New Flutes

I have started a new group of Native American slyle flutes. And, I am faced with the challenge of taking my flute making skills another step up the evolutionary ladder. It's that way for me - what keeps it fresh and challenging - to be always pushing the edge of the envelope of knowledge and skill a little farther. And, it's not only about knowing how to apply my accumulated knowledge to make a better flute. It's also about bringing the best in myself to a focal point of concentration and then maintaining that level of attention in each detail of the work. That's the real challenge - not to let it become a job. To keep the work fresh, clean and alive. Because, I know that it is manifested in the appearance and sound of the finished instrument. I am now in the process of cutting planks of wood of differnet species into small pieces. These pieces of different types and colors of wood are being arranged (composed) in ways that I find visually stimulating. I am always wondering what you - my friend and fellow flute player - may find interesting and attractive in a new combination of colors and patterns. For the first time in a couple of years I am going back to more basic compositions. I will be using just three wood species in some of the flutes I am making. Maybe, just two. The last flute I made for myself had just two types of wood - African blackwood and cocobolo. I liked the simplicity. I think I have pushed the envelope of visual complexity about as far as I want to go. Now I want to go back and further develope less complicated compositions. Tomorrow I will finish arranging the pieces and will begin to glue them together into the two halves of the flute. John S