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With back-to-school season in full swing a lot of companies offer these savings and deals to entice families to buy new instruments. The factors that go into making that large purchase are vast – budget, stock, knowledge, trialing, repairs, etc. For each flute I mention, (whether or not it’s still in production) I’ll provide the pros and cons of that experience. With hindsight informing things I wish I knew as a young student.

When I was first starting out as a high school sophomore I was given an unused and unserviced 20 year flute; promptly switching to borrowing a Yamaha from a friend in high school who had stopped playing. Now I’m playing a Weissman Haynes that I trialed from the Flute Center of New York. Here’s how I got from that 20 year flute to today…

Starting Out

When I was 15 years old, I decided to join marching band; to do so required learning flute over the summer. This is went I was exploring temporary flute options. My sophomore and junior years of high school were spent playing silver-plated, factory produced flutes. I played the same flutes in both marching band and concert band so durability was very important. I started with a KING flute, over the summer, and ended up with a Yamaha 221 by the time my sophomore year started.

My first “flute”: King Flute 610

Pros

  • It was a free instrument – An older band family had it sitting around for ~20 years.
  • I was able to use it to practice fingerings.
  • Later on (in my late undergrad), I was able to use it to learn about flute repair and got to see how the mechanism works up close.

Cons

  • The head joint cork desperately needed to be replaced. (Over the 20 years of sitting, the cork began to rot and the head joint had a very strong smell and would not tune).
  • The metal was extremely malleable – easy to bend and dent.
  • Servicing the instrument was a nightmare because KING no longer manufactures flutes.

My first REAL flute: Yamaha 221

Pros

  • Another free instrument: I borrowed this one from a friend who had quit back the previous year.
  • Very durable – the instrument was very low maintenance as far as COAs go (minimal mechanism issues).
  • Easy to get a sound out of and great sound quality for a student instrument (since it was well maintained and cleaned).
  • Open hole.

Cons

  • I was going to need a more permanent solution for continuing in band (which you’ll see I ended up purchasing my own Yamaha 221 after this section).
  • Repairs – since I was borrowing this instrument getting repairs was challenging because I didn’t know who I could trust to service it and the family I was borrowing the flute from had absolutely no clue either.

School loaner instruments: Bundy 300 / Gemeinhardt 2SP

If you’re budget is tight… DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON AMAZON. School loaner instruments are one option. Most schools will give out the higher quality or even brand new instruments out on a first come first serve basis so you should be in touch with the band director early to discuss what works for your situation.

If loaning an instrument is not an option there are flute societies that offer grants for students to purchase instruments or even donate instruments to young students.

Pros

  • In many cases, the repairs for the instrument are covered by the school district so you don’t have to worry about finding a reliable technician.
  • It’s a great option for students who are unsure whether or not they want to commit to the flute – less financial commitment.

Cons

  • The district may hold on to worn out instruments due to lack of funding – these instruments are usually given out as a last resort if all the loaner stock is in rotation. This can make learning the flute frustrating for a beginner.
  • The students need to be responsible for properly cleaning and maintaining the instrument; in districts where the band director is not primarily a flutist this can easily get overlooked.

Preparing for college

The following year I became the section leader for marching band, was promoted to piccolo, and had made the decision to own my own flute. Shortly after the school year had started, I had bought my own Yamaha 211. However, that year I always went through what I’ll call the “tale of many piccolos”…

The piccolo saga: Emerson (silver-plated), Jupiter (half plating half resin), Pearl (half plating half resin), Gemeinhardt 4SP (resin)

To be specific: in the span of 1 month I went through 5 piccolos (since I tried 2 Pearls). It was during the month of September, my Junior year, when these horrific trials began…

The silver-plated Emerson was my outdoor piccolo for marching band – there were no issues to complain about. However, when I needed a piccolo for concert band, I decided the shrillness of the all metal piccolo wouldn’t do so I decided to find a plastic composite or combination piccolo.

