nasty, brutish, and short

[solarbird]

So it's been a while since I've made a flute, but I got some requests for my work from people who had heard me playing the older ones I'd made, and I'd been wanting to get back into it anyway, so I got this hunk of bamboo I thought was really pretty but hopelessly inappropriate for a flute the last time I played with it and decided I'd see what I could do.

I didn't really expect to get a playable flute out of it, and I really didn't as I don't really consider this one to be a real flute, but it is functionally complete, even if the fingering is nonstandard. His name is Savage, because his range is nasty, brutish, and short.

This is Savage's difficult and cranky song, something I just made up on the fly out of a scale: (MP3) (M4A) It is not a "good take," in any sense, but it does cover just about all the flute can do, which is something.

I've never seen an air column act like this before. The fingering is weird and difficult because it's not standard because the bamboo has this interiour ridge and other weirdness going on, and he's super-cranky about landing finger coverage perfectly, and the tuning is ... problematic. Oh, and playing him makes my left hand hurt. On the other hand, building Savage has taught me a lot. I'll get him bound up tomorrow - I need practice at that again too - and then, hum, well, yeah. Not sure what to do with it then, because while attractive, Savage would be the worst-case flute for a beginner, and of no use whatsoever to someone who knows what they're doing because of the super-limited range.

But it's been a good experience for me, so I'm glad to have had it work.

I guess I need a flutemaking icon. And/or a music icon.

Comments

[emrecom.livejournal.com]

How do you know how far to place the finger holes to create a regular scale?

[solarbird]

Strictly speaking, it's based on the harmonic series. However, to make that easier (and since bamboo characteristics and hole characteristics can blow a simple linear tranformation out of the water - as this flute demonstrates - so you don't have to be that accurate), I have a little piece of elastic I put marks on from a reference, and stretch to appropriate lengths.

[emrecom.livejournal.com]

The size of the hole and the material's density--doesn't that effect intonation?

I think it's really neat that you do this. I'd be a nervous wreck, measuring, making the holes and orrying that when I was done I'd end up with two notes doing whole tones or something.

[solarbird]

Size of the hole matters a lot; it's one of the hole characteristics I mentioned before. Physical characteristics of the opening affect pitch and volume very significantly, and tones/harmonics to a lesser extent, assuming you don't get into things like underburning, where instead of vertical walls, you slant the hole walls to get different behaviour at different octaves, or to try to salvage a really bad hole placement. That plays with tone pretty significantly (and not usually for the better, but if it's all you can do to reach a pitch, it's all you can do to reach a pitch). Thickness of the material matters here, too, since it affects height of the hole area. To add to the fun, holes above affect holes further down, turning them slowly sharper. If you aren't ready for this, it can be a surprise.

Material density is a separate characteristic and kind of independent of the holes involved (except in some cases for height since lower-density flutes tend to need thicker walls than higher-density), which is why a copper flute sounds different to a glass flute sounds different to a bamboo flute to a pvc flute, etc. And that's also why a bamboo piccolo makes a more pleasant solo instrument - to my mind, anyway - than a metal piccolo.

I'd be a nervous wreck, measuring, making the holes and worrying that when I was done I'd end up with two notes doing whole tones or something.
Sure, but on the other hand, if you do that, you've lost a few hours of work and... about two dollars in bamboo. There are worse fates. ^_^

[l-l-u-w-d.livejournal.com]

When I was a lot younger, my dad taught me how to make penny whistles and such with bamboo and such. Sadly, I've long forgotten how to do that, but...it was so satisfying when I managed to get something to work and make a little tune, and was fashioned by my own hands. A longshot from what you have done, but in a sense, I know how it feels. Awesome job!

[solarbird]

Well, it's nice to have learned stuff, but this isn't really what I'd consider a viable flute. It only has one octave and you have to screw with it more than you should have to in order to keep that in tune - the air column really is excessively unstable. But as a learning experience, it's been good. ^_^

[lickingtoad.livejournal.com]

Sweet. I'd be super-interested in learning the process; can you suggest a book? Give advice?

[solarbird]

Mark Shepard's Flutecraft - at least, the older edition - is a bit opaque but covers the high points pretty well and is where I got started. He has a new edition here, which I've never seen in person. According to his webpage, Lark in the Morning (downtown, near Pike Place) carries it, which would be good, so you could look over it and see what you think.

On the other hand, he also has another book called Simple Flutes which I understand is more approachable for the beginner.

[kissare.livejournal.com]

How/where do you acquire bamboo for this type of project? I ask because in the next few weeks Tony and I are tackling the major project of thinning out his bamboo grove. Some of it would be too big for flute-making use, I'm sure, but if any has the appropriate qualities that you look for, I could keep it out of the yard waste pile. I'm not sure yet how to take it from live and green to hard and useful, but could do some research and try to figure it out.

[solarbird]

I usually go to Bamboo Gardens in Bellevue, but really, any source of unsplit - that's the difficult part - dried bamboo will do. What you look for is long distances between nodes, thin walls, and straightness. I've worked with bamboo of all sorts of diametres - Savage is probably the biggest, at an inch and five-eights. Of those that are actually decently playable flutes, I'd say Schitzoid is the biggest, at an inch and three.

[kissare.livejournal.com]

Some of our stuff is up to 3 inches in diameter, possibly even a little bigger - but most of the stuff we'll be thinning out is in the much more reasonably-sized range. I love that you name the flutes. We know what earned Savage its name - what earned Schitzoid its?

[solarbird]

Schitzoid's cracked. ^_^

Cracked while being made, in fact. But it didn't crack all the way through, so, rather than give up on it, I got carpenter's glue and bound it tighter than any flute I've ever bound, and it held together. I still have it.

It's got quite a nice tone, actually. It's not a nimble flute, but it's big and warm.

[kissare.livejournal.com]

Ha! I love it! :)

[solarbird]

And one day, it will explode into a million pieces. ^_^

[kissare.livejournal.com]

Schizoid flute schrapnel!