Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?

Subject: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Áine
Date: 22 Jan 00 - 05:45 PM

I was cleaning out a closet today and I couldn't believe it when I found my Melody Flute -- basically, a six-hole tin whistle (Key of C) with the mouthpiece on the side. I also found my old instruction book, 'Classroom Method for Melody Flute' by Frederick Beckman. What a hoot!

Did anyone else have one of the these flutes in school? Any stories?

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Jan 00 - 06:03 PM

If you mean the ones with recorder fingering, you can still get them in stores in the UK called 'Early Learning Centre', THE best toy shops for children, fun, educational and not A SINGLE GUN, CANNON OR BLOODY BARBIE IN THEM!!! My daughter has one, but prefers the glockenspiel...... Very confusing, trying to do the fingering sideways...... er, um, you know what I mean....

LTS

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,Jen
Date: 22 Jan 00 - 06:39 PM

I have two, I think I bought them on ebay. One doesn't work very well, but the other one really sounds nice! But I prefer my tin whistle. :-)

Jen

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Conrad Bladey (Peasant- Inactive)
Date: 22 Jan 00 - 09:34 PM

I have two and a book as well. One time one slid out of the car window- I had put it up on the ledge under the front window and the light went green and go and I turned right the melody flute went left right out the window and bounced into the intersection.

Got out picked it up and not a scratch though I swear it took several bounces. I remember visiting the company which had moved from Laurel to beltsville md right by the post office. the place had photos on the walls of large bands of folks in africa all outfitted with the whistles. I havent played them in a while!

Conrad

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Áine
Date: 22 Jan 00 - 09:46 PM

Thanks for responding to my thread, guys. This little 'flute' was responsible for awakening my interest in music as a whole, and I can remember spending many, many happy hours with it, making up tunes and playing songs off the radio by ear.

Looking at it a little closer, and asking the opinion of the dear hubby, it turns out that this particular little 'flute' isn't made out of tin at all -- it's rolled stainless steel. And even if it's *&%#$@!)*^$ years old, it's still in perfect pitch, even after being dropped on concrete sidewalks, thrown at an ex-husbands, and falling into the hands of my youngest 'ankle-biters'!

Looking at the 'Classroom Method' book, which, of course, I never read when I was in elementary school, it says that the 'originator' of the Melody Flute was a Mr. Walter D. Lanahan. Irish to the core, I betcha. I'm wondering though, do you think that he took the Irish tin/penny whistle and put the mouthpiece on the side, thereby making the instrument a 'flute' and therefore more 'respectable'? Remember, these instruments were popular before being Irish was 'in'. Any opinions, ideas?

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Troll
Date: 22 Jan 00 - 10:17 PM

I had one when I was a kid in the 50's.As I recall it was my second instrument( the first being a Flutophone). I never learned but a few tunes tho. My fingers don't seem to think that way.

troll

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Arkie
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 12:05 AM

I still have the one I used when teaching sixth grade back in the late '60s. Take it out and toot a tune or two ever so often.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: harpgirl
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 01:07 AM

...well Aine, I noticed how grimy my keyboard is while looking for a mark to put over your A...anyway. I also played Flutophone with Mr. Lucatsky in 6th grade music class...graduated to silver flute but pined for fiddle, which mom thought was too skweaky...harpgirl

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Áine
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 04:08 PM

Does anyone know if the Melody Flute Company is still in business? Did or do they make these flutes in keys other than C? When I was searching for information on the flute (unsuccessfully, unfortunately), I saw a reference on a Civil War enactors' bulletin board that this company used to make Bflat fifes. Does anyone know if they made any other woodwind instruments?

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,Bill D
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 04:54 PM

I have a melody flute I bought on the Mall at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival about 1975...guy was selling them from a little stand, I think...it still works fine...

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 06:35 PM

G'day Áine,

Here in Australia, I have seen a number of old variations on what I think of as a 'cheating' fife ... same 6 holes and sideways hold but a whistle mouthpiece to make it easier than cross-blowing.

