DOGWOOD BRANCH FLUTE
HIGH F (VERDI) 6-HOLE
I'm really liking the dead Dogwood branches I've found at this one place. I had already cut this branch in half and glued it before I realized I should take a picture of it. Too, just because someone had suggested it one time, I glued up the flute and then used lots of cheap electrical tape to hold it together instead of my army of clamps I normally use...(I greatly prefer clamps!)
In the picture, the mouthpiece is to the left and the exit holes to the right...the block and sound board area sits just to the right of the knob area, top left. Again, just a good ol' dead branch I picked up where I walk Mercy sometimes, with one significant crack/split that runs the length of much of the bottom of the flute.
First, the finished pictures of the whole critter (click on pics to enlarge). It's approximately 24" long...the SAC (slow-air chamber you breathe into) is about 9" long, 1" for the sound board area, and about 14" for the barrel. As you will see, there are getting to be what are my trademark tuning holes making this a short playing barrel, holes that I really like creating as they add another artistic flare to what is a truly unique flute...
It's in the key of high F (Verdi tuning), which explains the rather tight and staggered spacing on the 6 playing holes...interesting, too, to see a decent size flute play such a high key (the earlier Dogwood branch flute post was in the key of B, significantly lower but the same overall length. All a function of bore diameter and length of the 'musical' barrel, up to the tuning holes)...
Now, it just so happens that I've tuned all my branch flutes to Verdi frequencies...probably won't keep that up, however with this flute I didn't put it to a tuner until I took these pictures just yesterday (notice I've not even signed the flute yet). One reason why I didn't care about knowing the key is I make flutes for the joy of making them...I let this come into its own voice, and it's beautiful.
Consider the 'normal' A440 tuning that we all hear in virtually any music today...a note can be sharp or flat, sort of in between notes...however, that is basically where the Verdi frequencies are, the quarter-tones in between A440 notes. Sooooooo....putting those two ideas together, when I tune a flute, it's either going to be nicely in an A440 scale or an A432 (Verdi) scale. A bit simplified, but you get the idea...which is why I decided to let this flute (and a crop of others) come into their own voices and let their keys be what they are.
"Ooooh, I'd like a flute like that in high D#...can you make one?" Could, if I had the right piece of wood, I guess...but with these branch flutes I don't want to force the bird to land in any key tree, so I don't take such orders on. They are what they are...and this one has some neat details in it...
This is my tuning hole group...I cut the first one closest to the end (right) and check the flute's fundamental...through experience I can just tell if it's too low by the qualities of the root note. So I cut another....then another...until I found a really sweet, strong note that 'spoke' to me.
In the earlier Dogwood branch flute post I mentioned, I cut it along its major crack line and discovered some inherent problems compounded by doing that. For this flute, I cut the branch in half on a plane perpendicular to the large crack. I could have done the ol' cedar dust and runny CA glue trick as before to fill it in, but I felt like adding a splash of color this time. It's actually green Malachite, but I didn't compensate for the blue-shift in the shaded area I photographed in late yesterday...
The boring insect 'designs' made for neat patterns...this one the letter "V" which I'll say is for Verdi...the crack did go all the way through to the inside of the barrel I carved out, so I put a layer of thick CA glue on the inner opening to give me a base to pour in the crushed stone and powder from the outside.
The 'foot' of the flute is neat in that I opened up the two holes at the split...and learned the hard way that when you work with a flex-shaft power carving tool that you canNOT let the cutter head hit two surfaces at once, lest you eventually break the inner shaft from the resulting sudden torque and chatter when you get too tightly in on an area (should have gone to a smaller bit instead of one that was only a tad smaller than the hole).
"Hey, Bob, sounds like you broke the shaft!?!"
Yep. You live and learn, and I found a couple of affordable shafts on-line, now en route to me as I type. While I use a Wecheer, I've been told it's even a problem for the much pricier Foredoms...basically any flex shaft carver. They have powerful motors turning a core-shaft of tightly wound wires, and if the bit gets stopped hard by the material you are working on, the motor keeps turning briefly until the wire stops it...only if you do it repeatedly, the wire breaks. learned a lot in that lesson of a few days ago, I did...
