June's New Flutes

New Flutes

Here are my two newest flute projects. The first one is in cedar in high B (bird is still pending). The wood actually used was salvage from Paul’s house siding. Thanks Paul! The other flute is done in “urban pine” or the PVC mentioned in a previous post (Am), Thanks Bob! While the cedar flute looks better I have to say that the Am plays better at this point thanks to Bob W. for the great formulary for finger hole placement and size. Tuning the really small flutes is a great challenge and this high B was no exception. The number 1 hole, closest to the mouth end, is very tender and easily overblown – throwing it out of tune. Besides that with the smaller bore size my finger holes proved to be tiny. More prototyping is clearly in order to get the results and my friend has been very accommodating in allowing me to tinker and try to figure it out.

This months meeting will show off these flutes and possibly others. I hope to have a few WV members that are interested in more flute-making help me assemble 12 of these Am flutes for sample flutes to be made available to the Timber Flute Festival participants. June 28, our lunchtime flute workshop will feature Stuart Hill and me getting other wood flute players feet wet with the NAF. To do this we’ll need Stuart’s great playing skills and my fearlessness before a crowd. We’ll also need a bunch of flutes in the same key for folks to try and Bob’s design is so good that I am going to try to show our members how to make them… Then try to teach Irish flute players to play them at month’s end. We’ll let you know how that goes.

The entire schedule for the Timber Flute Festival is now online and can be seen here (printable in PDF too):

http://www.randolpharts.org/flutefestival3.html

If you have not been to Stuart Hill’s web site his link is on your right. He is a very warm and approachable person who is very talented as a player and has spent years honing his skills. Check him out on line and come out to meet him June 28 when he presents in Elkins.

I encourage everyone to attend Timber Flute Festival and mix it up with the other wooden flute folks to see what else we can learn from them. Besides very interesting instruments and beautiful music the Irish, Baroque and Boehm Flute has something very important to offer NA style Flutes. A long and successful history of preservation and advancement of the wooden flute and advancement in technology applied to their instrument. IMHO, the NAF is in a type of renaissance and beginning to undergo the same levels of research, and innovation that will be required to further popularize it. All enthusiasts owe a great deal to First Nation peoples that brought the world this type of flute. We are also indebted to the generation of innovators who in the mid 20^th century brought this instrument back to attention and vibrancy when it had been nearly lost. Now in the early part of the 21^st century with so many flute-makers, professional musicians playing NA style Flute, and new enthusiast groups cropping up (present company included) the trick is to make sure we are not “playing in a vacuum”. Rather we need to take some energy from what we love about this musical tradition and learn from other traditions about what they know, share our tradition with them and incorporate successful elements of preservation from outside that will bring NAF to everyone who may need it, or need to hear it. Many folks already to this well and Timber Flute Festival will simply be another great chance to learn in this way. I’ll step off this box now.

Our next meeting will be in the great hall at RCCAC, the link to the arts center is on your right. Well be playing from 1-3pm Saturday June 9 – can I say WHEW, I am glad we missed the June holiday there! Mother’s Day was bad enough for attendance (GRIN)

Until next time -