Native American Style Flutes
by Stephen Meier
"Okay, there is the brown trailer with all the cars, only about a mile to go before the Bramson Mail Box." I had driven about two and a half hours to get to area where the sweat lodge was to take place. I saw the mailbox and then Clarissa sitting on a rail fence playing what seemed to be a flute. “It is a flute”, she said, a Native American Style Flute. The sound was so sweet and mellow yet very haunting. The song seemed to take me back to a time that I could remember in my body but not my mind.
Thus began my journey with Native American Flutes. After the sweat, I called the maker of her flute and bought one of his backpacker models. I did not know how to play it, but just kept making sounds until I could make some “music.” Then one day, months after buying my NAF, a friend gave me CD of Native American Flute music. I loved the feeling I had while playing this music and played it constantly during my sessions when working at the spa as a massage therapist. On the back of the CD, the musician stated that he made the flutes and I bought two more flutes from this player/maker. I remember receiving the flutes with great anticipation and often became very frustrated trying to play them. None-the-less, I kept practicing and finally began to be able to play them and enjoy the nuances between the flute makers and the types of wood that the flutes were made.
I had been a public high school teacher for many years as well as a massage therapist for close to 10 years when I decided to retire from the full time teaching post. I wanted to embark on a path of trying to help people heal using my hands. I was very interested in body psychotherapy and qigong as well as music therapy and other modalities of healing touch. After my retirement from the classroom, and while performing massage, I saw an add in a newspaper for a position as a massage therapy instructor at a local vocational college. I was fortunate to get the job and very blessed to discover that one of the professors actually made Native American Flutes. One day at the college, I was introduced to Jonette Yazzie. Jonette and her husband Marvin were the makers of Yazzie Flutes. Wow, I was in heaven. Not only did I get to meet Jonette I had the pleasure to working with a real flute maker. Following my pattern of spending my money on things I loved, I bought two more NAFs from the Yazzies.
My Native American Style Flute making began when I had the fantastic opportunity to attend one of the bi-annual flute building workshops presented by Marvin and Jonette. Not only did I get to attend the workshop, the workshop occurred on one of the local Indian reservations. During that workshop I got to work with my hands, not on a human body, but on a piece of wood that carried great healing power. I will never forget that experience and the joy and wonder I had working with the woods and other people who were drawn together by the Spirit of the flute. Later that summer I again had a chance to attend the other annual flute workshop in the mountains of Southern California.
Native American Style Flutes
In the beginning of my Native American Style flute making, I would buy blanks already routered and then hand carve the sound mechanism and hand shape with planes and other hand tools. As time has progressed, I saved my money and procured some of my own power tools to make my own blanks and shaping tools. During this time, I became fascinated with the types of tone woods used in musical instruments. Tone woods used in the making of stringed instruments such as the violin family and guitars are a fascinating study for me. Another interesting investigation includes the finishes used on wooden musical instruments. It has been a joy for me to just follow my imagination and inquiry into the historical use of different substances to allow the wood to be protected yet not impede the natural sound of the instrument.
Native American Style Flutes
I seems that the Native American Style Flute opens more and more doors for me along this path. This path has included such side trips in the physical construction of the Native American Style Flute as mention above. But of primary wonder have been the beautiful people that the flute has introduced me to in the past seven years. This is the true Spirit of the flute to me. What may seem like a discussion of Native American Style Flutes design or the actual price of an instrument actually is initiated and maintained by a love of the Spirit of the instrument. It is this, the deep and enduring friendships that the flute has given to me, that have been my real blessings and gifts of my walk with the flute.
Thank you for your time in reading these couple of pages. It is my hope that I will have a chance to meet some of you in word or in person in the days that follow.
Many Thanks and Blessings,
Stephen Grosvenor Meier
Phone: 909-589-0064
Email: threeleafflutes@hotmail.com
Mailing Address: Three Leaf Flutes P.O. Box 2699, Crestline CA, 92325