HIGH F (VERDI) 6-HOLE
I'm really liking the dead Dogwood branches I've found at this one place. I had already cut this branch in half and glued it before I realized I should take a picture of it. Too, just because someone had suggested it one time, I glued up the flute and then used lots of cheap electrical tape to hold it together instead of my army of clamps I normally use...(I greatly prefer clamps!)
In the picture, the mouthpiece is to the left and the exit holes to the right...the block and sound board area sits just to the right of the knob area, top left. Again, just a good ol' dead branch I picked up where I walk Mercy sometimes, with one significant crack/split that runs the length of much of the bottom of the flute.First, the finished pictures of the whole critter (click on pics to enlarge). It's approximately 24" long...the SAC (slow-air chamber you breathe into) is about 9" long, 1" for the sound board area, and about 14" for the barrel. As you will see, there are getting to be what are my trademark tuning holes making this a short playing barrel, holes that I really like creating as they add another artistic flare to what is a truly unique flute...
It's in the key of high F (Verdi tuning), which explains the rather tight and staggered spacing on the 6 playing holes...interesting, too, to see a decent size flute play such a high key (the earlier Dogwood branch flute post was in the key of B, significantly lower but the same overall length. All a function of bore diameter and length of the 'musical' barrel, up to the tuning holes)...
Now, it just so happens that I've tuned all my branch flutes to Verdi frequencies...probably won't keep that up, however with this flute I didn't put it to a tuner until I took these pictures just yesterday (notice I've not even signed the flute yet). One reason why I didn't care about knowing the key is I make flutes for the joy of making them...I let this come into its own voice, and it's beautiful.
Consider the 'normal' A440 tuning that we all hear in virtually any music today...a note can be sharp or flat, sort of in between notes...however, that is basically where the Verdi frequencies are, the quarter-tones in between A440 notes. Sooooooo....putting those two ideas together, when I tune a flute, it's either going to be nicely in an A440 scale or an A432 (Verdi) scale. A bit simplified, but you get the idea...which is why I decided to let this flute (and a crop of others) come into their own voices and let their keys be what they are.
"Ooooh, I'd like a flute like that in high D#...can you make one?" Could, if I had the right piece of wood, I guess...but with these branch flutes I don't want to force the bird to land in any key tree, so I don't take such orders on. They are what they are...and this one has some neat details in it...
This is my tuning hole group...I cut the first one closest to the end (right) and check the flute's fundamental...through experience I can just tell if it's too low by the qualities of the root note. So I cut another....then another...until I found a really sweet, strong note that 'spoke' to me.
In the earlier Dogwood branch flute post I mentioned, I cut it along its major crack line and discovered some inherent problems compounded by doing that. For this flute, I cut the branch in half on a plane perpendicular to the large crack. I could have done the ol' cedar dust and runny CA glue trick as before to fill it in, but I felt like adding a splash of color this time. It's actually green Malachite, but I didn't compensate for the blue-shift in the shaded area I photographed in late yesterday...
The boring insect 'designs' made for neat patterns...this one the letter "V" which I'll say is for Verdi...the crack did go all the way through to the inside of the barrel I carved out, so I put a layer of thick CA glue on the inner opening to give me a base to pour in the crushed stone and powder from the outside.
The 'foot' of the flute is neat in that I opened up the two holes at the split...and learned the hard way that when you work with a flex-shaft power carving tool that you canNOT let the cutter head hit two surfaces at once, lest you eventually break the inner shaft from the resulting sudden torque and chatter when you get too tightly in on an area (should have gone to a smaller bit instead of one that was only a tad smaller than the hole).
"Hey, Bob, sounds like you broke the shaft!?!"Yep. You live and learn, and I found a couple of affordable shafts on-line, now en route to me as I type. While I use a Wecheer, I've been told it's even a problem for the much pricier Foredoms...basically any flex shaft carver. They have powerful motors turning a core-shaft of tightly wound wires, and if the bit gets stopped hard by the material you are working on, the motor keeps turning briefly until the wire stops it...only if you do it repeatedly, the wire breaks. learned a lot in that lesson of a few days ago, I did...
Well, that's all for now. I've also been salvaging older flutes that were collecting dust, unfinished for some technical design or musical issues, and have had good successes 'repairing' them. Been kinda sorta like the old adage I'm reminded of..."There are no 'problems', per se, just opportunities for solutions."
Have a blessed day, all y'all!
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