FAKE FINGERINGS

“Fake fingerings” is a derogatory term used for fingerings which are not politically correct,
i.e. they do not appear in all the elementary fingering charts. We all agree that the standard third octave fingerings work and produce a good playable approximation to the right note (with two exceptions
– G sharp and B flat – but that’s [...]

I have had many requests for back issues containing the previous instalments of Dr Robin Jakeway’s excellent series Hoots, Hertz & Harmonics. To this end, all the instalments can be found on the BFS website at www.bfs.org.uk. If you want previous instalments and do not have access to the internet, please send a cheque for £2 sterling, [...]

So far we have seen how the sound is produced and how its frequency is selected and stabilised by the resonating tube. We also saw that you can play a harmonic series (e.g. C1 , C2 , G2 , C3 , E3 etc.) by blowing progressively harder with the same fingering. I’m now going to [...]

In this part we are going to look at some more aspects of the science of the flute using some of the ideas which I introduced in part one. We’ll start with a small experiment.
One thing that is true of most instruments is that the shorter something is – a violin string, the tube of [...]

How does my flute work? This is a question that I think every flautist (or flutist if you live over the water) should ask him or herself. ‘Why?’ you ask, ‘all I need to do is blow in the right way – whatever that is – put my fingers in the right place at the [...]