Rich Halliburton's Querencia Flutes

2011-12-11T10:10:00.000-08:00

“Art before commerce” Randy Jackson, American Idol, 3/16/11.

“God gave us music that we might pray without words.” Jon Norris Music, (attributable to the inscription on an opera house in Germany.)

QUERENCIA WOODWINDS MISSION STATEMENT…. “I will build the finest flutes possible, from the finest rare and exotic materials available on Earth…… except during my nap, during Happy Hour, and when I get called in for dinner.”

Well, the magic continues here at Querencia Woodwinds World Headquarters. I’m no marketing genius, and I can prove it. I’m working on flutes with interchangeable barrels or sound chambers. You’ll be able to buy two flutes, and only pay for one….Don’t feel like playing your Am flute anymore today? Pull the barrel off and replace it with your Em barrel. The concept is not new….but the R&D dept. here at Querencia World HQ figured out how to do it without charging a trillion dollars. The downside is that we, meaning me, or I, won’t be throwing in a silk or deerskin lined presentation box, signed by some notable recording artist. In fact, I won’t include any box at all, other than the one used for shipping. Stay tuned.

DRUM CIRCLES…AND YOUR HEALTH

We played an event on the Redondo Beach boardwalk/pier in mid-June. One flute and 12 drummers, manning timbales, Djembes, kettle drums, congas, and three seven-piece kit sets. These folks generate a LOT of noise. My job during drum circles, which can host 30-40 participants, is to basically provide a melody for a train wreck. This was different as there were few participants. We actually got a standing ovation. We did so by taking a lot of the chairs away after the first break, hence the standing part of the ovation…… On a more somber note, if you enjoy the wild abandon associated with drum circles….please enjoy them sparingly. As the flute player, using cordless amplification, I roam well outside the circle, and I’ve been doing this for 8 years. My personal best distance was an eighth of a mile. …big drum circle. I’ll tell you why. It is estimated that 27 million folks in this country have cerebral aneurisms or ballooning blood vessels in their heads. It’s more dangerous to fix them than to try and get through life without having one burst. I’ve seen three people suffer hemorrhagic stroke in drum circles; one, while talking to me. As explained to me by that individual’s neurologist, the brain has pockets of fluid, which start vibrating in the midst of a drum circle with a strong bass mother beat. The vibration can rupture cerebral blood vessels, and the party is over. All I’m saying is use moderation. ….and stay away from the guy with the really BIG drum. I would probably sidestep the next stage-side visit to a Guns n Roses concert as well.

A COUPLE OF WORDS ABOUT TUNING AND PITCH…..

Most folks take for granted a musical pitch wherein A is tuned to 440 Hz, with the rest of the notes following that tuning benchmark. This pitch was more or less standardized in 1955, for all the wrong reasons. I have begun building a number of flutes wherein A is tuned to 432 Hz, known as the Verdi Pitch. The voice difference is both subtle, and remarkable. The story of this pitch is full of intrigue, and mathematics, but nevertheless, worth learning about. This link presents a good starting point… http://www.omega432.com/music.html . On another note, I built a couple of headstocks similar to those used with the interchangeable barrels, only the barrels are sections of PVC wherein I can experiment with obscure and unusual tunings, without destroying a perfectly good flute, and sending it to my Querencia wind chime. If I screw up the tuning or melodic sequence, I just slap in another three cents worth of PVC pipe, and start over…. My latest success is a six hole Celtic tuning, referred to by Scott August as “Celtic with a minor 7^th thrown in”. My personal favorite definition of this tuning was provided to me by Clint Goss. Both he and Scott are premier music theorists, but Clint’s “Mixolydian Hexatonic” is the hands-down winning definition. Most of the time when I chat with either of these two gentlemen, within seconds, I’m lost and have no idea what they’re talking about.

Speaking of tunings, and Scott August….He’s written and performs a beautiful downloadable song for Leonard (Lone Crow) McGann, with 100% of the proceeds going to help Leonard fight his battle with bone cancer. Leonard is a legendary flute maker, and Scott plays this number on one of Leonard’s mode 2/5 flutes. As soon as I heard this song, I called Leonard and had him build me one of these flutes. You might want to do the same after hearing it. You can get some information about the flute, and get to the sample/purchase page for the song here….. http://cedarmesa.blogspot.com/2011/08/lone-crow-flute.html A little note about Leonard. This guy is the real deal. He's a legend among flute builders, and lives on ‘Difficult Creek Road” outside….WAY outside... Bedford, Virginia, in the mountains. While I had him on the phone one day, I did a Google Earth search for his house. What filled my screen initially was a mass of mountains and trees. As I drilled down, I spotted a little clearing which then became a dirt road, a barn, a house with a pick-up out front, a little tilled field, and some small shacks. I inquired as to what the blue dot was in the middle of his property, as I was using it as a target, to find his place in the middle of nowhere. I thought it was perhaps a Jacuzzi. It was not. He informed me it was a poly tarp tied between three trees so his dog could get out of the rain. If you look at his place from space, look for the tarp. And please say a prayer or two for Leonard as well.

I hope everybody experiences a warm and joyous holiday season. I would also hope you mark the New Year by remaining healthy, wealthy, and wise. I realize the part about wealthy is a huge challenge, unless you own a bank, so in the coming week I’m going to be deeply discounting my current flute inventory. If you do own a bank, let me know in advance, and I’ll let you pay the old price for an instrument, since you’re buying it with my money anyway. Play nice. RH

2011-02-22T17:59:00.000-08:00

“The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is, are the ones who have gone over it.” Hunter S. Thompson

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." — Aldous Huxley (Music at Night and Other Essays)

Wow, It’s been about 4 months since the last newsletter went sailing off the presses. I hope all the folks who read this are well and making music, even if it’s just clothespins and playing cards in the spokes of your bicycle.

Since last we spoke, I visited with old friends and made a few new, interesting friends in Quartzsite AZ during their annual tumbleweed, dirt, rock and mineral fest; figured out a way to reasonably make flutes fine-tunable; waged a territorial battle with some skunks here at Rancho Relaxo, and spent some time on Ambergris Caye, off the coast of Belize with Jerry Jeff Walker and a bunch of his fans. Overall, it’s all been good, if you don’t count the part about the skunks.

