Whistle Siting

Whistle
1

:astonished:
Over the Christmas weekend I visited an old friend who is a musician. We were sitting around the table conversing when I mentioned I am learning the penny whistle. He told me he had two native american flutes.

The mouth piece on both was perfectly round, they were a good inch in diameter, very very light, and had this incredible deep sound to them. One had five holes and the other six. The end of the five hole had four slits cut at even intervals around the whistle measuring about two inches. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me.

2

NA flutes are pretty common nowadays. Like whistles and most anything else they range in quality from “tourist trash” to incredibly lovely instruments. Most of them are in minor keys, and some are pentatonic (probably the case with the five-hole flute you saw). Inexpensive ones are generally not very accurate to any concert pitch though they may or may not be in tune with themselves. Quality ones are available in a variety of concert-pitch keys, the most popular seeming to be A minor and G minor.

There are a number of CDs of music featuring NA flutes available, as well. I own several (CDs, not flutes) and find them quite restful.

Check out http://www.butchhallflutes.com if you’re interested. This is a popular maker in my little home town. My son-in-law has one of his cedar flutes in Gm and it is lovely.

One drawback to the NA flutes is that they don’t overblow well. Most of them will only give you about 1 and 1/3 to 1 and 1/2 octaves. This makes playing most “western” music on them quite challenging.

3

If you want a really cool Native American Flute CD check out Marina Raye. I’ve got one of hers called Womanspirit. It’s all Native American flute with nature sounds and African drum in the background. it is extremely soothing and contemplative. Really good stuff. I heard it first on the new-age channel on satellite TV. Her music was so distinctive that it stuck in my head but I wasn’t sure who it was because I didn’t pay attention. Finally after several months I caught it again and wrote the name down and got the CD.

4

Here is a pic of two Butch Hall flutes. The larger one is in d minor, the other in a minor.

I also have a sound clip if anyone is interested. [http://webpages.charter.net/cooleyclan/NAfluteDm.mp3 [url]

Alcona](http://webpages.charter.net/cooleyclan/NAfluteDm.mp3%20%20[url] Alcona)

5

sigh I’ve barely begun to learn penny whistle and I seem to add a new instrument I wish to learn to my list each month.