Side by Side Comparison of: Yamaha vs GLORY

Nice value. Getting it to sound may take a more experienced flute player. Fingerings are somewhat similar to a regular concert flute. Flats and sharps are rather airy and some hard to do. More consistently in tune than homemade six-hole flute. Overall excellent for this price. Excellent sound for C Major scale stuff. Excellent gift for my flute lover.

This is a really nice instrument!Although it doesn't seem to be a traditional fife, it is still a lot of fun to play!This "fife" is very similar to a piccolo, and as a flute and piccolo player I find it a very cheap piccolo-like instrument.There are "wings" on the headjoint, which is a feature usually found on some professional flutes.

I can't say enough good about this little instrument. It's excellent quality, attractive to see and handle. I am a flute player, wanted a flute I could take camping and in my backpack. It gives me 2+ octaves. I couldn't be more pleased! It takes time to get the most out of it, but it's time well spent. Tone can be piercing to soft and full of chiff if you have the skill. It's very inexpensive, but an excellent choice.

Plays the same scale as the Yamaha soprano recorder but doesn't squeal as much.The lip plate and tone hole is very similar to a "real metal flute". I practiced my embouchure on this instrument for a few months before I could get a clear sound. When I later played a "real metal flute", it only took me a few minutes to adjust to the metal flute.When all the holes are closed, it plays the root note C. This differs from a chinese dizi flute where the root note is sounded when 3 holes nearest the tone hole are covered.I enjoy playing this flute/fife.

For this price ($5) you can not go wrong. I bought it just to fool around with and it is a very simple pleasant instrument to learn. It produces a nice tone and is easy to pick up and play. It is a fife, not a flute. It does have its own fingering, so use the included chart and you will get much enjoyment out of this.I can see this being a good beginner instrument to teach kids armature and basics on.For $5, try it. If you like it, it will be worth much more than that to you. If you don't, you have not lost more than the cost of a burger.

After having difficulty finding an affordable wooden fife in the key of C, I finally went with the plastic Yamaha YRF-21 model (even though it's not the six-hole variety) after watching a Wouter Kellerman video on YouTube. I had just wanted some sort of confirmation from someone that it would get close enough to the sound I needed, and the recording I watched was absolutely wonderful! Even though this is one of the least expensive musical items Yamaha makes, it still is a quality product, and I have been very pleased with it since it arrived. It is definitely capable of reaching those piercing high notes and is a good choice for anyone not ready/willing to shell out for reenactment-serious models or who (as I am) is borrowing her current piccolo for said patriotic program. The upside of having an 8-hole fife is that the fingerings are nearly identical to standard flute fingerings, so learning the fingering chart is super-easy if you already play the flute.

My 11 year old decided to forgo band this year and we turned in her very expensive flute. She decided shortly after that she still wanted to play as a hobby. I was able to find this pretty little gem for her. I was skeptical of the price and what I would be getting. When she opened it we were both pleasantly surprised. It was a lovely shade of pink and sounds just like her expensive one! It was in a nice case too! We would purchase this one again!

Can't believe how great this flute is for the price. Yes, a pro or intermediate model would be a better instrument overall, but we just needed a starter flute for us to learn how to play and enjoy it's presence in our house. It looks and feels like much more expensive models we tried at music stores. Highly recommended for anyone young and old who wants to learn for the first time or needs a spare flute for travel.

Very nice flute! I played a very long time ago and am relearning. Don't know too much about higher priced flutes and their quality, but this is great for beginners and for someone who just wants to play for fun and not want to spend a lot on flute. So there's no guilt when I haven't played it in weeks.

Awesome sound and comes with all the things that it tells you in the picture! I love the color and the floral design on it too. Super neat nice packaging and soft on your hand to touch and feel

Great flute for my daughter, she is a beginner, and we wanted to start her off with a good quality flute. The case seems very durable, which will be great for taking to & from school every week. Comes with everything you need

