Flute Upgrade Advice Please

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>Well now that number 1 D is set to head off in 12 weeks for her Freshman year in music ed, we were just informed by my younger D's Flute teacher that it is time to move away from the closed hole Yamaha she's had for about two years.</p>

<p>She is starting 8th grade in the fall, and has been encouraged by her teacher to audition for the Cleveland Youth Orchestra and later, Interlochen.</p>

<p>I hope to keep the cost of this investment in her musical interests at or around 2K and would like to be "covered" through High School. Any thoughts would be appreciated.</p>

<p>JD</p>

2

<p>I assume you are looking for an open-hole flute, most likely with a B-foot. You should consult her flute teacher concerning inline vs offset G key (with or without split E mechanism) options before making any decisions. There are a bunch of other options that may be of interest, such as a D# roller, a C# trill key, a gizmo key, a gold plated lip plate and others.</p>

<p>How responsible is D2 with her instrument? If she is the type to bang it around a bit, then you might want to go with one of the Gemeinhardt 3S models, which are well under $2K and built to take a little more abuse than some of the low-end "professional" models that are right around the $2K price point.</p>

<p>If she can be trusted with something a little more fragile but with potential to take her farther, then you might have a look at the Gemeinhardt KVM, or the Pearl 765 or 695 models.</p>

3

<p>If she winds up serious about her music, you'll probably need to upgrade now and again sometime in junior year of high school to be ready for college auditions.If her teacher is mentioning Interlochen, he/she must see something in your D's future!
My D upgraded twice and then added an upgraded piccolo to the mix.She wound up with Muramatsu as the final instrument but that has now taken her through college to grad school. Her final picc is handmade by Jeff Weissman, an instrument maker and dealer in New York.This is where she bought the final flute as well,travelling with her teacher to test drive instruments.
I think you can do well in the 2,000 range for a middle instrument.Get her teachers best advice, or take them with you (pay for their time).Try to deal with a place that won't pressure your D and thats perhaps the best reason to take the experienced teacher with you.
As BassDad pointed out, an instrument a middle schooler/high schooler is using needs to take abuse unless theres a separate school instrument they can play for marching band/band.D's middle instrument was a Gemeinhardt and it took major abuse including travelling with the HS band, summer music camps,etc.It was truly the warhorse and with repairs did well for D.</p>

4

<p>Thank you both very much for the advice. Judging from the conversations my wife and I have had with her teacher, she does see something in her. When she went to OMEA recently (Ohio Music Educators Awards), the judges said to her..."we kept having to remind ourselves that you are not a junior in HS"). I'm not bragging, but her tone, control, musicality are very good. She takes extremely good care of the Yamaha (I do not recall the model # off hand, but I do recall it being one of the better open hole "student" flutes). I know that her teacher will help us shop for one, but I do like to research things to have some better insight when the purchase is made.</p>

<p>Again thank you
JD</p>

5

<p>Under no circumstances should she use the new flute for marching band. Keep the old Yamaha or, better yet, look for something cheap at a garage sale. In marching band, the flutes get drowned out by the drums and brass 90% of the time anyway, so it does not matter if it sounds like crud. Extremes in temperature and humidity plus exposure to dirt and grime equal the need for frequent and expensive service to keep a good instrument sounding the way it should, so it is better to use the cheapest nickel-plated instrument you can find when playing outdoors. It becomes kind of like running with weights around your ankles in that playing the good flute will then seem a lot easier.</p>

6

<p>I should have added BassDad that D's middle flute didnt become her "warhorse" until she got the Muramatsu.Up until then she used a school issue flute for the marching band.In her latter HS years she always played the picc in the marching bands anyway (lucky her so easy to transport!) and the picc she used was not her good one either.</p>

7

<p>Re: the "beater flute" - Agreed and thanks - we were already told by her music teacher that the new closed hole would be for performance and lessons, never for band. I have a hunch this may be a more interesting process than when I bought a piano....a long time ago.</p>

8

<p>Now you have me confused. In the first message you said that the old flute is closed hole, then in message 4 you seem to say that it is an open hole flute. Now, you are saying that the new one is going to be a closed hole design.</p>

<p>Which direction are we going here? All of the models I suggested were open hole designs.</p>

9

<p>Sorry about the confusion. Yet another senior moment.</p>

<p>The current flute is Yamaha closed hole - She needs to move on to an open hole within a few months and the teacher will assist. Just looking for good insight & recomendations into this, since I know nothing about flutes (I guess that is now very obvious)</p>

<p>It must be all the RF energy affecting my brain since I hacked into my hybrid car and now get 85mpg (I know it's off topic, but I'm really not kidding about the mpg)</p>

<p>thanks
JD</p>

10

<p>Is the display on the car telling you that you are getting 85 mpg, or are you computing it by dividing actual miles traveled by gallons of gasoline purchased? If the former, how can you be sure that the vehicle is actually getting the mileage reported, particularly after installing the hack? If the latter, are you certain that a family member did not add extra fuel without you realizing it?</p>

<p>I ask because at 85 mpg, the payback period for selling my car and buying/modifying one like yours would probably be short enough to make the decision a no-brainer. If your numbers are correct, I wonder why the manufacturer has not already made this hack a standard feature.</p>

11

<p>My D (HS sophomore) has been very happy with open hole Yamaha 461 that she got 3 yrs ago.</p>

12

<p>I'll provide info about the hack in a PM. I have one of about 50 cars in the world with it, and it only works on one model, which is no longer manufactured.</p>

<p>Stay tuned though- Honda is introducing three Hybrids in the Fall and Toyota is updating the Prius.</p>

