Flutists: Should I capitulate to E6?

Post date: 2021-05-11 06:44:16

I'm thinking about getting a new flute which poses two questions: Will it be better than my present flute and how do you try out flutes in the age of Covid-19? Details below.

First some context. I took up flute again in retirement after a lapse of 45 years. How well do I play? Just good enough to be second chair in an HS band (but that was mostly based on senority), and still an HS-level player. All the seniors looking to go to music school play lots better than I do.

My flute is a Haynes closed-hole model like this except mine is offset G and a year younger. My parents bought it for me in 1960.

After having lessons for several years, my problems with E6 are pretty much limited slurs on jumps from several steps away, especially from A5 because physics. But of course, etude writers want me to have plenty of practice so it's a daily irritation. My attitude has always been "sure you can get a new flute to fix E6, but what about F-sharp6?" but I'm running out of patience. I've never played a flute with a split-E mechanism. Please give me an idea of your experience.

I'd also like to hear about experiences with the high E facilitator, aka G Disk. My intuition says that there must be a downside or else the manufacturers would have made adjustment of the G hole universal.

Or to summarize, have manufacturers learned anything important about making flutes since 1949?

A new flute would be silver and in the $5-10K range. Money is not a problem.

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