Irish Flute

Irish Flute is an authentic sounding wooden Irish flute for the iPad.

This is the perfect app for anyone interested in learning to play the Irish flute or pennywhistle, or someone who already plays the Irish flute and looking for way to practice tunes on their iPad when it might be inconvenient or impossible to play the real instrument.

The fingerings are based on those used for the real instrument and will also be immediately familiar to Irish pennywhistle and flute players.

The sounds are from high quality per-note recordings of my wooden 1857 Metzler flute, the same flute used for the images in the app.

Dont take my word for it, go to my website and watch the demo videos to see the app being played live!

To get started playing, first show the on-screen fingering chart and hole labels by touching the ? icon at the upper right corner of the screen.

Start by touching the left half of the flute starting with the tips of your left index, middle, and ring fingers on holes #6, 5, and 4. The holes light up when touched.

Next touch the right half of the flute with the tips of your right index, middle, and ring fingers, on holes #3, 2, and 1.

Using the fingering chart as a guide, play each note of the scale starting from the low-D and working up to C#.

To play the second octave, touch the bar on the left side of the screen with your left little finger while using the same fingerings as the first octave.

Touch the bar at the bottom center of the screen with your left thumb to stop the sound while fingering a note. This can be used for repeated notes in the place of doing a cut or tap.

Playing tip For the most fluid flow of the sound, when playing the note that use primarily the left hand (G, A, B, C) you can anchor your right ring finger on hole #1. This is often done on the real instrument as well and allows for a smooth legato transition between the left hand notes with no breaks.

Finger vibrato may be done with the middle finger of the right hand on many notes. The amount of vibrato is adjustable.

For the most authentic sound, practice making your movements very accurate and precise to avoid "crossing" sounds.

For those who already play the real instrument, the app is a great way to practicing making clean transitions between notes because youll hear it if youre not precise!

Touch the i icon at the upper left corner of the main screen to show/hide the volume and vibrato controls. All settings are saved and restored the next time the app is run.

Rotate the iPad to Portrait orientation to see the instruction page. Rotate back to Landscape orientation to play.

It may look like the left side of the instrument is backwards. Its not. When playing the real Irish flute, the left hand faces towards the body. When transferred to a flat screen like the iPad, the left hand has to rotate 180 degrees. In the app the same fingers play the same holes as on the real instrument, the left index finger hole is on the right side of the left half of the instrument (hole #6). Hold your left hand in front of you facing towards your body then place it down in your lap and youll see exactly what I mean.

Play along with tunes in your iPads music library by starting a track using the iPad iPod app, then launching Irish Flute. Adjust the volume using the real-time performance controls.

For those familiar with my other traditional Irish instrument apps, Irish Flute has my latest audio engine and is extremely quick to respond. It can easily keep up with the fastest of ornamentation in tunes.

If you have any questions or issues with the app, please feel free to contact me directly at the app support website or email. I promise I will do my best to help you out in any way I can!