For whatever reason, I kept on going back to my local SamAsh to get replacement instruments. I won’t recall all the gory details, but the worst experience I had was one of the Pearls ended up having the head joint come off with the barrel.

Finally, the light at the end of the tunnel, I discovered the Gemeinhardt 4sP which I still own to this day – and has miraculously not given me any technical issues (granted it is taken in for annual COAs). For piccolos, I’ll break them down by make – all metal, half, or all resin.

Emerson (All metal)

  • Great for outdoor ensembles – durable in high and low temperatures.
  • Reliable mechanism.
  • Very shrill for inside rehearsals/closed spaces.

Jupiter & Pearl (half)

  • Good option for outdoor/indoor – if you want just one piccolo.
  • In my experience, the half metal-half resin were not reliable – key issues and that one traumatic barrel accident.

Gemeinhardt (resin)

  • Good for indoor/outdoor playing. Since it’s plastic it is less susceptible to cracking than wooden piccolos.
  • Easier (compared to all metal) to tame – intonation and shrillness.
  • Reliable mechanism.

Yamaha 221

Pros

  • Affordable and high-quality student instrument.
  • Open hole.
  • Very durable when well maintained.
  • This was a good enough instrument for beginning undergraduate/college auditions. (It can last a young student a LONG time).

Cons

  • Another flute upgrade looming for college (for a music education major).

Undergraduate/Graduate

I started out on my Yamaha 221 in the first year of my undergraduate degree, but knew I would inevitably need to upgrade. Since I am a stone’s throw to the Flute Center of New York so I scheduled a visit to trial flutes. All the flutes at this level (as an undergraduate student considering the possibility of graduate school in the future) where handmade and either silver (or silver and some other metal combo).

Flute trials: Powell with a Brannen head, Muramatsu EX, Haynes

There is a lot that goes into flute trialing and flute specs, if you want to see a post on that let me know! After my in person visit to the Flute Center, I ended up with these 3 instruments which I took out on a 7 day trial.

Powell

  • Preowned
  • B-foot
  • The body was an in-line G Powell all silver on the outside and keys, but gold playing on the interior walls; paired with a Brannen head joint.

Muramatsu

  • New
  • B-foot
  • The Muramatsu EX is an economical, sterling silver flute that is a great option for unversity students.

Haynes

  • Preowned
  • B-foot
  • A custom Weissman model Haynes flute with a silver body and head with a 14K gold riser.

After trialing all the flutes for a week, I knew the Haynes flute was the one for me so that brings us to today…

Weissman-Haynes

Pros

  • Handmade, silver flute – instantly a much higher sound quality than my student Yamaha flute.
  • B-foot
  • The extra keys: gizmo, C# trill and D# roller.
  • Straubinger pads.

Cons

  • Adapting to the head joint – compared to the Yamaha (which had a narrow, oval embouchure hole) the Haynes has a much wider squoval shaped hole.
  • Having to find my own local repair technician that was (preferably) Straubinger certified.
  • The heavy wall makes this flute much heavier than my previous flute as well as most other professional flutes.

Have you played any of these flutes? What are your about these instruments? Have any questions about a specific flute – let me know in the comments below.

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When I was in high school we had the ‘drum closet’.

The ‘drum closet’ was a blackhole where the percussionists liked to hide, but it was also a house for outdated marching band uniform ruins, the marching percussion equipment, and the district’s unused loaner instruments. The ‘drum closet’ was a treasure trove of unused instruments, but it was ungodly hot. Our band room didn’t have AC, so why would the drum closet get such a luxury?

Brass instruments can fair pretty well under those conditions: being locked away for years on end, in the heat and freezing cold; most likely never properly cleaned by their former musicians. I had the privilege in high school of cleaning this ‘drum closet’ to do instrument inventory… I took home a euphonium one holiday break to practice and cleaning the thing- I’ll spare you the gruesome details of what I found inside, but I will tell you whoever played this instrument (which, by the looks of it, must have been at least a decade prior) did not like to rise out their mouth after lunch.