Some old whistles had 3 interchangeable heads - a straight whistle, a sideways one and a proper flageolet head - blown through a a tube into an expansion chamber (modifying the "attack" of the note) and usually having some absorbing sponge to keep it relatively dry. I have also seen one-piece sideblown whistles - usually made of tin-plate or some type of dye-cast alloy ... and generally in Bb to play along with fife bands.

I presume the 'Melody Flute' was aimed at the same school market as the descant (soprano?) recorder and is in the same key 'C'.

Whilst chasing something quite different (a triccaballacca), I came across 19th century illustrations (in the Dover pictorial archive book Music) showing just such a one-piece side-blown whistle called: HK Fife. This was next to a tapered tin whistle just like a Clarke, but marked US with something like the US coat of arms. (Of course, it could have been a Clarke, tarted up for export to US ... or more likely an Americam rip-off.)

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Mikal
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 06:50 PM

OOOOOH! They sound like fun! The kind of instrument even a ditz like me could use!

Okay, I want one. Where do I find one?

Mikal

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Mikal
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 07:00 PM

Yup, answering myself, it seems. There is a site: http://home.rica.net/gilliadj/index.html (Sorry, I don't do blue clicky thingies...) that sells the beauties and the books to teach yourself how to play. 'Bout 14 bucks for the whistle, 5 forthe book. I may have to buy one now. I'll let my wife try to talk me out of it, though...

Mikal

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Áine
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 07:51 PM

My darlin' Mikal!!! You're a wonder, and there's no doubt! I went to the link you gave and that's my little Melody Flute, right there. I'm going to order the 'new' book and a new flute tomorrow. Who knows, I might even pick up the fife as well. Thank you, thank you, thank you, you've made me a very happy 'girl'!

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Mikal
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 08:31 PM

Yer welcome, lass! Some nights, I have nothing better to do than surf. Neatest things come of that!

Now I have to talk myself outa buying one!

Mikal

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Áine
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 08:36 PM

A Mhikal,

Don't talk yourself out of it -- get one and join the fun!

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From:
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 11:48 PM

Somewhere in some closet or steamer trunk lies the Melody Flute I used in my childhood in the '40s. I am impressed if they are still being made. On mine the silver is worn around the holes and you can see the brass underneath; so the old ones were not made of stainless steel. Also, as I recall, mine is not fingered as a recorder. You just progressively lift up fingers to get the C-major scale. It doesn't have that extra hole on the bottom that a recorder has.

Murray

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Áine
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 11:57 PM

Dear murray,

That's the same kind as I have. Now go find it, and make some happy music!

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Conrad Bladey (Peasant- Inactive)
Date: 24 Jan 00 - 12:09 PM

Lanahan lived in a wonderful old victorian house by the railroad tracks in Laurel Maryland. There was an article about him in the Laurel Md. bicentennial book. A part of the house has been preserved somewhere. It was knocked down for development.

The melody flute company also made fifes and flutes in addition to the melody flute itself.

In addition to the one piece designs I have seen them with clamp on fipples which can come off and on over the flute hole.

Conrad Bladey

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Áine
Date: 24 Jan 00 - 12:11 PM

Dear Conrad,

I'd very interested in seeing the article about Mr. Lanahan. Is there anyway that I could get a copy of it? Thank you for the information.

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Áine
Date: 25 Jan 00 - 09:59 AM

Refresh.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,Dan Luce
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 10:15 AM

The HK Fife mentioned was probably made in New Jersey or in Troy, New York by a Henry Kallenberg.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 01:58 PM

Aine,

I find the tin whistle in D used by Irish players to be too shrill for my taste. I'd like to
have a whistle that is a little mellower and less shrill on the overblown octave. Do they exist? If there was a whistle in G it would allow you to play in D or a whistle in A which would allow E. I like the sound of the whistle and see it as graduating to a legit flute wooden or otherwise.

