It’s my first post so I thought why not talk about my first flute? If you’ve already read my About Me page, then you know that my little journey to getting my first flute had a lot of hesitation involved.
In a nutshell, I wanted to learn an instrument and because I travel frequently I needed something that would be easily portable and, hopefully, not too loud.
My first choice was a saxophone but because of the almost deafening noise that these horns produce they were out of the question. So, I decided to get a flute… one of those metal western concert flutes… but changed my mind before I even received the package and ended up landing on Jonny Lipford’s website where I decided to purchase his starter kit, which included his “Beginning Your Journey” course along with a beginner NAF from Butch Hall. After a bit of playing I decided that… hmmm… maybe the saxophone is a better choice for me. So I ended up purchasing an electronic saxophone that could be played quietly. I was happy with this for a few months but eventually made my way back to the NAF.
So, my first flute was a Butch Hall flute, which I’ve heard plenty of good reviews about. In fact, I’ve heard some people say that they consider these flutes somewhat of a standard for the industry. They’re affordable, durable, and reliably tuned. This is probably why Jonny decided to select them for people who purchase his starter course (and there is probably some sort of partnership deal with ButchHallFlutes there too).
The “Little Horse” A minor Flute from ButchHallFlutes.com
*I actually had originally ordered the “Little Bird” b Minor Flute that Butch Hall makes, also from Jonny’s website, but found out that the “Beginning Your Journey” course was taught with him using the Little Horse so I sent them an email to make the switch.
Here’s a picture of it for you. That blue fleece case you see it sitting on isn’t normally included. It was an additional item thrown into the starter package that I purchased from Jonny Lipford’s website. If you order from the ButchHallFlutes.com website you’ll just get the flute.
What you see above measures 1 1/4″ in diameter and is 17 1/2″ long. It has a nice solid Eastern Red Cedar build and is made of one solid piece with a hole bored down the middle, unlike many that are two pieces glued together.
It’s a solid flute and is nice and small. Small enough for me to throw in my backpack with my laptop without it sticking out the top. This is partly due to the slow air chamber being smaller on these “beginner” flutes.
Because of its compact build, it has close finger spacing, but not too close. This makes it easy to play. The entire 6 holes span 5-3/8″ going from the center of the top hole to the center of the bottom one.
The blowhole is comfortable and doesn’t cause any problems. It is tapered and curves slightly to give a nipple design.
As far as the block (bird) goes… well I think maybe it is supposed to actually look like a bird, but you might have to use some imagination here.
This piece is made from the same Eastern Red Cedar as the rest of the flute. It has a flat bottom with the flue being carved into the plug inside the body of the flute rather than the block (bird).
The strap is a thin yet long piece of leather that can be wrapped around the body of the flute a half dozen times or so. Please ignore how my strap is wrapped in the picture below. These flutes come with it much more gracefully placed.
*There’s a great flute anatomy diagram on flutopedia.com if you’re confused at all by the names of any of these flute parts.
In addition to the flute itself, you’ll also get a nice little piece of paper that goes over some of the basics and whatnot, but what I want to point out is that it gives you a nice finger diagram for what notes can be played – very helpful.
My Thoughts
Overall the Little Horse and all the other beginner flutes from ButchHallFlutes.com are very basic. There is nothing fancy and no frills to see here. The look is nothing special. But that’s okay because as a beginner you don’t want to be spending a bunch of extra money on something that looks fancy. Or maybe you do, but I sure don’t.
At a price point of $85 at the time of me writing this (December 2022), this is about as good of a deal as I know of for what you get. Sure, you can get much cheaper ones on Amazon, but they probably are unreliable as heck and out of tune.
As I mentioned earlier, Butch Hall’s flutes are known for their reliably good tuning. That said, I have tested mine against a tuner more than once and have had some troubles, in particular with one of the higher notes (the high B from the paper shown above). Last I attempted I wasn’t able to get this fingering to produce a high B. I had to use an alternate finger pattern to get it. But… I’m still a beginner so this is probably just something I need to work on.
If you’ve read my About Me page then you’ll also know that I actually ordered 2 Little Horse flutes. Why would I order 2 your ask? Well, because the low A note was cracking too easily on my first flute and so I decided to try to be a flute maker and filed down the lower lip of the plug, which I watched a Youtube tutorial on. The problem is that I had no experience and ended up filing a bit too much.
The flute was still playable, but just too breathy sounding. So I ordered another.
I don’t know if there was possibly a defect in the first flute that led to the lower A cracking too easily or if it was just that I didn’t know what I was doing. I’d probably guess that I didn’t know what I was doing at the time. That low note is always the most sensitive, but I’ve since gotten used to it and on my new Little Horse don’t have any problem.
Final Thoughts
I’ve made a few mistakes along the way and wasted a good bit of time and money, but overall I’m glad about my beginner flute experience. I’m very happy and excited to start out on this flute-playing journey to see where it takes me.
The Little Horse A-minor is a great pick, at least I think. So if you’re considering this one, give it a try.
PS: There’s a website I came across recently called fluteportal.com that has a classifieds section for people selling flutes. You might be able to find a cheaper option there if you’re tight on cash.