Category: Equipment

The Different Levels of Flutes

There are three basic levels of flutes. There’s the Student, Intermediate, and Pro. I’ve noticed a lot of confusion over this recently, so I thought I’d lay this information out for you.

All the levels of flutes have their own purpose. It’s not advisable to skip a level because each level helps you become a better musician. It’s important to upgrade when you’re starting to be held back by your instrument. It’s also important to not jump the gun. You need to put in the work before you upgrade.

Student Flute

The student level flute is what you should start with. It’s usually made out of nickel silver, sometimes it’ll be silver plated, occasionally plastic. It’s sturdy because the flute makers know that this is going into the hands of a Tween. The plastic ones are designed for even younger students. That being said, it’s still a delicate piece of machinery that should be handled carefully.

It has closed holes, sometimes called plateau keys. Sometimes you can get a Split E option. I personally think the Split E is clunky, but that’s just me.

The head joint is designed to help you make a consistent sound because it’s the most forgiving. The biggest challenge of the first year or two is getting a sound, and this head joint will help. This is why it’s important to start on a student flute.

Usually you’ll stay on the student flute for 3-5 years, then you’ll outgrow it. You’ll know it’s time to upgrade when your sound has been stable for awhile and your tone has deepened and begun to mature.

Intermediate/Step-Up Flute

The intermediate level of flute is usually your second flute. Sometimes it’s also called a step-up. They’re the same thing. Some manufacturers call their bottom-of-the-line intermediate a step-up, but in normal conversation, the terms are interchangeable.

You probably kept your student flute as a back-up, or you traded it in to help off-set the cost. It’s nice to have a back-up for when your flute is in the shop for its yearly COA, or if you have to play outside in bad weather.

This is the first flute that you go to a music store or a flute festival, try everything, and let the wand choose you. You’re shopping for your ideal embouchure. What makes you sound the best?

The most important part of the upgrade is the head joint. It’s designed for a developing embouchure that’s not quite mature, but far enough along that you need an embouchure hole that works with your anatomy. You’ll notice you don’t sound quite as good on the pro flutes as you do on the intermediates. That’s because the intermediate embouchure hole is a little more forgiving for the developing embouchure.

There are a ton of bells an whistles starting to come up at this stage of the game. The most important part is to make sure you get the best brand for you and the best flute you can afford.

Many people stay in this kind of flute for the rest of their lives. They don’t need to do anything beyond what their intermediate flute will do, and that’s great. You’ve found your lifelong friend.

When I got a little over half-way through college, I realized I needed to upgrade to a pro level flute. My fingers were going faster than my mechanisms, which leads us to the next level.

Professional Levels of Flutes

These are the levels of flutes where the sky is the limit. You can get your flute in any precious metal your heart desires. Engraving. Diamonds in the crown. These flutes are beautiful.

There is a little confusion, though. Some sellers try to claim that their top-of-the-line intermediate flutes are pro level. Double check with the manufacturer’s website. In my opinion, those sellers aren’t to be trusted because they don’t know what they have.

Another source of confusion is that there’s a semi-pro level that has recently emerged. They usually don’t have solid silver keys. That’s the difference. I have been led to believe they still have the more precise tolerances that the other pro level flutes have.

The embouchure holes are even more specialized at this stage. They’re all hand-cut. By this time your embouchure is fully mature, so these head joints free you to soar through your entire range with all the volume and tone control your heart desires.

The mechanisms are hand made to much more precise tolerances, so you can fly through those runs and arpeggios so quickly that you didn’t realize you got to the end.

Don’t Hold Yourself Back

When I was in college, I decided to just make things work with my intermediate flute. I was a poor college kid. There was no way I could afford a new pro flute. I wish I would have known about other options, but those were the days when the internet was just starting to flower. The options that are available today weren’t available at that time.

When my music studio really took off, I started saving a certain percentage for business expenses. I was able to keep my expenses under that number, and I decided to use the excess to buy a new flute.