Oddly, I like playing them in the bathtub. (How weird is that?)

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Tootler
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 07:03 PM

Frank,

You can get whistles in almost any key you like, both in higher and lower pitch than the regular D whistle. I have whistles in D, C, Bb, A, and G and you can go lower than that. The low D - an octave below the regular D whistle - is very popular. I find the stretch on a low D whistle a problem and prefer either a wooden flute in D or a tenor recorder. There are many fine players of the low D whistle and it does have a mellow tone which is different from the flute.

The site for all things whistle is Chiff and Fipple - http://www.chiffandfipple.com/. You will find it a mine of information. They also have a very active forum.

Here is an example of one whistle maker's website

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 11:53 AM

Here is a picture of some instruments that have been used in elementary school music education. The Melody Flute belongs to my wife. It's the same one she played in elementary school and she still noodles on it occasionally.
- Phil
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13967329@N02/3222164331/in/pool-mudcat

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,Craig
Date: 26 Jan 09 - 05:18 PM

Someone just gave me a Melody flute with the mouthpiece on the side. It sounds good but I believe that the mouthpiece is made of LEAD. You can actually write on paper with it. A lead mouthpiece is probably not too healthy to play!

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 03:53 AM

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,Craig - PM
Date: 26 Jan 09 - 05:18 PM

"Someone just gave me a Melody flute with the mouthpiece on the side. It sounds good but I believe that the mouthpiece is made of LEAD. You can actually write on paper with it. A lead mouthpiece is probably not too healthy to play!"

I would have thought even in those days, they would have known not to use lead for something you put in your mouth. Perhaps it's silver-plate? I also would have thought lead would be too soft.

On the other hand, maybe it's asbestos. Perhaps best to be cautious.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 04:22 AM

Is the Orff method popular in the US or Great Britain? It is in Germany, where I live, and the music stores here sell a nice selection of Orff instruments: hand drums, tambourines, glockenspiels, maracas, etc. I used to have toy instruments like this as a child, and even a Monkees drum set! It disappeared fairly quickly, as I didn't play with it very often. I didn't show early talent as a percussionist, but I would love to have toy instruments like those again.

I think I may have had a recorder or a whistle at some time, and I'm sure I could have if I had wanted one. I remember having a harmonica or two. Sadly, I didn't learn to play by ear as a child and music education of the time discouraged playing by ear. That's probably why I never got very far with these instruments, or the beautiful autoharp we had, and a reason why I've become a True Believer in playing by ear.

I've got a couple of whistles and I like them. It's a challenge getting the accidentals. I've been playing my recorders more, though. This is a recent addiction for me and I haven't gone hog-wild buying flutes and whistles yet, but I fear it's only a matter of time.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 04:29 AM

"I didn't show early talent as a percussionist, but I would love to have toy instruments like those again."

Actually, I don't really want a Monkees drum-set again. I remember being rather disappointed at the quality, even at such an early age. In mint condition, it's probably worth a fortune, as my old baseball cards and comic books would be. Gone, all long gone.

The problem with the Orff instruments is that they're a bit too expensive for me at present. I also started looking into what a transverse flute would cost. It seems they are rather expensive instruments. I've therefore decided that I shall buy a trumpet when I've saved a couple hundred euros. The information I've found is that one can get a moderately good trumpet for a couple hundred euros less than one would have to pay for a flute of comparable quality.

Since I'm not an expert on musical instruments, it would probably be better for me to buy an instrument from a reputable retailer rather than buying from ebay or that sort of place.

Is anybody here knowledgeable about trumpets, flutes and buying instruments?

