hello forum,

i'm really a fiddler, but recently i was struck by a curious desire to try the flute. i picked up a cheap flute last Thursday, and i've been teaching myself to play. i can get a reasonable (although somewhat airy!) sound from the low octave, but i'm having a strange problem with the low D: along with the note, it produces a curious and kind of off-putting 'buzzing' sound. it almost sounds like the mechanism is vibrating. it's noticable with low C as well, although not as much. i don't have this problem with any other notes.

now, what i want to know is: is this caused by my playing (perhaps i'm hitting some harmonic accidentally?), or is it more likely to be a problem with the flute?

(before anyone says 'buy a better flute!' - don't worry, i'll be doing that soon enough. i just didn't want to spend £300 on a new instrument and then find i wasn't really interested after all...)

This issue could be a problem with some part of the mechanism vibrating. It may happen only on certain notes. It could be in the key work or in the head joint cork assembly. It is a sympathetic vibration caused by a fairly decent (or better) tone quality on a note that matches the resonant frequency of that particular part. It may be something simple like a loose end cap-crown or the inside part of the cork assembly. It could also be something like a loose part to the mechanism. This is more difficult for one person to find. Generally if a person can go around the parts of the flute and touch each one while it's being played, they can notice which part stops vibrating when touched.
Where I teach, I have an overhead light that can vibrate when certain pitch is played and it's annoying. I can stop it with a small piece of paper to damp the vibration.

Bilbo is correct.

The most likely possible causes are:

#1 Trill key vibrating in the support cradle.
#2 Rollers vibrating (likely possibility since we are noticing this on D)
#3 The Upper corl plate stopper is loose and rattling. Tap the headjoint between the lip plate and crown with your finger. If you here tink tink when you tap it need to be taken out and tightened down.

Those three are the most likely candidates to check for immediately.

Joe B

Joe, sometimes we are in total agreement.

How does that happen? Well no matter. It means Patrick owes me a pizza...

Joe B

The "fix" for my flute a while back for a slightly fuzzy sound(more of a slight humming rather than a buzzing) was to replace the cork in the tuning/end assembly on the headjoint. (it got a bit too dry and old and shrank) The metal plate at the end that the air column bounces against had a fraction of a mm play in it and was buzzing against the wall of the flute.

90% of the time, IME, similar sounds to what you describe are a trill key or something in the headjoint that's off a bit. And 90% of the time, it's an easy fix

Name your poison...

Anything I can use as an excuse to get Patrick to get me a pizza works for me...

JB

"Bilbo is correct..... The most likely possible causes are:"

from my perspective, I can't fathom any logical reason .....j/k
Thanks for the words though.

and do I get a slice of the Pizza?

Yes you get a slice of pizza. Just let Patrick know and he'll provide it for you. I think you should have at least 2 slices..

Joe B

thanks everyone, for all those suggestions - unfortunately, when i went to investigate today, the problem had gone away!

(well, i suppose that's really *fortunate*, except i imagine the problem will come back at the most annoying possible time...)

Could be related to a factor of humidity or temperature. Could also be that your tone or tuning is different. IT may be that the buzz is very limited to a specific frequency range like a random number such as 667.3 hz. (Vibrations per second.)