It took a few years, but I saved enough to buy a 1960 Haynes Commercial. I’m not stopping with this old Haynes. I’m going to get a brand-new pro flute eventually, this is just allowing me to grow in the meantime. It has already taken its depreciation, so I can sell it when it’s time to get the new flute. When it comes time, I might keep it as my back-up, who knows. I’m just happy that I found this path.

The Used Instrument Market is Changing

Have you noticed that the used instrument market is changing? Pianists, ignore this. Your market is the same.

For as long as I can remember, you could get a decent used student or intermediate flute for 80-90% off retail, and a used pro flute for 40-50% off. It didn’t matter how old or new the instrument was, it took an immediate plunge and stayed there. Those numbers are no more.

I’m a huge supporter of buying used instruments, and I practice what I preach. I’ve been looking for an intermediate flute for my daughter for about 6 months, and I’m consistently seeing used intermediate flutes go for 15 – 30% off retail. That’s a big difference from before. To me, that’s not a used price. That’s a sale.

While I was looking around, I decided to mosey on over to the flutes that are on my wish list. I really want a Haynes Q3 or an Altus 1107 with a gold riser. The pro flute market hasn’t changed much, to the point where I could get a used pro flute for the same price as a used intermediate. Hmmm. What’s up with that?

Used Car Market has Parallels to Used Instrument Market

I did some digging. I found some parallels between the used car market and the used flute market. Remember how for the past couple of years, you couldn’t get a new car if your life depended on it? There was something about the computer chips being stuck in a shipping snafu. The used car market skyrocketed, up to 4 times the normal price because people were still getting in situations where they needed to replace vehicles.

Once new vehicles became available again, the used cars came back down in price. They’re still not at what they were before, but the market is calming down.

A similar thing happened in the musical instrument market. The flute parts are mostly made in Asia, even if they’re assembled here in the USA. With the shipping situation that happened in the past three years, the instrument makers couldn’t get a hold of parts to make new instruments. I heard that new instruments were on backorder for 6 months during the past few years.

The student market and the intermediate market have a little more urgency than the pro market. If a person wants to start playing an instrument in school, they usually get a new one. With the new instruments on back-order, the people who would normally buy new had to buy used.

The intermediate instruments have a little less urgency. In flute, usually a student will upgrade to an intermediate after 3-5 years. They won’t be held back by their instrument until about the 5-6 year mark or so, so they have a little bit of breathing room. Still, once an instrument is holding you back, you need to upgrade.

The pro instruments are handmade, so they’re not held back as much by shipping issues. Less people get to a pro level so there’s less demand. Even if they outgrow their intermediate, oftentimes a musician will know how to make do until they can afford a new instrument (me!). With delayed gratification already happening, people are more likely to say, “That’s okay, I’ll wait.”

How to Handle the Changes

The used car market has gone towards normal levels for the past 6 months. I would expect the used instrument market to do the same within the next 6 months or so. We’ll see.

Here’s what I’m going to do. First I’m going to wait 6 months to see if the prices go down. If they do, I’ll get a used intermediate flute for my daughter.

If the prices don’t go down by this summer, I figure I have a few options:

  1. Get an intermediate headjoint from a parts flute for less than $50 off ebay, in the brand that works well for her, and find a used intermediate flute that’s a less expensive brand than the ones she likes. Have my tech fit the headjoint to the cheaper flute.
  2. Get a pro flute for the same price as the ones that she likes. Do the same thing as above with the headjoint.
  3. Just buy a new intermediate flute. There isn’t enough of a price difference to warrant getting a used one.

How about you? What would you do in this situation?

Guess I Need to Buy a Trumpet

It all started at my studio Christmas recital. My oldest child was getting ready to play her solo on Clarinet. I noted that I don’t teach her anymore on Clarinet, but she still wanted to play in the recital. I’ve done that in the past with other people. For the record, I still teach her piano.

I went on to say that back in college I took all the pedagogy courses which helped me be certified through 8th grade on all the wind and percussion instruments. My oldest is now in high school, so I handed her over to a clarinet specialist.

I got a phone call shortly after the recital, asking to start two young trumpet players. They’re below band age, but I knew that technology has changed. If I can start a flute player in 1st grade due to new technology in flutes, I can definitely start a trumpet in 1st grade. The trumpet only uses a quarter of the volume of air as the flute (not talking about backpressure) and they don’t have to worry about a long reach with the arms.

