Anasazi Flute

[kintailpipes]

I love the sound of this instrument. Is there anyone out here who can tell me more about the instrument. I would very much like to learn to play one and I have seen a few variations of the instrument online. Not sure where to start. Thank you.

[10Thistle]

Check out Scott August at http://cedarmesa.com/ ...he has written a book on it and put out a number of native flute CDs with it and other native flutes...

happy blowing, Evan

[hidancity]

You can check out anasazi dreams Mark Purtill. He makes very good sounding and inexpensive PVC anasazi flutes. They sound great. Coyote Oldman probably the most famous maker and Geoffrey Ellis who makes Scott Augusts flutes. I started with a PVC and then moved up. Not an easy flute for most people unless you already have experience with rim blown flutes.

[AbrasiveScotsman]

It's on my to-do list to buy an "Easy Anasazi Flute" from Erik the Flutemaker at some point.

He has put the whistle-like mouthpiece of a Kiowa Love Flute onto an Anasazi style body. That sounds like something I would enjoy. It always amazes me that two cultures basically invented the whistle independently of one another, 1000 years and 3000 miles apart.

Although I think strictly speaking all of his native american flutes are "native American style". I heard somewhere there is some sort of licensing issue which means you have to have a certain proportion of native American blood before you can apply the label "Native American" to your flutes.

Go figure...

[kintailpipes]

I like Deruby Ez Anasazi
http://www.deruby.com/Anasazi_Flute_J8HV.html
Any thoughts?

[NZGregor]

Hi
This website has photos and measurements of the originals if you would like to make a PVC one.
http://www.flutopedia.com/brokenflutecave.htm

[hidancity]

I have Stephen DeRuby's contrabass drone. Anasazi style. He calls it Big Medicine Flute. Very unique although a bit expensive although I shelled out the dollars.

http://www.deruby.com/Contrabass_Drone_EZ_REACH.html

Definitely a meditative and relaxing flute. But it's a whistle and not an end blow flute. Same with Eric the flutemaker. The rim style flutes of coyote oldman and Geoffrey Ellis are a different playing experience.

The whistle style will give you more volume, more ease of playing but you miss out on the rim blown experience.

The mark purtill pvc is really great for the price. I don't make pvc flutes. I'd rather shell out the few bucks to at least have one that somebody else has perfected.

I just recieved my coyote oldman prayer rock flute which he has on his website. Very difficult flute so if you've never played a rimblown flute expect to take some time to learn how to play it. If you don't have patience, then it's not for you. But very rewarding. These are very quiet but healing flutes.


Coyote Oldman Prayer Rock Flute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAUdrTxxvRE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXFJqoZqPc8

Deruby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L22PZKSD ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHxVpd8kQ_U

Geoffrey Ellis played by Scott August
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01DMrYmhGFA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLioZXdCrjg

Raven Wing Flutes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIbac3DQ ... ature=plcp

[paddler]

I play Anasazi flutes. I have several flutes from Michael Graham Allen (aka Coyote Oldman), several from Geoffrey Ellis (Earthtone), one from Butch Hall, and one Ravenwing flute. I can recommend the flutes from Coyote Oldman and Earthtone very highly. The Earthtone ones have more of a shakuhachi style embouchure and are the easiest to play (and loudest). The Butch Hall one is the hardest to play, and quietest, but closest to the originals. The Ravenwing one has a similar embouchure to the Earthtone flutes. I find the Coyote Oldman flutes to be a nice balance between all of the above, and they are beautifully finished and will last a lifetime. As a beginner I'd recommend starting with a B or Bb. The reach on the bigger ones can be painful. All are relatively inexpensive, so you can get several in the long run if you get into it.

There is a long, but very rewarding, learning curve to playing these rim-blown flutes. For players of transverse flutes it should be fairly easy adapting ... but still expect it to take a while and a lot of practice. Once you start to get the hang of it you'll really enjoy the range of tone and expressiveness, and all the flutes will end up being relatively easy to play. The whole process of learning is really quite similar to learning to play a transverse flute, just that the embouchure is slightly different. I find them easier to play than say kavals or Arab neys, and definitely easier than a Persian ney. Learning to play the modern ones is most similar to learning to play a shakuhachi (especially if you go with one from Earthtone).

I have done a lot of research into the originals and how they were played. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the originals were played using an interdental technique, like a Persian ney, but nobody plays the modern ones that way.

I've made a lot of replicas of the originals from PVC and have learned to play them using various different embouchure styles. Playing interdentally makes them sound quite different. I've also made some replicas with the modern shakuhachi style embouchure. Some of these can be very easy to play .. especially when you shape the blowing edge to match your own embouchure style. Its actually quite easy to make a PVC Anasazi flute, and I would be happy to send some dimensions for those who are interested.

Oh, and by the way, even the name "Anasazi" flute is controversial. Anasazi is a Navajo word for "ancient enemy". The people who originally made and played these flutes (around 1200 years ago) did not just disappear, as is commonly suggested, but migrated from the cliff dwellings to the pueblos. Modern day puebloan indians (such as the Hopi) are their descendants, so a politically correct term for these flutes is "ancestral puebloan flutes". Even this is controversial though, because "pueblo" is of course just a Spanish word for village, and its not as if the conquistadors were exactly friendly to the natives. There are too many different native tribes, each with their own language, to be able to agree on a single native name though. Welcome to the world of native american flutes.

