I've known for while that one reason why I have so much trouble with the third octave is that I tend to catch the trill keys on the sides of my fingers when moving them around quickly, but its starting to annoy me more and more!

Is there anything I can do to help prevent this? I was hoping that being more aware of it, and trying to position my fingers more carefully on the keys might help, but it doesn't seem to be happening less. I've also tried adjusting the position of my footjoint, so that my right hand is in a slightly different position as well, with some limited sucess.

Do I just need to swap to playing the picollo, which is actually small enough for my finger tips to sit comfortable on all the keys? (Can't image a picollo being popular in my shared house! )

The answer is a resounding no, a piccolo should not be thought of as the easy option, far from it. It requires sound technique which you will eventually aquire by perservering with your flute. Think possibly everyone goes through catching keys at some stage, slow practice is the answer and build up I think. Good luck i know how annoying it is when your fingers dont do what you want em to

Although it may seem a drastic option, I think it's worth going and trying other models of flute as the size and shape of the trill keys does vary a bit. I've got a pupil who had no problems like this until she switched to an Azumi. She's grown (literally) out of problem now, but it was definitely the change of flute model that caused it.

I wasn't serious about switching to the picollo! Nor do I consider it an easy option, merely a smaller instrument more suited to my midget hands... its the difficulty in stretching over the keys that means I tend to catch the trill keys when playing faster runs. A bit like the fact that I don't tend to bother playing tenor recorders, as I have to stretch too much to cover the holes properly.

Andante, I shall give serious consideration to a brand with narrower trill keys when I start earning a small fortune as a petrochemical engineer (! ) and decide to upgrade from my Yammy 311. Doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon though...

Look like I shall just have to persist in forcing out slightly whistley notes in the meantime.