Why are "Native American Flutes" so expensive?

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 3:52 pm

Sorry, Nancy, I really would like to see the pics and story, but...

Definitely nothing against you, but I had to reject a half-dozen cookies before being requested to sign in, complete with my email address, into some Sony joint. Thanks, but no thanks

Being paranoid doesn't mean no-one follows you in the street...

McHaffie · Post by **McHaffie** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 6:21 am

serpent wrote:John, I finally saw and played one of your whistles at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. What a lovely piece of work!

Folks, McHaffie whistles are definitely back, and they kick ass.

Best to ya, John!
serpent

P.S. I really will make a hoolie! I really will! Really!

P.P.S. Get some damn pictures up on that website, dude! You make a pretty whistle! Show it, f'heaven'ssake!!

Thanks Serp!

Well, McHaffie Whistles are actually gonna be on a whenever I get some made I'll post it status! lol - I did a topic post earlier on that I've gotten to the point that I've given up on my doctor's promises, and I don't like breaking mine, so no more promises to break!

I'm just gonna get a few made up, then package them and THEN offer them up. Hey, it's a love of the whistle, what can I say? I'll never stop making them for sure. One of these days I'll find a way to get ahold of somebody with equipment and all to help me make bodies off of my specs so I can keep away more from the power tools

YOU BETTER MAKE IT DOWN HERE! We need at least one other whistler to kick in here with us once in a while! Not to mention we need to just toss one back and shoot the breeze!

Ya, I gotta get some pictures up this weekend and make it even harder on everyone

Take care. We'll with ya'll later!

John

ihc_ssii · Post by **ihc_ssii** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 2:33 pm

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 47102&rd=1[/img]

NancyF · Post by **NancyF** » Sat Sep 27, 2003 10:16 am

Would someone like to volunteer to host my pictures so Zub can see them? Holler back in a PM, thanks

Nancy

Jerry Freeman · Post by **Jerry Freeman** » Sat Sep 27, 2003 10:23 am

Nancy, you can post them free on Snapfish.com or a similar place. With them posted there, you can even crosslink to them so the pictures appear directly in your messages on this board.

Best wishes,
Jerry

Tyghress · Post by **Tyghress** » Sun Sep 28, 2003 8:28 am

Here are pics of Nancy's NAF. . .

Nancy, to post your pic, what you do is go to the actual pic and right click on it, then choose PROPERTIES. You'll see the address. Copy and paste that into your C&F post, highlight what you just pasted, and click on the IMG box to get the hypertext thingies. Voila!

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Sun Sep 28, 2003 9:22 am

Wow. This IS clean work. Funny how keeping the design simple and streamlined makes--for once--even the feather look all right.

carrie · Post by **carrie** » Sun Sep 28, 2003 1:02 pm

This is only tangentially related to the original topic but maybe worth adding: A few nights ago I heard Bill Miller perform, and for the first ten or so minutes of his set he played NA flutes. He had easily a dozen of them in different keys laid out on two music stands and just switched from one to another as he made his way through a long tone-poem. I was interested to hear that whipping technique often associated with Irish flute playing, as well as chiffy kinds of attacks. There was *so* much reverb that seconds after he put down one flute to pick up another the final note was still sounding sounding sounding. It was a lovely show, though, ending with a tribute to Johnny Cash that included the most entertaining Folsum Prison Blues I've ever heard.

Carol

Post by **Nanohedron** » Sun Sep 28, 2003 1:12 pm

Zubivka wrote:Wow. This IS clean work. Funny how keeping the design simple and streamlined makes--for once--even the feather look all right.

That's the tradition for you. I prefer the simpler looking ones, as they were originally made, for that very reason.

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 2:31 am

Chief Jason Small Drone wrote: That's the tradition for you. I prefer the simpler looking ones, as they were originally made, for that very reason.

That's what I figgered. And why I ordered (whoopee!) my first NA flute. Very trad, that Amon Olorin PF. I gather PF is the code for its wood: Plumber Fir (Polymeria Derrickus). Maybe I'll ornate it with a matching "bird" tie.

Do you think a bungie strap with a herringbone instead of the feather will pay Due Tribute to the Spirit of the Longpast Plankton?

