Blasphemy of fipple for flute

[luukzs]

Hey everyone on the flute part of Chiff and Fipple, I got a question which has bee bothering me for some time now

What is the following flute addon fipple called:





This fipple for flutes does exist, but I can't find it under any name... The reason I need it is because I've tried playing a flute for months now, and
I could not hold a note for 2 seconds if my life depended on it. something to do with my breathing I think (low and tin whistle no problem)
I need this accessoire, and I need to know the name and where to buy it. I know that I should just 'learn it', but for some reason I can't, and I would love to use the old wooden flute I have lying around.

Thanks everyone!!

[Nanohedron]

If after trying for months, the problem might not be you so much as it could be the flute. It would be helpful if we knew more about what you're playing.

[luukzs]

well, to be honest, I have a condition why it doesn't work. so I can't really get the right mouth/breath placement.
So I need this accessorize.

[Nanohedron]

All right. Normally I'd strongly advise against this, but interfering physical conditions are different, although of course you won't have nearly as much range of tone if you use one. That being the case, I'd recommend in favor of just sticking with whistles all the same, to be honest.

I don't know any universal term for these mouthpieces. I usually call them "cheaters". You might have to check eBay for vintage ones, because I don't know if they're made currently on any regular basis. The fifers among us might know, though.

[jemtheflute]

I am not aware of any current manufacturer of cheaters. The Nuvo brand plastic Böhm starter flutes come with their own version but I believe it snaps on to the embouchure plate of those specific models and would not be compatible with anything else. http://www.nuvo-instrumental.com/index. ... lute_specs

FWIW I agree you might as well stick to whistles. Cheaters on transverse flutes carry with them intonation problems - the only way to get the second 8ve with one is to blow harder, but you can't change aperture size or airstream angle as you can with your lips, so you will blow sharp. Proper fipple flutes have less of a problem with this issue partly because of how they are constructed and partly because of how they are voiced/tuned. Transverse flutes built to be played with a lip embouchure are not so voiced/tuned. If you really cannot learn to form a proper lip embouchure and you insist on using a transverse rather than fipple flute, OK, find or make a cheater (antique ones were most commonly made of lead - don't use one of those!) but be aware of the inherent intonation issues.

[jemtheflute]

Here is one reasonably succesful-seeming attempt to provide a proper whistle head (with the intonation issues catered to as best possible in the voicing and head-tube construction) for a Böhm flute. One of these would not work for a conical-bodied simple system flute, however. The head-tube taper is different from that of a Böhm flute head tube (less tapered, I think), but not suitable to replace the cylindrical head of a simple-system flute even if the joint was made to fit.

[luukzs]

great advice everyone! helped me a bit further in the possibilities
But I find it weird that there is no more 'official' name for a cheater, and that none have been produced since the 12th of april the 1879 :p

There is no one who makes these in plastic or none poisonous metal?

[Nanohedron]

I find it weird that there is no more 'official' name for a cheater...

Their being highly uncommon coupled with the fact that they are largely considered unworthy should tell you something about that. If things were different then no doubt a less pejorative name would be current, but your usual fluteplayer typically doesn't even think about the little gadget, and when s/he does it is dismissively, so having no other known name isn't that surprising to me. If there is one, I don't think I've ever heard it. I suppose you could call it a supplemental windway or something like that, but a cheater is what it is in the end, and it bears remembering. That name is fine for me, considering that I generally counsel against the practice.

...and that none have been produced since the 12th of april the 1879

IIRC, the main market for them was military fife players. Given the stark realities of war, you needed expendable bodies to be able to play with the least amount of training. Nowadays fife bands don't accompany the slaughter, so they have the luxury of having the time to train properly. But I am under the impression that cheaters are still occasionally used within the fife band context.

My guess about the general lack nowadays is that since the market for them shrank to almost nothing, there's not enough money in it any more. I am confident that someone must still make them - at least on occasion - but the first place I would look is Sialkot, if you care to venture down that dark path.

[Nanohedron]

Just did a bit of searching around; apparently the term "cheater" is very standard. Fifers discuss them now and again by that name. Google Images shows several examples, and a lot of those link to Chiff & Fipple, wouldn't you know. They've come up for sale here on occasion. You might think of posting a WTB (Wanted To Buy) thread in the UIE, luukzs; you're likely to get a broader readership and greater possibility of results that way. I get the impression that fife cheaters will be easier to come by than flute cheaters, though.

We still don't know what kind of flute you have.

[accordionstu]

There may be another option "Luukzs" I see that you're flute is a one-keyed band flute in Bb (Ab). I have posted similar pics before of my Bb flute which I have had customised over the past year and along with having it silver plated and converted to covered hole, I also asked Roy McManus to make me a Fipple head for the flute which is perfect. It allows anyone Iam teaching to play a tune just like a whistle and the addition of the fipple head doesn't restrict the flute in the high registers either, this will play with good intonation right up to the highest A note on the Bb Flute.In the lower registers it is also very clear and bright.

I know Roy has only made these additions for flutes with tuning slides and from relatively modern makers (Peter Worrell Bb Fute and Miller WIcks Bb Flute) But If you really wanted to explore this avenue, which although would be a more expensive route than the cheater, you won't be disappointed.
Roy's contact email - whistles@roymcmanus.co.uk

[jemtheflute]

Plenty of this kind of thing around, not that that one would fit a concert flute even if detachable. Things of this kind most certainly were made commercially in quantity until well after WW2.

[Nanohedron]

I see that you're flute is a one-keyed band flute in Bb (Ab).

That was just for illustration purposes, to show what he means. If it were his flute, he wouldn't be asking us where to get a cheater, because clearly it has one already. Plus I've seen those same two pics before in the past.

Good alternative you have there to the cheater, though.

[accordionstu]

haha, that's my own fault for not reading the OP properly. Good Luck