Piping style versus Fingertip style. Do ergonomic flutes work with both?
Many of the modern Irish flute players were first introduced to the flute via the Boehm flute in grade school band classes, and adopted a fingertip style of flute playing that is hard to overcome. For some, however, antique instruments with their original finger spacings were their first introduction – these sometimes required playing the flutes with the pads of the joints in a flat handed manner in order to cover the holes effectively. Also, recovering Uilleann pipers fed up with reeds would adopt the flute in this manner. Some players come to the wooden flute via cylindrically bored bamboo flutes, with finger holes arranged with the E’s and A’s far down the body, requiring this style of playing. I have fitted flutes to players who play piping style on the left hand and fingertip on the right. The finger holes are usually comfortably spaced for most hands in either style, although for the piping style, holes in line are usually best. Additional shaping or flattening of the finger hole
