Loving a Challenge

I love a real Challenge, as those who know me could tell you, so I recently challenged myself to make a Flute called a "Drone Flute" which is a double barreled flute , one side having the 6 fingering holes to play the melody with and the side opposite of it having only one fingering hole which is placed on the underside of that barrel to be fingered with the thumb of the left hand thus allowing it to produce two harmonic notes.

The real challenge is in the layout and making of this type of flute and then shaping it so that both barrels can be played together or just the melody side by either placing part of the tongue over the drone side blow hole or the edge of the mouth for just the melody side or blowing both sides at the same time for the drone side to play along with the melody side.


I have been working on this new flute for several days now and will soon have it finished, within the next few days, and then I will post a couple photographs of it.

This flute is made from Aromatic Red Cedar in two pieces that are 3/4 inches thick by 2 inches wide and are routed out with side by side fast air chambers and sound chambers separated by only one eighth of an inch and then the routed out areas sanded very smooth and then the two side firmly glued together, all fingering holes drilled and then given the final shaping of the flute and then the fingering holes tuned by changing the size of each hole to bring it into tune, then given a good coat inside and out of Tongue Oil to seal the wood and protect it from moisture created when playing, all hand rubbed, and then given a couple coats of Johnson's Paste Wax for long range protection and buffed to a soft glow.

Check back to see the Final "Drone Flute" when I post it.

Several people have said "I bet the flutes must sound wonderful" well when you come to my blog, the music that you first hear when coming on is the Native American Flute being played, has a sound all it's own, this flute is also called the "Love Flute" as it was traditionally played by a young Native man to woo his sweetheart into accepting his proposal of marriage to him, after asking her father and family for her hand and meeting any and all requirements of gifts etc.