Irish Flute Hand Positions and Posture

Which End's Up?!

Some thoughts on how to hold your flute

If you are a brand new Irish flute player, you may be wondering just how to hold your flute. The answer is, of course: "That depends." Specifically, that depends on:

You - your hand size shape, strength, etc...
Your flute - size, hole spacing, presence/absence of keys, etc...

So, as you might be guessing, you are going to have to find what's best for you. However, there are some guidelines that might help you get comfortable faster. We can pretty much break this issue down into three topics:

Left thumb
Fingers
Posture

Let's look at each....

Left Thumb

Left thumb - 2

First, you can pretty much ignore your right thumb. If you work through the rest of the stuff here, your right thumb will find a nice spot for itself without your help. So, here's where your left thumb goes.

Fingers
First off, you probably won't be covering the holes with just the tips of your fingers. Since your fingers are probably not all the same length, this is actually somewhat impossible to do and still seal the holes up tight. Instead, you'll be using the pads of your fingers under the nail, or possibly the pads under the second knuckle. If you have short fingers, you'll almost certainly end up using the second knuckle pads on your right hand. It takes a bit more practice to get a good seal using the second knuckle pad, but bagpipers use this grip, so it does work quite well.

Left hand position Left hand position. Notice holes are covered with the pads of the fingers, not the tips.

Right hand position Right hand position. If your hands are small, you may need to cover the holes with the pads beneath your second finger bone.

Posture
Obviously, if you sit up straight, you are going to get a lot more wind. If you hold your flute level and head and shoulders pretty straight, you are going to get less cramps and spasms, and will have greater endurance.

Correct posture: Back, shoulders, and head straight, flute level.

Posture Typical posture: Scrunched over with head down, flute angled down and resting on shoulder. Elbows resting on whatever.

Posture Optional posture: Use with extreme caution.

Groupie Remember, always be wary of avid flute groupies.

So that's about all I know on the subject. However you resolve these issues, you will need some time to build up strength and endurance in your hands and arms. So be patient!