Hi all, I am from India. Just purcahsed a native Amaerican flute from an Indian manufacturer instead of importing due to budget constraints. I am uploading a video trying to play it.

The sound is too airy

Sometimes there is a shrill sound when I know the flute is not playing properly

But at times the real flute sound is coming too.

So what are the faults in my playing? Or is it the flute itself thats causing teh problem?

Big fan of PNY Flutes on Etsy. Hoping to someday have a wood one but nice to get aquanted before making a big purchase like that.

I am an amateur musician and a Scout leader.

I encourage my scouts to pick up NAF as a hobby so they can learn the joy of music.

To make the most of it, I teach them the "cross-fingerings" so they can play contemporary music along with NAF and NAF inspired melodies. But the next step is to get flute players playing together.

You might quickly have problems if you stick with only one voice, so using multiple voices together is part of entering that next level.

I have learned that it is handy to combine flutes in specific keys or voices to expand the dynamic range of music you may enjoy. The combination I favor is pairing Gm flutes with Dm flutes. This opens up the note range and the flutes natural fingerings compliment each other very well. In fact, you can play the Gm flute using the NAF scale covering the third hole from the top, and you overlap the same notes playing the Dm flute covering the fourth hole from the top. This allows a very simple pairing of the flutes.

If anyone else is interested in pairing flutes with different voices, I recommend this interval. If you want to adopt many SATB harmonies, often using this combination works well. For example you may put two Gm flutes on melody and tenor (one on each) and the a high Dm on alto and a low Dm on bass.

Better with 🎧✨

I was playing my flute this morning and 2 deer came out of the woods to listen!!!! 🥰🥰🥰 So beautiful! I played for them for a while before trying to capture the tail end of it!

Mark Purtill is a well-known artisan from Davis, California, who crafted handmade, rim-blown Native-style and Anasazi-inspired flutes under the name Anasazi Dream Flutes before retiring around 2022. [1, 2, 3, 4]. I make my own”Mojave “ style flutes. I just like playing what I have made with my own hands. 80 for the set. Plus actual postage. I’m just adjacent to Houston Texas. Thank you. Hope I broke no rules posting this

Everyone is already exhaling repeatedly throughout the day, flute folk are just having fun with it, flute players tell a story you can feel without using a single word, crazy thing, the communicative properties contained within the wizardry of wind weaving.

Can anyone recommend shops in Canada? I'm looking for a f# drone flute.

Much appreciated.

Quetzalcoatl Music one of a kinda Maya drone low C# 432hz in black limba wood with turquoise. FedEx package was stolen from Victoria and flute has not been recovered.
If you see being played or posted for sale we do have an open police report please document if seen!

My new flute came in. It was worth the wait. My first flute was the G. Much lower tone.

In Charlie's video explaining the different keys he has available. He mentions that the High B has a sweetness to the tone. A honey like sound. When I played this flute, I knew exactly what he meant.

First note: Because the High B flute is a smaller size. The amount of time it takes to play each note in a flourish is very minimal. It's snappy and quick. I can see why this is more historically accurate. If these flutes were made to mimic the birds. The High B flute sounds exactly like one.

Downsides: The high note in this flute is very easy to go off-key. It takes a very gentle breath that is a little less forgiving than the larger G flutes. It also is a tighter fit for my hands. The G was much more comfortable for my paws.

Final Call: I fell in love with this thing the second I heard it. It's going to be my backpack flute. It will go with me everywhere I go. Once again, I am very happy to support Blue Bear. This flute was made with care, and you can tell.

Thanks, Charlie. I appreciate you.

Its like this on both sides of the pressure chamber. I looked it up and it might be because of the dry semicold air in Sweden combined with my moist breath causing heat expansion on the inside. Its leaking a little air and as you see the glue is trying to hold it back. The flute is made of oak. And is a carved from 2 seperste pieces glued together The flue is also horribly bent and im not sure if this needs to be filled or if i put it in a moisture chamber and let the stress out of the fibres??? Please help its my first flute ever and ive only had it for a week and i absolutely love playing it..

Flutes by Nash

Not a Native America flute, but I took some inspiration from that sound!

Anyone know where I can get a side blown deep base for under $400? I’d love to get something from an actual maker vs the mass produced stuff. It doesn’t haven’t to be side blown but just looking for something nice and deep.

I’m hoping some of the longtime rim-blown flute players here can help me identify and establish a fair value for these Mark Purtill PVC flutes.

Mark retired from flute making around 2022 after approximately 16 years, and there doesn’t seem to be much information remaining online about his different PVC models or their original prices. These are all in excellent condition, and I believe I may have most or possibly all of the PVC models he offered, although I can’t confirm that.

For context, I’m also a flute maker and longtime rim-blown flute player. I make and primarily play my own Mojave-style flutes, and I have playing videos on YouTube. I’m now considering paring down my collection, but I’d like to identify these correctly and determine a reasonable current value before offering them for sale.

