Play The Trees - The Bushcraft Flute?

[Silverclaws2]

With going out into the wilds in mind does anyone take with them or even fashion a musical instrument to play whilst out there?

Play The Trees: Intro to the Native American Style Flute.

The action of taking inspiration from the landscape can be found at time stamp 13:50

 

[Pattree]

I always have a First Nation flute with me. I make them.

There are a number of approaches to playing them but the most important one is as he suggests, just to play how you feel.

(Irrelevant to the post but I disagree about the sixth hole. All mine are made with five holes and I can still play the full chromatic scale.)

 

[Silverclaws2]

I always have a First Nation flute with me. I make them.

There are a number of approaches to playing them but the most important one is as he suggests, just to play how you feel.

(Irrelevant to the post but I disagree about the sixth hole. All mine are made with five holes and I can still play the full chromatic scale.)

I wouldn't know yet through not having tried the NAF, for my instrument is the Irish whistle, the low D is particularly ' environmental '

 

[Pattree]

It is perfectly possible to play The Irish Washerwoman on a First Nation Flute

 

[Falstaff]

Harmonica, not that I can actually play it but learning, and just play how I feel. Except on a stealth camp of course.

 

[Pattree]

Yes, I feel that I must limit how much I play out of doors. We’ve had a discussion about this recently. There is no doubt that music in the wild can be intrusive but no one tells the birds that. The only comments that I’ve ever had have been complimentary.
Am I any less nature than any other animals, plants and earth?

Long ago when I was learning to play a little Eb flute, a blackbird sang along with me when I played the low notes but stopped every time I played the higher ones. I’ve often wondered what I was saying to it!

 

[Woody girl]

I have a small flute made by a Native American called Spotted Elk. It's got a bear totem. I love it as its so portable and has a sweet tone, but I realy want something bigger and deeper in tone.
The advice I was given after buying mine was to play the trees, it realy works. I've often sat down by the river and played the landscape around me and passers by have come up and listened. I've always had comments, often asked what the song was called , and when I try to explain I'm playing the trees, it doesn't have a name and is made up on the spot, they think I have an amazing talent. I don't, it's just that this method realy works, and always makes beautiful music. No matter how much of a beginner you are, you get instant amazingly beautiful results.

 

[Pattree]

From time to time I run workshops where everyone makes a plastic version of the flute in C minor in about an hour. Some people have said that the plastic flute sounds better than my wooden ones. Not better just different. By the end of the second hour they are all playing their own music.
I love to play the wind and join in with its song. You can only take that so far. When I’m blowing at one end of the flute and nature is blowing at the other I’m not going to win!

The longer flutes are great for those long lingering notes typical of flute music but I prefer the little bright pipes that can play bubbling water and happy birdsong as well as the long minor strains.

 

[Woody girl]

I'm going to have to buy another flute! Can you put up some pictures of your wood ones please Patree? I might well be tempted. Do you carve the totems as animals or not.? I fancy a wolf totem.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Double Bass for me. If the weathers bad, I sleep in the case.

 

[Pattree]

Milton Mezrow (Mezz) tells how when they played jazz for the white folks in the fifties they would load all the food they could get into a hatch in the back of the contrabass.

 

[Pattree]

I don’t sell my flutes, I just make them. I’m not good at carving so I just stick whatever works up there. I also use a leather gasket below the bird.
I make them out of all sorts of things:
Oak, bamboo, plastic, steel, aluminium and even pottery.

I’ll happily show off my instruments. I also make some other intuitive pipes (on which you play your own music)
Two have no holes at all - an overtone pipe and a tiny little thing that just about can play an octave. Strictly speaking it’s an ocarina with just one hole at the end. If you can whistle a time you could probably play one. It can manage Beethoven’s Ode to Joy (or your own music.
I’m still trying to make a “Bushcraft” version of this one but so far I have to start out with a lathe to make a pilot bore for the auger.
I could make the plastic flute in camp but that’s hardly bushcraft either.

