Product Reviews: Scoatariu Slide Flute

I realise that my reason for buying the slide flute is unusual. I have a whiplash injury from a few years ago. I also do up to four hours' flute practice a day. For years now I have been wishing there was a way of practising tone in all registers without having to twist my neck all the time or hold my arms so far out in front of me. That is why I bought the slide flute. The ability to flip it round and hold it to the left side is an added bonus.

And then I started to learn how to play the darned thing in tune - work in progress! However, I am listening to my intonation much more keenly now because there are fewer variations in tone quality and so fewer clues as to whether you're in tune or not. All you can do is listen out for pitch. It really makes you concentrate on the exact nature of intervals. Semitones and minor thirds are easy to pitch but tones and major thirds are much harder, etc. Challenging but fun. It will be a while before I play it in public, however!

The Scoatariu Slide Flute is well made (although I'd have preferred metal to carbon fibre). It makes a sweet sound and, if you're interested in acoustics, it is fascinating as, because of the closed end to the tube, it skips every other harmonic so the octave overtone isn't there but a very flat twelfth is.