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,Shirley Parmelee
Date: 30 Jan 09 - 04:07 PM

In 1954 I got my Melody Flute from an Oak Ridge, Tennessee school. I still have it today, 55 years later. I was really good at it and have always loved music. I have kept it in my top dresser drawer since moving from Oak Ridge, TN in 1963 to Charleston, SC and then getting married in 1967 and moving to Greenfield, IN. It still stays in my top dresser drawer. What memories I have as a child playing the Melody Flute and I still have the instruction book too. I still love music and my husband and I sing in a duet at church. I play the piano, organ, accordian and any other kind of musical insturment that I can get my hands on.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,Bob D.
Date: 14 Mar 09 - 02:18 AM

I was raised in Beltsville, Maryland, in the late '40s and 50's,and on a Boy Scout campout a tentmate had this real neat "flute" which I found I could play music on, and one could be bought in nearby Laurel, Md.    That was my introduction to music, which included tenor saxophone in junior and senior high school.

The flute was very much in tune (I learned later that the original maker used to tune them with an oscilloscope) and easy to play with the whistle mouthpiece, and had a good clear tone to the top of the second octave. And indestructable (except for the cork, but that
could be replaced with a tightly wadded paper napkin, or even a 410 shotgun shell (spent), which fitted perfectly.)
I lost the flute sometime in the '70s. It was probably left behind
a chair cushion in a Houston hotel while getting a wife and three
kids packed to go.

While visiting my dad later at our old home, I went
to replace the lost flute and discovered that they had moved from
Laurel to a town called Beltsville! In fact, they were less than
a mile away, across the road from Boetler's general store (and,
as someone above mentioned, diagonally across from the new post
office.)
I think the original owner had died by then, but his children
were carrying on the store. But I don't think they had the same
zeal as their dad, and the C and Bb flutes I bought, while very
good, don't have quite the same, how should I say, quality,
precision, crispness, as I rememberd my first one having.
The markings could be read easily on the original, but are barely
discernable on the newer ones. The flutes still have that distinctive
mouthpiece, with the two bands with diagonal ridges (simulated cord?)
going around the barrel.

I still have those two flutes, and they are my instrument of choice
when I just want to "make some music", pin down a heard tune,
or figure out how the baritone part should sound in a
barbershop quartet song.
Don't need a case. Just roll them up (along with a D "irish" tin
whistle) in a bandana, and toss then in a briefcase, suitcase,
or backpack, and they're ready to go.

Yes, I remember the Melody Flute of Laurel, Maryland, and am still making new memories.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: mrwassail
Date: 14 Mar 09 - 09:19 PM

http://cgi.ebay.com/1952-Classroom-Method-Melody-Flute-Co-Book-Learn-How-To_W0QQitemZ120382607501QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090223?IMSfp=TL090223131007r33421
Melody flute instruction booklet on ebay

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,Milford
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 01:03 AM

My first experience with the Melody Flute was a 5th grade class in Aberdeen, Md. in the early 1940s. We all bought them, but somehow, mine was one of a second shipment, and instead of being plain brass like the earlier ones, was chrome-plated. Recently I mentioned to a friend who had been a school band director that this was my first group music effort, and then did an internet search to see if it was still known, from which I found this site, among others. One was available from an eBay seller, and now it's mine. I don't remember how proficient I became during that school year, but I found that I can still pick out tunes on it.

Contrary to one of the above posts, the mouthpiece is NOT made of lead - it's some castable alloy that is much harder than lead, which would have been much too soft to hold its shape. Where the plating is worn off, as with the one I bought, it will, however, make a slight mark when rubbed on paper. Such metals are used for lots of other items - from "die cast" toy cars to parts such as carburetors (and probably fuel injection bodies now) of real cars, etc.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,Milford
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 04:56 PM

Wow, another Melody Flute on eBay today, complete with homemade case!

Today I found this instrument on the Library of Congress American Memory website - memory.loc.gov. Look for the "Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection," Items no. DCM 1295 and 1551. [Sorry if somebody has already reported this; I haven't read all of this thread] There was also another version, essentially the same body, but without the mouthpiece, for the more accomplished musicians.