 

[Silverclaws2]

An elderberry Native American style flute being made with ' found ' primitive tools

DIY Elderberry Flute

And it's pleasing to see there are plenty more musical options on that channel

 

[Pattree]

Some Windsong pipes that I’ve made.

(Windsong is the name of my flute making/story telling/celebrant business. I sometimes make enough to cover the materials!!!!)

The tiny rustic pipe at the top is made of rowan prunings. It can play The Ode to Joy. It’s completely intuitive, like whistling.
I make a plastic one for children (and adults). Children’s groups love the way it can play Clanger language. My daughter in law has crocheted two Clangers as props in my presentations.


These all have (or will have) five holes and can play anything. The three at the top have no holes except the one up the middle and are played by breath control and one finger.

The one with the oak leaf “bird” is made of pottery and is the only one that I have currently recorded.

Pottery pipe

 

[Pattree]

I don’t know why I haven’t asked here before!

Is there a ”Bushcraft” way of reasonably accurately boring through the centre of a straight branch for, say, 450mm? It only needs to be a small diameter that I can follow up with a hand auger.
Of course if you know how to bore a 16 - 20mm tube that would be fantastic. I need to get the tube wall down to 3 - 6mm.

I have several ways of doing it in the workshop but I’m looking to find a simpler way.



The traditional way is to split the branch in two, scrape it out then glue and tie it back together. This is great if I only want a non-standard musicality but has problems over time if I want to play a conventional scale.

 

[Toddy]

That looks, and sounds, brilliant

Pick your tree....an elder has a soft pithy centre that can be wriggled out with an old knitting pin.
So does walnut (only cut in July, otherwise it'll drain the tree) budleia and briar rose.

I have a tin whistle, but honestly, I like to whistle just as music. There's a fellow called Henry Fosebrooke who has a Woodland Orchestra his tree sounds are wonderful, fun, fascinating.

 

[Pattree]

There is a member here who has just got his first penny whistle. I’ve advised him to play his own music first before trying to learn established tunes. Quite soon your fingers go where you want for the notes you want. Once you get to that point you can play your own music (as opposed to random notes) and you can play tunes because your fingers know where to be. It’s just like whistling.

Whistling and singing were the first music.

My son has just printed me a very noisy ocarina with hole spacing that is different from what I’m used to and that’s how I play it.

 

[Silverclaws2]

There is a member here who has just got his first penny whistle. I’ve advised him to play his own music first before trying to learn established tunes. Quite soon your fingers go where you want for the notes you want. Once you get to that point you can play your own music (as opposed to random notes) and you can play tunes because your fingers know where to be. It’s just like whistling.

Whistling and singing were the first music.

My son has just printed me a very noisy ocarina with hole spacing that is different from what I’m used to and that’s how I play it.

It was during lockdown that CutiePie (you tube) both inspired and taught me

 

[bobnewboy]

If you have a sturdy piece or two of wire, a fire or hot embers, and a thick glove or pair of pliers you can make a long smallish hole along the axis of a stick/branch/bamboo piece. Heat up the wire in the fire and burn your way into the end of the item. This needs to be done repeatedly and can be time consuming. The action can also be augmented by hammering the end of another piece of wire into a little flat/sharp end and then drilling it into the burnt hole.

I have done this in making bamboo arrows in the proper Kyudo Ya fashion but it takes a long time.

Have you considered bamboo or miscanthus reed, or possibly sarkanda reed as an alternative to a solid wooden branch?

 

[Pattree]

Thank you @bobnewboy .

You are absolutely right about bamboo. Not only is it already hollow, it is very hard which makes for a bright tone. All I need to do for a flute in A minor is to get a piece with the right internal diameter and bash out the septa (Natural partitions). There are two bamboo flutes in the pic above.

I like the wire idea, I think it might work for the little pipe . Keeping to the middle isn’t easy even when I do it with a lathe and a stabiliser for the long drill.

Thanks @Toddy
I think I’ve seen that technique in a video somewhere here in BcUK. I might be able to use it for one of the bigger flutes. It’s the opposite of bamboo. Quite soft and it absorbs the higher overtones. Great for those long deep notes that many First Nation flute players love.