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The fingerings that appear below are taken from an
official publication by the makers of Pratten's Perfected flutes, Boosey
& Co, 295 Regent St, W, London. There are a few things to note:
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I've used an experimental new format to denote the keys
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I haven't shown long F and short F as different
fingerings
-
I haven't distinguished between thumb C and RH1
C
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I've compressed the whole thing to fit it onto the
screen and printer
The format
I've tried to come up with a format that is economical in
size and effort, while being easily readable. Following usual
practice, open holes are shown as "x" if covered and
"o" if not. It's how to show the keys that presents the
challenge I hope I've addressed.
Keys are not shown if in rest position, and shown as
commas and apostrophes if operated. The key marks appear between the
finger-holes in the positions the cups occupy. This gets around the
problem that levers could be operated by one or more different fingers.
The full compliment of keys would thus appear: o,o,o'
oo,'o,"
From left to right they are c, Bb, G#, Short F, Long F,
Eb, C#, C.
I'll be interested in your reaction to this format.
And let me know if you find any fingerings that seem unworkable. It
might just be a typo!
Which F?
In the original document, the use of Short or Long F are
shown as separate fingerings. In this simplification, only short F's
are shown, it being assumed that Long F's can be used if more convenient.
There is one exception. For third octave A, only
long F is given as an option. I've retained that.
Which C?
Interestingly, the document refers to a "9th or
thumb C key". This clearly was an option (it is asterisked) but
it augmented rather than replaced the traditional RH Index finger C trill
key.
Similarly to the treatment of the Short and Long F keys,
the original document treats the two c keys as separate fingerings.
In our table, we have shown them only as RH 1 fingerings.
Interestingly, the thumb c received preferential placement
in the table for c", while the R1 c-key is shown preferred for
c'. Since they opened the same pad, it isn't about some subtle
tuning issue. Perhaps it's recognition that one might generally be
found more useful in one part of the scale and the other in the
other.
Also interestingly, the preferred c#' employs all holes
open including the thumb c key. In the second octave however,
neither c-key is used in the three options given.
Optional Fingerings
As we move into the upper octaves, we see more and more
options presented for each note. The options were numbered in the
original, presumably in order of probable usefulness. The same order
has been retained.
Enharmonic Fingerings
Note that by this time (after 1855), the notion of
enharmonic fingerings (e.g. subtly different fingerings for G# and Ab) have
disappeared. Equal Temperament was finally assumed to be in control.
Printing it out
I've formatted it so it fits on to one A4 page. If
that doesn't work for you, you might try cutting and pasting the table
into your word processor and reformatting it there.
Where is it?
In order to let you print it out conveniently, I've put it
on a separate page. I hope you find it useful!
On to Pratten's Perfected
Fingering Chart or
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