Quartzsite and Mexico
Quartzsite yielded some interesting material for flute inlay, including Crazy Lace agate, 120 million-year-old Russian ammolite, turquoise from different mines here in the Southwest, California gold in rose quartz matrix, boulder opals from Mexico and Australia …….and a two pound bag of 65 million-plus-year old Raptor egg shells from a huge nesting hole in China, and I have no idea why I bought that…..After three days of eating wind swept dirt in Quartzsite, my road dog Cragorio and I decided to drive from there to Mexico. Specifically the destination was Craig’s house in Rosarito Beach, below Tijuana. The area used to be called Mexico’s “Gold Coast” and now, thanks to the Sinaloa and Beltran-Leyva cartels, is better known as “Blood Alley.” Knowing my weakness for bar hopping in Mexican border towns, he suggested we drive down to Mexicali, then just turn right, toward the sun till we run into the Pacific Ocean, 174 km along the Mexican border. I pointed out two things to him. First, he needs to brush up on current events, and second, I don’t want my head cut off and put in a cardboard box. We did it my way, turning a 3 hour drive into 9 hours, and getting lost in the Anza Borrego desert…. A story for another time.

Fine-tunable wooden flutes
Taking note of the fine tunability of some silver flutes as well as some bass English whistles, I noticed that basically they were built with a sleeve at the head joint, allowing the player to make the entire flute slightly longer, or shorter, by a few centimeters. I thought about such an adjustment for a wooden flute, because wood is a very dynamic material, reacting to humidity, altitude and ambient temperature. This can translate into a ten cent (think percent) variability from the original spot-on tuning. Although five cents sharp or flat is imperceptible, unless you’re a bat, some folks want to be able to adjust the tuning to accommodate different playing environments. So, I’m building a few. Specifically, rather than tackle the engineering nightmare of a sleeve at the back end of the sound chamber, I cut and shape a piece to slide onto the end of the flute, like a ring on a finger. The flute is tuned using analog, digital, and strobe tuners, while the piece is half its depth on the end of the flute. Pushing the piece back, flush with the flute bbl. shortens the flute by almost half an inch, sharpening it up about five cents. Adjusting the piece outward from its original position likewise flattens the note by about five cents. There are a couple of photos here someplace that you can click on to enlarge. Some folks will probably think.......This man needs a vacation ........................................ So I took one.

San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize
If you’re from Texas or Oklahoma, you know Jerry Jeff Walker…probably personally. Being raised in Burbank, California, I of course…..never heard of him. He’s some kind of middle American icon, and since my bride grew up in a VERY small town in Oklahoma, his was the background music of her young life. He goes down to his beach house on this little spit of land, twice a year, and (now this is brilliant)…..performs in these little palapa bar concerts for the folks who come down and hang out with him. What a concept for a working vacation. He does a couple of concerts, throws in a meet and greet, and will autograph ANYTHING you throw in front of him. In our case, it was my bride’s new Voyage-Air folding guitar…. Overall, the place is truly paradise. Gentle trade winds, coconut palms, a blending of Mayan, Guatemalan, and Caribbean influences, Belikin beer and two dollar rum and coke you can carry with you around town. Their local rum tastes like crème soda, even without the coke…..but I digress. The third leg of the journey to this sand bar was really interesting. We took a plane so small that I could have reached forward and played with knobs and levers in the cockpit. The whole leg took only 15 minutes, and I don’t think we got more than 300 ft. off the ground. There were ten passengers and the plane was full. It was great. The hammock photo is in front of Victoria House. We didn't stay there. At 2 to 6 thousand dollars a week, I can afford to stay at Victoria House for about eight minutes.

Having been to this event before, pre me, my bride knew a bunch of folks, most of whom were very talented musicians. Somebody was always hosting a guitar pickin on their porch or balcony, so I eagerly packed a couple of flutes, seven Lee Oskar blues harps, as well as my Walkabout sound system for the trip. Dean Cavill dragged his pedal steel guitar down to Belize, but wanted to noodle around on the Voyage-air folding guitar. He asked that I join in with one of my flutes and the Walkabout, and this was a snippet of the result. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI7Ge4tovG4
Speaking of the Walkabout, ……here’s a video of Scott August noodling around in my dining room on one of my single bbl. Drones, hooked up to the sound system. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgK6ALG5H88

OK then, I’m learning so much about this blog thing, I may start posting old Roadrunner cartoons. In the meantime, looks like Spring’s around the corner, so if you’re looking for something to do, waiting for the snow to melt so you can find your car, ….I just added seven long- overdue flutes to my website. As always, play nice.

2010-10-16T10:53:00.000-07:00

“The word imagination gets little respect. For many people, it connotes “make believe,” and is primarily the domain of children and artists. But the truth is that your imagination is the single most important asset you possess. It’s your power to form mental pictures of things that don’t exist yet. Your imagination is what you use to design your future. “Excerpt from Pronoia, by Rob Brezsny

Very little flute work. ……again. I have a sundeck here at Rancho Relaxo. I built a railing for that sundeck from 2x4s, long before most of you were born. ….it has been a termite “Happy Meal” for the last 25 of those years, and is mostly just sawdust covered with paint. I’m replacing a lot of it, mostly as a courtesy to my friends, who are no longer as young and “fit” as they once were, and may have difficulty recovering from a 15 ft. header onto a driveway should they lean against my railing. Not to mention the risk of shattering some nice margarita stemware in the process….. Moving along….

ON A SERIOUS NOTE

My flute building is artistically experiencing a transition, not unlike a glider caught up in a breeze, in that I never know where it’s going. I’m a flute maker, and I’m North American, I’m not Native American. I made a note of this somewhere in this blog about 2-3 years ago, figuring no one would see my flutes on the internet with that designation via Google, or any other search engine. Now, I’m not so concerned. It has something to do with a desire to be simply creative, as opposed to chasing a defined market. Native Americana is not my body of experience, nor is it in my genetic code, but I’ve been building NA style flutes because they appeal to me. Three generations of my family were born here in Southern California, and I’ve spent a sizable amount of spare time in Northwest Mexico, so to keep this adventure a satisfying cathartic experience, I have to be true to those influences and experiences that are mine alone. I don’t really get to do otherwise. Although I’m a member of a Scottish clan, dating back centuries, I’ve never been to Scotland, I don’t speak Gaelic, I’ve never met any of these folks, and refuse to wear a kilt. I am therefore not motivated by personal experience to start building bagpipes. With a personal cultural history that’s relatively boring by comparison, I nevertheless plan to continue crafting beautiful instruments that are mine alone and best characterized as North American flutes.