OutOfBreath · Post by **OutOfBreath** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 7:33 am

Y'all might want to check out http://www.butchhallflutes.com

He's supposedly fairly popular with professional NA artists and his shop is in my little town. His flutes run from $25 to $300. I haven't visited the shop, but my son in-law bought one of his basic cedar flutes (about $90, I believe) in Gm. It's got lovely tone, is close to concert pitch, and reasonably easy to play (I find that NA flutes in general are less stable and "slower" than whistles).

Like all NA flutes that I've seen, it's got little more than a one-octave range. I suspect that is why the "blast" is used so frequently in NA music (don't know the proper name for it, it's where you end a phrase by quickly increasing pitch and then drop to silence just as it breaks into the second octave).

In any case, having played both whistle and tooted a bit on my son in-law's NA flute I can say don't expect the flute to play like a whistle. The flute is lovely but the "indirect" windway and relatively large bore/thick walls/deep tone holes are not designed for fast ornamentation and such. Fast rolls come out more as a warbling birdlike sound, for example.

John

Post by **Nanohedron** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 10:11 am

Zubivka wrote:
Chief Jason Small Drone wrote: That's the tradition for you. I prefer the simpler looking ones, as they were originally made, for that very reason.
That's what I figgered. And why I ordered (whoopee!) my first NA flute. Very trad, that Amon Olorin PF. I gather PF is the code for its wood: Plumber Fir (Polymeria Derrickus). Maybe I'll ornate it with a matching "bird" tie.

Do you think a bungie strap with a herringbone instead of the feather will pay Due Tribute to the Spirit of the Longpast Plankton?

Tut, tut, Zubivka. Are we feeling testy today?

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 12:34 am

Nanohedron wrote:Tut, tut, Zubivka. Are we feeling testy today?

No, just tasteless

C'mon, I really enjoy this thread and appreciated all of your advices.

Beside, I don't really live in woodlands, neither in great plains. It will have to be a seaside flute. I actually toyed with the sketch of a Great Wave block, than thought it could be interpreted like I'm from a definetely not NA tribe: surfers

Cyfiawnder · Post by **Cyfiawnder** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 5:11 am

kevin m. wrote:
Chuck_Clark wrote: So WHY are they so costly? Are "Native American Flute" players just suckers?
It's payback time for 500 years of being dispossessed and downtrodden,and 100 years of being misrepresented in Hollywood films!
Any one have the sheetmusic for 'Dances with Wolves'?

(Kevin heads for the hills-pursued by a lynch mob).

To that I would say so what "payback" do us celtic Pagans get for the 1500 years of being downtrodden beaten, drowned, and burned at the stake? Don't forget all the missrepresentation of our history, our Symbols, our beliefs and even our rituals. The word Sacrafice does not mean to kill for the sake of ones god. It in fact has nothing to do with deah at all. To most celtic pagans a sacrfifice is lending to the waters something which you hold dear to your heart. It means to make sacred, look it up

. pagan's are not satanists. Satan is a Christian figure invented to scare people into being subserviant. Pagans are not christian therefore do not believe in the existance of such a being. Any people who claim to be pagan and satan worshipers are wohfully misimformed, and watch TOO MANY DAMN HORROR MOVIES. The movie "Warlock" comes to mind. All these things are well documented yet we continue to see movies were druids wear black and sacrifice virgins to heathen gods, and where Witches ride broomsticks and cause plagues. I know a few Wiccans (and they love their brooms) and all of the hate germs.
I side with the Native americans, having some Native blood myself. They were portaide as savages, it's rediculous. IF someone built a house in my backyard, then burmed down mine. Raped my wife and daughters and killed my friends I'de want to stick a few sharp objects into them too.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 2:35 pm

Well, Cyf (may I call you that?), since it would appear that you yourself must come legitimately from an unbroken lineage that practiced the Old Religion despite the persecutions of 1500 years, I think that you would know that recompense is a moot and probably self-defeating point.

Obviously this is important to you, and I have no such above-stated misunderstandings about matters of your faith, myself. Can you imagine the hordes of ersatz "pagans" popping up like a plague if money were to become involved? Keep in mind that "pagan" is a Christian term, too.

I was just wondering how the topic of NA flutes and all the attendant funning around tie into this.

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