Can you let me know if your magazine hasn’t arrived yet? It should have done.
Rachel has a problem. I’ve pasted her email to me in the comments box below. I’ve thought of the position of the cork in the headjoint, placement on the lip and speed of air. Do you have any bright ideas? There is nothing worse than an out of tune piccolo – oh yes there is – 2 out of tune piccolos!
5 Comments
Greetings maestro.
I’ve just been looking at your blog, and was very intrigued to see your latest post – seen as I was about to email you on the subject of piccolos anyway.
I play a Selmer ‘Prelude’ piccolo. I bought it second hand off someone up the road 16 months ago. It has been fine for my purposes, but recently I’ve been having some problems with it. So was wondering if you could give me some advice.
Well some problems isn’t probably true, it’s more one rather unfortunate problem, it is playing very flat. I pushed the head joint in as far as it would go (previously I’ve played with it pulled out about 5mm); and blew lots of warm air down it but it was still severely flat. Flat to the point where it was desperately annoying my music teacher (who has a ‘thing’ about tuning) and making the flute choir sound like someone was playing wrong notes (as all the harmonies were out – and it’s only one, sometimes two, to a part). I then carried on playing in the hope that it would sharpen as it warmed up, but after about 35 minutes of almost constant playing there was not much improvement. The music assistant (who’s a flute player taking a gap year before going to music college (I think she’s had 2 offers so far)) looked at it and was equally perplexed. I was also having problems on Sunday, which was inconvenient as I was playing in a wind band competition, but it wasn’t as bad as today.
The only suggestion I had was that it had reacted badly to the weather, and got very cold, though the room where I had it was heated normally.
So I was wondering if you had any other suggestions of things it might be.
Seen as I have to play it in a concert on Tuesday. With the both the school flute choir and orchestra.
I haven’t had any major issues with it before now. I’ve got it to play up to the 3rd Bb of the piccolo’s range, seen as you were asking about whether people had rubbish piccolos.
You also know about my lovely flute (Altus 807, open holes) that I got over the summer, which I think the world of as it is a very beautiful instrument.
And finally, on the subject of the magazine, I always love reading Flutewise. Seen as it never fails to make me smile (and do more practice). However it would be really useful if you could print a guide on how to trill high notes at some point. It also would be great to have an article on auditions; how to deal with nerves, pick a good program when they ask for two contrasting pieces, etc.
Rachel :0)
I haven’t received my magazine yet – probably the Christmas post!
Caroline Fisher
xx
I havn’t got my magazine yet too!
I agree with Liz that it could be the cork in your piccolo(or as our head of Music at school prefers, a pick your nose). Anyway I got a piccolo a few years ago (John Packer 111) and I’ve had problems with that more than once, the problem I think is that it’s not used overaly that much and it didn’t like being in a cold box all the time. Hope you can get it sorted!
Thomas
Hi rachel.
This is a difficult one, my advice is to have a go on someone elses pic and compare the tuning on the two. its really inmportant to find out if the problems lie with the instrument itself or the way its being played (or a combination of the two). once you know the answer to that then the problem can be solved hopefully! If it is the instrument, i suggest you let a professional repair person have a look. Because the pic is so small, even the tiniest leak or problem can have a great effect on the instrument. If its the way it is being played – -i suggest you spend some time experimenting and finding the position of each individual not on the instrument. i always find playing the pic very different to the flute. eg. as i go higher on pic, i tend to go flat wheras on the flute i go sharp. there is a great book by Pat morris which has some excellent excercises for pic. Also a book by danielle Eden. Good luck and let us know how you get on!!
All the best,
Stephen.
Satiago, Chille
Hi – My magazine hasn’t arrived yet – hopefully it will soon…
Emma