Thanks to Michael Graham Allen, I will continue building a six hole, minor pentatonic instrument, with the same stunning voice characteristics as noted in my unsolicited testimonials, but I’ll follow my personal artistic inclinations, rather than chasing an overworked Native American market and fan base. Will I lose a percentage of my following? I don’t believe so. Does it concern me? No. I build musical instruments as a cathartic experience to keep my demons at bay, and I sell them, or I don’t. In any event, they will remain universally appealing, beautiful instruments none the less.

I now need to find a web designer to re-vamp my homepage. My designer, with a PhD in particle physics, understandably moved on to other things, despite promising I would remain his only client. After building the websites for Microsoft, and MSNBC, I remain honored and amazed at what he created for me. I believe he’s currently playing with the supercollider in CERN. Moving along….,

From the ”Questions you constantly, over and over again, never ask” Dept. ………Why do you have so many fetish blocks that look like birds, instead of like, elephants, armadillos, and gophers? A: I purchased this great natural abalone in sheet form, @ 5x9 inches for $60.00 a sheet, and find that beautiful multicolor abalone doesn’t look so good on the sides of mammals or rodents….. or whatever family elephants are from. It just seems to work best and look beautiful, on birds. Birds can get away with splashy colors. The material might look good on a trout fetish, but I don’t want to adorn any of my flutes with a trout. I think when I do, it’s time to quit.

Switching gears for a moment, a brief observation about the economy. Actually, it’s a question about our “recovery.” What the Hell happened to it??? My flute sales are upside down by about 50% for the year and according to a number of fellow builders, this little cottage industry is off by 30-60% overall. In some circles, all of the stimulus programs are collectively being referred to as “trickle up poverty.” Undaunted, I will however continue to fire out flutes at the blistering speed of about one every two to three weeks, and I’ll do it for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I don’t know how to do anything else, and secondly, I formed the opinion years ago, that on a global scale, every small child in the world wants at least one flute, as well as that small child that constantly dances around in all of us until we die. With that in mind, following this posting, on 10/17/2010, I’m reducing the price of every flute by an additional ten percent.

2010 YOSEMITE FLUTE FESTIVAL…

Where do I start. Generally, or probably always, outside temperature readings are done in the shade. If you cannot find shade however, it’s much more interesting to know what the temperature is in the sun, where you happen to be standing, which in my case, was 122 degrees Fahrenheit, although it was 102 in the shade. I think there are parts of the sun that aren’t even that hot. Anyway, I sold a flute on Friday, shortly after arrival, and immediately went over and gave the money to John Kulias, for one of his incredible ceramic drones. I spent the weekend hanging out with some flute makers that I love dearly, and overall had a great time………….right up to the point where I was banned for life from continued participation in the Festival ….for “bad behavior.” Things went sideways very quickly about an hour before the end of the event, in part due to that little ADHD problem of mine. Now that I have a new festival sign, and no festival in which to display it, it’s going in front of my corporate headquarters, making ingress and egress a little more challenging, but adding a distinctive look as well.

THE BUS
Switching gears once again, the bus, although looking like collateral Hellfire damage from Iraq, is really taking shape. The roof of this monster was raised 16 inches, windows torn out and replaced with black glass, and the 14 foot hydraulic living room slide out is fully operational, awaiting sheet metal. Jenna and Dustin are balking at my request for exterior Spongebob Squarepants graphics… but maybe I’ll have a place for my new Querencia Woodwinds sign. Sweet.

Ok, I’ve said enough. Go outside now, and play nice.

2010-05-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

“Touch not the flute when drums are sounding around; when fools have the word, the wise will be silent.” Johann Gottfried Von Herder .

“A man needs something to do.”- Waylon Payne to my Bro-in-law Wyatt Earp. Oct. 2002.

I didn’t touch flutes for over a month. Then I built one and left out two of about 25 steps. Not good. I was working on an outdoor cabana/spa project that a number of you folks …….uh, paid for. I figured if I build enough crap in my backyard, I won’t have any lawn left to mow. I basically built the flute to see if I could still do it. Having probably a touch of early onset Alzheimer’s and a generous helping of ADHD, I end up with short term memory loss, but I’m too busy chasing fragmented ideas to notice. There’s always something new to stare at. So the flute build was just a test. In my world, the phrase “It’s like riding a bike, you just never forget” has no meaning whatsoever.

Along those same lines, before I forget, there’s a nifty little product available now, to help you find your car in a parking lot. It’s an inexpensive, stripped down little keychain GPS receiver. I’m thinking of getting one so I can find my way back to the living room from the bathroom. This “Golden Years” bull**** is highly over-rated.

We had an Easter Sunday earthquake here in Southern California that I’m kind of thankful for. I’m not particularly fond of earthquakes, but as it was occurring, I thought I was having some kind of brain event, like a stroke, because everything and everybody was kind of floating around. I’m happy it was an earthquake because I think it’s probably much easier to build flutes after an earthquake, than after a stroke.

On another note, although I build flutes, my bride has a real job, and she goes to it four days a week. The R&D Div. of Querencia Woodwinds never sleeps, and since creativity knows no bounds, and I make her lunch each day for work, I came up with the “Querencia Bag O’ Pie” for desert. It’s just a slice of lemon meringue pie, or cherry or whatever, dumped into a Ziploc sandwich bag…..with a plastic fork. I think the concept is brilliant although it doesn’t look too good. So far she hasn’t taken me up on my bag o’ pie, and won’t go near it. She still likes the bag o’ Cheez-Its though.

My thoughts on Tablature……
Putting our flute hats on for a moment. I want to write a little bit about the instrument specific notation system known as tablature. As opposed to standard notation. This basically allows you to play previously composed music, guided by little flute pictures, depicting various finger holes covered or open. Robert Gatliff, a flute historian, has a number of interesting archives at Flutetree.com. among them being tablature to contemporary music. http://www.flutetree.com/songbook/contemporary/index.html I think for the purpose of capturing the essence of a favorite little song, tablature is the ticket, with significant limitations. Specifically, since your NA flute is tuned to a minor pentatonic, the majority of contemporary music will require some degree of half holing, and cross fingering to play the melody. My concern is that novice flute players, who limit themselves to trying to duplicate songs…exclusively, will lose interest in an instrument that is so easy, and has so much more to offer. Recent bone flute discoveries indicate this instrument has been around for AT LEAST 35,000 years. Those folks didn’t have tablature. They didn’t have sheet music either. What they did have, was a passionate desire to express themselves with sound, either by mimicking the noises of the natural world around them or recreating a melody that was just stirring in the soul. From my perspective, playing a previously composed song with your flute, is an accomplishment, while capturing a melody from your soul, is cathartic, and sheer magic. Ok then.

