A bass player takes up the flute

[lark_z]

If you in the demographic, the numerous New Horizons Bands around are great for newbies. Fairly simple music, lots of new friends.

New Horizons International Music Association - Find a Group

If not, look for community bands. There's a sax player in one that I'm in that only plays the first note of each measure. He's just there to not be at home alone, I suppose.

 

[DownRound]

Bansuri: simpler in form, different scales for each, but the bamboo makes a nice softer tone.
Ajay Prasanna, plays classical raga and with hybrid line-ups.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

My wife is a flautist who owns a number of different flutes including several folk versions in clay, wood,glass, and even a homemade one I made for her out of PVC pipe after watching some youtube vids.
She also has several recorders she enjoys playing.
Ive tried, but have a hard time with the embouchure. I guess I just don't have the lip for it.
I do much better with the recorders.

 

[TeaTime]

Years ago I decided I wanted something different than bass or drums so I could jump into casual jam sessions. Decided on tenor sax, because I love the sound. Turns out what I actually wanted was an instrument that was basically invisible until I wanted it. I could stash a flute into one of my gig boxes, so flute it was. It's a fun diversion when I want to step away and feel music from a different direction.

When a student hits a plateau I encourage them to work on drumming proficiency, because I've seen that consistently improve bass performance, but it seems to also hold true with any other non-bass instrument. Just having to think about the music from a different angle.

Good luck on your journey, and make sure that along with the focused work there's also joy. Sounds like you have that.

 

[trevcda]

Ive tried, but have a hard time with the embouchure. I guess I just don't have the lip for it.

Played flute in school band and occasionally for specific parts in various groups when needed. No one ever expects their "mustache muscles" or their face in general to hurt so badly. Like any muscle it takes time to develop strength and endurance. But over doing it will be discouraging. I found like practicing a bass unplugged, there is a lot of benefit to be had practicing the fingerings without necessarily making a sound when your face gets tired.

 

[VicDiesel]

On woodwinds (or other sequential instruments), if I want to change to a lower note, I add a finger on a key. [...]
But on a stringed instrument, to make the string length longer, and pitch lower, you remove a finger. [...]

That is a brilliant bit of logic. The possibility of this being confusing had never occurred to me.

Hey, on bass (and guitar) going higher means traveling left to right, just like on a piano. How's that for an "not even wrong" bit of reasoning?

 

[logdrum]

I play saxophones and is my other instrument and paid gig. I can play the flute. I would have told you to get a Yamaha. If you really are serious, invest in a Yamaha or bring that flute first to a repairer and so what they call COA ( Check Oil Adjust ). Any leaks on the pads or maladjustment of key heights will impeded learning

I do not gig on flute because I am not proficient enough and it needs a lot of dedication and practice. I think I can keep on playing the saxophone even if I am a cigarette smoker ( I am not) but I am pretty sure I won't be able to play flute if I did. To maintain that airflow and that embouchure takes a lot of time, more so than bass or any other instrument. I am not discouraging you but do not expect to gig in a year.

 

[VicDiesel]

Oh heck, let me show off for a sec. I think this picture (6 sizes of recorder, 2 native american flutes of which one with drone, a serbian frula, ukranian sopilka, bolivian monseno, and a crumhorn and racket for the reeds) was taken when I was packing up for a show-and-tell.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

Some of my wife's collection.
And you thought only bass players get GAS!

 

[klyph]

To maintain that airflow

My uncle was the principal flute in the Buffalo Philharmonic. He was also a lifelong marathon runner. After trying to play one myself, I can definitely see the connection,

 

[jerry]

There had been a precedent, Andy Kulberg, bassist/flutist for the band, Blues Project…


They were one of the earliest American “underground” bands, somewhat like the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, playing extended, non-Top 40/hit single material for an emerging college market and before FM rock radio became a thing.

Keyboardist/vocalist Al Kooper(who had left before that Monterey Festival performance)and the guitarist subbing on bass for the tune, Steve Katz, soon went on to form Blood, Sweat, and Tears. The remnants of BP, including Kulberg, regrouped under the name Seatrain, adding fiddle and taking a more country flavored direction.

However, they revisted the piece, “Flute Thing”, and that version became a staple of FM radio for awhile…


Although this was their highest profile song…


Also worth checking out is Jeremy Steig, who split his time between the jazz world and the nascent hippie scene…


All of this was way before Jethro Tull.

Andy Kulberg - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Andy Kulberg's A Flute Thing was the first thing I thought of when I saw.the thread title of a bassist playing flute. I'm so old that song was actually called at jams when I started playing.

 

[Bob_Ross]

former flautist here...in fact, if I go digging through my junk boxes in the garage I'm pretty sure I'll find my old flute, which I got in 1968 and probably havent even looked at it in 40+ years. But I do remember this "shortcut" that got my embochure and tone production pretty squared away when I was first starting out:

Don't even bother assembling the flute. Just grab the mouthpiece/headjoint and work on playing the one note* it can produce until it comes out clean, pure, and effortlessly. All the other things about the instrument -- e.g., Where Do I Put My Fingers? or How Do I Balance This Thing? can come later, and will just be a distraction if you can't get a pure note out of the instrument. Starting with just the mouthpiece/headjoint eliminates those distractions.

