American Plating 150CN American Fife

My main reason for purchasing the fife is after learning to play the tin whistle, I wanted practice using an embouchure before making my own flutes. I wanted to point out for those who have never attempted to make sound through a transverse flute that use an embouchure hole. (The hole you blow across instead of the whistle shaped head that recorders have) That it is not straightforward. Your mouth has to be positioned just right. Took me about a week to get regular sound out of it. However, this is not my first attempt at blowing a transverse wind instrument. This one is well made, nice and heavy, has a good sound to it. And as far as embouchure holes go, this one is more tolerant of incorrect mouth placement than others I have tried. Very nice fife with a perfect weight. Not so light that it is difficult to keep in place, but not so heavy that it would give someone trouble holding it in position.

I was browsing penny-whistles and got the idea to try a fife instead. I found this one, the price was pretty good and it wasn't made from plastic. I have a love of woodwind music, so I ordered it, along with a book, Fun with Fife. I expected some difficulty, but the first few pages of the book are all about how to hold and use the instrument, so when I started following that, the sound produced was surprisingly clear. It wasn't the deep, resonant, spiritual sound you might expect from a $5000 wooden flute played by an expert, but it was a pretty sound, quite clear. The finger positions are pretty easy, as opposed to some instruments, where my hands are too small. It wasn't difficult to find the correct position to blow, and I have a good feeling about this instrument. One thing missing from the description - it's in the key of C. It's thicker and slightly heavier than a $2 penny-whistle, and feels more solid than ANY recorder I've ever used. One end is sealed with cork, so I'll need to keep it dry. So far, it's fun to play and it sounds good. I have a long way to go, but I'm off to a good start. It didn't seem like much of a challenge to get a good sound out of it. The packaging was pretty average. Delivery time was exactly on schedule.

The fife is in the key of C. I bought it as a cheap practice instrument that I would not be real sorry to lose. For me, I would have preferred the key of D, but I knew what I was getting. It is a little heavy for my taste. Otherwise it really feels like a quality instrument. It is a little slippery, and therefore difficult to hold. Intonation was a surprise. Not very well tempered across the scale and pretty flat over all. I used two dowel rods*, one long enough to reach the cork from the foot of the instrument and one short enough to reach from the head, and adjusted the cork until I could easily play the fundamental note in tune, and still adjust sharp and flat by "lipping" it. The surprise was, this also tuned the middle hole notes and made them better tempered with the rest of the instrument. Once the intonation issue was corrected the instrument became very easy to play and it is very easy to produce a good clear note. I very much like the instrument and the sound it produces. * NOTE: DO NOT use just one dowel rod, and try to get dowels very close to the diameter of the fife. Otherwise you run the risk of punching the cork out of the instrument completely and you will really regret that. Also note that the cork should be very close to the blow hole. The closer it is the sharper the instrument will be. I have a couple other fifes, and while the position of the cork is supposed to be more of a tone quality issue, it is an intonation issue, too. One of my fifes is one solid piece of wood. there is no cork. It is just drilled out up to the end and left solid. The blow hole on this fife is right at the stop. My other fife is a nice wooden fife in D in the style of a Civil War fife. It does have a cork to stop the end. I had to adjust that cork for intonation, too. That cork is also very close to the blow hole.