Yosemite flute festival..........

The only field trip I take each year, flute-wise, is to this festival. http://www.yosemiteflutefest.com/ It’s in Oakhurst, which isn’t exactly in Yosemite…but about 30 miles away. Anyone who likes flutes, and thinks they might want one, should make their purchase at a flute festival, where you get to noodle around on lots of flutes, from lots of builders. If you’re considering attending this event, and think you might want to purchase one of MY flutes…bring cash. Otherwise I’m going to get that call from the nice lady in Sacramento about the monkey. (see the blog entry of 3/7/10) What’s great about this event is the area is spectacular, even if you hate flutes. The mountains are beautiful, you’re at the front door of Yosemite, Oakhurst is a real town, and down the road is a huge Indian casino that looks from the road like a giant Russian penitentiary. If the airfare is too pricey from where you live, the festival isn’t for almost 4 months. You could walk. If you’re in Maine…leave tomorrow, and don’t forget the bottled water. In any case, have a great summer.

2010-03-07T10:28:00.000-08:00

“The flute is not an instrument that has a good moral effect. It is too exciting.” Aristotle

THIS JUST IN…………….

FROM THE CHEAP FLUTES DIV. OF QUERENCIA WOODWINDS ……….. Almost everybody’s fired. Easy to do, since they were mostly just me ….. but the alcoholic monkey. He stays, because he still does my books.

There are over one hundred … and counting … folks that can build and market a basic NA style flute. I’ve decided to forget trying to become one of them. Buy your first few flutes from these folks. If you thereafter lose interest, and give it to your dog for a chew treat, you’re not going to jump off an overpass because of what you paid for it, and your dog will have something swell to do for about ten minutes. You can even make a great video of your dog … or perhaps your child … gnawing on the flute, and I get to keep my demons at bay by creating works of art that make noise. Way more fun for me, less expensive for you.

On another note, for those folks in the United States who live in California, and might be interested in purchasing one of my flutes ... I need you to move out of state first, and I’ll tell you why. Although the monkey does the books, I have to do the state tax paperwork and sign it, because the monkey can’t write his name, which incidentally is Bon Bon. When you’re in California and purchase a flute from my website, PayPal knows you’re in California … I don’t know how … but then charges you sales tax. Now I don’t have a problem with reporting/paying sales tax, because this state is broke. But every year, I screw up the reporting. Depending upon where you live, I have to figure district, city and county taxes as well, and invariably, after submitting all this stuff, with a tax payment, I get a phone call from some nice lady in Sacramento, asking if perhaps a monkey did my taxes. On average, I only sell a couple of flutes a year to folks in California, so the revenue generated by MY business is not going to turn around a state economy that is in shambles. What I propose is this. Pack your laptop, and take a road trip to say, Las Vegas. Buy a flute and I’ll ship it to your hotel. OR, send some cash to grandma in Iowa, have her buy the flute, and then ship it back to you. Better yet, go visit grandma and get your flute, since you haven’t seen her in about a decade anyway.

FROM THE FLUTE CARE DEPT. OF QUERENCIA WOODWINDS…
Starting yesterday, I’ll be contracting with Ed Dougherty, of http://www.treeoflifedesigns.com/, to provide my clients with samplers of a very special flute wax he mixes up in small batches at home in his kitchen. Specifically, he did a lot of experimentation to come up with an FDA safe beeswax formula combining aromatherapy essential oils, with antiviral and antifungal properties as well. He currently makes a Tea Tree/orange formula, Lavender/lemongrass, and unscented beeswax with sweet almond … I suggested he could probably whip up beeswax and Vaporub for folks with a cold …… My ideas are not always good ideas. Anyway, I’ll be including a quarter ounce sampler, and if you love it, (I know your flute will love it), you can order a fifty-gallon drum or whatever from Ed. I don’t plan to carry it because I don’t want to go to the Post Office that often.

FACEBOOK, PHONES AND THE PONY EXPRESS….

At the urging of family, and some flute folks. I joined Facebook, to “network.” I don’t even want to network. I might “network” if I didn’t have to also type. I’m a great typist, I just don’t like doing it. Anyway I joined this thing and within 30 minutes, my email in- box went from a very comfy “empty” to THIRTY TWO MESSAGES. It was spinning like the read-out on a gas pump. Apparently, within half a day, I’ve become friends with a lot of folks I’ve never met before in my life. The odds are good there’s at least one serial child killer among them. If you’re not familiar with it, Facebook will scour your email address book and turn EVERYBODY in it into potential best friends or something. THEN, it will try to introduce second generation folks…who don’t know you, but know one of the folks in your address book. If you make one of these people your friend … they of course have friends, and now you have another common friend which is the person you don’t know, and you start collecting third generation people you don’t know, as friends. I’m no genius, BUT potentially, your buddy list will expand geometrically, to eventually include MILLIONS of people. That means millions of emails, millions of birthdays you have to remember, flow charts you have to draw, trying to figure out who’s who ... you get the picture. It’s very complicated, and they don’t send you a pamphlet. I like pamphlets.

I don’t even like phones. I have a cell phone, but the only way I can keep the battery from going dead is to keep it turned off. So I do. I should probably just store it in a desk drawer as well, so I don’t lose it. Instant communication is highly overrated. If I can be contacted in real time, somebody is going to want me to do something, or pay something … in real time. In my next life, I want to come back around 1860, but not as a horse. They all had to work too hard since they were the agreed-upon beast of burden. However, speaking of horses, the Pony Express was the communication ticket. With the Pony Express, folks didn’t have to act on ANYTHING for four to six weeks, if at all. Plus when your message did arrive, it was with a pony you could pet for a few minutes before actually doing something about your message. Life was good.

Well, I think I’ve said enough. Have a great Spring.

2010-01-04T09:36:00.000-08:00

“The prototypes of strong sensation:…. blazing lights, red earth, blue sea, mauve twilight, the flake of gold buried in the black depths of the cypress; archaic tastes of wine and olive, ancient smells of dust, goat dung and thyme, immemorial sounds of cicada and rustic flute.” Unknown.

