My post:

". . . via mimicking my voice with my English flute."

I don't follow this. You mean you took your "English flute" and drilled new holes between the holes it came with?

David's response:

That's not funny, Don - whether I'm good or bad at it, the tenor-recorder/English flute (along with the violin/Italian fiddle) certainly is one of the best intruments for mimicking the human voice.

Okay. First of all, as smart remarks go, I thought it was pretty funny. David's sense of pitch is so precarious that about the only way he could mimic his voice with the "English flute" would be to have a whole lot of extra holes.

Actually, though, that would not really solve the problem. What he really needs on his "English flute" is something like a trombone slide.

And as to mimicking the human voice with an instrument, I have never heard of the tenor recorder (pardon me, "English flute") spoken of in this context. And just to refresh your memory, David, I spent three years in a university school of music and another two years in a music conservatory, and I've been around musicians all my life. Most of then would have considered my wisecrack pretty funny. Not particularly kind, perhaps, but pretty funny.

What you need to do, as I keep telling you, is to practice vocal exercises with a keyboard instrument (since you said you play one). Play the note on the instrument, then try to sing the note. Then, play and sing the note at the same time. Practice scales and arpeggios (broken chords), paying close attention to accurately singing the notes you are playing. Record your practice, then listen to it critically. Near misses are still misses. In short, develop your ear, then work on ear-voice coordination.

Can you do that? Of course you can. Will you do it? Of course not!

You see, David, in the real world, people learn how to do something themselves before they try to tell other people how to do it.

Don Firth