I hope these self-recorded videos prove interesting. If you’re a new player, the best advice I can offer is to find a local flute circle. Generally speaking, these are groups of folks who simply enjoy playing and talking about Native American style flutes. There are a few good online resources but as with most things, be alert and cautious as there is much misinformation.
Positioning the block (i.e., bird, fetish) on a Native American style flute
Introductory playing tips and suggestions
Flute-Making Overview (~4.5 minutes)
A story about a custom flute project
The following link leads to a presentation about three flutes. It contains a series of photos with audio files created using each of the flutes. It also has some short video presentations recorded to describe each flute’s design. It is just under 13 minutes in length.
Flute 345 – Hurricane Idelia tribute
Flute 345 is Fiddleback Imbuia (southern Brazil). Tuned as an F#, Has a 7/8″ bore and is about 20 1/8″ long. Honduran Mahogany / Wisconsin Beech / spalted Sycamore mouthpiece. This flute was decorated as a tribute to recovery efforts near the Suwanee River in Florida following Hurricane Idalia (2023).
The block features a Honduran Mahogany tree stump (carved, wood burned; Sleeping Beauty Turquoise circle of life; faceted Citrine gemstone) on spalted Sycamore / Eastern Red Cedar.
The bottom end of the flute has Kingman Turquoise representations of trees (intact and upright, bent and broken) over a band of Kingman chips and stone. The high relief Eastern Red Cedar “broken tree” came from a tree felled by Hurricane Irma (2017) near Windsor, FL. Kingman Turquoise accents in relief at bore end. Wood burned accents. The word “Idalia” is wood burned on the back side. 345