From the “Laugh to keep from Crying Dept……..
Well, OK then…. For most folks, 2009 was economically or financially, like scuba diving, where you’re three minutes below the surface, with a two minute air supply. On a grander scale, Andy Serwer, the managing editor of Fortune magazine, appropriately characterized the last TEN years, as the “Decade From Hell.” His December 7th article in TIME magazine, lists, and sums up a series of events that at some point, touched upon, and to some degree, terrified every person in this country. Two minutes into this decade should have been the first clue, with all the hand wringing and speculation about the Y2K glitch. To have the 9/11 events at one end, the largest financial crash in 80 years at the other end and Hurricane Katrina, the largest natural disaster in our history at the midpoint, seasoned by thousands of lives lost in two protracted wars over the last eight years………well, Killer tsunamis and five dollar gasoline turn into just more frosting on our cake. I can’t see the future through the eyes of a politician, a mortgage broker, a foot soldier, or an economist. I can only see the future through the eyes of a flute maker. From that tiny perspective, we’re either making too much music, …..or not enough. Since there can never be too much music, we’re apparently not making enough, so I plan to try and make more. For me, it’s sort of like laughing to keep from crying, We absolutely need more music, and a few prayers.

FLUTE STUFF…
A few words about “wet-out” as it applies to flutes, and not the weather. The weakest link in the daily playability of a wooden flute, other than say, being hit by a meteorite while playing it, is what’s known as “wet out”, wherein the moisture from breath has been collecting in the compression chamber just inside the mouthpiece, and finally works its way up the ramp or flue, to the underside of the block. The result is a swelling of the wood, accumulated water droplets, and a fuzziness in the voice of the flute. Assuming of course the flute didn’t sound fuzzy when you picked it up. Builders and performers alike, figure on about 20 minutes of play, before the sound is potentially compromised, which means in order to play for an hour….you’ll need three flutes. I personally love that idea, particularly if they’re three of my flutes. Typically, the accumulated moisture demands you untie the block, and set the flute aside for a couple of hours, and grab another flute. A number of builders have addressed this issue, with varying degrees of success. Coins have been glued into the compression chamber, acting as a heat and moisture sink, to theoretically slow down the moisture march up to the flue, …. Unglazed ceramic has been glued into the chamber, to absorb moisture, with the potential for a nasty side effect of growing a bacterial garden in the flute as well, I think you get the point. The issue has been around.

After a chat with my good friend and fellow flute maker, Leonard McGann, of Lone Crow flutes, he mentioned a flute he plays that has not experienced ANY wet-out since 2000.That’s 10 years. Leonard is a genius, and he is humble. Rarely do you find those two words in the same sentence. When he talks, I listen, but rarely understand. Anyway, the flute was built such that the moisture just wicks out of the flute altogether. The concept was just too simple. Wick the water away with a wick. Some of my flutes will now have a nylon sleeved hole in the floor of the compression chamber…with a couple inches of cotton wick inserted into the chamber. The moisture collects on the wick, moving to the outside of the flute. If the wick gets really damp, pull it out and insert a new one. I will also include additional wicking material and a billet aluminum plug should you find playing conditions render a wick unnecessary, or you think the concept and the looks are just stupid. At any rate, my tests suggest wet out becomes a non issue, unless you drop the flute into an aquarium.

Querencia Hits the Road…..
Toward the end of the month I’ll be piling into the Querenciamobile and heading to that square mile of dirt in the western Arizona desert known as Quartzsite. Once yearly, nomadic rockhounds in their rusting motorhomes, converge on this little tumbleweed collection point and play host to the largest rock and mineral swap meet in the country. If it came out of the ground, or it fell from the sky, you can find it in Quartzsite. My shopping list includes Crazy Lace agate, Mexican Fire agate, Cooper Pedy, Lightning Ridge, and Andamooka opal, dinosaur bones, and stuff from outer space, the usual. You can also find a decent margarita there, at day’s end, or at daybreak as well I suppose.

Speaking of road trip, my daughter and her boyfriend are the proud owners of a monster 1970 something Silver Eagle bus. They just had the roof raised, and some company is converting it into a luxury motorhome with a 14 ft. slide out, step down living room, black glass windows, and I get my own room. If they let me drive, I plan to come visit all of you and honk the horn a lot. Start listening for the horn in about six months. In the meantime, play nice, keep your head down, and try and find the five flutes I just added to the website.

2009-11-21T10:16:00.000-08:00

“When you look back on a lifetime and think of what has been given to the world by your presence, your fugitive presence, inevitably you think of your art, whatever it may be, as the gift you have made to the world in acknowledgement of the gift you have been given, which is life itself. And I think the world tends to forget that this is the ultimate significance of the body of work each artist produces. That work is not an expression of the desire for praise or recognition, or prizes, but the deepest manifestation of your gratitude for the gift of life.” Stanley Kunitz, The Wild Braid, A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden

Hi there……………….Let’s talk about TUNING HOLES.
Tuning holes are the little holes at the end of some flutes. By drilling them, the fundamental key is raised, as the flute thinks the end stops at the holes instead of the far end of the flute. I don’t like them, and rarely use them unless I can do something tricky with them. I would rather chop the end off the flute to acquire the fundamental note, unless the wood is exceptionally beautiful. Some builders will build a huge standard flute, and burn tuning holes to raise the fundamental to a buyer’s specifications or for what they think rounds out their selection of keys. Some builders will also charge more money because they’ve created, for example, a 25-inch bore length flute in the key of Am, with tuning holes nine inches back from the foot or far end of the flute. Although the Am can be achieved with a 15-inch bore length without the holes, the extra ten inches of unnecessary lumber appears to legitimize the pricing. Put another way, more flute equals more money. Buyer beware.

YOSEMITE FLUTE AND ART FESTIVAL……Has come and gone. The organizers, Rick and Linda Dunlop, as well as their army of volunteers did a remarkable job in assisting lazy folks like myself in setting up and tearing down our flute displays. I found that if I walked around with a fake limp, these volunteers did pretty much all of the work. Mike Oitzman of the Northern California Flute Circle did a fine job of covering the event in his blog, http://www.naflute.blogspot.com/. The only challenging aspect of this event was the weather. More specifically, the heat. The triple digit, record breaking heat is never a friend to wooden flutes, and I wasn’t too fond of it myself. Having just returned from eight days in Blythe, CA, where the temp was 116 degrees every day, 102 degrees in Oakhurst was different. It was somehow hotter. No, it was brutal. Maybe there is less heat-deflecting atmosphere between Oakhurst and the Sun. Actually, I found out it was the rocks. The area has a lot of really big rocks, and they heat up as well. It was kind of like being in a big stone skillet. To make matters worse, the air conditioning in the Querenciamobile was on the fritz, but I didn’t want other motorists to know that, so I drove around town with the windows rolled up, to create the illusion I had icy air conditioning.

