Flute sliding tone

Hi everyone! Just after 2:45 for example in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpuCSQpdlzM Mr. O’Grada seems to be sliding up from one note to the next — do I understand correctly that he is sliding his lower note finger off the hole? Is something else happening there?

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And in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PoNm3kMqCI Ms. Geremia also seems to be sliding up to some high notes, like at 0:17 and just before 0:23, but with a much smaller interval. Does anyone understand what is happening? I’ve tried watching this in slow-mo a few thousand times, but… embouchure changes? Keys? Fingers? Not sure at all.

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Help, please 🙂

In Conal’s video he’s just playing a legato slur E-F#-G at the spot you specified.

In the other video she’s fingering the note lower (F#) than the G# and playing a legato transition to the G#. I think the flute may be a D# instrument which may add to the confusion if you try to do that on an D flute or whistle.

Fairly straight-forward stuff, nothing mysterious in either example.

@Michael Eskin: If I may correct an oversight on your part, on a flute pitched n D#, the note below G# is F## (calling it an E♭flute would avoid the need to refer to double sharps - but that’s for another thread).

Thank you! I was trying to get the effects with half the intervals they were using. Hanging head in shame.

@Michael Eskin: If I may correct an oversight on your part, on a flute pitched n D#, the note below G# is F## (calling it an E♭flute would avoid the need to refer to double sharps - but that’s for another thread).

Not an oversight, just trying to point out to the original poster that if they were trying to recreate the same note sequence on their D flute they may have some trouble.

Is "Trad-splaining" a thing now?

@Michael Eskin: Sorry if it came over that way. It just seemed potentially confusing to refer to F# (as played on a D flute) and G# (as played on a D# flute) in the same sentence.

It’s most certainly not ITM but I like this.
It’s crucial that he’s using an open-holed flute, even though it’s a Boehm system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mBMm9ximzE

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I know of slides and bends, though neither is what Conal seems to be doing. A Slide I understand as gradually uncovering or covering (unusual) a tone hole. A Bend comes from the lips, jaw and/or rotation of the flute.

I can’t comment on how to slide notes on an Irish wood/Delrin flute, but on a standard south American flute there is one method, and on the silver flute, another:
1) wood flute: roll the fingers partly off a tone hole. Which flute models and which notes this works for, may differ from model to model. Same method whistles use.
2) silver concert flute: roll the flute body towards or away from the mouth, so the air stream angle changes from going more or less downwards towards the centre of the tube. It may assist this, to aim the air stream slightly to the right, instead of the typical 90-degree approach to the length of tube. (Some flutes seem to respond better to this slight angling of the air stream slightly to the right of 90-degrees, I don’t know why, but they do - they play easier, sound clearer and louder). This I found out by accident when just exploring the mechanics of flute operation. Getting a reliable semi-tone bend should be attainable to most people. I can’t remember at the moment if this is uniformly available through all 2.5 - 3.0 octaves of the instrument. I seem to remember using it most in the lower half of the range, usually starting on the regular note and then bending downwards, which was an easily controllable move.

Some Boehm flutes have keys with holes in for some of the tone holes - there some sliding/microtones are possible by exposing some or all of the holes.