Making a spirit / Native American flute

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gernreich
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Making a spirit / Native American flute

Post by gernreich »

I've made a spirit flute, but the tone is very breathy / airy. I am hoping to get a mellow warm tone. Can you suggest how I can alter the flute to achieve this? If needed I can replace the cutting edge to improve the tone. The angle is pretty shallow at this time. Perhaps 20 degrees.

Thanks :-D
Last edited by gernreich on Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Innocent Bystander
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Re: Making a spirit / Native American flute

Post by Innocent Bystander »

Presumably you've tried moving the duck towards the windway blade? That is the NAF equivalent of what you would do with a fipple-flute: move the fipple towards the blade. This makes a big difference in the breathiness.

If your windway hole is too long, even moving the duck won't make much difference. You could try poster-putty or similar to shorten the hole, but that's not practical in everyday use. It will indicate the truth (or otherwise) of the proposed solution. It may mean making a new flute. :(
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gernreich
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Re: Making a spirit / Native American flute

Post by gernreich »

Yep, I moved the block/fetish back and forth to maximize the sound. I was concerned that too small of a windway would also create problems so perhaps I over compensated. This is a test/prototype spirit flute. I will try your shortening idea out, thanks!

I have already routered out the whole mouth area once to make changes. I can certainly do it again to test as well. If do I will also try 30 degrees for the windway blade :-)
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Whistling Archer
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Re: Making a spirit / Native American flute

Post by Whistling Archer »

routered !!!!
dont use that word!!

your fipple hole , or whatever you want to call it ,,, in my experience should be 1/4 x1/4 and you want a good degree of angle, I cant say exactly a number . I do it by sight.
If its wider cool ,, if its longer Nto South , forget it . and start another. No matter how far you push your bird up , it wont ever sound right. I made many flutes to learn this stuff.

a wider hole = more volume and IMHO a less compressed tone. I like a smaller as referred to hole.
feel free to pm me, Im kinda burned out on actually making them , but talking someone thru it is still fun.
Steve
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My tunes , if you're interested
gernreich
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Re: Making a spirit / Native American flute

Post by gernreich »

Sorry :-D I do not normally use a router but in this case it is to be able to reuse the same flute body over and over until I get the mouth right, it is a prototype/template so I would not use a "R" on the final one :-D

I was thinking of using the golden ratio :-D 1.618 wide and 1 long. I'll bet that the current mouth is too long. I will be narrowing the windway here in a bit and I will post the results.

I have not mentioned that the spirit flute I made is a Contra-bass flute. It is 36 inches long with a bore cross section area of π (Pi) square inches :-D This is my second spirit flute. The first was a modest 18 inches long and sounds great. Actually I was stunned that my first attempt would sound so good. In fact I gave it to my mother as a gift.
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Re: Making a spirit / Native American flute

Post by gernreich »

I placed in a section of wood to narrow the windway, it helped quite a lot but it is very easy to overblow now. I have not changed the angled lip yet, I think I will take it out and replace it with a 30 degree lip and see how that does. I'd love to buy a contra bass but they are around $450 US
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Whistling Archer
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Re: Making a spirit / Native American flute

Post by Whistling Archer »

gernich ,, your fipple cutting edge should not be super sharp. rather than a blade , more like the thickness of one of those cheapy vinyl 3 ring binders , , not too flat , but not too sharp, wow,, that doesnt help any does it , sorry
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gernreich
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Re: Making a spirit / Native American flute

Post by gernreich »

Wow I always thought sharper --> better. I've seen a drawing on the internet showing a concave lip rather than flat, is that what you meant? Can you attach a drawing maybe? Thanks for continuing to help me :-) If you want to see the first one I made. Here is my youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/carnright
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Whistling Archer
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Re: Making a spirit / Native American flute

Post by Whistling Archer »

Gern,,, fantastic!!! I wish my 10th attempt would have turned out as well as yours.
Ive never seen a flute made w/ the bandsaw cut & a flat bore , but it works.
The fourth hole , if you can get used to it. Instead of having mode 1 or mode 4 ,,, you can have m1 & m4 available to youjust by anchoring either your index on 3 rt hd. or ring f. on 4 left hand. and changing anchors to go between modes.
the uses of both in the same improv. are mostly just tension creaters, but can be used . In a way m4 sounds more "NA Indian " to me. like im dancing around the tepee :D

you did a great job.

Im sorry I cant make a drawing for you, my comp. skills are extremely limited.
beautiful work , and good playing too.
I usually leave the overblows , mostly for a effect , rather than trying to play them,, for me they are too high compared w/ the reat of the tones.

try making , wolf howls,, and bird calls, mourning dove sounds , these are fun & you can incorporate them into your playing.
http://www.youtube.com/user/sjeter61
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gernreich
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Re: Making a spirit / Native American flute

Post by gernreich »

Thanks :-D It was a tablesaw, I misspoke, but I did annotate that in the video. About the fourth hole i totally agree, I bought very "inexpensive" flute and I could not figure out the scale(s), the booklet that came with treated it as one scale, until I used Audacity to get the frequencies of the notes and then I realized it was two interleaved pentatonic scales. No worries about drawings. I found a very cool flute design on this web page http://www.dbeweb.com/kayak/pages/flute.html I am going to give his design a try, except I will be doing a square bore. his ID is 3/4" so my side A will be 21/32

3/4 = diameter
3/8 = radius
area = 3.1415927 * ((3/8)^2) = 0.441786
Side A of square = sqrt(0.4417860) = .664670 = 21/32 + a teency bit.

I did not want to play the overtones but I messed up and so I incorporated them in.... Thanks for checking out my videos, I also looked at yours, man you play a lot of instruments, and play them well! very cool :-D
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Whistling Archer
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Re: Making a spirit / Native American flute

Post by Whistling Archer »

Thanks gern ,, but Im a musical moron. I cant read music , my ear works ok though... If I would stick with one instrument , maybe I would get good someday , but alas,,,. for about 20 yrs I stuck w/ guitar only ,, but hardly ever play it now.
Look forward to your next build.
http://www.youtube.com/user/sjeter61
My tunes , if you're interested
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Daniel_Bingamon
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Re: Making a spirit / Native American flute

Post by Daniel_Bingamon »

[ Thread revival. - Mod ]

Here is a silent video that I made on making Native Flutes using a mini mill.
http://www.youtube.com/user/dbingamon?f ... KlX2-Za3RU

There are many ways to make flutes. This is one of many.
Email - YouTube - Ebay - Website $28 Low-D
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