Yamaha YRF-21Y Plastic Fife, Key of C

People who say this isn't a fife are right. It's a piccolo! I play the flute and also have a standard piccolo, and this is the same, but without keys. This instrument is very well designed and beautifully crafted, or factory made at any rate. It has a winged lipped plate, which means there is a wing shaped riser on top of the lip plate, which is nicely molded in one piece to the headjoint. The wing design is a feature you would find only on a custom flute headjoint costing well over $1000. On flute, the wing design is supposed to help players who produce an excessive amount of extra air noise in their tone. Personally, on flute, I don't like the wing for the type of tone I produce, but it looks nice, and it probably helps some people. Just the overall shape and form of this instrument is beautiful too. It is in C, and like the piccolo, sounds an octave above the flute. Unlike the three octave range of a piccolo, this instrument has only a two octave range with an extra third, so C2 to C3, C3 to C4, and C4 to E4. I haven't played it long enough, but it can probably be pushed higher. I hit a G4 on it already. I recommend using ear plugs, or at least cotton in the ears to protect your hearing if you're going up above G in the second octave anyway. This does not produce a rich sound like the flute, but is very much like the piccolo, an instrument which when played enough, can damage your hearing. Professional piccolo players have sometimes lost part of their hearing, and they know to practice with their ears protected. As a flute teacher posted here, this is the ideal starting instrument for a child of any age who wants to play the flute. Or maybe,an adult, who regrets not trying to learn the flute, should try this first. Why start on a $500+ beginner flute, when for less than $7, if you can learn to blow this after trying for a month or two, and can't put it down, then fine, step up to a flute. If you can't play it, then you've saved yourself hundreds of dollars. Before I started on flute, I bought an inexpensive pipe at a music store and probably drove my parents crazy playing it. There is a lot more linkage between this "fife" and a flute than there is a recorder and flute. Unless you play the flute or piccolo, start slowly on this, otherwise it will make you dizzy. Of course, being a flute/piccolo player, I was able to play this right away, but it is by no means easy to play. I think the flute is probably easier for a brand new beginner. Although for a child of 7, the finger stretch on this is better than flute. My one regret isn't about this instrument specifically, but I wish Yamaha would make something just like this but as big as they can make it, at least to Eb, pushing the finger stretch to that of a tenor recorder or so (which would need a key or two), because this thing would sound beautiful if it were longer. My other suggestion is to experiment with rotating the headjoint as much as you like, and see if that helps your tone, or helps you to produce a tone. Try to produce a tone with minimal tension in your lips. Some people mistakenly think that to produce a sound on the flute or piccolo you have to tighten up your mouth and raise the corners up, when in reality most top players have relatively relaxed lips, with corners of the mouth down a little bit. This is a great little instrument and easily worth $30+. Since the people on YouTube who demo this can't play it at all really, I hope to make some videos which show more of its potential.

I've been looking for a flute that wasn't going to break the bank, but would still be enough to learn off of. I tried Ebay, but the cost to repad one of those is more then this little thing. It's tone is really good for a novice like me. It's not designed like a Fife, it's designed to be played like a flute, just without the trill keys. There's only 3 notes in 2 1/2 scales that require a partial covering, and those are C#, D# , and D# an octive higher, so you can play everything, and most everything with out the finess of a half cover. Half covers seem to take a knack I've not figured out yet. I've had no problem getting two octives of notes out of this instrument, and I've already reccommended it to a lot of friends. I've learned to play a lot of instruments, so I've learned you buy cheap to start, then spend some decent money on something nice, after you know you're into it. For a flute beginner, with a frugal bank, this is that cheap quality instrument you want. I expect you'll out grow it in a few months, but you'd outgrow that student model flute in a year anyways, so in the end you've just saved yourself about $150 bucks. A prefessional teacher might not let you use one of these, but if you're teaching yourself, this is the way to go. If nothing else, it's a nice portable model. The plastic feels strong, it's well built, and feels like a little love went into making the molds. THIS IS NOT A RECORDER! it's not quite a flute, not quite a fife, but a beautiful hybrid There are a few downsides. It takes a bit of practice to ensure you're properly covering the air holes. Partial covers are akward at best, and I'm unsure of how to do them properly. It doesn't come with a cleaning rod (I had one anyways). If you've never played any sort of flute, fife, piccalo, or unreeded woodwind, you'll need some help learning that. The instrument comes with a fingering chart, but not an instruction booklet. The booklet the reccommend with this instrument is ment for a fife, which has different fingerings, I'd reccommend either getting a first year flute book, or just looking up how to play a note on a flute via the web. Maybe someone will make a booklet for this amazing little instrument, but it's not out there yet, so a bit of insight as to how you convert this to something else might be needed. Not the instruments fault of course, nor the shippers. I'm already planning on ordering about 6 more for friends and family at xmas time. =========================================================================================== 06/14/2013 edit So I was just playing this thing, getting a little ambitious, and I managed to hit a third octave of notes. I'm reeling in pain from the super high frequency, and yet awed by it as well. This little instrument is so brilliantly designed for such a low low price. Like many others, I wish they'd make one an octave lower, maybe even two octaves lower if that's possible, because it's so wonderful. And since so cheap, I've now got 4 of them, all the same high quality. I keep one by the computer, one in my car, one in my guitar case, and one in my post-apocalyptic bug-out-bag. These people who are saying they can't get a tone out of theirs simply do not know how to play a standard flute opening. If this has any flaw, it's that it's not meant for left handed players. Still agree it shouldn't be called a fife, but if you read all of these reviews, you'll know it's a flute, so read them. ================================================================================================ 11/04/2013 edit Many review this instrument poorly because of the fact it doesn't truly qualify as any other instrument that it emulates. If this instrument has one niche to stand on it's own merit for, it is the instrument flute players wouldn't mind taking camping even if they had a gear loss risk. I'm dubbing it the "Traveler's Flute"

