I have seen the new line of flute 'The Galway Spirit Flute' and was wondering what everyone else thought of them. I am not looking at buying one, I was just curious about them. Does anyone have an opinion about these. Here is the website if you are curious:

http://www.galwayspiritflutes.com/

Here's some comments from others:

http://kesslermusic.blogspot.com/2009/12/james-galway-spirit-flutes-by-conn.html
http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?130949-James-Galway-Spirit-Flutes

Sir James demonstrates it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tY6nioUQIw

And he discusses it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LcndnMiDfg

Has anyone played the Galway Spirit flute? I have seen the video of James Galway playing them. I'm researching to upgrade and this one appeals and is withing budget. Thanks!

All three models of this flute have a heavy-walled body: .018". Isn't this quite unusual in the world of "student" flutes?

they are not good flutes, it's creator don't use them (james galway uses a 24 gold muramatsu) so, if he don't play flutes he creates .... It means that it's not good.

Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but Galway plays on a Nagahara. He used to use a Muramatsu before the switch for many years. I have to say that I was a bit taken back by the last comment. A very bold statement. Not by one I would abide by myself.

I have never tried it myself, but in my country some people tried and said not very good thing about it, they said it's not a bad flute, but just not as wonderful. In my country Yamaha is still the best seller for student model and then Jupiter.

It's a student model or "intermediate" model as He put it. of course he doesn't use it on stage. How do you know he doesn't use it to practice? 6 years he said he used Muramatsu's lowest model EX silver plated flute to practice scales and exercises daily for 3 hours, but on stage he used Gold flute to keep his reputation.



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I meant 6 years ago

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Any master can make a cheap flute sound wonderful! This demo is not fair, should see an intermediate student trying it. When Pahud is here, he used only our student flutes to demostrate to us, he can make Yamaha 221 and 211 sound like his Gold flute. And Pahud said "I don't like your Yamaha sound, you can make it not sound like a Yamaha!"

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check out this video of Sir Galway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0n3n3N3SOY

he played all 16 flutes of his, and let the world vote on the best sound, and the voting result on Galway Flute Chat was: No.1 most voted.. Nagahara Gold, No.2 most voted.. Muramatsu EX silver plated (lowest model)!

Do you know why so? I would guess that because he used Muramatsu EX to practice fundamentals so much everyday, and he used Nagahara Gold to practice pieces a lot in those time.

He used to play a muramatsu, then when he was on vacation, somebody stoled his flutes (his mura too) and he bought a nagahara, then he bought a 24k muramatsu again.

Sir James Galway has bought many flutes since his collection was stolen.

I believe that recently hes been performing on a Kanichi Nagahara flute.
http://www.nagaharaflutes.com/links/artists.html
http://www.nagaharaflutes.com/galway.html

But as mentioned he can make any flute sound professional. The needs of a top professional are greater than a production-line flute such as the Galway Spirit can provide even though the head section's basic design was created by the incomparable Rainer Lafin.
These Galway Spirit Flutes are defined by the manufacture as "student and intermediate plateau and open holed flutes" and as such are most likely an excellent learning tool for those players.
Also, There is no shame in purchasing and learning on a student-line flute because many top professionals have begun on them including Sir James Galway. Conversely, having a student learning on a professional flute isn't going to insure that they will ever achieve the expertise and virtuosity of someone such as a Sir James Galway. Implying such is really a rather gross mistake in logic.

"Conversely, having a student learning on a professional flute isn't going to insure that they will ever achieve the expertise and virtuosity of someone such as a Sir James Galway. Implying such is really a rather gross mistake in logic."

Wow, Bilbo is very right, there is a joke in our country that "too bad those expensive flute doesn't come with skills"

Yes, Bilbo, learning with a professional flute is actually not good, because on professional flute, it is too easy to go up octaves (on my Sankyo 401 it's effortless), so students can't learn how to use and control forces on professional flutes.

"too bad those expensive flute doesn't come with skills"
Ha, I like this saying.

Some players get engrossed in the snob appeal of all of those expensive flutes out there and when their friends get caught up in it all, suffering is the result. Music should be an enjoyable experience. Young players shouldn't feel that they aren't playing on the "Right Flute" because some friend has a so-n-so brand flute. and young players shouldn't feel that they will get a better position because they have to right flute or for that matter, the right teacher, book bag, flute peg, tuner, music stand...you name it. Many of the great players started with old used clunker flutes and they earned the right to purchase a better one with their flute related income. You can bet that when they did buy that better flute, they considered the decision very carefully and as a result, learned something extra in the process.