My mind is blown. I've played flute practically my whole life. I wanted a practice instrument that I could leave at my city condo so I didn't have to keep carrying my Yamaha with me. I saw this and couldn't believe the price. But I really don't have hundreds to spend on another instrument that will just be used in my practice room. I thought the colors would just be cool.When I received it and took the case out of the box, I looked at the cheap, soft-sided case and, well, I wasn't expecting much. Well I was in for a shock. I put it together and just stared at it. The metallic blue body and brightly polished gold-colored keys were dazzling. Very cool indeed.Now for the real test. I put it to my lips and ran two octaves of scales up and down a few times. Wow. Crystal clear, smooth tone, excellent, effortless vibrato. The pads all seal tightly with the lightest of touch. The keys all work flawlessly. I expected my finger's muscle memory to have a problem with the return spring tension. Not so. Closing my eyes, I can't tell the difference between this little mind-blower and $3000 Yamaha.I played a little Irish ditty. I played a little Bach, a little jazz and a little Jethro Tull. I certainly found a good practice instrument! If you have a good ear, especially that of an experienced flutist, the difference in sound between a really fine instrument and this is very distinguishable.Bottom line... Need a really decent, inexpensive practice instrument? Look no further. Have a child interested in learning the flute? Here you go! For incredibly minimal investment, you could start your child down a path that can provide a lifetime of enrichment. Or, did you play flute in high school or college and just want to see if you have any of that talent and skill left? Here you go! Get one and some music and go play in the basement. You'll be surprised how wonderful it feels to have one of these lovely instruments in your hands and how genuinely fine the sound is.

My wife loves this little fife (transverse flute?.) She played flute (and piccolo, and alto flute) for over 10 years, but hadn't played much in almost another 10 and wanted to get something to play here and there. This plays mostly like a flute/piccolo, though the flats and such that require covering a keyhole half-way are still a bit tricky. Unlike some of the other reviews on here, she hasn't had any trouble with embouchure or with getting a clean sound on the rest of the notes. It does include a useful chart for fingerings (they're slightly different than flute), but a few simple tunes to accompany it would be helpful. All in all, a good buy at a great price.

The price was great, and I really enjoy playing this. My seven year old son enjoys it to, and is able to grasp how to play it better than the flute. (That might be because my flute is cheap and old, so it probably is harder than a decent flute. It's too bad there were no Amazon reviews in those days.) I also am enjoying it more than the flute. The fingering is similar and in some ways different than both the flute and recorder, but it is not so hard to adapt. It comes with a clear and easy to use fingering chart and a canvas like pouch. It produces a pleasant sound and by blowing a different way, you can play a second octave. I agree with those reviews that say that it is hard to half cover the last hole and produce a flat d or sharp c, so I have just been playing songs that don't have that note. All in all, I'm satisfied and definitely recommend this to someone who wants to learn flute, without investing a lot of money as the first step.

This is a great instrument to learn on. I personally don't care for the tonal qualities of this fife. it is tuned the same as a piccolo. I like the extra C note. Fifes/flutes in D are very popular and this is similar because if you most of the notes sound the same as a D fife except the F is F# on a D fife (but an octave higher). fifes named based on what note sounds with all the fingers down and they play the standard Do Re Mi scale from bottom to top and they don't generally have a pinky key hole. this instrument is tuned like a recorder instead with a pinky note and a thumb hole. getting a sound out of this may be easier for a beginner than a wooden fife.

The only problem I have with this instrument is that I don't know how to play it. It is made with the same quality and materials as the Yamaha recorder. Anything less than this would not be adequate for a student and anything costing more would be out of the range of someone like me, a sheer neophyte who may just lose interest after a while anyway.

Quite pleased. Tone is similar to any other decent quality plastic/resin recorder. Easy enough to make a sound, but you'll need chops for the high tones. Most of the fingerings work fine. The half-holing is not so easy, but I'm not in practice for half-holing. Fair match to standard flute fingerings. Some would be more like flute fingerings with 'shading' (something advanced players would know). And without the left hand pinky key of an actual flute, you need an alternate fingering set. But super easy to acclimate to. And fun!

got it for 5 yr old, she wanted a "real" flute for her birthday (not a recorder, one that you hold to the side) she's never played it, it was too hard to get a sound out. I did though, it's very well made, good flute for a great price

This is a great beginner flute, as it works perfectly. The only con about this this that once playing this flute for a while, the metal becomes blackened due to the heat of the skin and the quality of the metal.

It is wonderful to be able to buy something like this that would have been impossible to get in the past. The only issue is that my daughter (who is using it to learn on her own so far and she is 8) says that one of the notes seems off as if it is not built properly, but the other notes seem fine to her.

have finally figured out a few notes.. as i''m teaching myself, youtube has been a great help in figuring this out. i bought this one because i felt it was a good price for someone just messing around and wanting to learn the flute for casual play.

Decently playable. I am a music major, percussion and trumpet are my main instruments. I've started collecting instruments and saw this deal and figured it was worth a shot. Could be better, could be worse. For a beginning flute, it'll do just fine.

