Thank you for your help. Now I understand that the flute does not rest on the Cobra head, only on the tail. (I have a platinum flute so it didn’t get scratched, only the Cobra head is a little scratched, but it’s no problem.) Also I had it too tight before, so it was uncomfortable. At first my finger was sensitive and so I felt pain, but now I am used to the Cobra and it is no problem. … Because I am a plastic surgeon I know the anatomical structure of the hand, so I tried to make some fine adjustments to find the best position and head adjustment of my Cobra. I raised the angle of the head to be more vertically down and put the head more in the center of the bottom of my finger and just slightly to the right. This position has no sensitive nerves or blood vessels. That way the pressure of the Cobra comes more on the left (thumb) side of the finger and no pressure on the back of the finger. So I think that, based on the anatomy, this is the most natural and comfortable position. In this way I played for more than one hour with no problem. Also there was no problem of the Cobra slipping when my finger was sweaty, which I experienced when I tried other flute supports that slipped and touched a key. This is a great point about the Cobra. … Today I found another great advantage of using the Cobra. I played 24 Caprices No. 6 by Paganini. I compared the Cobra and another support for the trills 2D-1Bb and 2Eb-1A and playing 3rd octave G which use the left hand index finger and thumb together. With the Cobra I don’t need to press the flute on my finger to hold it.For that kind of fingering the Cobra is extremely stable – excellent!

~ R.K. Gifu, Japan.