Junker Flute

In response to an anonymous participant on Flute Forum seeking affirmation for using a ``cheap piccolo off Amazon'' for one ensemble class while being a flute major:

Friend, do what you have to specific for your circumstance. I sure as hell won't judge you.

Just because almost everyone condemns "musical instruments off Amazon" here doesn't mean that you cannot buy from there and use it.

``Buy a second hand {insert-flute-brand-here}!'' is also another common call for action.

They aren't wrong, when looked from the perspective of longevity of use of the instrument.

But time is money. Looking for a second hand flute (or piccolo in your case) can take time, and a bit of luck, compared to the guaranteed delivery dates from Amazon. And sometimes, you just need it right now, and you also don't know if it is something you want to spend the extra effort for right in the beginning for commitment.

As long as you are well aware of what you are buying, and the limits of what these instruments can and cannot do, I don't think it matters. Just leave your ego at the door and enjoy the music making process.

If you are playing it often enough that the flaws are more obvious to you, and are hampering you actively, you will know that you definitely need to get a better instrument, and thus should spend that time/effort to get something better.

As some wise person on the 'net once said: ``I'll buy a cheap tool to start with, and if it breaks, it means that I use it often enough that I should get a better one.''

And for the record, I survived two years of marching band in University playing on a 200-dollar Amazon flute. I sat directly in front of the band director, and he has never complained about intonation nor dynamics from me.

Just a little back story---actually true on the bit on playing in the Kiltie Band out in CMU on a 200-dollar Amazon flute. I first bought a C-foot flute, and later on, a B-foot one. The C-foot one went with me to march into the snow and what-not, and it did surprisingly well, given its pedigree.

It's not a good flute in terms of maintenance for sure, with even Chara voicing out when she returned them to me after I loaned it to her to practise flute adjustments as junkers of little consequence (I have Azumi and Aurelia by then, so the Amazon flutes are effectively retired).

But between no flute and cheap ``junker'' flute, sometimes the ``junker'' flute is the better option. I won't say much about dizi, but for concert flutes, the dimensions have been well established for a century by now, and anyone with half a decent manufacturing process who can follow the schema can make a flute that plays... well like a flute.

Not like a good flute for sure, but definitely as a flute.

And I do not disagree with everyone else---junker flutes are not something one wants to hold on to as their ``forever flute'', but they can be a cheaper gamble than tossing three times more plus extra time to get a higher quality starter flute, at a moment in time where either one is desperate to have some flute, or when their commitment to a flute hasn't been confirmed.

That bit of leaving the ego, also true. Musicians are among the most egotistical people on the planet, and that's fine. And sometimes that ego gets in the way of their problem solving abilities. Knowing when to hold that ego, and when to drop it is something that everyone (including musicians) will need to learn at some point.

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Anyway, now marks the start of ``i'm-forty-bitches'' week. Naturally, it begins with some messed up upper respiratory tract infection.

🥴

Balls.

Till the next update.