Product Reviews: Thumbport Flute Thumb Rest

This thumb rest has changed my life. After years of holding the flute as advised in books and articles, and experimenting with other makes of thumb rest, I find this one to be by far the best. Search is over at long last!

I am very happy with this product. I am a professional orchestral musician and I started using the thumb port about 5 years ago. It has really helped my right hand to be more free and my pinky is not so stiff anymore. I am able to have better control over the flute as it feels comfortable to hold. I regularly order them for my beginner students as the flute is such an awkward instrument to hold in the beginning. They have all found them very useful.

Being new to the flute, I purchased a Thumport hoping it would help me in holding the flute really steady.

It has done this to my absolute satisfaction, and I do not hesitate to recommend this item. It is very nicely made, and fits the flute perfectly.

I have recently bought these to use with some of the Primary students I teach. They loved the choice of colours. Many of the students found them helpful and gave a much more secure right thumb position which help with the instruments stability. Not all the students used them - notably those who already had a secure thumb position. I will be using these again.

The item arrived promptly and in good order. I bought it for a keyed wooden Irish flute not a Boehm flute. I thought there was a chance that it might not fit so it's not the vendor's fault. The barrels of all three of my wooden flutes are too thick for the device. So if you play Irish music on a simple-system flute don't buy this. I didn't send it back for a refund as it wasn't worth the hassle for such a small item.

I gave it the mid-range 3 star score as I never tried the device on a Boehm flute so can't say how it performs.

Does the job and helped my daughter.

It is light pink, not bold punk as expected.

Minor damage to the plastic with manufacturer process.

Quite expensive but specialist item.

This small item has made all the difference to me, I recommend it to you

These Thumbports are amazing. I recommend all my students and colleagues to try one. They make it easy to hold the flute using the fulcrum method described by James Galway due to the anti-slip grippy surface and ledge to prevent the flute rolling backwards. That means your fingers are free to play the flute rather than hold on to it. Brilliant. Love the range of colours!

I bought the thumbrest in the hope that it would help to relieve the pain due to arthritis in the lowest thumb joint on my right hand. Unfortunately I haven't found that it has helped with this problem.

Excellent simple piece of equipment that has vastly improved my daughters hold on her flute in one swift move. Great choice of colours to suit all tastes also.

It didn't help with my wrist tendonitis - much to awkward to help it

Bought this on the advice of my pro flute teacher because her method of holding the flute is rather different to the norm. She is encouraging me to put my thumb under the key bar rather than under the main body. This is difficult for me as if makes the flute 'roll' away and therefore difficult for my left index finger. So, the thumb rest is a sort of half-way house for this. If I was holding the flute the standard method then I really don't think the gadget is of much advantage - note that I play trumpet in many orchestras plus a flute choir and NONE of the young, old or professionals bother with it.

It also, for me, does mean there is still too much forward roll pressure and so I am awaiting stock of the Bo-Pep finger rest to aid this.

Overall, an expensive 'gadget' and I'm not convinced by all the sales hype.

Bought as gift, very well received! Really helpful to playing, thank you.