Native American-Style 'Harmony Flutes' - my full review....
Hello Readers!
Today I will be writing about two very special instruments....
These are beautifully hand-crafted Native American style flutes which I recently received from the fantastic maker 'Harmony Flutes'. I absolutely love the design of these instruments which are made at the workshop of Pavel and Anastasia Mirra who have been crafting flutes and whistles for over 20 years! After posting a short video playing one of their NAF flutes in the forest recently I had so many comments and messages asking about them, so I wanted to give you a full review...
I let the forest and nature guide my melody as I played this beautiful handcrafted wooden flute - take a listen....
Appearance -
Based on Native American flutes (also known as 'flutes of love'), these designs have a beautifully authentic feel and you can sense the craftsmanship and work that has gone into tooling and shaping the wood. The larger, dark coloured flute is in the key of F# and is made of ovangkol, and the smaller, lighter coloured flute is in the key of A and made of ashwood.
I love the grain and deep colours of the wood and how each one is unique - as an instrument, they have a lot of character and individual personality! Harmony flutes also make whistles and flutes in many other types of wood as well, and each one will have different tonal and visual qualities.
The headpiece of this particular flute is an ingenious and unusual design which to me resembles a magical wizard's hat atop the instrument!
Instead of the conventional mouthpiece that you might be familiar with if you play a whistle or recorder, these flutes have a round opening at the top which you place your lips on and blow down into to produce the sound.
The F# flute is in three parts which can be taken apart, and are beautifully finished with copper coloured rings - this also means you can tune the instrument which is always a bonus. The Ashwood A model is all in one piece, and the headpiece works in the same unique way.
They definitely have a magical and ancient vibe, as if they have sprung from the forest itself!
Sound and tone -
The sound that these flutes produce has a soft and meditative quality which is unlike any other woodwind instrument I have played! Handmade wooden instruments usually have a lot of character and colour in their tone, and these flutes are exceptional examples of how wood itself can 'sing'.
The design has an upper chamber which the sound oscillates in, creating a particularly interesting and resonant tone, almost similar to an ocarina whereby the sound is emanating from an enclosed chamber.
When you play these flutes you really feel the vibrations of the sound as you are playing, and this makes you feel particularly connected to the music and the instrument.
All of these qualities make these Native American style flutes absolutely perfect for playing slow, relaxing and meditative music.
Playability -
I was taken by surprise when I first played these flutes, as I was not sure what to expect in terms of how much air they would require to produce a sound - but the answer is very little! You can achieve sound with hardly any breath at all, which makes playing very relaxing.
The finger spacing is similar to that of a whistle in the same key, so if you are used to playing mid to low keys of whistles then you will find these very comfortable to play.
However one thing to note is that the finger positions you use to play the scale of notes on these flutes is different to that of a standard tin whistle or flute, so this is little bit of a learning curve - you can find the finger charts for the individual flutes and whistles on the Harmony Flutes website within the listing photos of each instrument. The maker also crafts other wooden woodwind instruments which have finger positions that are the same as standard tin whistles and flutes, so it's worth checking out all the different designs! However the differing scale of these Native American style flutes shouldn't deter you from getting one, as once you have learned the pattern it becomes simple and it is well worth taking a little time to learn something new in order to get the beautiful sound that they create!
These flutes don't have a full two-octave range like many conventional whistles and flutes have, but they make up for this in the variety of notes that can be produced within the scale - in fact you can play around with different finger positions and create many chromatic notes which you can't usually make on a standard tin whistle without using half-holing techniques. This makes these flutes great for creating improv pieces, and I also feel that for the type of music that you would play on these instruments which would be more relaxed and slow meditative sounds, you don't necessarily need very high pitched notes. You can also see the full range of playable notes in the finger charts available on the Harmony Flutes website.
If you'd like to get your own handmade Native American style flute you can find them, as well as many other wonderful woodwinds, directly on the Harmony Flutes website here - https://harmonyflute.com/product-category/catalogy/naf/
You can also buy some of their instruments from UK supplier Big Whistle here - https://bigwhistle.com/harmony-flute/?ref=Leyna&v=7885444af42e
I hope you enjoyed hearing about these flutes as much as I enjoy playing them - they really are beautiful! Stay tuned for more blog posts coming soon, and you can also subscribe to my mailing list to stay up to date with all the latest!
Leyna ✨
Some of the links included in my blog are affiliate links, which means if you click on one and go on to purchase an instrument, I will earn a small commission and you will also be supporting me! I only endorse instruments that I play and love ☺️
