Native American flute samples
Scott August's
recordings features Native American flutes.
Read and listen about one of them.
This
is a flute made by Scott Loomis of
Wind's Song flutes. This
flutes sings. It's very responsive to
both tonguing and fingering techniques.
It seems built for soaring melodies.
The tone is clear, smooth and very
clean. Very little wind noise. I really
enjoy playing fast passages and light
syncopated rhythms on this instrument.
We're going to link to two examples of
this flute, both from my latest CD, New
Fire. The first is from track 1 "Heart
of the Sky". This tune is lively and
floats in the higher register of the
flute as well as holding it's own with
the driving rhythms of kalimba and a
tuned Aztec drum. The
other example is also from New Fire, a
song called Ravens & Red-tails. In
this song the tune is more lyrical yet
has the distinctive chirps of the
Native flute, with subtle note bends
and ornamentations. This
flute is 24" long and has a 1" bore. It
was made in 1999. Loomis' flutes are
have very a clean design and are made
with great precision. The finger holes
are of uniform size and evenly spaced.
The tunings is excellent, but at the
time I purchased this flute Scott was
using a non-standard fingering for the
octave. The standard fingering is all
holes uncovered except for the fourth
from the bottom. Wind's Song flutes
finger the octave by covering the fifth
hole from the bottom, not the fourth.
Having said this I use the standard
fingering and Loomis told me he does
too. The same note is produced with
both fingerings with a slight
difference in pitch. One is in tune
with the octave, the other a little
sharp. One
interesting feature about this flute
are the holes at the far end. These
holse are both symbolic and practical.
The vibrating column of air inside the
flute stops at the four holes, so the
placement of the holes plays a part in
determining the over all tuning of the
flute. Symbolically the four holes send
the notes of the flutes to the four
cardinal directions.
It shouldn't surprise you to learn that
this flute is made of cedar.
The block, a beautiful bird is also
made of cedar.
For
more detail photos, audio samples
and information visits
Scott's
Flute
Page
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