Native American Flutes.

 I usually answer this by saying “not physicaly.” But I knew the first time I truly heard the Native flute that my relationship was very deep. It was one of those moments where I knew this was not the first life I had encountered this magical instrument, and probably not the last. I believe I have a spiritual mission to play, produce, and distribute these flutes to the world.

I first encountered the flute in 1986 at a small art festival near Tulsa Ok. Michael Graham Allen or Coyote Oldman had a small display of three or four flutes and some cassett recordings of his music. I bought the music and found myself compelled to listen to them constantly, the sound going deep into my soul. At the time I owned a custom picture framing shop in Tulsa and did work for many Native artists. Through my Native connection I found my flute teacher, Mr. Woodrow Wotoko Haney. We made a flute together and spent time discusing the history and construction details. I believe my time with him was a gift, a blessing to continue to express the passion I was feeling as a new flute maker.

This is a difficult question to answer because I never make just one flute! To keep the cost as resonable as possible I make at least a dozen at a time, a dozen flutes can take a couple weeks to complete. There are over thirty five different steps in my flute making process for each flute, with jig changes and set up for the next step, it really saves time to create in batches.

The main purpose was for the courtship ritual. The begining of a love relationship would start with the brave making his flute with the advice of the elders. He would then compose love songs to be played for the lady of his choice. Her responce would signal her acceptance of his proposal and their life as a couple would begin.

The earliest method I know of involved hand and finger measurments to lay out the holes. I was taught this way and my first couple hundred flutes were tuned using my hands. As I progressed I learned that the notes are in more agreement with each other if they are tuned as a whole. It is widley accepted today that the pentatonic scale is used. It is interesting to note that when I used hand measurments most of my flutes came out very close to that scale. I have used a chromatic tuner for a long time in adjusting the notes, for which I have developed patterns based on the chamber size I am using.

Traditionally the four holes were used to honor the four directions. They are also part of the tunning process as they can be adjusted to bring the lowest or fundamental note into proper tunning.

This is called the fetish or totem. It also was symbolic of the animal clan of the maker. It also functions as the whistle, with either a narrow channel carved on it’s bottom, (like mine) or flat with a whistle plate under it to focus the air flow. My flutes usually have a bird shape which is the shape my teacher Woodrow used for his flutes.

I used a natural finish such as olive oil with carnuba or bees wax on top. I noticed over the years how as the flutes matured the tones were richer if allowed to breath. I put a hard finish on some of my earliest flutes, in fact my teacher sprayed his with lacquer, but I decided to do it differently. Also it seems better for the finish to be non toxic with something you put in your mouth.

The Native style is one of the simplest flutes to play, being a whistle with an easy scale. The more important part is to have an open heart. The real beauty is not the instrument, it must be well made and user frendly, but it is only a channel for your feelings. The most helpful method for playing the flute, besides lots of practice, is to slow down and quiet the mind enough to let the soul come through the heart. This is the authentic beauty of playing the flute or any instrument, to open your spirit for others to hear.