Also a correction to my post of yesterday - the plating is nickel, not chrome, and on second look that seems correct. No mention of the actual metal for the mouthpiece.

An oddity reported there is that while the key seemed to be marked C, it was actually B-flat - I'll have to get out my electronic tuner and see what it thinks the notes are. The advanced version was advertised as also available in B-flat which was actually A-flat.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 07:03 AM

Do I gather correctly that Conrad Bladey's American? From his website I'd always assumed he was a Geordie...

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: robmolfig
Date: 30 Oct 09 - 12:44 AM

10/29/2009
Houston, TX

Wow!!! I can't believe I have found people that still remember those lovely 50's years when we had our elementary school Melody Flutes!!!

I remember way back in 1959 at my Rafael Cordero Elementary School in Santurce, Puerto Rico, that I never could learn to read music beyond "Mary had a little lamb" and "Hot cross buns", from that Frederick Beckman music method… But I developed the ability to come out with any tune I heard on the radio…, and even the ads jingles.

Although most of my peers learned to read music, most hated the class and even the teacher. I collected about four flutes, thrown away because of broken whistles but never could fix any of them.

Years passed and I don't know where my flutes end up but I've always missed and longed my old stainless steel, melted iron, right sided mouthpiece flute

Today I have a lovely violin and a sweet accordion and, oh yes…, a flute.
It is not similar to the old one... It's a brown plastic Tudor and I rarely play it, although, it's at hand reach on my computer table.

Tonight, I found the song "Amazing Grace" in the internet and grabbed my flute and started to play it and was caught up, wondering if I'll ever find my long lost love: my dearest infancy melody flute again…

So, I"googled" it and..., Alas!!!,
first thing I've found is this site with this Aine comment of Jan 2000,: "Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?"

And reading through all these entries, it's been like an old class reunion, remembering a good old friend of whom most of us treasure really good memories.

I even found here this site where I've seen "my love" again… and, Yes…, if they are for sale I'm buying mine.

Thanks to you all.
Roberto

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,debbie
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 02:18 PM

yes, and would love to have mine back. anyone willing to part with theirs, please call me at 505-327-3231, would like to use it for instruction with the little ones in our Sunday School classes. my computer is down, so please use the phone. i am in NM now.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 03:02 PM

Yes I am from baltimore maryland,USA, adopted Geordie.
I was the First ever Official Archeologist of the Mayor and City Council of Laurel, Maryland therefore steeped in the history of the city and the melody flute company. I also play tin whistle and have two- one in c and one in Bb.

Conrad

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,courtney
Date: 29 Mar 10 - 07:28 PM

i have a melody flute for sale any one willing to make a deal email me [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,Barbara Z..
Date: 04 Apr 10 - 06:39 PM

I just purchased the 1969 edition of the paperback "Melody Flutes - Self Instructor", published by the Melody Flute Co., Laurel, Md. I purchased it from an online used bookseller. I'm a senior citizen, just getting into music at this late stage. I'm taking an adult ed class in tinwhistle, so I'm now interested in wind instruments, and that was my reason for buying the above mentioned paperback book. I was wondering if the Melody Flute Co. was still in business, and that's how I found this thread.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jul 10 - 10:19 AM

I remember the school flute back in the 50's. I seen a couple on auction sites and they all said the length was around 13 inches. I don't remember mine as being that length. I think mine was around 11 inches. Does anyone remember the length of the school flute? That flute brings back memories.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: open mike
Date: 20 Jul 10 - 02:50 PM

this is the plastic flute that many U.S. schools used to introduce music to 3rd and 4th graders. From this I went on to clarinet, then piano, then violin, then guitar, now nyckelharpa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonette
http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/textt/Tonette.html (don't be startled at the audio file which says ("tonette" when this page loads)
I jumped out of my seat when i heard the voice....