The photo shows the new look for my flute and snake-oil display. This year marked a radical departure from previous set-ups, where I strived to make my flute display look exactly like a Mexican beach bar, and I don’t know why. The current display is somehow simpler, plus, if I stop building flutes, and start building caskets…this setup appears good to go for those too.

On a totally unrelated note, as we approach the end of a truly watershed year, in terms of violent, and/or embarrassing human behavior…I find that the President’s stimulus package has not yet trickled down to improve flute sales, at least my flute sales. Sales here at Querencia are off by about 30%, which only translates into about seven flutes in need of a new home. I think flute and shoe polish manufacturing are the last industries to see the effects of an economic recovery. With that in mind, sadly, I have to suspend my Black Friday/Pre Christmas, across-the-board 10% price reduction event (20% for previous purchasers). Some of these instruments currently work out to an hourly wage of $4.50USD, and I think the minimum wage currently hovers around eight bucks. With that in mind, for those of you who simply have to own a flute in the $70.00- $125.00 price range, and need it NOW, I again encourage you to check out my friend Odell Borg’s website, http://www.highspirits.com/ I own and play a number of his flutes.

Well that pretty much wraps it up. Like I mentioned this time last year, as winter approaches the beaches here in Southern California, if any of you reading this little rant live a few clicks south of the equator, and can see either a pool with a slide, or a white sand beach, right outside your back window, I’m available for serious flute instruction, and can hang out with you until it warms up around here. Then I can do the same for you when it’s winter where you live. Happy Holidays, and play nice.

2009-08-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

"The flute player played songs of the forest and, songs of the sky, songs of the meadows and songs of the sea. all day and all night."
--Robyn Eversole, in The Flute Player

A little something more, about flute pricing. My flute pricing is based on two factors. The cost of materials, and the labor or length of time necessary for the little voice in my head to tell me, “This flute is done” My most pricy flutes consist of expensive stone work, pyrographics, crushed inlay, fetish overlays, and difficult wood. In attempting to build a flute for between $100.00 and $200.00USD, I have to cut back on every one of these elements, yet still craft an instrument that is unique and noteworthy among the hundreds of flutes available at that price point. As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I’m still trying to develop that formula……..without much success.

On another note, business wise, … I involuntarily listened to a radio program recently, wherein the topic of discussion was “How to keep your small business from getting smaller” during the current economic downturn. Despite all the smoke and mirrors to the contrary, Querencia Woodwinds is not a Fortune 500 company yet. However, I came to realize, the size of my company is perfect during the current economic s***storm. It can’t get any smaller, unless I lay myself off. And I won’t do that because I don’t want to deal with the paperwork associated with suing myself for unlawful termination. Plus, I think I would have to hire two attorneys to fight over my claim.

Switching gears, I recently purchased enough 50,000 year old New Zealand Kauri, to add a spare bedroom here at Rancho Relaxo. I’ll be making flutes from this material, not a bedroom, but I’ll be doing it very slowly. Given my construction methods, which are a little different from some builders, and way different from most, I find this material to be acoustically superior to any other woods I’ve used, particularly if the work is done slowly. In keeping with the timeless/ageless nature of this wood, inlay materials will include Anasazi pottery shards from 1050 AD, found on a private Utah ranch,
6000-8000 year old North African projectile points, beautiful 70 million year old Ammolite, and small disks I had milled from the 6 Billion year old Gibeon meteorite. If I find anything older, I’ll add that too.

A brief note about diamonds. I place approximately 75 diamonds in flutes each year. I do my best to responsibly source my diamond purchases, using one Canadian wholesaler, and two in the orient. The majority of my purchases originate in conflict free South Africa, while the remainder comes from other Kimberly Process countries. Despite this, embargoed war torn countries, routinely smuggle their stones into conflict free countries for export, and the US is the largest importer of diamonds in the world. It is a horribly flawed system, but better than no system at all.
Speaking of gemstones and cabochons, my flutes contain between 2 and as many as 10 stones, and occasionally they………….fall out. Although I use a bullet proof slow kick two part marine epoxy, contraction and expansion of the wood, can although rarely, fatigue the bond and loosen the inlay. Should this occur, we both have a record of the materials used, and you can return the flute or fetish, for a replacement at no charge. Your only cost is the shipping necessary to get the flute or fetish back to me. This is a lifetime policy, but it’s MY lifetime, ……….. and I’m getting old. Ok then, as always, play nice.

2009-06-05T05:52:00.000-07:00

"Playing a flute is like writing a book. You're telling what's in your heart...It's easier to play if it's right from your heart. You get the tone, and the fingers will follow."
-- Eddie Cahill

I’ve been somewhat remiss in updating my web page with new flutes, in part because I simply didn’t have any. Sometimes I get carried away on one or two flutes, and when I look up at the clock….three weeks has passed. I was down to a few blanks of exceptionally odd wood varieties, all of which are famous for the toxins associated with their sawdust, so I thought perhaps it was time to take a year’s worth of accumulated lumber, and rip it into sticks, and rout it into blanks for future flutes. This process took about twelve days, and I’m now good to go with about 80 new blanks before I get down to the 8-10 blanks I’m too scared to work with, and prompted this process in the first place. I figure I have a couple of years worth of cedar, zircote, paldao, huangana negra, radiata pine, yacashupana, cinnamon burl, buckeye burl, ancient kauri, cherry, Virginia walnut, amazique, paduk, Laotian and Cambodian flamewood, cocobolo, Indian rosewood, lacewood, zebrawood, guancalo alves, poplar, cypress, and a couple I forget how to spell.

I may have mentioned this in the past, but one of the questions web visitors constantly never ask… over and over again, is “Why do some flutes have ‘Email for price’ posted instead of a price?” and I’ll tell you why. Occasionally a flute will be entered in an art show, or a buyer has sent me a deposit, or I will revisit a flute and feel it needs additional work, or I simply want to change something. This allows me to suspend its availability for awhile without completely removing it from the website, and re-loading all the data again later.

For you folks across the pond…Thank you……generally, you folks have responded well to my price reductions, particularly those of you in Germany, Austria, and France. I understand the dynamic, wherein the Euro is strong, and the dollar is like the Peso, however, I would encourage some of you folks to move here, because I have to pack your flutes in pipe, to ensure safe arrival, and plumbing supplies are getting a little pricy. Plus, we have Knott’s Berry Farm and you don’t. Think about it. I’ll meet you at the airport.

