Birthin' Babies...

To quote Prissy (actress Butterfly McQueen) from

"Gone With The Wind":

"Lawzy, we got to have a doctor. I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!"



Me, neither. At least not the 2-legged varietals...but I did give 'birth' to my first flute since my shoulder dislocation, pictures I had to withold until after Christmas...this was a surpise gift for someone in Texas that, knowing my luck, would have run across it and spoiled the secret.




It is one of my more unusual designs...I make a series of Ugly Boy Flutes called Half-Pipes that are literally half of a round-bore, traditional flute in design...flat bottoms with a semicircle bore in the flute body. Zero loss in sound quality, just a less expensive option for those that need one.

But you can glue two bodies on either side of the flat bottom and have the makings for a dual-chambered flute called a drone...with the barrels being kinda sorta like half flutes, an over-and-under Half-Pipe drone is like a regular version of a flute, only a little fatter thanks to modified bore ratios that I will NOT venture into here.

The bottom 'drone' side has no holes, but through gentle breath manipulation will play the fundamental 'drone' note or it's overblow note one octave higher; the top bore/playing barrel is a 6-hole keyed pentatonically (standard fare on today's Native American style flutes).


This flute is a mid-range G and about 23" long overall...and each barrel has it's own blowhole so you can separate playing the two if you wish. However, given the size of this flute, the over-under mouthpiece design is just too large to be comfortable...works fine on smaller, higher key flutes, but not this puppy. So I added a section (dark brown, Walnut) that rotated the blowholes into a horizontal format, and offset the playing barrel for ease of performing.


The main wood is Quilted Maple from Oregon; the heartline is mahogany, as is the mouthpiece and fetish blocks covering the airways. The little mountain scene at the end/foot of the flute is partly aesthetic to represent western NC and partly functional as it helped to slightly drop the pitch of the playing barrel to more closely match the drone barrel pitch.

Next on the list is a very special flute that has been commissioned by Charlotte Country Day School, with a due date of February 7. A beauty this one will be, in curly maple, figured walnut (lighter sapwood, unusual), and figured cherry...sounds like another blog entry for another day!

Speaking of another day, enjoy yours!