The question of having a keyed instrument or not bothers most people intending to order a flute. It should first be said unkeyed instruments are made with exactly the same care in exactly the same way as keyed flutes, and also their sound is by no means inferior. The advantage of keys of course being that one can without problems take the semi-tones of the keys, and that these tones have (about) the colour as the other tones. Indeed when taking a semi-tone through fork-fingering, the sound is necessarily a bit small. This can be beautiful at places but unwanted in other passages. Keys also allow to give a bit more venting to some notes; f.i. opening the D# key helps the E to sound brighter (but also raises the pitch which needs to be compensated by the lips).

However the usefulness of keys to play traditional Irish music is limited as about 95% of the tunes can be played perfectly without any key. If you intend to play also other music on the instrument however, such as Bulgarian/Macedonian or to play in more complex keys, you won’t be able to do without them.

The main disadvantage of keys is that they are costly, and besides that that the pads can leak if not properly maintained.
You still don’t know? I then recommend to take a keyless flute. If you want to change later to a keyed instrument, I will take back the unkeyed body (if in good condition) and you’ll only pay the price difference between what you paid for the unkeyed model and the price of the keyed model of your choice at the time of ordering.



How many keys to take?

Once you’ve decided to go for keys, the trouble is not over: you have to decide on the number of keys. I generally would not advice to take less than four keys: if you go for keys, then it is better to get at least a key for all the semi-tones that are hard to take without keys (i.e. D#, F, G#, Bb). The fifth key to add would be for the C. Although it is true that one can take the C both in the low and high octave by fork fingering, the advantages of the C key lie in the fact that the sound of the C-with-key is more in line with the other notes, that it is quicker in some passages (f.i. B – C – B) and that the fingering remains the same in both high and low octaves. The sixth key to be found on the standard six keyed flutes is the long F. This key allows to play passages D-F-D legato without the sound of the E in between the different notes, which is impossible with the short F key. On demand more keys can be added f.i. a double Bb key or anything else.

You still don’t know? If you can afford it, my advice would be to go for the 6 key instrument, you will then have a standard instrument with all the possibilities, and if one day you would decide to sell, this will then prove to be an advantage. If, as for most of us, budget is a limit, still try to avoid going for less than 4 keys.



The question of the C-foot, or the full 8-keyed instrument The standard 19th century concert flutes all had 8 keys; this means they had keys on the foot joint allowing to play a low C# and a low C. The usefulness of these keys to play traditional Irish music is minimal, and as they are costly, the majority of the customers don’t order them. The high cost of these keys is linked to the fact that they take a lot of work to make, especially the pewter plug foot-joint of Rudall&Rose type flutes.

However, it is nice to have a fully keyed instrument, really like the old ones, and if more than traditional music is to be played on the instrument, the keys might prove very useful. I make three styles of foot joints; the traditional block mounted pewter plugs model, the ‘Siccama model’ and a Boehm-like model. The pewter plug model is only available on the more expensive range of instruments.



If you decide to go for a C-foot, from a technical point of view the Boehm system is certainly the best option. The construction with the long tube and axle is such that pushing; the touch of key has the same effect as if one would push the key cup directly: the action is direct, there is no lever. On top of that, the Boehm keys are very ergonomical. Their main disadvantage lies with the aesthetics: the Boehm keys are pin-mounted and have necessarily a ‘modern’ look, which does not marry happily with block mounted keys of a Rudall&Rose copy for instance (see next section for digression on block mounted versus pin-mounted keys).
On a block mounted instrument one would go for the traditional block-mounted foot-joint. I make them with pewter plugs as well as with leather pads, the advantage of the latter being the absence of the metal noise.

For a Pratten model with pin mounted keys you can either choose a Boehm foot, or a foot joint inspired by the Siccama style. The action is less direct, but the instrument has a more historical correct look.

Pin-mounted or block mounted keys?

There are two main systems to attach the key to the body of the flute. In what is called block-mounted, the mount is part of the wood of the flute, whereas in a pin-mounted system small metal pins are screwed into the body of the flute.



The general idea that the block-mounted keys are traditional and pin-mounted keys are a more recent invention is untrue. Although most English eight keyed flutes are block mounted (whilst next to all 19th century French flutes were pin-mounted), there are exquisite examples of old English pin-mounted flutes. Siccama flutes were generally pin-mounted, the later Pratten perfected flutes block-mounted.

It is possible to make perfect flutes block-mounted and pin-mounted (unfortunately the opposite is true as well). However from a purely mechanical point of view the friction area of a pin-mounted system is less than for block-mounted instruments, giving the pin-mounted in my opinion a slight technical advantage. My preference for Pratten type flutes, where not all the finger holes but also the keyed semi-tone holes are large in diameter, goes for pin-mounted, especially if one is to add a C-foot. If not specified a Pratten type flute will be supplied with this type of keys. For Rudall&Rose and Standard type of flutes with up to 6 keys I normally supply block mounted keys, in order to respect the aesthetic line of these instruments. Pin-mounted is possible however, and if one intends to think of a C-foot, where the superiority of the Boehm is in my opinion without question, this option should be seriously considered.