.06 (or 1.0594630948 or 12,-2.) increases the overall length proportionately to eventually reach the octave — exactly. Stringed instruments are well behaved and follow this rule closely. Sadly, flutes are not well behaved. Because we move our lips, intonation is a moving target. Before Theobald Böehm, who is largely responsible for our modern flute construction, the concept of “scale” was

Happy September! This week’s blog is one from the archives, but I thought it would be appropriate to post it again since I have so many more followers now than when this video was posted back in 2013–which is awesome! The C# trill key is also fresh in my mind because I just helped a family purchase a wonderful step-up instrument with this feature this past week. Enjoy! C-Sharp Trill Key

Earlier this year, the Indy Flute Shop and Paige’s Music became a Shokunin Select Dealer. What does Shokunin mean? Yamaha phrases it as: Shokunin (sho-ku-neen) Japanese (n) craftsman, artisan. “The Japanese word shokunin is defined by both Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries as ‘craftsman’ or ‘artisan,’ but such a literal description does not fully express the deeper meaning. The Japanese apprentice is taught that shokunin means not only having technical skills, but also implies an attitude and social consciousness. The shokunin has a social obligation to work his/her best for the general welfare of the people.”- Toshio Odate At Paige’s Music and the Indy Flute Shop, we feature Yamaha’s highest quality instruments elegantly crafted by Yamaha’s finest luthiers. In the process of designing each Shokunin instrument, each instrument serves as a laboratory for new designs, new features, and a new approach the instrument itself. These instruments are the most innovative and are often the birthplace for features that you will see across the Yamaha range in the future. So what does that mean for flute players? Well, the Indy Flute Shop has been carrying several flute members of the Shokunin line for several years now with the 577 and 677 flute

This week, I wanted to highlight a brand that many people have heard of, but not necessarily in the context of flutes: Pearl! “But wait, doesn’t Pearl make drums?” is a question that I hear so often when people come into the shop–and the answer is yes! Pearl is very well-known for their fantastic percussion sets and drum kits, but they also make a wide range of wonderful flutes as well! Pearl Musical Instrument Company was founded in 1946, and the company began making flutes in Chiba, Japan in 1968. Their instruments range from high-quality student flutes, which feature a solid silver lip plate riser. This feature differentiates them from most student flutes which are fully plated, to handmade professional instruments in a range of high level materials such as 18k gold and platinum. Pearl flutes are also set apart from many other manufacturers in that their mechanisms are pinless. This setup is unique because instead of the tiny pins that hold together the crucial pieces of many flutes–which can snag and catch–the rods and tenons are instead held together by a series of small screws. This both affects the durability of the instrument and creates a smooth, highly effective