Hi there, this is Jennifer Croft. This is my very first video shot at home in my loving cabin in the middle of nowhere. I wanted to go over, for flute students, how to correctly assemble a flute. Now the reason why you have to correct the assembling of the flute is because if you are not corrected to do it, you end up with expensive flute repairs. I will have it very slowly over time.
So step one, make sure that the flute case is toughed up because if you open it upside down, it breaks then it falls. So, if you need to put a stick around the top because that is not a really good idea.
Step two, when you pick up the part, pick them by the end. I have seen students pick it up by the keys. No good. Keys bend. So pick it up by the end.
Step three, when you hold it, hold it only from the smooth part. Do not pull it tightly around the moving parts because they bend and they bend in fractions of millimeter and it just takes about maybe two months of bending on just by a fraction when they suddenly start to leak and you will say, “Why is my flute leaking on the target?” Because of your hands pressing on the keys so do not put your hands on the keys. As much as possible, put it on smooth parts. So there is the middle section and I got my hand around the smooth part. Now I am going to pick up my hand joint and my hand joint goes into the middle section with a twisting motion. Now also, do not put your hands over the mouth piece because the mouth piece can be bent off and it can wreck the suturing. Let us pull the little piece on so, twist it in the place and I have markings on that I put on with the magic marker so that I can see exactly where it goes every time within 8 or 40. I got a line drawn on there and I got another line for the secret hole or the secret high.
But 8 or 40, I do not know where it is so I have tattooed on the flute many times and I got my line there so I am up there, okay? Now, the foot joint is the hardest one to hold without touching the keys. Some people say, “Well, put your thumb down, hold the bottom to your keys.” Okay, to start it, you put it on in a circular motion, okay? And then once you got it a little bit on and in its nice and circular motion, move your hand down to the very bottom with our new keys and twist it into place.
Now, if you do a circular motion, the edge will stay round. If you put hem in an angle and kind of like bend it every single time, this is going to go into like an oval shape and then the repair person will charge for straighting that out again. So put it on straight, twist it a little bit until you got it, move your hand down to the smooth part and there you go. Now, there may be diagrams that up, it all depends on your fingers. If you start with the ball in the middle of the bottom key, you are in an average place to line it up okay?
But it depends on the link of your fingers and your teacher will help you with that. Some people move the ball closer to the body so that the pinkie can reach to the B key or the C key and that all depends on the link of your individual fingers. So start within the middle and then ask your teacher for help. Here is the little ball that it is on the foot joint lined up with the center of the lowest key. I have covered it with a red sticker so you can see it more clearly in this light and here is where I actually position it because I have extremely long fingers so that is where I have my line up with the foot joint.
As far as the edge joint alignment goes, some people start lining up the whole with the keys. Okay, but other people find it because of twisting they have that they have to align differently. Like for example, I lined the far edge up to the middle of the keys. But because I already have my markings on the back, I can easily line it up the same way every time. So once you are in a comfortable placement, you can have white markings on the back of it.
Okay, so there you go. There is your clip. When you take it apart, do it the same way. Do not touch any of the keys, it is a twisting motion, put it in the case, do not touch any of the keys, your hand is on the barrel, use a twisting motion so everything stays round, okay? And, put it in the case. And the safest place when you are not playing your flute or the flute to go is in the case. Do not leave it on the table or the bed or the chair with someone who could knock it down.
Okay, so that is my information for today. I hope that helps.
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