Quite pleased. Tone is similar to any other decent quality plastic/resin recorder. Easy enough to make a sound, but you'll need chops for the high tones. Most of the fingerings work fine. The half-holing is not so easy, but I'm not in practice for half-holing. Fair match to standard flute fingerings. Some would be more like flute fingerings with 'shading' (something advanced players would know). And without the left hand pinky key of an actual flute, you need an alternate fingering set. But super easy to acclimate to. And fun!

I play a Gemeinhardt Boehm flute and was looking for something cheaper, less fragile, and requiring less maintenance to bring on hiking trips, vacations, etc. The Yamaha "Fife" was exactly what I was looking for. I would describe it as more of a piccolo than a fife, and I have found the sound to be more pleasing and flute-like than any of the recorders or penny whistles that I own. The fingering is the same as a keyed Boehm flute, and so is very logical and intuitive if you have any experience with the flute. The hole spacing is a bit tight, and if you have larger hands it may be an issue, especially with the odd placement of the pinky hole. But I found that after playing for a few days my average-sized hands adjusted without too much effort. If you have never played a transverse flute-type instrument, and are used to playing recorder or penny whistle, it may take some time to develope the proper embouchure and get a sound out of this intsrument. But with some practice and diligence you will get surprising results from such an inexpensive purchase. And since this is so inexpensive, my advice would be, that if you are curious give it a try. You may find yourself really enjoying it.

good product, delayed deliovery.

Suonando il lauto traverso, l'ho preso come strumento "da campo", da portare dietro in situazioni in cui non avrei tempo di provvedere alla mautenzione del suo collega in argento o in cui semplicemente non mi sento di portar dietro uno strumento che, pur non essendo in oro, è pur sempre relativamente costoso. Il fattore decisivo è stato il prezzo. Per imparare a sunare il flauto traverso è comunque necessario un "vero" flauto traverso (anche primo prezzo), ma questo può essere utile per insegnare le basi o per testare l'effettivo interesse di un bambino che abbia espresso propensione per questo strumento. In sostanza: funziona bene, e per 8€ è già abbastanza.

I should state from the outset that am not a trained musician. I can hold a tune when singing and I have a reasonable appreciation of pitch. I was introduced to this instrument via a recording of an artist called Wouter Kellerman. I did a bit of research and noted that many people consider the fife to be a challenging instrument. Unlike a tin (penny) whistle or recorder the process of creating a note isn't straightforward, it's more akin to blowing across the top of a bottle. Thankfully the little ridge gives a good indication of where one's bottom lip should rest. On the first day I was glad I got a tin whistle to fall back on because getting anything other than an airy hiss out of the fife seemed impossible. However, after 30 minutes I was intermittently getting a warm, bright tone. The instrument sounds *wonderful* but it does take work. If the past three days are anything to go by I hope to progress quite quickly because frankly, I cannot put this thing down. I've noted a number of people (on Amazon US) stating that this is not a fife, it's a transverse recorder and giving it a a poor review as a result. I'm so glad I ignored those opinions; I don't care what this instrument is called, all I know is how satisfying it is to play and how lovely it sounds. My only criticism is that the instruction sheet, whilst it does demonstrate the scale, does not indicate how one needs to blow. However, a little bit of research demonstrates the technique required. Hey, for a little over £6 the latter is totally forgiveable.

Uns wurde diese Kunststoff-Querflöte von der zukünftigen Flötenlehrerin meiner 6-jährigen Tochter empfohlen, da sie es nicht mehr erwarten konnte, endlich Querflöte zu spielen! Anfangs war es für sie sehr schwer diesem Plastikding einen Ton zu entlocken - doch mit etwas Übung und Ehrgeiz gelingt ihr das jetzt schon recht gut und sie konnte die Zeit bis jetzt bald ihre Musikstunden losgehen gut überbrücken und schon etwas an ihrer Lippentechnik arbeiten ;-) Die Querflöte ist, wie gesagt, etwas schwer zu bespielen und man muss schon recht scharf blasen um ihr einen Ton zu entlocken, der allerdings (für diesen Preis) recht passabel klingt... :-)

Aucun son ne sort de cette instrument