My Flute Journey

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It wasn’t that many years ago that I had never heard or seen a Native American style flute.  My wife and I were at an art show and about to leave when she remembered that we had a $20 gift certificate.  Determined to use it, we explored the booths a bit more and my wife purchased a small B flute without any idea what was in store for us.

 

After a few weeks my wife, a professional musician and voice teacher, was hooked.  She realized that her voice training was a perfect fit for playing these magical instruments.  Since that first encounter at the art show her flute world exploded into performances, teaching and a collection of flutes in many keys, shapes and sizes. 

We were accumulating flutes all over the place and really needed a way to store and display them.  I had a strong woodworking background, so my first foray into the flute world was creating stands. Some examples of these are pictured and for sale in the shop.

 

Flute Making

 

The logical progression was to move into flute making to help feed my wife’s and also my developing flute needs.  I was lucky enough to find an apprenticeship with a highly skilled and generous local flute maker and began refining the skills needed to produce my own flutes.  I expanded and retooled my woodworking shop to include the standard and specialized tools needed for the task.  The rest is history.  I was introduced to a new world of music, made some great friends and had the opportunity to get back to my love of woodworking. After making flutes part time for a period, I am now retired from my day job and a devoted full time flute maker.

 

All my flutes are `6 hole’ flutes tuned in the pentatonic minor scale. I strive to design flutes that require minimum breath expenditure to get the sweet desired sound.  To meet my wife’s standards they should also accommodate multiple cross fingering patterns and have ‘half hole’ stability to increase accuracy when playing in major scales.

 

All my flutes are sealed with a  non toxic `salad bowl' finish.

 

The Store

 

The store (Etsy) generally contains a subsample of the flutes I have on hand.  I add and remove flutes periodically so if you do not see what you want now there will be more to look at later.  If you have a particular key or material in mind just drop me a note and if I have something in my inventory I will post it up to the site for you to view.

 

Mark Bickett

Bedford Avenue Flutes and Arts

 

*Disclaimer: The flutes I make are in the Native American Style only. My products are not Native made. I am not and make no claims to any Native heritage.