Research time!

I love research. My favorite way to do it is to sit there with a cup of coffee and 20 tabs open on my browser, reading through each website that popped up on my internet search.

I looked at a ton of websites, and they all agreed that the pTrumpet was the way to go, especially for children under 5th grade. The reason for this is not because of lung development, but because of the weight of a regular trumpet vs. a plastic trumpet. A regular trumpet is just too heavy for the littles.

My trumpet mom bought the trumpets at Reverb (affiliate link) because that was the best price I could find, being on sale for 50% off for Christmas. I didn’t see any at my local music stores. I also didn’t think to ask, so, if you’re reading this, sorry!

Now I had to research which what the best trumpet method book to buy. I looked at a ton of websites to see what the best method books were out there for trumpet. I saw a bunch of them recommended band method books, but I wanted something specifically written for trumpet.

The number one ranked was Rubank (affiliate link). Well, I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, lol. The Rubank series has been a standard for band instruments for decades. I trust it.

There were a few websites that also recommended using Arban along with the Rubank. It’s a $45 book, which I thought was a little steep for a brand new beginner book, even though it’s supposed to stick with you all the way through college. I figure I’ll mention it later once they’re a little more serious.

Time to Message Musician Gear Garage

So, I’ve made it pretty clear that I love buying used instruments, especially when first starting out. As soon as I was done doing the research for my client, I messaged my friend, Chad, over at Musician Gear Garage. I said, “Welp, I need to buy a trumpet.”

Chad asked me what my budget was and I told him. He told me he had an Olds Ambassador from the early 60’s. Due to my purposes, he said that it would be a great fit for me. I should have something better than a student trumpet for teaching as I get better and better.

He told me that Olds started out as a professional instrument maker. As the student market grew, they took their professional trumpets, stamped them with the Ambassador label, and sold them as student trumpets. They did that until 1964 when they merged with Reynolds.

“Sold!” I said, and I set up an appointment to do my yearly checkup for my woodwind instruments, at which I’d buy up my new trumpet.

Buying a “New” Trumpet

When I got there, I dropped off my woodwinds and said, “So, where’s my new trumpet?” We opened it up and it was a shade of brass that I’d never seen before. It has almost a reddish tone to it.

He had a wide selection of mouthpieces for me to try out to check which one I liked the most. As I stood there buzzing, I double-checked every mouthpiece after I made my decision. As I tried them out, I was getting better. Due to this phenomenon, I changed my decision at least three times. I finally settled on a standard 7C (I can’t remember the brand, lol).

I really loved the fact that he allowed me to try out all the mouthpieces for my individual best fit. I’m sure I wouldn’t get that kind of treatment if I were to buy a trumpet at most other places.

Maintenance

This is what he told me about maintenance:

  1. Valve Oil should happen any time you feel one of the valves sticking. He showed me a different way to put in the valve oil that makes it less likely that you will ruin a valve.
  2. Slide Oil should happen once a week. I like to do those types of things on Sundays.
  3. A Bath should happen once per quarter. It’s just a little dish soap in the bathtub and your disassembled trumpet (minus the felt pads).

As long as I meet these requirements, I don’t need to bring in my instrument regularly like I do a woodwind. I only have to bring it in when something is stuck or dented. Woohoo!

So, that’s the story about how I bought my first trumpet. I had a lot of fun doing it. Stay tuned for hearing about my first week playing it.

I Love Used Sheet Music

I prefer used sheet music over new sheet music. I always have. Sure, the pages on new music are nice and shiny and pretty, but there are good reasons why I love used music.