Woodwinds, in contrast, are high maintenance – they have springs/rods, pads, cork… all things that require annual upkeep lest you want to spent an unthinkable amount of money to either replace the instruments beyond repair or make a sad attempt to salvage a horn that has already phoned it in. I will make the argument that at the student-instrument level the flute is the most high maintenance of the woodwind family (only being rivaled by the oboe and bassoon). Most student-clarinets are made of some blend of plastic material, the cork is used to connect the joints which can withstand a little chipping and not impact the instrument’s ability to produce sound, the felt pads are sturdy enough; which leaves only the spring/rods to be the main thing to breakdown from wear-and-tear. And saxophones are the instrument equivalent to cockroaches and could probably withstand a nuclear explosion.

Things to consider about student-flutes:

  • The cork in the head joint should NEVER be exposed to water. It impacts tuning and can form mold if not replaced or cared for properly. (And for the love of Sir James Galway, do not let your band students play a flute that is missing a crown… and then replace the crown with the color guard’s electrical tape, I speak from experience it does not work).
  • They rods and springs are extremely fragile. The mechanism on the body is much more small and thin than on the clarinet and the soft metal of the student flutes can easily get damaged if a student grips too tight; knocks the flute on a chair, stand, etc; or tries to mess around with the screws.
  • Temperature matters… this applies to the other woodwinds as well. But the metal of the flute – as well as other factors – can make the effects of climate more detrimental to the longevity of the pads.

Speaking of temperature effects, the silver plating on flutes will start pitting if not regularly cleaned and maintained. To my knowledge there is no DIY solution to pitting, once that happens it is either replace the flute or have a magical bag of money drop into your repair account and send the instrument out for service.

Alright, we’re through all the perils of up-keeping a flute so how do you actually protect your precious flutes?

During the school year: It depends on your inventory and how many students are actively in the program.

Some districts have only a few spare instruments that rarely get used unless a kid forgets their instrument while other districts are reliant on loaner instruments because the families would not be able to rent a quality instrument.

  1. If you have instruments that are rarely used, make sure you leave them in a space where the temperature can be regulated. Maybe that’s in the back of your office or in the back of the classroom, every school is different. You want to avoid leaving them in an area that fluctuates extreme temperatures or is exposed to extreme temperatures.
  2. Try to rotate instruments. Make sure you’re not letting instruments sit unused. If your program is small, consider having a bright, motivated student become a doubler – that way the instrument is still being used.
  3. If you are in a district that is reliant on school instruments, have a cleaning contract that makes the students aware of how to properly clean the flute. See the next bullet.
During the school year: Cleaning and maintaining instruments when in use.
  1. A cleaning contract for students who are loaning out instruments can be a massive help to saving money in the repair budget. Be proactive, don’t let it sneak up on you! So what should go on a cleaning contract?
Template Cleaning Contract
When summer break hits: Immediately do instrument inventory and assessment

Don’t let those instruments just sit there in your hot band room or storage closet to fester. As students are bring instruments back to you after graduation ceremonies or after the final concert, use those final days of school to take stock and see what the status of instruments is.

  1. What needs to be sent off for repairs urgently? What can wait?
  2. Find out who is taking instruments home over the summer or for marching band, and do a quick check in on the instrument. (Trade in is necessary!)
  3. Be realistic (not always equal to optimistic), if you have an instrument on its last legs think about the frustration it will cause you next school year. Yes it looks like a flute, but does it sound like one? Especially in the hands of an intermediate student.
Summer break: Alternative storage solutions

In a perfect world, there would be reliable temperature control in public schools at the band director’s disposal. While you may be able to store your percussion and brass equipment in these conditions, communicate with your school and B.O.E. to consider your options for more fragile instruments.

  1. Is there a room in the school (or another school in the district) that will have regulated temperature? Is this room secure or does it get a lot of visitors and foot traffic?
  2. Could the instruments be stored in the school office or in the B.O.E. building for a short period?
  3. As a last resort: Is there an option to take the instruments home?

What kind of solutions have you been using to storage instruments? Share your success or horror stories in the comments!