A couple questions for the gang. Does anyone here have any experiences (good or bad) with using a Native American flute with ITM or Traditional-style tunes? Also, more generally, if I’m to buy a flute of any stripe, what key should it be in, or does it matter?
Cheers!
Don’t buy a NAF for ITM. If you want to go bamboo, get a bamboo flute made by Patrick Olwell, then it will be in tune and sound great.
Key of D.
I have a really gorgeous Native-style flute made by hippies from Nelson, but there’s no point trying to play trad on it. The scale is do, sol, ti, do re or something like that. (But minor-ish.) The point is, you don’t get enough notes to play ITM. But they have a really unique and haunting quality that can be a lot of fun in an empty swimming pool or the bottom of a well.
i have a native american cedar flute. lovely intrument, lovely sound. but probably only suitable for trad sessions if you and all your session mates are smoking the payote or tripping on acid.
although i hear michael gill busts out the native american flute on a regular basis at his session, to the delight of everyone.
michael plays an especially good version of “tripping” up the stairs on the native american flute.
Thanks for the input. I contacted Patrick Olwell, (as Eliot suggested) but he replied and said that he wouldn’t be able to supply one of his bamboo flutes until at least April, and he didn’t sound very convinced of even that…
Apparently, you can get NAF’s in Dmajor, so I might try one of those, as I can get one relatively inexpensively (About $60). I hear they are easier to play than standard flutes, and I like the haunting, mellow tone as opposed to the brighter sound of some of the whistles.
dont be surprised when you get booed out of a session.
Who said I was taking it to a session?
haha. well, since you’re not. go right ahead!
I have a beautiful bamboo NAF in E flat - in some ways I find it harder to play than my Cotter standard. It doesn’t need quite so much puff but to get the lovely haunting sound it takes quite an adjustment of my embouchure. I definitely wouldn’t take it to a session (not only cos it’s in E flat but the sound would just seem all wrong) though I do like playing slow airs on it.
If you want a decent flute in the $60 range, check out the ones made by Doug Tipple. He sells them on eBay, and they have been very well recieved on the Chiff and Fipple flute chat list. I have one of his early non-tunable models, and it has quite a decent sound. His new ones are supposed to be even better, and are supposed to work well in sessions etc.