Trevor James Privilege Flute - Open Hole

Trevor James Privilege flutes are extremely free blowing instruments. Available with a range of features and essential options needed to help you master new techniques and see you breeze through your Intermediate Grades 

This TJ privilege flute features some open holed keys. Open hole flutes (or French Key Flutes) are often considered the choice of more proficient players, with many teachers suggesting that players of grade 6 standard or above invest in this type of instrument. 

An open hole flute encourages better finger positioning, as you need to cover the holes exactly in order to get the ideal tone, and beginners - or smaller-handed players - will find this more challenging. 
Secondly, and more importantly, an open hole flute allows the confident player the opportunity to more precisely control their intonation, and experiment with more advanced techniques such as obtaining quarter notes. 

The embouchure hole is a very important component of any flute as it’s where air is initially blown into the tubing. This is entry point for the instrument’s energy source.
If the embouchure hole is imperfect or uneven, the air cannot flow into the instrument smoothly which ultimately results in an imperfect and uneven tone.

Many flute headjoints feature machine-produced embouchure holes – which although functional – do not necessarily allow the flute to perform at its optimal level. Machine-production can leave rough and misshapen edges that mean flutes don’t sound their very best.

The key-arms are the parts of a flute which connect the keys to the body of the flute. Traditionally reserved for much more expensive flutes, French-style pointed key arms feature an arm that extends to the centre of the key and helps to strengthen the mechanism, making for a stronger and tighter key placement, which means no leaks and squeaks. These key arms also result in excellent note intonation; reward speedy playing; and aid the development of faster techniques - so you’ll be well-placed to take on those more challenging pieces.

To ensure that the sliver-plating on your TJ flute will last a lifetime – unlike inferior instruments- Trevor James developed their own method of coating flutes. After much research they discovered that by copper-plating the nickel tubing first, the subsequent two (yes two!) layers of silver-plate are rock solid, giving you the most durable finish of any step-up flute. 

The crown is another piece of a flute’s anatomy that plays a crucial role in the quality of the sound produced. It acts as a plug that seals the top end of the flute and directs air – or the sound, if you like – down the flute past the keys.

A heavier weighted crown offers greater air resistance and therefore centres and focuses the airflow down the length of the flute more uniformly and efficiently - which results in a more resonant and responsive instrument. This is particularly important as your repertoire requires you to retain optimum tone when playing ever more tricky pieces. 

All Trevor Privilege flutes feature a heavy-weighted engraved crown as standard – so there’ll be no need to look for a crown upgrade anytime soon.

Setup in the UK by experienced TJ Technicians:

And don’t forget, each Trevor James Privilege Flute is crafted to exacting standards with the best components from around the world, with a final hand set-up in our UK technical workshops based in Kent, south-east England.