A good friend, who just happens to be a wonderful cedar flute maker and carver, once suggested to me that someone should make a high quality Native American style flute... especially for beings with small hands.
After many conversations and a lengthy yet rewarding journery into the making of a small Native American style children's flute...
The Hawk Flute came into being.
15 inch - 37 cm in length... with a 1 inch - 25 mm diameter body... and easily covered 1/4 inch - 6.25 mm finger holes set 3/4 inch - 19 mm apart... makes the Hawk Flute easy to hold and finger... making it an ideal size flute for smaller handed players.
Native American style flutes by design need very little breath to produce beautiful mellow tone from the very beginning... and this is why the Hawk Flute makes a great choice for your or your child's first woodwind instrument.
Made from Solid Hardwoods
My flutes are bored from a single piece of farmed eastern canadian hardwood giving them a very clear strong voice. The bodies are either a light birch or maple depending on the woods available to me... and the mouth pieces are a dark contrasting walnut or cherry... again depending on the woods available. I guarantee no particular combinations of woods when making your flute... but I do guarantee your flute will look and sound beautiful!
The 5/8 inch - 15.6 mm bore used for the slow chamber and the body leaves 3/16 inch - 4.7 mm thick walls making the Hawk Flute almost impossible to fatally damage if dropped or even accidentally stepped on... unlike traditional soft wood cedar flutes that are split in two, glued back together and are very fragile.
High D Minor Tuning
I settled upon a High D Minor tuning for my flutes for a few reasons...
First of all when setting out to make a very small flute the actual dimensions of the flute primarily defined what the key would be. Generally the smaller the flute the higher the pitch... and the larger the flute the lower the pitch.
Secondly with D as the root note there are no sharps or flats naturally occurring in the fingering of a minor scale making it easier for a beginner player to read the music notation.
The third reason is a good deal of native, folk, and celtic music is written and played in the key of D Minor... allowing the Hawk flute to cross over and explore other styles of music without the player having to relearn fingering patterns and scales in other keys.
Finally the fourth reason for choosing High D Minor is it happens to be the highest flute key supported in our How to Play a Native American Flute DVD-Video Course.
Each flute is carefully hand tuned in my shop at approximately 25 degrees Celsius - 73 degrees Fahrenheit (a comfortable room temperature) using a digital chromatic tuner to insure your Hawk Flute plays in tune and at concert pitch.
Ships in it's own backpack style hard shell case!
All Asoko Flutes are shipped in a crush proof pvc case originally designed by Spring Shine of Cedar Spirit. During shipping your flute is cradled between the pvc end caps by foam insulation and shares the space with a self closing backpack style bag made of natural fibers.
After unpacking the bag from the pvc case... the whole case, caps and all fits snugly into the bag leaving room in the pvc case for your flute and perhaps a Custom Totem by Cedar Spirit. The Asoko totems and leather ties can travel under the insulation in the pvc end caps for safe keeping.
I love this design because it protects your flute, makes it easy to carry, gives you a place to store your spare totems/ties and causes no unnecessary packaging at all in shipping! Thanks Spring!!
All of these features make the Hawk Flute a great hiking and traveling instrument too... being small, light and very durable.
Endorsements
"Beautiful Flute. It was purchased as a birthday gift for our 7 year old and she has been playing every night.
We are very pleased. Many blessings, Michele, Robert and Harmony (Proud owner of a Hawk Flute)" MN, USA 12/13/06
The Hawk Flute in High D Minor $85.00 US