Twin Falls man makes American Indian flutes
Ariel Hansen
Times-News | Posted: Sunday, October 12, 2008 11:00 pm
Mike Wamego made his first flute when he was 5 years old.
At his great-grandfather's and grandfather's knees, he learned how to use a sharpened piece of metal pipe to chisel out the wood for the bore, and how to use body measurements - the width of three fingers, or the distance from the shoulder to the palm - to make a perfectly sized American Indian flute.
And then he went to high school and college and joined the U.S. Navy, and forgot all about flute making.
"I didn't make another flute until 2000," said the grizzled-looking 56-year-old in his tiny Twin Falls wood shop.
Except he didn't forget.
His shop, which can't be more than 8 feet by 10 feet and has a ceiling papered with FedEx boxes, is crammed with pieces of wood and tools both modern and traditional, all coated with a thick layer of sawdust.
He spends what amounts to a full-time work week here, surrounded by flutes in every stage of construction.
Wamego first tried making the flutes according to specifications from books, but they just didn't come out sounding like he remembered - until he found a set of specs online.
"I could remember. I could still feel what the sound of that flute felt like in my heart," he said. "It's the exact same sound my grandfather's flute had. It was like going home, stepping back 50 years in time."
Now Wamego makes about 100 flutes a year - "I just finished No. 88 today," he said on Sept. 19 - in all the keys of the pentatonic scale.
They're tuned by computer to the exact frequencies that are supposed to correspond to chakras (six bodily energy centers described in ancient Hindu and Buddhist teachings). Wamego believes the flutes have an effect on the human body unlike any other instrument.
"Native American flutes are a beautiful sounding instrument, but they're also a healing instrument. They use them in healing ceremonies because the sound, it's not just the distinction of the sound, it touches the soul of the person," he said. "It's better than Prozac."
Gathering to play
On Saturday, at the monthly gathering of the flute group Wamego started, Twin Diamond Native American Flute Circle, players talked about this feeling.
"I believe the sound connects to something primal," said Paula Dodd of Twin Falls. "It goes to that primitive, cellular spot."
Marsha Sanders, who lives with Wamego, demurs about her playing skills but enjoys the sound she hears when she's behind the mouthpiece.
"It's like you hear, feel it at the same time," she said. She believes anyone would feel connected to the instrument if they played it. "It does help if you've played any kind of wind instrument, but playing that first note, the resonance of the wood with your breath, it's magical."
September's group huddled beneath a shelter at Rock Creek Park, some wrapped with blankets against the season's early chill. Rain poured down, crackling off the roof as the flutes sounded, reminding the players of an ambient noise CD.
They welcome anyone to their circle, to listen or to play in any wooden-flute style. And if you come to listen, expect to be encouraged to try playing.
"With the flute, you don't have to read music or know anything about music,"Dodd said. "Basically, if you have opposable thumbs and are breathing, you can play."
The group, which varies from three to 30 players, Wamego said, is appreciative of experience but encouraging of beginners.
"There's no one in this who would say anything if you didn't get the notes right," said Ralph Montes of Shoshone, who likes what he has learned from other players. "I play mostly by myself. The more people I play with, my style gets different: 'Now I see how that's done.'"
Back in the shop
To make his flutes, Wamego starts with wood, anything from a $3 board from the home improvement store to expensive pieces he keeps wrapped in cardboard and weighted to prevent warping.
Cutting those into two long, equal pieces (they'll be glued back together later in the process), he marks with pencil the places to cut and shape. Most often he uses a template, but sometimes he goes back to the old finger-width method his grandfather taught.
"These are the most critical part of any of the layout,"Wamego said. "Everything on this can vary depending on what key of flute you want to make."
Using modern tools - or that old piece of sharpened pipe - he hollows out the slow air chamber and the bore.
The American Indian flute is unique because the player blows into the body of the flute: through the air chamber, over the cutting edge, and back through the bore. In other styles of flute, air is blown across an opening, not through it.
Wamego drills the cutting edge, sands the interior, then glues the two pieces together with Titebond III, which dries to be water resistant - an important quality with a wooden instrument that will encounter a lot of moisture from condensation and saliva.
With sandpaper on a dowel, he sands the inside again to get rid of any glue residue.
Next is the step that really makes it look like a flute: the rounding of the exterior. Wamego has electric tools to do this, but he prefers an old spokeshave, a sort of rounded plane. He props the flute in a bench he built for that purpose, then draws the spokeshave toward himself as bits of wood curl off.
"I'll do a lot of them right here because it's quicker for me," he said.
On each flute he burns a number, which helps him track his productivity as well as how the wood wears. If a flute ever breaks, he can go back to his records, find all its measurements and specifications and fix or replace it.
He also burns a maker's mark, a twin diamond: It's his initials, a W topped by an M.
All that's left is the finishing. Some flutes get a natural stain, but all get coats of shellac to bring out the wood's beauty.
Then he takes the flutes to shows and to playing circles, and he waits.
"Every flute I make is destined for someone," he said. "It's just that person finding that flute."
Ariel Hansen may be reached at 208-735-3376 or ariel.hansen@lee.net.