At the time, British players still used the traditional wooden flute, which was blown strongly and with no vibrato. Gilbert recognised that French players such as Marcel Moyse, who played on metal flutes, could produce a far wider range of tone-colour. In 1937 he took lessons from the French flautist René le Roy (and also from the violinist Carl Flesch). With le Roy's encouragement he bought a Louis Lot silver flute, altered his embouchure and articulation, and mastered the use of vibrato to play in what the "Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians" calls "the flexible and expressive French style". According to "The Times", "his subsequent influence on other British flautists was enormous, and the wooden flute was quickly superseded".