*okay, two notes actually: Cover the end of the pipe with the palm of your hand to get a second pitch, lower than the one produced by the unstopped headjoint. (iirc it winds up being the two pitches from the intro to Headhunters' version of "Watermelon Man"!)

When I was first starting out I spent two or three days just playing on that mouthpiece. 4 or 5 hours a day, one or two notes. Drove my Mom crazy!

 

[Topkat13]

Jethro Tull is smiling!

 

[roccobass]

Do it! The journey itself is rewarding. A side benefit is that it WILL influence your bass playing style. Seriously! Unless of course, you’re completely dropping the bass in favor of the flute. I still say good luck and may you make new music on it.

 

[roccobass]

Jethro Tull is smiling!

Peter Gabriel too!

 

[iqi616]

I have had as many as 7 instruments with me for a pit gig (Rags). But I certainly appreciate the sentiment.

Wow, if it was a paid gig I hope they paid a doubling fee!

 

[HoHumbucker]

Wow, if it was a paid gig I hope they paid a doubling fee!

It was for our local high school, so volunteer effort I am afraid.

 

[Blues Daddy]

one of my favorite limericks .......

A tutor who tooted the flute
tried to teach two young tooters to toot,
said the two to the tutor,
"Is it harder to toot?
Or to tutor two tooters to toot?"


When I was 19 years old (several decades ago) I played in a four piece bar band as a 'utility multi-instrumentalist' (keys, sax, 2nd guitar, fiddle). The BL wanted to do some Jethro Tull songs so I got my sister's old flute and found that the fingering was similar enough to the saxophone that I could pull it off pretty well (I was no Ian Anderson, but the thing that made it work was that I could only manage a very breathy tone - and I learned to grunt while trying to grab a breath).

BTW, this was also the first time in my life when I played a bass guitar . . . . the BL/bassist/singer wanted to do some songs where he just held the mic and sang, so since I already knew how to play guitar he handed me his P bass and showed me some bass lines. I was hooked

 

[SC Bassboy]

I'm at a gig a few weeks ago. Flute player to my right as we get ready for our set. I ask him, "If I wanted to play the flute, is it very hard?" Dumb question, I know. "Yes, it's hard," he says. He's a former middle school band director. He gives me a few pointers about how to tell if a used flute is any good, and says there's a lot of good information on YouTube.

A week later, I buy a used Gemeinhardt SP-2 student-level flute on Facebook Marketplace, from a mom of a high school kid who doesn't play it. I take it home and watch a bunch of videos about how to get started. These videos are made by kind music educators and aimed at middle schoolers.

On the first day I try several times and cannot make a sound from the flute. On day two I can make a sound that is unsteady - the initiation of the note has a chirp to it. I consult YouTube and some LLMs for advice. I'm on about day 4 or 5 at this point and I can play a low C pretty consistently. That's middle C on the piano for reference. It sounds amazing.

My goal in the next few weeks is to play scales - C, F and Bb to a slow tempo on the metronome. From there I'll continue around the circle of fifths and look for some very basic melodies. I've downloaded a bunch of visual charts showing where to place one's fingers for each note, and mapped them to the C Major scale.

In my favor is the fact that I read treble and bass clef at a rudimentary level and will have no problem reading the notation once I match it to my fingers. On the other hand, I've never played a wind instrument and have never attempted to control my facial muscles in a precise way, and coordinate that with my hands and my brain.

I tell Mrs. DCGuy of my intention to learn the flute. She gives me a better than 50 percent chance of success within two years. She has been very supportive of my music over the years and makes what we both think is a realistic assessment. We both acknowledge that there are gradations of success. I'd say my initial goals are to play a flute solo on one of my gigs, or play the flute part of a classic rock song I've played a million times. This would probably be at a laid-back winery gig. One of my bands would be very receptive to this, I think.

I'm not afraid to fail at this, but I'm going to give it a rather persistent attempt.

I'll update this thread periodically. In the meantime, I'd welcome any advice or feedback. I'm especially interested in pieces of music/etudes for an adult beginner.

My band director in college asked me to learn tuba so I could play in the symphonic band. A week later and I was mercifully moved to the percussion pit on bass drum. It's easy to forget how long it took to make a bass sound good back when I started learning. Wind instruments seem to have a even steeper learning curve. Best of luck to you with the flute!

 

[WRM]

I played a nickel-plated Armstrong that looked like it had "Chicken Pox" (pitting in the plating) from 5th through 12th grades, Marching and Concert Bands. Didn't own a Piccolo but did get to borrow and play one quite often. Fast forward 30 years, I could afford a "better" instrument, so bought a Gemeinhardt 3SB Flute and 4S Piccolo - what a difference!

For ultimate "stealth", it's hard to beat a wooden Fife.

Good luck OP, it's definitely worth the effort!

(Edited to correct "3SB")....