Why I Love Used Sheet Music

  1. It’s cheaper. Insanely cheaper. Half price, at the most, cheaper. Sometimes I can even get it for less than a dollar a book. Sometimes free.
  2. Secret Notes in the Margins These are notes meant to help the person who originally played the music. Who says they can’t help me, too? Rhythms, phrasing, fingerings, tone – there are notes on all those things to help me.
  3. The Pages Turn Easier. Let’s face it, older pages turn faster and easier. Then you don’t have the dreaded page turn.
  4. Different Editors/Editions Sometimes it’s nice to get a different take on how something should be interpreted, especially when it’s closer to when the compser was alive.
  5. High Quality Pages The pages are sewn into the book, rather than glued in. The paper is thicker. You get it, they don’t make ’em like they used to.
  6. Binding Sometimes one of the old books has been spiral or comb bound at an office store. This makes life easier!
  7. Forgotten Music One time I found a beautiful etude that I’ve never heard of before. I like to play it just because it’s pretty. Sometimes you find music that has been forgotten over the years just because you dive into a book of used music.
  8. Old Method Books Our ways of teaching may have changed over the years, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some good things in the old method books. If there’s someone struggling with a concept, you can bring in some music from those old method books to teach the concept in a different way.

Conclusion

When I was learning flute and piano, I was a scholarship student. I was on my own for getting any music besides my lesson books. I found music at Goodwill and St. Vincent De Paul’s for 25 cents per book.

I thought, “Why should I pay $15 for a book like this when I can get it for 25 cents?” That’s how I started buying and using used piano and flute books, and I saw how they served me well. After I got my first job at age 14, I started buying new books, too, but still, to this day, I peruse the book section in second hand stores for sheet music.

If you don’t have a second hand store available, go ahead and check out imslp.org. It’s a treasure trove!

The Dreaded Page Turn!

The page turn can be a scary thing in music. It can be simple, but it can get really complicated fast. Here are some suggestions.

I was going to talk about the page turn in a simple Facebook post, but when I turned the corner on the second paragraph, I realized that I needed to talk about it more in-depth.

Who would have thought how complicated turning pages can be. However, when music is involved, almost everything is more complicated. So, I’ll go through some ideas to make page turning easier.

The Basics of Page Turns

Okay, someone is saying, “It’s not that complicated.” I’m saying that it can be complicated, but here are the two most basic ways to turn a page while playing music:

  1. Stop playing with one hand and turn the page.
  2. Get a page turner.

Now I’m going to tell you how you’re taking your life in your hands with each one of those tactics.

1: Only Play with One Hand

You can dog-ear the pages and hope and pray that they turn easily. I get nervous when I play, so this doesn’t work well for me. I grab more than one page, or go to grab the page and the whole book falls on the floor. Not fun.

Another issue is that sometimes you have two-handed notes at the page turn (flute) or part of the piece where it would sound funny if you stopped playing with one hand on the piano. There are solutions for this – memorize before or after the page turn where there is a good spot to turn the page (both my instruments), or on flute play the two-handed notes with a harmonic that’s on one hand so you can use your other hand. I talk about harmonics a little bit here, but that’s a subject that I’ll touch on more in-depth soon.

2: Get a Page Turner

There are great page turners out there. Some page turners need to be trained in with more than one practice session. Some page turners are hopeless and can’t turn at the correct time or in the correct manner, no matter how hard they try. Depending on the day, I can be each one of these, and so can your page turner.

Other Page Turn Options

1. High Tech

The best way to turn pages is the high tech way – have some kind of a tablet and a blue tooth pedal that turns pages. As with all technology, it’s great as long as it works.

I was playing at a gig and one of my fellow musicians had that set-up. It was flawless, but she said she always has a paper copy along because paper doesn’t crash.

2. Cardboard and Bull Clips

This one’s good for if your music is past copyright so you can make copies, or is the download and print kind of music. I hope this picture is blurry enough that I didn’t break copyright!

Page Turn Alternative
Cardboard and bull clips. Note: I still had to have a page turner with two pieces of cardboard because there were so many pages.

3. Paperclips

Page Turn Tool
Look at all those paperclips. They help you grip the page.

I have a hard time getting a hold of a single page at a time, but if there’s a paperclip, it works as a handle for me to grab. Bonus: they weigh things down.

4. Bending the Binding

Binding Helps with Page Turning
I used an evenly distributed weight to hold the book open, adjusting it once a day until it laid right.