The only snake oil/flute peddling road show for me during the year is the upcoming Yosemite flute festival. There is a link to it on the website, oddly enough, in the links section. I would put one here, but I don’t know how. Anyway, it’s a great way to see flutes and maybe have huge wild bears clawing at your lunch, possibly on the same afternoon. Festivals are generally the best way to purchase a flute, since you get to fiddle around with hundreds of them, from a couple dozen builders. The hot tip is to do your best bargaining on the last day, when builders like myself, are trying to scrape up the gas money necessary to get home.

As a parting note…. I have done my best to come up with a really good, inexpensive flute, and I haven’t had a lot of success. What I do to flutes is very labor intensive, and my plain flutes look like a 7th grade woodshop project. People who know my work, look at one of these finished flutes and think perhaps I had a stroke midway through construction, and gave up. I will continue to work on this issue, but I find myself competing with folks with some degree of automation, who turn out a remarkable instrument, each and every time, at a price point that is a fraction of mine. In the meantime, I’ll keep sending folks to my friend Odell Borg at WWW.Highspirits.com ….Ok then…play nice.

2009-03-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute.
--Genesis 4:21

As we continue to slide into the economic abyss…….I want to take this opportunity to clarify a couple of things, that have nothing whatsoever to do with the economy. The Dept of the Interior/ Indian Arts and Crafts Board, drew up a rather long, convoluted policy statement, I think sometime before I was born, specifically addressing and protecting the creative efforts of registered American Indians. As such, the short version states that non Native Americans cannot peddle their crafts, by creating the illusion that they are in fact native made. To do so is fraud. Not unlike many non-native flute makers, I reference my work as Native American STYLE flutes, since there is more than a passing resemblance to those crafted by Native Americans. Now I’m Scottish. That does not mean I plan to run out and start building bagpipes, since I’m content building Native American Style Flutes. The problem with my effort at clarification rests solely on the shoulders of the search engine robots that scour the internet for active data, and throw it all together, to assist you when you do a “Google” search or whatever. These robots act just like robots. They don’t care about anybody’s efforts to distance themselves and their craft from those of registered Native Americans, and more often than not, don’t bother to read the word “style”. As a result, I may show up on the internet as a builder of Native American flutes, whether I like it or not. A couple of years ago, in discussing this issue with a few builders and enthusiasts, I thought of changing everything on my website and correspondence to indicate I was a builder of NORTH AMERICAN FLUTES. I thought about this plan for perhaps……a minute, and I’ll tell you why. Today I googled “North American Flutes”, and the number of builders that popped up with that strict parameter…..was none. Those that were referenced, had the word “Native” plugged in as a descriptor, by either the builder, or one of the robots. So I will continue to do what I do, until I’m contacted by the flute police. The alternative is to give my work a name nobody will ever be able to find via Google, including me.

I made my annual rock purchasing safari to Quartzsite Az this month, as evidenced by the photo of my three new best friends. Opal prospectors from Australia, they proudly showcase this year’s crop of raw Andamooka Mine Australian opal. I made a number of purchases, and although I’m not entirely happy about it, I plan to start cutting and polishing my own opal and ammolite, as pre-cut and polished pieces are now running into hundreds of dollars each, and I have a problem putting a $400.00 stone in a $300.00 flute. Plus, I can cut the stones to fit the flutes…maybe. The other photo is the festive dining patio of a Mexican restaurant down the road. I just couldn’t help myself. Actually, after a couple of their margaritas, this patio becomes quite lively and colorful.

From the Gizmo department here at Querencia, … I tune flutes with analog, digital, and now strobe tuners, simultaneously. For those at all interested, a half step, say Fm to F#m, is divided into 100 “cents”. The analog and digital tuners will tell me how far off from dead on a note is, in terms of +/- one cent. The strobe will tell me to a factor of a tenth of a cent. Does that mean my flutes are going to be 10 times more accurate? Probably not. I’m mostly fascinated by the way the lights spin around. There are too many variables, like the velocity of YOUR breath, as well as the humidity and temperature where you play the instrument. Some of you folks are playing my flutes in the Alps. I’m surprised you’re getting notes that are even in the alphabet.

On one last note, I wanted to dwell for a moment, on the collective power of human stupidity. Since the Dollar is hovering around the same value as the Peso, …my flute sales to Europe have been brisk. I recently sold two flutes to a client in Austria. Oddly, both the most expensive flute, and the least expensive flute currently for sale on my website. Both shipped Global Priority the same day. My client received his least expensive flute in about 10-12 days. The expensive flute however……….is in AUSTRALIA. Not only is it in Australia, currently headed for Melbourne by truck……actually moving further away from Austria, at about 50 mph … but it cleared customs in Australia as well. I’m figuring so far, at least TEN people have handled my package, and NO ONE has noticed it’s addressed to a small town outside of Salzburg Austria. I’m guessing the guy who finally figures out my flute is on the wrong side of the planet, will be the mailman walking down some street with it, trying to deliver it to somebody in Southern Australia. Gotta love Civil Service.

I posted five new flutes to my website today. If you are unemployed, or plan to be, do not buy a flute. Just fiddle around with the sound files. If you are employed, donate some cash to your local food bank first, …then buy a flute. In the meantime, try and put some joy in your life. Rich

2009-01-01T20:14:00.000-08:00

"Every music lover is familiar with the sound of the flute, which seems to possess a magic power that emanates from its innermost being. It speaks, it moves, it entrances, almost as if it had been revealed to us on the glorious day of creation. And yet it is genuine human expression, an element of language, the image of a dream continually repeated."

--Meylan, in The Flute, p.9

Well, 2008 is over and done….and if I could dig a bigger hole for its burial, I’d rent a backhoe and some dynamite. I understand 2009 isn’t looking so hot either.

To the degree that I’m able, I will continue to keep the price of flutes as low as I can, based on the time invested in each flute and the materials used. I will also continue with USPS Priority Insured domestic shipping at no charge, as well as the extra goodies I include with each flute. I’m sure you folks will let me know when the economy has righted itself, and I can again charge thousands of dollars for a flute, and tack on huge shipping charges that have no bearing on actual costs. I look forward to that, hopefully by the end of 2010.

