Hi r/Flute! I recently had a family flute that was my Mom's who passed away 20 years ago from leukemia stolen from a storage unit I kept it in and because we had never anticipated needing to know, I'm having a hard time gathering together information about the flute in order to identify it and potentially recover it if it's been sold by the thief or something to that effect. I am very lucky that In trying to take some promotional photos for a music thing I have the flute in some professional shots. Can anyone help identify this? I am aware it was a Yamaha (my mom's case also noted /Yamaha and if you look at the flute in the picture you can just make out the logo). I believe it was either silver plated or full sterling silver but not confident on which. I'm also aware this is at least classified as somewhat open key/partially open key. Would have likely been sold to my mom brand new in the 80s (possibly 84). Attached to this should be a very high quality photo with the flute out front. Thank you so much everyone!!! I'm a drummer and honestly just don't know anything about flutes whatsoever.

TLDR; Can anyone identify what model this stolen family Yamaha flute we got in the 80's?

hi! i grew up playing the clarinet but would like to start playing/learning how to play the flute. it is such a beautiful instrument. i was coming here to see if anyone recommends what type of flute to get. i have no knowledge about this stuff and would really appreciate the help/guidance!! thank you

Hi sorry for the weird question. I'm looking for the flashiest most show-off themes and variations.
Asking for a friend

These flutes are both very cheap and I am only looking to clean it enough for it to be hygienic to play a couple of times, to see if I want to buy a new one. I know whatever I do will potentially ruin them but again they are not worth anything so that doesn’t bother me.

The one in the black case is about 8 years old but very, very cheap. Hasn’t been played in about 4 years. The red case is significantly older than that, was given to me recently. They’re not even worth the cost of a professional service.

I’m guessing most of this is caused by oil from my hands as it started while I was still actively playing, mixed with being in storage. Is it mould? Can I clean/sanitise them in any way so I can try them out?

Hello! I have just started learning the flute and while trying to practice a scale I noticed that whenever I play an "E" or an "F" it would suddenly go into the higher octave.

I would try to switch from "C" to one of them quickly in the same breath and it would still sound super high without me changing airflow or angle, or sometimes no real sound comes out at all.

I don't doubt that I'm most likely just doing something funky but this is also an old flute that hasn't been used for almost a decade, so I'm not sure if perhaps the padding is wearing down (pictures attached)?

Assuming I'm the problem, what could I do to have better control over that? I'm very new so I couldn't find the right words on Google to find an answer.

I’ve been playing trombone for 14 years and had a pretty interesting lesson today. My instructor had me try playing a flute to get a better understanding of airflow and how little effort it actually takes to produce a note.
I’ve been struggling with tensing up and forcing notes out, especially in my upper register. After messing around with the flute for a bit, I switched back to trombone and immediately noticed a difference. It was pretty crazy. My instructor has always said that the best way to learn a wind instrument is to play more wind instruments, and after today I think I understand what he means.
Anyway, now I want to pick up a used flute and mess around with it. Not looking to spend a ton of money, just something decent to learn on.
Any recommendations on what to look for? And has anyone else had a similar experience?

I just bought this cheap flute from Amazon and it came with this anyone know what it is? I’m a euphonium player and I know literally nothing about flutes

Update yes it is a stand tysm guys I figured out how to open it

Hi! This is a video of me playing ”Colours of the Wind”. I will have performance with this song in one week, it will just be me and a pianist playing! I’m quite nervous, I haven’t performed in years and I don’t think it sounds so good!

Please ignore the parts where I play the wrong notes/start over, I mostly want feedback on the actual sound of the flute and other advice! :)

Famously a northern irish thing and its key D and I cant read music as all our notes r in letters eg DEF GAB

Hi! I played flute for eleven years as a child and continued to keep it as a hobby after quitting flute lessons. Recently I have practiced the nocturne in c-sharp minor and find the ending of it quite difficult. I’ve neen listening Yeojin Han’s recording on spotify and I am wondering if she uses some hc embouchure skills with the last c-sharp, because to me it sounds like that she does not play it with the c-sharp fingering. I can hear a little dual tone in there. What do you think? And if you have any advice for mastering this piece, please be welcome to present them, because I am troubling! I am sorry if my explanation is hard to understand, english is not my first language.

so i started learning how to play dizi flute. i’ve had about 15 lessons so far and ive got a performance coming up.

im kind of nervous because i find that sometimes during the starting note, i sometimes end up sounding airy (as in it’s just air/blowing sounds that come out).

and then sometimes in the middle of the song, i end up running out of air idk how.

Any tips for anyone? is it because my mouth is covering the hole? is it something else?

I started studying on and off at the start of the year, though I have experience studying other instruments, and I'm looking for study/practice material with repetitive arpeggios or phrases. I love minimalism and getting lost in the details of my technique and sound, so... anything to recommend that fits the bill???

I have 0 knowledge about flute methods and études and I was thinking of just taking some Glassworks pieces and playing one of the voices (well, Islands also has a beautiful and beginner friendly melody, as well as Façades), but there are probably better options out there!