Basic Fife in C for a great price! It has a nice clear tone, and is a great little instrument for the price.You may have to make adjustment in embouchure to find a good tone, but there are many Youtube instruction videos if you are not familiar with how to do that. This fife is in C, and most sheet music is in D which means you either have to transpose it, make fingering adjustments, or just play for fun and be off by a note if you use sheet music with fingering charts (melody is still the same, so it's not bad) ! It comes with a fingering chart for 3 octaves, so you'll have the correct finger placement for production. The fun with the Fife book was OK, but if you have no experience with reading sheet music (it does have a good introductory synopsis of how to do that),you may prefer to Google "free sheet music for the Fife with fingering charts". Sheet music with the fingering positions under each note is the fastest way to start playing music and there is a lot of it out there. I actually found a great sight for The Tin Whistle Song Book (compatible with the fife) which gives sheet music with fingering charts under each note (in D, but it's close enough if you are playing for fun). It has tons of free sheet music as well http://www.irish-folk-songs.com/tin-whistle.html. Overall this is a fun instrument that you can create great music with at a great price! If you are looking for a "real" professional fife for a marching band there are online sites like The Fife and Drum Shop where you can find a D fife identical to this in D for about 50 English pounds, as well as many others. I'll stick with this one for $15, and be off by a note! it's just for fun for me! Also, I purchased this for $20.13 and when I saw that the price dropped to $15.01, I contacted the seller and requested a price adjustment for the difference, and they gave it without issue. Great customer service!

I gave this item 5 stars. I bought it here for around $15. What I got was a solid instrument that plays better than I expected. Basically in tune (close enough in tune that I think breath adjustment and embouchure refinement is what's called for rather than a drastic cork adjustment). Yes, the cross fingered accidentals are a little out of tune--but this is a simple, six holed fife! Expecting precise chromatic performance from a diatonic instrument, especially a simple $15 one, is ridiculous. For someone who wants a great value and a folk instrument that will play simple tunes with a decent tone and someone not expecting a professional instrument, this is for you. Note: this plays in the key of C--it is not a traditional Bb instrument, and if you have written fife music you will either have to transpose from the traditional written keys (mostly D) or cross finger your C# and F#. This thing will last a lifetime and not only will it hold up under conditions you would never take an expensive instrument (camping, for example), but if it is ever lost or destroyed, the replacement cost is less than your average delivery pizza...

Nice-looking but in terms of actual use, unless you are a seasoned woodwind player, I need to forewarn you that it isn't easy to 1. consistently make a sound out of this and 2. make the sound quality-level. I plan to use this as a demo for my toddler music class before the 4th of July while the kids are banging away on their tiny snare drums. I most likely will do an air-fife by whistling the tune of "Yankee Doodle" since I won't be ready in time for that class to learn how to play it on this thing....! (I have taken private lessons in classical violin my entire grade school years from elementary through high school and college and some in piano, recorder and guitar and so I do not have a problem figuring out how to play simple songs on any one of them but this is quite another story ....)

I actually bought this fife for my wife who played the flute years ago. I recently started messing around with it myself. I think it's a very good quality fife. Unfortunetly for me, I can't seem to get the hang of proper lip placement etc. I put nthis fife up to my lips in preparation to play, and try to make a note. About half the time I get a sound. Of those attempts, about half the time I get a rich, satisfying sound. The other half the time I get honks, squeaks, etc. I played the sax many years ago in grade school, and was able to play all right. I am not blaming the instrument at all. It's just me. My wife the flute player says I will get the hang of it, but I'm not so sure. I recently bought both a recorder and a tin whistle, and seem to be able to get some where with those. One must also be able to control the amount of air they blow, as blowing the same fingered note will give an octave difference. The thing is, that the sound this little fife makes when you do it right, is so nice, that I can't hardly put the thing down. But, I am on the verge of giving up on it. I'm giving it 5 stars for the sound I know it can make if played properly.

Well made, shipped quickly. From someone who has never played a musical instrument before, I can say, with about 30 min a day for 4 days, I can play some pretty nice songs. The fife is solid and very well crafted. My worry was that this was a toy. After about a week with this instrument, I can assure you, it is not a toy. The plated nickel is very nice. It came well packaged and on time, with a little bit of sheet music to get me started. (not that it helped seeing I can't read sheet music). The technique for each scale is a little challenging, but once you can play, it is worth the effort. You can easily buy it as a gift or just for yourself. My only slight issue with it is the volume at which it plays. This is a military instrument, and I under estimated the amount of noise this one fife can produce. If you live in an apartment, do everyone a favor and play somewhere else.