The flutemakers Folkers and Powell have a flute history website which includes a number of interesting articles. One covers the knotty subject of playing with good intonation on a one-key flute. You can download a PDF copy of the document along with other articles from http://www.flutehistory.com/Resources/Documents/index.php3

A number of authors recommend practicing scales and arpeggios against a steady note to help train the ear. This also reinforces the feeling of lipping the notes into pitch, so you remember how large to make the movements before you sound the notes.

You can download a program that uses your computer's soundcard to turn your computer into an electronic tuning meter (like a Korg or similar). One function of this program is to proiduce a tone to allow you to tune your instrument by ear (rather than use the tuning meter). This can be used as a drone for scales and arpeggio practise.

If you don't foresee the need for a tuning meter you can download a smaller program from the same page which just generates the tones (called a tuning fork program!).

Both programs can be downloaded from http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~tuner/tuner_e.html

All of the authors of flute tutors I have read say that it is very important to play the flute with a fixed pitch instrument accompaniment. It is difficult to incorporate playing along to a real harpsichord into daily practise, but a good second best is to use play-along CDs . A good number of these are available from music publishing houses, often tied into particular editions of sheet music. One such range of CDs is the Music Partner series, produced by Peters Editions. You can check out which titles are available on their website http://www.edition-peters.com/mpnew/index.html

The play-along CDs are usually at modern concert pitch A'=440Hz. If your baroque flute is a modern instrument made to modern concert pitch then you can use a play-along CD without modification. However, most modern copies of baroque flutes are at A'=415Hz. This is one semitone below concert pitch, and means you cannot use play-along CDs normally. What you can do is use a special piece of computer software to alter the pitch of the accompaniment when playing the CD through your computer. The software can alter the pitch and tempo of the recording independently. This can be useful when learning a new piece of music, as you can take difficult passages at a more measured pace.

The software I use is called Pacemaker, which is part of the WinAmp media player system, and can be freely downloaded. Instructions and links for doing so are here. To use a 440Hz CD with a 415Hz flute you need to set the software to reduce the pitch of the accompaniment by one semitone.

On the whole these CDs are pretty good. I certainly haven't tried every single one, but I have has some troubles with the following:

Handel 3 flute sonatas (Music Partner MP4553). The disc is printed as being at A'=442Hz, the tuning signal on the first track is spot on standard concert pitch A'=440Hz, but the accompaniment itself lies somewhere between A'=444Hz and A'=445Hz.

Disc Continuo (1995 Katastrophe records). Mostly fine. Gamba playing a little wayward at times, but the problems occur with the Marais trio sonata. The recorder in the Marais pushes the pitch higher than the accompaniment. Most of the time the recorder is consistently around 12 cents sharp (1/8th of a semitone) rising to 25 cents sharp on some notes (a 1/4 semitone). This is a pity, as the whole of the rest of the CD is very enjoyable.

There is quite a lot of baroque music on play-along CD for recorder. Some is playable in its original key, but most needs to be transcribed down to make it suitable for the baroque flute. The normal baroque practice was to transcribe the music down a minor third, thus music in the treble recorder's home key of F transcribes to the baroque flute's home key of D.

To play the pieces you really need to write out the recorder part in the new key. You can do this on manuscript paper or you can use one of the many music notation programs available. Some will even do the transcribing for you, all you have to do is enter the music in the part's original key and select the new key and the program will produce new copy.

I tend to use ABC tune notation, mainly because some of the shareware music notation programs have very limited time signatures available (e.g. Finale Notepad will not allow music in 6/4). You can find details of the ABC notation language below, including links to shareware packages that produce pretty output.

I intend to post transcriptions of recorder music as I complete them to allow baroque flute players to extend their use of play-along CDs. Please see here for downloads.

To put the accompaniment at the right pitch you need to use your pitch adjustment software (e.g. Pacemaker or similar) to drop the pitch by a minor third. This is three semitones. Therefore if you have a 440Hz flute and the recorder accompaniment is at 440Hz then you need to lower the pitch by three semitones. If you have a 415Hz flute and the recorder accompaniment is at 440Hz you need to drop the pitch by four semitones (three to alter the key by a minor third and one more to change from 440Hz to 415Hz). As most of the CDs I have encountered use continuo instruments tuned to equal temperament there are usually no problems.

This was originally developed to allow players of traditional music to record and share tunes. Vast databases of traditional tunes have grown up allowing searching on titles and on tune fragments. There are lots of downloadable tunebooks which can be turned into sheet music with shareware programs. A good place to start exploring this resource is the website run by the originator of the ABC language Chris Walshaw:

http://www.gre.ac.uk/~c.walshaw/abc/

Scott Smith maintains a baroque flute resources page that has a good deal of useful information on it. You can find it at

 http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~scott/fluteresources/