bone flutes

[Andy]

Hello,

just been given some deer leg bones and wanted to have a go at making them into flutes. Is this easy, I asume it is. Can anyone give me some helpful links to tell me how to do this.

Thanks
Andy

[Eric the well read]

Is this easy, I asume it is.
Andy

Well if you're just going to make one note, single whistles maybe, but if you're going for any recognisable scale, I'm afraid you're in for serious grief!
The type of fipple or blowhole you use, the diameter of the hole through the centre, the length, the thickness of the wall of the bone, all these make a difference to the basic note, then you have the joy of cutting the finger holes,in the right place, with the right diameter, remembering that you can 'sharpen' the note- once cut- but not 'flatten' it.

I would suggest that you get a piece of plastic pipe(with roughly the right diameter) from your local D.I.Y store and practise on that using various sites on the net with titles like 'homemade penny whistles' once you've tried that, look up various older mouthpieces like "Quennas" and "Shakuhachi"
There's also info on 'Academy of ancient Music' website.
I would say that if you're not a musician - you're in for 6 or 7 weeks of intensive research!

Good Luck

Regards
Eric

[sally]

Some we made are here
The large one is deer the other two are seagull wingbones.
Its not as simple as it looks, the inside of the bone is irregular so its almost impossible to get a 'normal' scale to the flute, we went with an adjustable fipple as well, which does help get the pitch right, but we also found that we break as many bones in manufacture as we get right (whichis why at least one person on this forum is still waiting for us to make more, we havent forgotton, its just a bit trickier than it should be sometimes). Quality of bone is everything with these.

[Eric the well read]

I agree entirely with Sally,

Try this
http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/fingers.html

and as Sally says the internal roughness will throw off these calculations!

Regards
Eric
P.S How did your first show go?

[Andy]

Ok, so now I agree, it seems like a pain in the butt of a thing to do. I've just got a bit of spare time so I thought I could knock one together. I've always wanted one but maybe it'll have to wait.
Sally, those pics look great, and a big thankyou to all for the info.
We head interstate for the show next week so fingers crossed it all goes well, thanks for asking Eric.

Thankyou
Andy

[Bregaladbear]

SHINY!!!!!! I'd love a bone flute to learn to play cos am obsessed with medieval music would love to learn to play and read music for myself and living history stuff!