Native American Bamboo Flute Making

Position and drill the sound holes.
Native american bamboo flute making. Walter ben hunt s plans. It is tied on with elastic cord usually red or black with beads attached. With this table in mind look at your bamboo how thick is it on the outside. You should recall the table with measurements for each key bore diameter and width of the sound chambers.
Marking out the positions for the finger holes. Top to bottom 1 7 16 inches. Bore diameter and length is available in this article. Work with the bore shaping sanding sealing and oiling.
Bore 6 more holes on the other plane of the flute. This page provides some plans for making native american flutes. Over time various cultures have developed a variety of bamboo flutes pipes whistles and general noisemakers. 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.
You can carve intricate designs on the wooden surface to give your flute a more native american feel. When making a bamboo flute in native american style the first thing to do is to define the key we want. The natural hollow culm of this giant grass makes it perfect for making woodwind instruments. They were published by walter ben hunt 1888 1970 in and later in.
These two pages provided the starting point for many flute makers of the early 1970s. Simple bamboo recorder side blown flute shakuhachi flute native american flute or bamboo sax. Store prepare and cure the bamboo. Select and harvest the bamboo.
Make and put in the mouthpiece. Partly due to the simplicity of the plant itself bamboo instruments are extremely easy to make and make well at that. 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. Plans for making native american flutes.