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Flute
Building
Flute
builder sources |
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 Chris
Fuqua |
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-Chris
Fuqua, flute builder-
Okay,
I freely admit I'm prejudiced. <g> I love Chris Fuqua's
flutes. There are many flute builders online, and I encourage
you to check them out. But there are several reasons why I
favor the kinds of flutes Chris builds. First, the workmanship
is outstanding. To be fair, the workmanship of my other flutes
by other builders is outstanding as well. However, few flute
builders build bamboo Native American flutes. Bamboo
is a common wood for Japanese flute builders, as we would
expect it to be. But most NA flute builders use Cedar, or
similar woods. (Chris builds flutes from Cedar, as well as
other woods, if you ask him to.) Since bamboo grows in the
US, just as it grows on other parts of the planet, one would
think bamboo would be used more often in the making of NA
flutes. It's not. But Chris takes advantage of this wood and
takes it to a level I personally appreciate. A third reason
I love Chris's flutes is the unique mouthpiece. It's not shaped
like most flute blowing ends. That is, it's not tapered. It's
simply cut off, (like the flute logo on this page). This allows
the player to put his/her lips up against the opening rather
than surround the end with the lips. And this gives the player
more control over the sound. It's difficult to explain, but
once you put your lips to the end of a Fuqua flute you will
immediately understand the advantage of this design.
If you
would like to visit Chris's website, go to--
WINDPOEM
FLUTES
Wanna
hear Chris play? Just click! Beyond,
Forest Murmurs. |
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-Building
a Flute From a Kit-
If
you are the handy type, you may be tempted to build a flute
from a kit. However, you should be aware that building a
flute is quite different from tuning it. Once you have finished
your gorgeous instrument, you will probably be disappointed
to find that your flute doesn't play in tune. (You will
have drilled the holes according to the instructions, but
the flute won't play in tune.) And if you don't know what
the Pentatonic scale sounds like, or, worse, if you don't
know what all the notes in between sound like, (the chromatic
scale), you will have no way of knowing if your flute plays
correctly. You don't have to have perfect pitch to tune
your flute, (perfect pitch being a rarity, even among us
musicians), but you will have to be able to match one tone
to another. But even more important than all of that, you
will have to know how to physically modify each hole in
order to change a note's pitch before you can even hope
to match pitches. And this is the tough part. A cousin of
mine made me a beautiful flute from a kit. But he had no
idea how to tune it. When I tried to play it, the notes
made no sense at all. And I had no idea how to physically
modify the holes so I could tune it. I asked my friend Chris
Fuqua, flute builder extraordinaire, if he would tune it
for me. He tuned it perfectly. But even though the flute
was tuned, the design of the kit-maker didn't deliver a
sweet sounding flute. Instead I got a rather punky sound
that's passsable, but certainly not outstanding, to say
the least. My suggestion is if you like to work with wood,
and if you think you want to tackle tuning it yourself,
go for it. But if you're not sure of the tuning part, arrange
beforehand with a flute builder who will tune it for you.
That way you won't have wasted your valuable time making
a flute you can't possibly play.
So
are flute kits a decent value? Sure. Just be sure you know
what you're getting into before you lay your precious money
down.
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