Over time various cultures have developed a variety of bamboo flutes pipes whistles and general noisemakers.
Native american bamboo flute making.
Below is a picture of an ancient territories native american style flute that i have cut in half lengthwise.
Marking out the positions for the finger holes.
Select and harvest the bamboo.
You should recall the table with measurements for each key bore diameter and width of the sound chambers.
The natural hollow culm of this giant grass makes it perfect for making woodwind instruments.
Top to bottom 1 7 16 inches.
You can carve intricate designs on the wooden surface to give your flute a more native american feel.
Store prepare and cure the bamboo.
Walter ben hunt s plans.
It is tied on with elastic cord usually red or black with beads attached.
Plans for making native american flutes.
Remove the tape and using sandpaper make the holes smooth.
Below you will find several items both helpful to making your own native american flutes as well as great example flutes to use as a starter into the understanding of how they are made.
They were published by walter ben hunt 1888 1970 in and later in.
This page provides some plans for making native american flutes.
Bore 6 more holes on the other plane of the flute.
A 3 4 inch bore is used on native american style flutes in the key of b and c side to side at maximum width 1 9 16 inches.
Make and put in the mouthpiece.
Bore diameter and length is available in this article.
These two pages provided the starting point for many flute makers of the early 1970s.
The fipple or bird on these flutes see photo below is made of curved bamboo to give the flute a streamlined outer edge making easy to pop into a bag or backpack.
Partly due to the simplicity of the plant itself bamboo instruments are extremely easy to make and make well at that.
When making a bamboo flute in native american style the first thing to do is to define the key we want.
Simple bamboo recorder side blown flute shakuhachi flute native american flute or bamboo sax.