This one works well for if you’re allowed to use music in a competition or accompanying. Usually there are strict rules about not copying for page turns, even if the music is out of copyright. It allows you to keep the book open without using weights to hold the pages open.

5. Binding

A Binding Idea
This book fell out of its binding, so I 3-hole punched it. After I did that, it was so much easier to handle!
A Binding Idea
They can do this really inexpensively at an office store.

I like to re-bind things when I have a book that I use heavily, such as a Christmas book or a scale book.

These are both different ways to bind things – stick something in a binder that fell out of its binding, or take it to an office store, have the binding shaved off, and either spiral or comb-bound.

When books lay flat, it’s easier to turn pages. You also don’t have as many problems when you don’t have to worry about your book falling closed or falling to the floor because it snapped closed. As you can see, I use paperclips as handles along with changing the binding.

Conclusion

It’s okay to have a page turn malfunction. Everyone has them, and they’re understandable.

If you can prevent them, do it. It’s unprofessional. I hope these preventions help you as much as they’ve helped me. Do you have any ideas that aren’t on here?

Tips on Buying a Used Flute: An Interview

Chad Walker owns a local small business, Musician Gear Garage. He buys old student and intermediate instruments, fixes them up, and sells them. He also has a thriving instrument repair business.

I wanted to interview Chad because I’ve learned a lot of things over the years from former teachers about older instruments. As I find myself discussing various things with other flute players, I have begun to realize that some of these “facts” that I was taught by my former teachers were really just opinions. I wanted to get information from someone in the trenches.

I actually encourage my beginner students to buy used. They’re probably only going to use their student flute for 3-4 years (plus marching band) before they move on to an intermediate, so it makes sense for the the parents to save their money for the intermediate flute.

If the price tag of an intermediate flute is holding the student back as much as their flute is, it’s better to buy a used intermediate than to not upgrade at all.

One nice thing about buying a new intermediate flute is being able to choose the flute that has the best tone for the student. The process rather reminds me of buying a wand in Diagon Alley. If you have someone like Chad in your area who has several flutes to try out, that’s a viable option, too.

Enough philosophy, on to the interview.

What are some things you personally look for in a used flute?

Pros: Favorite Brands

Cons:

  1. Physical Key Damage
  2. Trill Keys out of alignment
  3. How the flute bends in the middle (there should be a slight bow in the middle, but not a big one)
  4. G# tone hole
  5. Broken Keys

What brands do you look for?

  1. Buescher Aristocrat
  2. Pearl
  3. Gemeinhardt
  4. Yamahas made in Japan and China, but they’re usually priced higher than they’re worth.
  5. Music Medic has a new line – Wilmington.

What are some good questions to ask a seller when buying a used flute?

  1. Are you the original owner?
  2. How often has it been tuned up?
  3. More pics, please. I want to see the pads and all sides of the flute.

I hear a lot about how the technology changes about every 10 years or so, which makes the newer instruments better and more in tune. What’s your experience with the technology differences?

This was your best question [I sent him the questions ahead of time]. I don’t see a difference with new scales. I’ve measured them and I don’t see a difference. Usually it’s a rebranding marketing strategy.

Technology on pads have come forward by leaps and bounds in the past 10 years. They used to be very soft. Now they’re made of pressed felt, rigid cardboard, and don’t need to be clamped.

I’ve seen a lot of myths over the years about how overhauling a flute isn’t worth it unless it’s a pro instrument. What’s your take on that?

Putting better pads in it will make a flute last another 30 years. [An overhaul] will make it almost better than the factory because the pad technology has come so far, and everything is tight to your specifications.

Most student flutes aren’t worth overhauling, except Pearl and some other special situations, but most are worth a repad, especially if you compare it to buying brand-new.

What’s your favorite flute to repair?

Pearl and Emerson.

I haven’t seen a difference in the newer Emersons since Selmer bought them out. I think they’re still treating that division as special, but I’m still keeping an eye on it.

Take-aways

I don’t know about you, but I learned a lot from this interview. It gives me more confidence in buying a used flute. It also makes me realize that if I need major repairs on my flute that I love, I shouldn’t just buy another one. I should give it the love that it has given me and fix the major issues.