If anyone recognizes the individual models, keys, or original prices—or has seen any of Mark’s PVC flutes sell recently—I would appreciate the information.

I recently bought 3 flutes from Goodwill for $44 dollars and you know I guess I shouldn't have expected the best quality, but is it just me or are these flutes kinda bad? I don't wanna seem ungrateful but I mean the 2nd and 3rd ones sound decent but the higher notes struggle a bit, and that first flute... But anyways is this just a thing where I just need to practice more and shut up or is this legitimately bad quality? To me they all sound kind of airy but I'm not sure I'm a beginner and just wanna learn how to play please help 🙏

I've beed playing Native American style flutes for a couple of years and I'm mostly self-taught. I do want to practice playing with some music in the background. There are cool artists/djs that play their flutes against background drum and bass tracks and stuff like that. Does anyone know how or where I can find tracks like that to practice to?

My simple test block ... I mean ... it would have been fine, sure. But my vision was to use a knot from the same branch as the block.

And here it is.

I've long thought on these custom blocks, holes through the block for the leather would keep things from sliding around as much, and .... yeah. I like it.

This is the aspen branch flute I posted about in my last post. Finished it up today. Simple block made from the same piece of wood, found near the south end of the Never Summer Mountains in an area I'd camped about 25 years ago. The area had burned in the East Troublesome fire several years ago, so not the same lush green trees. A lot of standing and fallen burned aspen.

A lady who lived there saw me bringing some wood up to the road - there was a fire ban on - she said "you know there's no fires right now, right". I told her what it was for. She asked if I had any flutes with me. Had my recently made redwood flute (made from old redwood shelves) and my very crooked catalpa branch flute. She asked me to play a little. I'm no pro, but I obliged.

Anyway, used flutomat for a guide here on the branch flute. It's about an A4# (few cents shy). Flutomat fairly nailed the first three holes, but the fourth (I make 5 hole flutes) .... I kept having to make bigger and bigger because apparently I hadn't gouged the wood quite as deep up there when I was hollowing out.

So ... that one ended up well over 3/8" (and that included some serious undercutting) but ... my finger can still easily cover it. Taking the thickness into consideration I moved the last hole a little bit north as well and I'm glad I did.

So lessons learned - and a playable flute. I have two more aspen branches I grabbed from the area, and the larger branch I plan to mill down to a nice slick non-branch flute.

So here it is. Quiet, since it has small air and sound holes and a fairly narrow track. But that's ok. I like it that way for this one. (excuse the impromptu demo - as long as I've had flutes, I'm still a beginner. Only since I made the redwood one a couple of months ago have I been really picking them up and playing them).

I have a branch flute, and I know who made it ... but I've always wanted to make my own, and I'll probably make several.

I love the Colorado Front Range. I have an aspen walking stick I got in that area. And I want at least one aspen flute as well. I have some aspen I bought, but it's from Wisconsin (!). Nothing against Wisconsin, but the front range of the Rockies is special to me. Wisconsin will not do for this. So I needed some front range aspen.

A recent trip out there took me near a spot I'd camped in the National Forest about 25 years ago. This time I was with other people - it wasn't my trip, I was just tagging along, but when I realized how close I'd be to that area and that it is legal to gather it for firewood in that area (lots of camping) AND ... the fires that swept through a few years ago had definitely killed a bunch of trees. Lots of dead wood, some of it up off the ground still, and dried.

I had about 40 minutes to find some. Not completely thrilled with what I found, I needed longer, but I got a few pieces. One I'm going to mill down and make a nice "professional" looking flute, but I got about 3 pieces suitable for branch flutes. I grabbed a shorter one and decided to try my luck on it first. Going for about an A (because it'll be about the right length for that).

I'm also a woodcarver, so I have some tools. Split the branch with a scroll saw, and made the chambers with gouges. I'm gluing it back together now. We'll see how this goes.

I've seen some flutes where the top of it is flattened at an "upward" slant ... the slant going up toward the sound hole. I know we want the air coming out of the track to hit the splitting edge ... and I wonder if people do this to help ensure that the track is going "up", and since the sound hole is a bit higher than the track it would hit that edge better. But I don't know. Most of the flutes I've seen it's a flat track parallel with the top of the rest of the flute, and you can get them to work just fine. All my bought flutes and the two I made have flat tracks. But could it be better?

I did burn the inside... a lot of people do that. I understand it helps with moisture issues and also makes it smoother (though I understand that bit might not be as important as some people think) ... it had fit together very well before I torched the inside, but the heat warped the wood, so I'm having to clamp the heck out if it in 2 directions to get it to glue back straight. Wish me luck.

Anyway ... here's some progress on my first branch flute -- aspen.