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,maeella
Date: 22 Aug 10 - 04:45 PM

I sure do. As a matter of fact, I still have mine. It's metal and the serial number is intact and can still be read. It sounds pretty good, too. Some were made in plastic but many were made in metal. The company was located in Maryland. I had always wanted my parents to take me on a tour there when we went south to visit family, but we never did.

Ah, what memories.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,Bob
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 08:03 AM

My Goodness!!! It makes me so happy to see so many people who got their music start with the Melody Flute made by Walter D. Lanahan in Laurel, Md. I worked in his flute making shop for several years during the early 50's. He was dedicated to the melody flute and was definitely one of the finest men I have ever met. By the time I worked for him, he had retired as a railroad worker. That was his primary profession and I believe he worked in Baltimore during his railroad career.

I was a high school student in Laurel at the time and recall his daughter, Mrs Bowie, the librarian at the school, very well. She was so good to me. When our family moved to VA, I still returned to Laurel on Saturdays to continue working and to visit my girl friend. Mrs Bowie invited me to stay overnight with them in their very lovely and stately home by the railroad tracks near the Laurel race track. I spend many a Sat night there. The shop where we made the flutes was directly behind the large house.

Mr Lanahan was dedicated to the Melody Flute Company and the many many young people he helped to teach to enjoy music. He, himself, was a superb musician and it was quite a treat for me when he would be in the shop and pick up a flute at random and begin to play. I just loved those times and would stop work and listen raptly as he played complicated pieces. Perhaps he would have done it more often if I had not stopped while he played since he was paying me by the hour at the time. I eventually started on piece work and was able to double my pay, thanks to the advice of this remarkable man.

There were several models of the melody flute when I worked there. The mainstay was the brass flute with a lead mouthpiece that was nickel plated in Baltimore. We did not have any idea of the dangers of lead in those days. Another model was a B flat model that did not have the mouthpiece but one blew directly into the hole on the flute. The third model was a plastic flute that sounded even better than the metal one in my opinion as it had a little softer tone.

It is so nice to remember so many wonderful memories made possible by this wonderful man.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,Andy F.
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 10:58 AM

I got a lot of use out of mine. I played in this sextet and I used to blow on a mike all the tunes of the day, the sound quality for such a simple instrument was amazing. Metal pipe w/holes and a side whistle, a work of art.

I would be interested in buying one i bought mine on 1975 for $8.95 music book included.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,robmolfig
Date: 17 Mar 11 - 12:17 PM

More on the Melody Flute...
Since I've been looking for this flute, I have this to share with you, guys...

As of today, 03/17/2011, I've seen the Classroom Method for Melody Flute by Frederick Beckman on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Classroom-method-melody-Frederick-Beckman/dp/B0007ESO84/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1


I also found this information on http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/dcmhtml/dcmTitles16.html

Our flute is the one described as "DCM 1551: Melody Flute Co. / Transverse Flute in B-flat" although it used to be in C.

Keep searching... See you next time.

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,Mmmmmm
Date: 25 Jan 13 - 08:19 PM

I still have my Melody Flute with its instructional book. I practice and then play different songs occasionally. It was a starter instrument in elementary school. I also remember Mrs. Kiah, the music teacher, who would visit once a week. When I graduated to junior high and high school, I always wanted to play an instrument and be a band member.   Unfortunately, my parents could not afford even to rent an instrument and buying one was not in the equation. Consequently, I joined the chorus with director I. Sherman Green and did not regret not playing an instrument! We sang Latin, gospel, classical and contemporary music, etc...what a cultural enrichment! What an adventure!

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,sarah
Date: 11 Feb 13 - 02:55 PM

im a flute player and was given a melody flute and want to learn how to play it any suggestions

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: GUEST,Trish
Date: 17 May 13 - 01:44 PM

My friend has 3; but they are old and he's looking for new ones. Can anyone recommend a place to get one (or several)?
Thank you!

e-mail me at [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Anyone Remember The Melody Flute?
From: Bill D
Date: 17 May 13 - 05:13 PM

I don't think there ARE 'new ones'.