I just read through four pages of argueing, bickering, yelling, or debating - whatever you want to call it - and I must admit that this is stupid. I`ve learned a few things about flutes at Flute Camp *hee hee*, so I`m just going to tell you what I know and ignore what others have been saying.

If you want a fairly good deal, go to woodwinds and brasswinds (I think they have a website) and they can send you a free catalogue. It`s really nice because they`ll send you up to three instruments at a time to test, so you can see which suits you best (go for what makes you sound and feel good), then you send the others back.



Old vs. New flutes:

Old vs. new is a matter of choice, one of the teachers at Flute Camp plays a fairly old flute, that is still in great shape. The problem is, 30 or 40 years ago, they rescaled the insturment so it was more in tune with itself, so the old flutes are harder to play in tune.

New flutes often have little gizmos or changes that make them more responsive and easier to play, but old flutes that are in mint (or close to mint) condition can be just as good.

It is also a matter of the individual. Embrocures are shaped slightly differently: the hole in one flute is different from the next, and I blow differently than you do. Because of this, make sure you try multiple flutes to see what suits you best.

Be careful when ordering something you haven`t seen, let alone played, because some flutes may look nice but not play well; or play well for someone else and not for you.


If I were you, I`d wait a couple more years, and then invest in a more advanced flute (that`s what I did). I played my beginner`s model for five years before I skiped the intermediate level and went stright to solid silver.


Look at your options and good luck!

I think I might have been confusing when I talked about rescaleing flutes. Here we go:

There are old scale flutes (the ones that are really old and were made not very in-tune with themselves, so the scale isn`t the perfect whole- and half-steps like it should be without TONS of additional work in your mouth shape and blowing, etc.

Fortyish years ago, they fiddled with where the holes on flutes were, and made a new scale that was more accurate with less effort.

I hope that clears that part up.

Good luck (again)!

Gumdrop

ok back to the original question:

I bought a brand new Gemeinhardt for about 1,100. It has a 14k gold headpeice and is open holed. I wouldn`t recommend beginning an open-holed flute just going into seventh grade unless you are just like EXTREMELY good. I waited until the middle of seventh grade to get mine. I struggled with it for quite some time but now I have finally got it down. I will say the tone quality is far much better than a beginner. This year I will be going to Europe to play in seven countries so I say if you are up to the challenge go for it.

depends on how much you want to spend, a cheap student model flute can be bought on ebay for as little as $30, a powell or abell costs more than $10,000

Try a used flute in good condition. Check it out to see if it is in good condition.

Depends on what kind of a flute you want.

Do you have one now, and you want a better one?

Or have you been borrowing one and you want to buy your own student model flute?

My first flute cost my mom around 400 dollars at the time; it`s probably worth 200 or 300 now. It works, and it got me through quite well until the end of my sophomore year.

If you already have a flute and want a better one, be patient. Unless you`ve been playing for several years, you probably won`t be good enough to tell the difference, to be honest. I got my new flute (about 2,000 before my discount), and it is solid silver with a gold lip plate and a few other gold details. It`s quite pretty, but the reason I got it was because of how it sounds and feels. Another girl in my flute section went out and bought the same one just because it was pretty. She quit flute the next year.

Good luck, anyway.

Oh my GOD

I wish I`d have read all the responses to this thread before I replied!

No, I wish I never read them. How immature, how RIDICULOUS!

I don`t care how long you`ve been playing flute, I don`t care if you started when you were three, I don`t care if you are first chair in a middle school honors band, I don`t care if you have a fancy expensive flute, I don`t care if your band instructor told you this or if your best friend who happens to play the flute told you that!

I`ve moved around a lot, had 8 different band teachers... Some good, some bad. And they`ve all had different things to say. They`ve all had different ways of explaining things. Any teacher, though, that would automatically call one instrument better llike that.. crazy. Obviously there were a million factors that contributed to it. And which sounds better? I have an expensive new flute and an old-but-not-too-old student model that I beat up pretty badly. I love how my old one sounds. It had character. But my new one has more of a classical sound to it. Which sounds better? Depends on what I`m playing.

Every instrument has its advantages and disadvantages. Even if you`re comparing a student model to a VERY pricey, brand new professional model. Obviously the professional one would be better of ran experienced player, but if you gave it to a new student... TERRIBLE!

I don`t believe the childishness here! I thought that this forum was for mature discussion of flutes and such. Not "I have proof, Iheard them both." That`s not proof. Even if we COULD hear the same performance, the same demonstration, as you did-- it`s all a matter of opinion! And, if your band director really believes that old instruments are better, maybe he was biased?

I don`t believe this. I guess it`s cool that we have a bunch of middleschoolers here and such; they need to learn too. But I wish that they`d realize that they don`t know it all. I don`t know it all, and I`m years ahead of them. So what? There are things I can learn, too. But I hate it when ANYBODY thinks they know it all.

Grow up.

well I just switched from my 1500$ Dean Yang to my new custom hand made platinum powell with an 18k gold headjoint for 20,000$. as you can see there is a very big range.

Lizzi, you seem to be operating on beliefs, blind trust, naivety, ignorance, etc.

Almost every flute player in the modern world wants a flute capable of excellent, rich tone at high volume, and an instruments that is well in tune with itself, i.e. its scale.

There have been HUGE improvements in flute head design in the last couple of decades, which leave the `old` flutes well behind. Almost every well designed flute (including some student models) nowadays will player louder and clearer with less effort than ALMOST every flute that is several decades old.

Almost EVERY accomplished/professional flute player demonstrates this by NOT playing these old flutes, as has been pointed out to you. This is fact! Whoever told you otherwise is way out on a limb. ANOTHER player could demonstrate to you the awesome sound that a good modern flute is capable of, compared with that offered by old flutes. It seems that the person who demonstrated to you may not be capable of this.

I add that many old, high quality flutes have a very even (but limited) tone over their range, and sound sweet within their limited volume offering. As has been mentioned, their scale may be `out`.

Violins - that is a completely different story, because if they are well made, they tend to improve with age.

Flutes are like motor vehicles - mechanical contraptions which operate well if they incorporate design knowledge that has been cumulative over many decades..... If you want to be emotionally attached to a car, get an old one, polish and caress it, and ideally keep it in a museum so it doesn`t wear out any more than it already has. But don`t expect too much from it as a functioning contraption....If you want safe, reliable, efficient transport, with no oil leaks on your path, then buy a modern car!

I agree...
maybe it`s possible that your flute teacher is used to playing on the older flute, and that is why they sounded better on that instrument.. maybe it was their personal bias showing through in their performance technique. I know if you think a flute`s gonna sound bad, then what you expect is what you will get.
also, maybe the older flute was a really good older flute.. and the new flute is just a crummy nickel student model flute.

i`m 33, been playing since i was 10...is it the instrument that makes the musician, or the musician that makes the musician?


i believe it`s the latter...

tanks

Hey I`ve been playing the flute for the past five years and i agre it does ROCK (though not many know it) The price for a fairly good flute is (fasten your seet belt for this ) aprox 6-8 hundred and for a piccolo it`s 800-1 tousand Canadian so if your amaerican it will obviously not be that much
Keep playing good luck !

My flute costed $750 about a year ago but the prices are always going up so I advise you to have at least that much.

hey Everyone, I am a music education major, I just recently purchased a new Powell signiture b flute, well purchased as in will be paying off for a long time. Because of this I need to sell my old one, which I am not happy about, it will be hard to part with it. It is a 3sb geminhardt, open hole, solid silver, I recently got it fixed, the repair man said it was in top playing condition. Would 600 be too much to ask for it?