Relax

I've been learning to play the Native American flute, and this has gotten me interested in how they're made, so I've started reading the Native Flute Woodworking group on Yahoo. There is a running dialog on how to make the flutes, how to tune them and how to improve them. Some flutemakers use calculations to place the finger holes, and some do it using the pre-computer methods. Some flutes are carved from a block of wood, and some are carved into a piece of tree branch.

Today I read a post from John Suttles in response to a question about determining hole positions in a branch flute. It pleased me so much I want to reproduce a part of it here:

There seems to be a tendency among many to think the branch flute must, in some way, be made to exacting methods and standards, much like machined flutes. This is not the case. The branch flute is ridiculously forgiving. Forget about making the bore precisely. Forget about repositioning holes because of irregularities in the bore. Forget about sizing holes differently from each other. The branch flute will tune up as exact as you wish with equally spaced and equally sized holes. A few hundred of these made by all the members of the Fallenbranch flute makers proves this.

Relax, take a deep breath, meditate a few minutes, and make the flute as you might imagine the ancients did hundreds of years ago before spreadsheets and computer programs. In this present world of expensive tools, exact math and such, we can get led into traps that take away the magic of just doing it.


Posted by Dave    Blog Tag: Chatter