I know.

I can’t quit this stupid thing. I’m paying more mind to the Boehm, but I’ve opted to just go with something — a C foot or a whole flute — from Jay Ham if he’s available. And if I need to tweak anything on it, there’s always the apoxie sculpt.

The SS is just such a nice compromise between the lip-heavy Baroque flute and the finger-heavy Boehm. You’d think I’d care less about how hand-heavy the Boehm is, being a pianist, but I really do just like the feel of the SS, and of course I like the sound — especially in the first octave.

And I still have and love my kalimbas, but g/d it, they require nails. 😦 That’s an either/or with the piano, which I’m entirely unwilling to give up.

Yeah, so.

I’ve got a Mount Doom model.

The biggest advantage being that I can slouch and breathe whenever the hell I want. I’ve got to admit that’s pretty nice. And play chords since I worked out a six-finger technique.

I’m less than fond of the other two chromatics I’ve got — a Hugh Tracey double-sided and a Chill Angels semi-chroma that I got because I didn’t know whether the Mt. Doom had actually been shipped because the seller went radio-silent after I ordered it. Then, the evening after I bought a Chill Angels one, the Mt. Doom showed up and demonstrated itself to be spectacular in every way.

I may get myself a Maui model and tune it to a 415 A just to have one ready for Baroque music on pitch. But I do want to get rid of the other two.

So, yeah.

Flute and new kalimba

It was $150, so I am fine with having grabbed it. 🙂 It’s a lot of fun, and a very new way to mentally map notes. It also sounds really, really nice. People tend to complain about “dead tines,” when certain tines don’t ring out as they should, but I’m not finding any, and the flute partita in A minor sounds great on it. They also have an “alto” with the base key in G, which would be good for beginner violin rep, although it doesn’t have as much range. (The treble is two octaves and a fourth, and the alto is just two octaves.)

The flute is also still working really well; Apoxie Sculpt for simple system flutes should be standard kit for people who complain about ungainly keywork.