Kristine asked how temperature affected playing wooden flutes. The answer is a lot. Last Christmas I had mine with me when we were playing at our local historical society's holiday doo. It was held in an old stone schoolhouse with a furnace almost as old as the building. My flute go so cold it was playing about 1/2 tone flat. I had to take it apart and put the pieces in my socks to warm up for half an hour (thank heavens I was wearing a long skirt) before I could play it, and then I put them back when I switched back to the dulcimer or guitar. Twiddling the fingers fast in the cold is also no joke, but a wooden flute is much kinder to the lips than a metal one in those situations (she says with unlamented recollections of high school band in football season).

The wooden flute does take a lot of air, but not as much as a low D whistle (which is why I got it). It's also a LOT louder than a recorder, especially the low ones. I never worried about the neighbors when my recorder group played in my apartment many years ago. But now I live in the country, and my neighbors have told me that they enjoy the sound of my flute on a summer evening when I play on the porch.