At first, I thought it was great. Then as time went on, the lip plate's (on the mouthpiece) paint began to wear off. It wasn't too big of a deal, as it wasn't very visible, especially when playing. Then I noticed tarnish begin to appear on my lips. Turn out I may have had an allergic reaction of some sort to the material (probably the nickel silver).My solution was to order lip plate patches, and I'm optimistic about it, so everything should work itself out. Otherwise, it's a great flute, especially for its low price, so it was definitely worth the buy rather than spending $300+ at other places.

I am a professional flutist and was looking for an inexpensive beginner flute to recommend to beginner students. I tried it out and it plays in tune, has a great tone, and looks beautiful. I was surprised by the quality of the flute for the price. This is not the cheap-o quality flute here. It comes with the cleaning kit which is exactly what every flute and flute student needs, the case is decent and it comes with a shoulder strap too.I purchased this flute from this seller for $69.99 in May 2015, the price has gone up a little bit since then. Considering it is a flute under $100 it is a fantastic deal.If you are looking at this flute - you'll see that it has an offset G and a C foot. This means that the Key named G for the left hand ring finger is a little distance away from the flute instead of inline with the rest of the keys. This is a BONUS feature, as the inline G is tough to reach especially for beginners. I have the offset on all my flutes both Intermediate, and Professional. This is a nice extra bonus for this student flute.The other feature of this flute is the C foot. There are only 2 options here, either a B foot or a C foot. C foot is standard on student flutes. It basically means that the lowest note this flute will play is low C, aka middle C on a piano. This is an appropriate choice when you consider the music that the beginner flutist will learn for the first 3-4 years of playing will not go any lower than this C. The B foot makes it possible to play the low B, one note below C, aka one note below middle C on the piano. The low B note is commonly found in more Advanced levels of music. I know other professional flutists that still have opted to keep the C foot, and not use the B foot.I don't know how long it will stand up to a beginner flutist's tendencies to be rough (dropping, banging it into a music stand), but honestly for the price it is far better than renting, and better than a school-rented instrument. If handled with clean hands, clean mouths so there is no sticky spit put into the flute, gets cleaned with the provided swab-cloth, and fingerprints rubbed off with the cleaning cloth each time the instrument is used it could last for many years before needing a tune-up at the repair shop.

Works fine, no complaints, but comes without a cleaning stick. Seems a basic oversight.

Not what I thought

This is a, flute. My 3 year old has a hard time making it work. I tried it and it's difficult to get your lips exactly right to make it whistle. Is nicely made.

Bought this for my 10 y.o. niece. Doesn't come with any instructions, so you have to be able to figure it out on your own.

Compared to my Flute and piccallo it seems the fife is harder to get to stay on the right note when I blow ionto it. It's how should I stay easily strayed from correct tone.But I think with practise there is great opportunity.It certanly looks more durable than my flute and piccallo and looks just the thing to take on a walk or try my hand at busking.Summing up . It seems hard but i'll persevere.Thanks big . Yamaha

I am not a Flute Player, or any other Wind Instrument Player for that matter, but did have a Recorder when young and found it relaxing just to play whatever came out of my imagination for a while from time to time. I bought this Fife with the same intent. However, thanks to my ignorance as regards wind instruments, I did not realize how much more difficult it would be to get any kind of reasonable and pleasant sound out of a Fife than a Recorder.Thus, if you do not have a great set of lungs and already have some training on a Flute or other Wind Instrument, or have an actual teacher present to teach you how to play this thing and have a real interest in playing it, I would not recomend a Fife. It is similar to a Flute in how it must be held to play it correctly and its sound is very much like a thin whistle.The Yamaha YRF-21 "C" Fife is a good quality instrument overall made of synthetic resin material, but once again this is not an instrument for the casual person just looking to get some effortless relaxing smooth sounds out of a wind instrument. GET A RECORDER INSTEAD!

Can't speak yet about the quality of sound yet; however, we ordered the blue flute and were unpleasantly surprised when we opened the box to see a plain silver flute. Unfortunately, we can't return it bc we need it for band class this week. Annoyed.

This instrument is a good one especially if you're a beginner however it lacks in quality and durability. Mine only lasted for three month before the key pads started to malfunction. However, I would suggest investing in this only if you're wanting a temporary instrument or just a beginner.

in overall good for the price payed

A little airy sounding, but perhaps I am still getting used to it. You can tell this flute was cheaply made, but it's definitely a good flute for the price. I would recommend this as a great starter flute, but not so great for advanced musicians.

