My Flute Journey

I first held and played a Native American style flute in December 2018. It was after I returned to England from India, after being there for nearly two years. I was living in Bristol and a friend of mine, Jake, had just returned after a year in Australia. It's funny how life flows, as I find myself in Australia writing this. Jake had a bamboo Native American flute with him that he'd made in a workshop with a Canadian flute maker in the Northern Rivers, New South Wales. I wish I had a photo of it, it was so plain and modest with a beautiful voice. I fell in love instantly.

The next month I was back in India and I tried my hand at making a Native American style flute using a pocket knife and a 50 rupee hacksaw I bought from a hardware store. I used the most informative Youtube video I could find and failed miserably. There just wasn't enough information in the tutorial and little did I know how complex the Native American flute sound mechanism is.

The Ganges in Rishikesh

I decided to go to Rishikesh to stay in an Ashram I stayed in the year before and spend some time in the foothills of the Himalaya. After dropping off my bag in the little room, I walked out into the courtyard to meet some of the others staying there. The first person I met was a man in his forties with long dreadlocks, he introduced himself as Sai, and told me he's an instrument maker and is giving free flute making workshops.........

The view into the courtyard from my room

Sai saw I was eager to learn and was very patient with me. He took me bamboo shopping at the local scaffolding shop and showed me what to look for. The crafting part didn't need much explaining as it comes naturally to me but I had a lot to learn about music - scales, frequencies, intervals, tuning and most importantly how to play the flute because you need to be able to play one to make one.

The first flute I made

After six months in India I went to northern Thailand for a couple of months. I met another maker there and we rented a house together in the jungle, foraging for suitable bamboo and making flutes. We even found an abandoned bee hive and rendered the beeswax from it to finish the flutes with. 

I had compiled a small tool kit of files, drill bits set in bamboo handles and a hacksaw

With the foundational knowledge that Sai had taught me, I tried my hand at making Native American style flutes again. I had been making Quenas and Bansuris for around four or five months now... so it was about time. I found more resources online about the Native American flute sound mechanism and was successful in making my first Native American style flute! It sounded okay and was in tune but I still had a long way to go.

The first Native American style flute
I found my way to Melbourne, Australia in August 2019 and had access to a workshop. I kept honing my skills on bamboo, making small adjustments to different variables in the sound mechanism to get a feel for different ways the voice of the flute could be adjusted. I got to a point where I was comfortable to sell my flutes and started having a stall at St Andrews market every Saturday morning. I even met somebody who had a flute made by the Canadian flute maker who my friend Jake had met in northern New South Wales. It was great to see one again in person and I learned so much from inspecting it closely. The next step was to make a wooden one.
The Redwood forest in Warburton, Victoria

I visited the Redwood forest in Warburton at the end of 2019. The rangers clip the low branches in the grid section to keep it aesthetically clean and they leave them in rings throughout the forest. I picked out a few and brought them home.


This feels like a good place to stop this post because making my first wooden flute was the start of the next leg of my journey. Thank you for reading and enjoy the day.

Adrian

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