Alternate Fingering for C#

As you can see from my profile picture, I play Irish music on a silver concert flute. One of the difficulties of this instrument is managing the keys so that the ornamentation flows in the same way that it does with the simple fingering system used by the whistle and the wooden flute. Tonight I discovered an alternate fingering for C# which enables me to make the ornaments around B more graceful.

On the silver flute C# is played with all the keys open, all fingers up except the right-hand pinkie. Well, I discovered that you can get a C# even while your left thumb is depressing the B key. It's a slightly flatter C# -- but that note tends to be sharp anyway. You can do a really fast half-roll or cut on B if you only have to move one finger.

None of my very fine classical teachers recommended this as an alternate fingering to be used in fast passages, nor have I ever seen it published in fingering charts. Therefore, I was pretty excited to have stumbled upon this fingering for C#. This type of hunt-and-peck experimentation is how Joanie Madden made the silver flute sound Irish. Yes! I can do this too!!!

For all of you who aren't flute players, I'm sorry if this post doesn't make much sense. Just share with me the excitement of a new discovery.

© 2007, Linda Mason Hood
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