You get what you pay for on this one. It sounds fine but is very difficult to get it to make noise with normal breath output. I would go another route if you are looking for something long-term.

After a few months, the flute had some major dents in it. After a year, the flute wouldn't play. But it stuck together for the whole year, so I'm givng it a three star.

Can't play it.

Very limited sound.

I had to go to Wiki How to learn how to make a proper embouchure. They have helpful tips, also. So now, since March 2nd, I can get some sounds resembling musical notes out of it. I have played a few scales, and slide adjusted the tuning. It actually works better with the bottom of a Yamaha baroque recorder used instead of the supplied body. Yamaha, I salute you for making both Baroque fingered and German fingered recorders, but *eight* holes on a fife (and the thumb hole being oddly placed) makes it difficult to play. Maybe supplying hole plugs for the extra two holes would make it easier for us "beginners". (Beginner!? Ha!) I am a successful piano player as well as recorder, harmonica, shofar and trumpet player. I dabble in the drums. Always wanted to play the transverse flute. Be careful what you wish for!

Try as I can,so far,I can not get a damn single note out of it,and I am a clarinet player.I admit flutes work bit different in blow hole than a sax or clarinet and I also have a new flute I do not know yet how to play,,,,but.....I can get notes out of a metal flute and plastic recorder,but...not this fife.Is it me or fife or both?Do not know.Asumming it is me,I gave it 2 stars,instead of 1 star.

This is not actually a fife. My best guess is that it is a fife / sopranino recorder hybrid. It's not terrible for what it is, and it was inexpensive enough that I didn't want to bother to send it back, but it is not a fife.

Don't buy this if you want your kids to learn how to play flute later. Hard to produce sound. A real flute with curved head joint is better than this for kids. I know it's cheap, but it is not helpful at all if your kids will eventually start flute study.Amazon's return policy is great! Thank you very much.

It wouldn't play some of the notes, I had to return it.

This came broken.

I've only had this flute for a couple of weeks but it seems that some of the key pads are already leaking air so that some of the notes will not play. I already need to get it repaired. It's worth investing in something more expensive to get a higher quality.

Very poor quality flute. I purchased this for my daughter, who has played flute for two years. After receiving it, we determined the F key did not work. This has been something that is noted in many reviews. I didn't notice them until too late, though. Upon contacting the seller, they were not helpful at all. Their statement was to just return for a replacement, but by the time we decided to return it, it was too late. If you're considering buying a flute, my recommendation would be to save your money for a better quality flute.

although this flute is beautiful and when we first got it , it seemed to be just right. But my granddaughter has not had it a year yet and she has lots of trouble with it. It will not play, you can not get sounds t come from it, at least not one that you want. This is such a sad thing because she loved this flute. now she is the only one in the school band that has a horn that sucks...... She is using a school horn. I can not recommend this item any longer. It does not last any time. I am sorry to have to do this. But an instrument should have more of a warranty than 1 month....

it's was packed very neatly, yet the thing was so rusty! After cleaning it for like 30 minutes I began to play and it just didn't feel right. I had been playing the flute for 8 months and been using a Jupiter Flute until recently. I wouldn't recommend this for if you're planning to play in band or for anyone looking for a cheap alternative. Instead, buy/rent a Jupiter or Yamaha flute. This is more like a practice flute you see at Walmart.

This is my first woodwind instrument and i got a note once out of 15 tries consistently so I'm concerned that this instrument is defective.

didnt even worked,there was no sound from this!

Doesn't come with instructions on how to play it. Waste of money!

Completely defective.

I bought this for my granddaughter and I can't even get a clear not out of it. No way is a child going to be able to feel any sense of accomplishment with this. Cheap, does not deserve the reviews that it has gotten.

Not working , my son was very disappointed as he was waiting for the flute to come by mail but after trying the flute he could not even make any sound using it.

Poor quality and was unable to return due to the company's return policy of only 30 days.

Some of the keys were stuck and wires holding them together kept popping out. My daughter cut her fingers on it.

Terrible product. Lasted 1 month and now doesn't play above C unusable, but past the return limit so we are stuck with it. Not worth a penny! do Not buy this.

The flute will not play a F natural, and the B flat isnt right, no E. Very hard to play in a concert when a brand new flute wont play.

Do not buy!!!! Had this flute for two weeks and the paint is chipping and the end piece is so loose that it just falls off while playing.

Cannot make quality sound come through. Total waste of money.