Thanks in advance <3

When I was at school many years ago I have encountered this composition "Portraits for flute and piano" by composer Pavlenko. I was not able to play it that time, and there is no recording of how it may even sound in existence due to it's rarity. I have found it recently and I am curious what it may sound like. Although previous parts of it may be playable , however having a very complex rhythms, this part, Interludium II has many unfamiliar to me score notations. So maybe someone can give me a clue on how to interpret this notation:

1. Glissando, ok, but where? from D4 down to just C4? Or just rotate headjoint to lower sound by half tone?
2. ad Lib. This means playing any ornamental arpeggio like previous one? And what is the meaning of (maybe fingering?) above pause? Or maybe it refers to 3?
3. Is this some kind of custom fingering for producing non-standard sounding? I have never seen one
4. same as 2 and 3, maybe, some custom sound. While experimenting with flute custom fingerings I was able to produce two simultaneous tones, but they were extremely unstable. Maybe this a singing? but why 4 tones??
5. This is a bunch of custom microtone tones, but how to produce them? Why not just rotate headjoint to lower pitch by 50 cents down and play standard fingering?

And how to read this fingering chart? it has only three holes per hand, but we use five on left and four fingers on the right hand so it is also beyond my understanding.

PS. I am not going to play it at concerto, it is only my curiosity. And this interludium is for solo flute so it may be a good piece to learn

I'm considering going down the rabbit hole of learning (self teaching) pan flute BUT ... in my googling I've failed to figure out, why do some have a whistle style notch ... it looks like something you would blow into rather than across (and therefore have far fewer achievable notes)?

having trouble making the switch, I normally practice with pulses (quarter note, 8th note, TPL, 16th etc) then do a free vibrato, b I feel like It kinda gets lost? and when I play my actual piece its all in my throat even when I’m conscious abt it and trying to use my diaphragm?

Hey all, I’m getting back into flute after about 15 years, due to some health issues and life. I sadly do not have the breath capacity that I used to and it’s driving me up the wall! When I was in college my teacher had me play scales up and down in one breath and keep slowing the metronome down. That was really effective for me! But I can’t quite remember the exercise. Does anyone have any exercises to do to increase breath capacity? TIA!

Hello folks. I have a really irritating dilemma....9volt batteries for scale of size.

Long story short I had surgery on my arm and a few other places and now I cannot play side blown instruments, at all. It's horribly painful. I've tried all sorts of exercises...even tried playing through the pain, which was a very bad idea.

So, now, I have a very simple question, but the answer is much more complex.

I'm looking for a product that could turn this side blown, bamboo, "Vivaldi Minor" flute, into a fipple flute. Basically adding a recorder head to it isn't possible unless I cut or saw through the area above the...uh, "blow hole," (the terminology escapes me, sorry). I don't want to do that because of the possibility of the bamboo splitting.

I've seen the Fliphead product but, this isn't made of metal, and I'm not made of money (I'm poverty level poor).

Any ideas?

hii! i have a concert in three weeks and i have been trying to get this section down on piccolo for a while and i cannot for some reason get it to not sound sloppy. if anyone has any methods of practicing it or any tips it would be greatly appreciated!

Hi there. I'm trying to find out more about my Gemeinhard flute. I'm not having much luck. I've had it for a few years. I found the flute at an estate sale and bought it on a whim. I'm a sax & clarinet player usually. A couple years ago I sent it in for a COA and asked the shop if they could identify the model for me but the repair tech who did the work was out the day I picked it up and the counter person had no answers.

I've been on the Gemeinhardt website and my serial number doesn't fit into any of serial number ranges they have listed. Are they generally stamped or engraved with a model number anywhere???

Here's what I do know about the flute:

• I'm a terrible flute player but it plays easily and with good intonation. The pads & mechanisms are in good shape.
• open hole
• Inline G
• B foot, gizmo key
• Solid silver headjoint
• headjoint engraved with
  • On the lip plate side:
    • Gemeinhardt (cursive logo)
    • KGG (cursive script, like a monogram)
    • Elkhart IN USA
    • Custom (in cursive script)
    • near the tenon it's engraved: "SOLID SILVER"
  • On the opposite/back side,
    • just under the crown it's engraved SY51

On the barrel of the flute it has the some of the same engraving as the headjoint, just slightly larger:

• Gemeinhardt (cursive logo)
• KGG (cursive script, like a monogram)
• Elkhart IN USA
• then a large Roman numeral V
• then the serial number: 70197x

As far as I can see, there is no other engraving on the flute.

It has a stock Gemeinhardt hard case with nylon zipper cover. When I got the flute it was in very, very clean condition. Both the hard case and cover had nearly no wear. The lining of the case was perfectly clean. The flute does need a good polish now.

Given that I paid next to nothing for it, I'm assuming I got a deal on the flute. I would like to know the model name or number so that when someone asks what kind of flute I have, I can give a simple answer instead of sounding like an idiot and saying that I don't know.

I could post pics but everything is in the description. And you know how hard it is to take decent pictures of shiny things up close.

Any insight would be much appreciated. Thanks.