Hello!
Here I am again, sitting at my piano with my handbag full of flutes.
You might have seen this handbag before – I have already introduced several 3d printed instruments that live in that handbag and I have a new one!
So, say hello to this new instrument here.
It is not a telescopic flute like the others, but it’s still quite compact and small and you can put it in any handbag or put it in the bag of your trousers.
This one is tuned in F major.
(Playing „Oats, peas, beans and barley grow“)
Like all the other flutes from my handbag collection it doesn’t have a thumbhole and it has six holes on the front and you use three fingers of your right hand and three fingers of your left hand to play.
(Playing a scale upwards and downwards)
It overblows into the next octave, so it’s a pretty versatile instrument and if you would like to play more than just the F major scale or from time to time play B (flat) major or whatever, you can do a bit of half-holing here as well. So, you can play sort of a chromatic scale.
I’m trying to show it to you. Not sure whether the instrument will want it right now, but let’s see.
(Playing a chromatic scale upwards)
For the purists among you, yes, it’s not perfect, but it works and it just takes a bit of practice.
Speaking of practice, one thing that was really, really doing my head in when I started playing this instrument was that due to the design – going from here, then we bend and go there, bend again and go here – the position of the left ring finger and left index finger are switched.
Swapped around, if you like.
It takes a bit of getting used to this.
(Playing four notes)
Next note is not played by your ring finger but by your index finger.
(Playing the scale upwards and downwards)
Just for comparison, I’m going to show you a tin whistle in D major and the scale is played like this.
(Playing a D major scale upwards and downwards)
Position number 4 is your left ring finger, 5 is your middle finger and 6 is your index finger.
(Playing a few notes)
And it’s the opposite here.
(Playing a few notes)
But I think it’s worth practicing this. I guess it’s good for your brain. I mean, music making is always good for your brain, and good for your heart and soul.
I’ve quite grown to like this instrument and I’m going to play you another tune that
[short moment of not knowing what I was going to say about the tune]
I like.
(Playing „Cockles and Mussles“, better known as „Molly Malone“)
Thank you for watching! And stay tuned. I’m not sure what I’m going to show you next time, but there are definitely more instruments that will appear on this channel.
Bye bye!