Well, that may be more than you wanted to know.

There are some sound samples on the link below if you want to hear what they sound like (in the hands of an amateur, of course). The definitive CD to buy for these flutes would be Coyote Oldman's "Rainbird". Highly recommended.

Sound Samples

Jon

[hidancity]

Hey Jon,
Very nice write-up. You can never have too much information especially on the history.

I've seen people play the Ney on youtube but don't know much about interdental playing. Could you explain it? You put the flute between your teeth?

I'm making some progress with my Coyote Oldman Prayer Rock but still not consistent. And very very quite.

[paddler]

There are a few slightly different interdental styles, but they basically work by placing the end of the flute inside the mouth with one edge resting between either the two front teeth, or the next two over. The air stream is then directed using the tongue. In one style the tip of the tongue directs the flow onto the splitting edge. In the other, the air is forced between the mid section of the tongue and the roof of the mouth before coming down onto the splitting edge. In both cases the air hits the edge behind the teeth (inside the mouth). You basically hiss the air onto the splitting edge. The mouth remains open and the opening between the lips can be changed drastically to produce a very wide range of tones and effects.

Generally, this style of blowing sounds more breathy, and tends to be louder and more powerful, rather than pure and sweet. The blowing edge of a flute designed to be played like this is not notched, but has a uniform sharpish edge all around. Such a flute can be played shakuhachi style, or obliquely like an arab nay too. The original Anasazi flutes have a blowing edge like this. There are also some exceptions that were notched or flattened on the rim in various ways, but none that I know of that are like the modern versions with a shakuhachi style edge.

Here is a link to a video that illustrates these various playing styles (on a kaval-like flute which has a very similar blowing edge to the original Anasazi flutes. This will let you hear the different sounds as well as see the different embouchures being used. He starts out playing obliquely (arab ney style), then plays interdentally using a couple of different styles, then plays shakuhachi style, then switches back and forth between styles:

DIfferent Embouchures for Rim Blow Flute

Here is another similar video from the same guy:

Nadishana

Kees van den Doel (an excellent Persian Ney player) has some detailed information on the interdental embouchures used to play the Persian Ney:

Kees van den Doel's Persian Ney Page

Its a very different (and I think very cool) sound. I've been trying to learn it myself and can now play a couple of octaves this way on some Anasazi replicas I've made, but I find the higher notes much more difficult than with the shakuhachi or oblique embouchures. It takes a lot of practice hissing, dribbling and drooling to play interdental style, but eventually you figure out how to make a musical sound. Best to practice on a piece of PVC pipe while nobody else is home!

Jon

[hidancity]

This is defiitely something that one can master if they are stranded on a desert island. I bet you if I start practicing to be a concert pianist, I'll have my first audition at Carnegie Hall around the same time I get my anasazi to make a sound with this style.

The other thing my Coyote Oldman Anasazi is a rather thick, cedar I think, so I'm not sure a wood this thick will be easy in this style. Not to mention making teeth mark on the wood. The ney is probably thinner than most bamboo's. And my PVC anasazi has a sizeable notch. That being said, it's worth trying because it does sound louder and might make some interesting music. Have you found any examples of peopel playing anasazi in this style on youtube? Or have you decided to be the first?

[paddler]

Your Coyote Oldman flute is really designed to be played shakuhachi style, although it is possible to play it interdentally or obliquely too. But while you are learning, you probably will do best just sticking to the shakuhachi style. Try to blow really softly. "Blow" isn't really the right word, actually. Its more like gentle breathing than blowing.

If you do a google search for "Hopi flute players" you can find some old black and white photos from around 1900 of Hopi Indians playing these flutes interdentally. The Hopi are direct descendants of the Anasazi. So in answer to your question, no, I'm definitely not the first! I don't know of any modern players who play Anasazi flutes interdentally though. Barry Higgins (Whitecrow Flutes) and I have been doing some research into the originals and how they were played, so we have both been practicing these various ways of playing them. Its a tough learning curve.

In case you are curious what it sounds like, here is a quick and dirty recording of me playing an Anasazi flute using an interdental embouchure. This is played on a close replica I made of one of the original Broken Flute Cave Anasazi flutes (from PVC). It has a very narrow bore (very close to that of the original), which makes it much harder than modern Anasazi flutes to sound in the bottom register shakuhachi style or obliquely. It can however be played interdentally quite easily, as can the modern ones with a wider bore.

In the hands of a good player, I think these flutes could sound really good played this way. Its only been a few weeks since I got my first sound playing this way though, so I'm very new at it. But hopefully, this will give you the basic idea. Its a very different sound:

Anasazi Flute Played with Interdental Embouchure

Jon

[hidancity]

that sounds awesome!! Very expressive. My Mark Purtill pvc has a very large notch so I couldn't put it square against teeth. Would a large notch work that way. I assume he made it that way for ease of use playing it shakuhachi style

[paddler]

A notch makes it difficult to play using an interdental style. Ideally, you need a uniform rim. If a flute has a flat instead of a notch its doable, but the problem is that if you want the air stream to align with the flat, then the finger holes are not aligned where you need them. In other words, the place in the rim where the air stream hits when blowing interdentally is not aligned with the finger holes, whereas the flats or notches that make shakuhachi-style playing are.

Jon