Ok. I'm going to get my hide skinned for this by my favorite flute maker, but here it goes..

Last year, I recieved an email from Butch about a Dm flute. He heard of the Christmas cd I was wokring on and thought it would be a good flute for it. I never purchased it and wished I did.

This weekend at Medicine Park I finally got to meet him in person. He showed me the flute and asked me to play Amazing Grace with it through his sound system he had. The sound was amazing with and without the system.. And the grain.. Oh yes, The grain. this flute is a beauty.. It is very light but very easy to play..It seemed to be ade just for me. I felt very connected to it..So here are a few pics for you. Look at the red and cream color in this flute!!

It is Aromatic Eastern Cedar..Very nice scent to it.

No!! You cant have it, so dont even THINK of asking!!

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Erich, that might be the prettiest piece of cedar I've ever seen.

dd

Oh yes, it is very nice.. Cant believe it was just for me..What timing...I will have to do a video with it so you can hear it. the tone is amazing..

Erich

I doubt anyone would truly want to skin your hide, because . . . who can blame a fella for connecting with a flute?
Yes, the colors of the cedar are quite lovely. Congrats on your Medicine Park flute find.

LOL. Marsha.. Good to hear from you..

The colors are awesome for Red Ceder...
The only reason you might get skinned is because you got to it first!

Thanks much for posting about this flute. I had a D#m in walnut and fooled it away and replaced it with a Dm also in walnut. It's a hoss and it'll take awhile for these old hands to get used to it. After reading your post I knew what I needed to do. Went to the Butch Hall web site and ordered a D#m in eastern cedar.

Jude

Great.. Tell him you read the review..he will like that...

This baby really sings.. I need to get a recording done and post it here..

One thing I might add, Butch now makes all his flutes in the traditional tuning and not the way he use to make them years ago. That makes them so much easier to play, even though I do like the old tuning..

Erich

Love the flute colors.

What you mean by old tuning and traditional tuning?

waiting for the video

Well the flute I ordered came in this morning. I don't have enough posts to do a full review so just let me say that it's as stunning in looks as Erich's. Can't play Amazing Grace yet but Down In The Sally Gardens sure sounds nice. I've always leaned to walnut, cherry and maple so thanks again Erich for motivating me to try cedar.

Jude

So beautiful, Erich...can't wait to hear!

Congrats, Jude
May we see a picture?
Who is the maker?

I don't have a picture to post yet but it's a Butch Hall like Erich's.

Jude

The "Old Tuning" I mentioned was the way Butch tuned his flutes years ago. To play them you covered both the 3rd hole and the forth hole simutaneously to play the upper end of the scale. As with the "Traditional" tuning (popular), you only cover the 4th hole.

You can find information on this and many other tunings on www.flutetree.com with there corresponding makers. They are very interesting but takes some getting use to when you normally play the "traditional" way. Many Nakais flutes are also in a non-traditional tuning...

Hope that helps..

Erich

Thanx

Eric:
I have made this same statement about flute tunings as you have done (still do at times) and I think this way of describing the flute is incorrect. Let me explain. Butch made the standard, mode 1/ mode 4 flute for years .In fact Doc and Michael credit him for adding the 6th hole to the standard Naf. I think it is more accurate to say he used an alternate fingering as you described. You are playing the same scale just the octave note is fingered a bit differently. One of the reasons Butch did this was so the upper octave notes played in tune. The "standard" fingering (third finger down will play the same notes easier but the upper octave notes will be a bit flat. These flattened octave notes are not enough out of tune to cause any problems. Note all the recordings made with flutes of this fingering. So I am hoping we can train ourselfs to say the flute has an alternate fingering rather than tuning. BTW I picked up a nice maple F# from Butch at Yosemite and dressed it with a flute wrap by Bill Timothy of the Central Coast Circle and am having a painting done on it now. It is a very fine flute!

Hey Bear, thanks. I was coming in here to rply to what I wrote with the same that you wrote. You beat me to it...

When I talked with Butch at Medicine Park, he did describe it as tuning though. I guess it is a little of both, since you do have to finger both 3 and 4... But fingering is more apropriate..

Erich