<p>JD</p>

13

<p>Bassdad is correct. Any student in the marching band should NOT use their better instrument for that...unless it's all they have. A "junker" student model will work just fine. Our band doesn't usually march in the rain..but sometimes rain "happens" and that really does a job on the finish of the instruments (not to mention the band uniforms).</p>

14

<p>Just a Dad in OH, I don't know where you live in OH but it might be worth a trip to travel to Flute World which is in the Detroit area. They will have alot of flutes for her to try. It's a very personal decision what flute would be best for her. It's great to have a place which has tons of flutes to try out. My D did not buy her flute from Flute World but we buy a lot of music from them and they are very nice and her teacher deals with them and is also happy.</p>

<p>One thing my D found out is that teachers are like that brand of flute that they play on. Her first teacher loved Pearls but her second hates that pearl, so it's very individual.</p>

<p>My D was your D age when she upgraded to a better flute. I wish now that we spent more money on a better flute then. At that time she did well but her teacher didn't think that she would play in college so she didn't need a better flute than the one she bought. The flute she plays is fine but wishes it was better, she did upgrade into a new headjoint and that has made a world of difference in her tone.</p>

<p>Just for your information, there is a very nice flute camp at Ohio State and also another one for more advanced students at Oberlin.</p>

15

<p>Thank you for the advice on Flute World. D's teacher gave us a catalog to view from them last night. I remember that buying the first one was easy..we took her to the local Sam Ash, she tried 4 out over an hour or so, and picked the most expensive one (about 500). After taking a quick look at the Flute World catalog, I think that will not happen this time!</p>

<p>Thanks also for the info on the Flute Camps, something to consider for the future as well.</p>

16

<p>D attended Mr DeBost's Flute Seminar Week at Oberlin while she was in High School. It's an awesome experience,its by audition and suitable for an older more experienced player (HS or above,even adult pros were there).Keep it in mind for the future ,especially if she winds up considering a performance degree in college.
At your D's age, my flute player was attending a summer performing arts camp where she could play in ensembles,in an orchestra,in musical theater pits (her fave at the time) but still swim,do circus training(she did fire eating...not a very smart activity for a flute player),and whatever other activity she chose.</p>

17

<p>I'm personally a fan of Miyazawa, and you can get a great $2000 model that I found to be better than a lot of other flutes I tried out. I know a lot of other people who are fans of Altus and Murumatsu. </p>

<p>P.S. Suggest to your daughter that she take up tenor saxophone for marching band--you can actually hear them, the fingerings are virtually the same as on flute, and the company tends to be a lot more fun. This is what I did throughout high school and I wouldn't have it any other way. I had no trouble getting back into swing for concert season playing flute.</p>

18

<p>I thought that I would follow up on this to share the happy ending to the story. (Happy D :) !!, mom & dad's checkbook not so much, but it certainly was the right thing to do)</p>

<p>My D tried over 30 flutes (new and used) from Yamaha, Sankyo, Trevor James (our vote for world's heaviest flute) Powell, Miyazawa, Eudy, Pearl, Sonare, Avanti, Muramatsu and a few other names that escape me at the moment. In the end, we had seven flutes in the house at once and she (with guidance from her wonderful teacher that spent two hours over here last week) wound up with a used Muramatsu CF 4 concert flute in magnificent condition, which is equivalent to the DS today. What an incredible tone! It will indeed last her through college if she pursues music (which helps avoid that third flute later)</p>

<p>A few notes and thank you's</p>

<p>BassDad - sorry for all the confusion in my original posts here. I know more about flutes now than I ever thought I'd need to. Thanks for your help.</p>

<p>Raquel - you are 100% right! - the low end Miyazawa 101 can not be beat in it's price range. Thanks for the idea!</p>

<p>Cathymee - thanks for letting me know about Jeff Weissmann! Though we did not make the trip they were one of the few shops that we had flutes shipped in from. I called them (after many other flutes were tried) and explained what my D liked and did not like. I gave them my price range (which had more than doubled since the beginning of the process) and they did indeed send wonderful instruments. The one thing they did that will always stick in my mind as quite outstanding is this. I told them about the used Muramatsu we found in a local music store. They advised me to bring that flute home and test it against their Powell, Miyazawa (202) and Muramatsu EX. They also felt that I had found a wonderful flute with the used Muramatsu and for the cost that it would most likely be superior to what they shipped. They were right and were as noted above incredibly candid and honest. On the funny side, when I was thinking of planning a trip to Weissman's I knew the neighborhood already - grew up a few miles from his shop.</p>

<p>Lastly - after shipping flutes back and forth to Michigan and NY, we wound up dealing with a local store that sells Pearls, Powells, Haynes and others (she tried those too, come to think of it) and used instruments, including the one we bought. Wonderful people to work with. They even let my D (just for fun) play a gold flute worth about 19K, they wanted to hear how she sounded on it. If you are in Northern Ohio or the surrounding area, I can highly recommend Royalton Music in North Royalton Ohio as a great family run business to work with and get to know.</p>

<p>Next up - more college shopping - Thank goodness they are on quarters where my older D attends in the fall (Otterbein) That macbook pro is the last thing I'll be buying.</p>

<p>JD</p>

19

<p>I'm glad you were both successful, and that I could help, if just a little bit. Enjoy the new flute!</p>

20

<p>I'm so glad it all worked out! Welcome to the Muramatsu family...once D played that one that was it for her. I'm glad Jeff was of help as well,he's a wonderful resource to have.If you ever can,you should see his workspace in person its a sight to behold,a virtual Collier's Mansion of flutes and related paraphenalia!
You are correct in that the new flute should last through college.D is using hers in Grad School.
Next up will be a new piccolo you know, so start saving now!!!!</p>