As an overview of the year, 8,734 different folks came by my website to say hello, looking at 25,814 pages, resulting in the sale of 30 flutes. These numbers continue to be perfect, in spite of the economy, since I continue to fire flutes out of my shop at the blistering rate of about 30 a year. I figure this modest yearly output is what keeps corporate giants like Raytheon or Flutes-R-Us from tendering buyout offers for my company. Keeping my operation unattractive to corporate giants is just one more thing I do for you, my loyal clients.

During the course of this last year, I’ve explored the skill and talent presented by a small number of Zuni fetish carvers. Using jet, jasper, turquoise, and a number of other stone varieties, these folks cut beautiful and powerful works of art and magic. Although pricing for fetish carvings can approach $200.00, I’ve purchased a few for between $30.00 and $60.00. I will be bonding these to SE Asian amboyna/cedar bases, for use on a select number of flutes. Doing so adds a stunning example of authentic Zuni artwork, and lets me off the hook in trying to carve, say….a kit fox, that I guarantee would look like a gopher. An example is included in the clickable photo above. If you click on the other photo, I tried to get a shot of the ANT orchestra on the roof of Querencia World Headquarters. They consist of river rocks and torn up shopping carts. I just love Mexico, except when I'm being kidnapped or shot at.

During the coming year, I will continue a practice I began a couple of months ago wherein I’ll build some flutes that I will market for less than $200.00. The instruments will have the same build and sound characteristics of my more expensive flutes, but without time consuming crushed stone and wood inlay, or accents and appointments of diamonds, ammolite, and opals. They will however have some appealing characteristics so I continue to enjoy the process of building them.

As this New Year takes off like a corn grinder on one cylinder, I want to thank everybody who has inquired about my flutes, whether you subsequently purchased one or not. I didn’t receive one crank call, nobody was drunk, and you didn’t call at 3:00 in the morning. I’ll do my best to keep giving you useful information, even if I have to pull my facts out of thin air. During that process, I hope to continue to make great friends, as you have all been just truly great folks, with an honest passion for this instrument. In closing, now that we’re headed into an exceptionally cold winter here on the California coast, if you live in Hawaii, or some place subject to afternoon trade winds, and you have a pool or an ocean, with perhaps a palapa bar, and maybe some monkeys in the trees, your flute maker is available for a free private consultation……for about a month, maybe two. Make your New Year happy. Rich Halliburton

2008-11-28T11:59:00.000-08:00

"The flute calms the spirit and penetrates the ear with such sweet sound that it brings peace and an abeyance of motion unto the soul. And should some sorrow dwell in the mind, a care that wine cannot make us forget and banish, it lulls us to sleep and is balm on account of its sweet and gracious sound, provided that it adheres to modest music and does not excite and inflame the soul with too many notes and passages, which would weaken it and could easily come to grief on account of the wine."

--Meylan, in The Flute, p.11

Well…………..It’s that time of year again….Time to pass along some holiday cheer, if there’s any to be found. I realize the domestic economy has tanked, and has become a sea anchor for the global economy as well. Internationally, we’re engaged in drug wars, wars of pacification, wars of democratization, and wars I suspect are just to try out new toys. I also realize the top five products currently available to U.S. consumers, at bargain prices, are Portland cement, shoe polish, corn tortillas, paper cocktail umbrellas, and my flutes. I think I read that in Forbes.

Now I don’t expect you to pass up the great deals out there on Portland cement, but I will again be lowering the price of my flutes for the month of December. Typically I lower the prices by 10%, but this year will be a little different. I’ll be figuring the cost of materials for each flute, as well as an hourly wage typical of a car wash employee…like the old days. Some flutes will go down in price significantly, some, not so significantly, and some … not at all.

I suspect this holiday shopping season will be completely avoided by most consumers. Everybody is broke, and I understand that. However, if you DO find yourself caught up in the Christmas season, torn between purchasing one of my flutes, or a live pony and little cowpoke outfit for your child, please keep in mind, you don’t have to feed a flute, and you’ll never need a shovel.

The domestic economic downturn has created an interesting set of circumstances for what, 6 months ago, was a marginally thriving middle class. Specifically, food banks across the nation are operating at the lowest inventory levels in their history. With unemployment approaching double digits, as well as nest eggs, investment portfolios, and emergency funds simply vanishing over a period of about 10 weeks, our middle class has been forced to utilize food banks themselves…at unprecedented levels. The food banks are starting to run on empty.

Now I haven’t had an original thought since I was about 6 years old, and today is no exception. However, my wife mentioned a plan that I find to have serious merit. During this season of giving, particularly for colleagues and extended family members, rather than give a fruitcake, or cellophane covered wicker basket full of cheese and soap that you can’t tell apart, make a donation to your local food bank, on behalf of one another. Specifically, make a cash donation for one another, because the food bank people can buy food at lower cost than we can. Everybody wins. Plus, you don’t find yourself in the shower, lathering up with a bar of cheese. Additionally, here at Rancho Relaxo, and the world headquarters of Querencia Woodwinds, for the sake of energy conservation, I will probably tone down the seasonal exterior lighting, and forgo the opportunity to make my home look like a Third World liquor store. I’m hoping I can resume that activity again next year.

In closing, I’m reminded of the phrase “Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward men,” or all, or something. I don’t know if it came from the Bible, Santa Claus, or Hallmark. In any event, it’s truly my wish for everyone this season. Rich Halliburton/Querencia Woodwinds.

2008-11-05T15:52:00.000-08:00

“If you want to know the meaning of life….Creativity is the low hanging fruit, even if all you create is morning coffee with your special recipe of Folgers, Maxwell House, and a little cinnamon.” Bruce DeBoer.

“Skill without imagination is craftsmanship, but skill with imagination, is art” Home improvement flyer I found in my driveway. Cute.

Notwithstanding a one day flute event at the end of November, my traveling road show is over. Yosemite was great in that I got to hang out with a lot of my favorite artisans, and meet new ones too. One was Dwight Lind, of Quiet Bear flutes. He’s almost as crazy as I am, but …older. He takes over 200 flutes to these events and tries to leave with none. I take 20 and try not to leave with 23. I ended up swapping one of my flutes to Dwight Lind, and since John Kulias (Meadowlark Flutes) was there, I ended up buying yet another of his ceramic flutes, and I’ll tell you why. The group of folks I perform with make a LOT of noise, tough competition for anybody’s wooden flute. John builds a ceramic flute that will take the paint off the side of a house. They’re REALLY LOUD. They’re beautiful too; you can just never drop them.

As with most first year festivals, there was not enough intelligently directed advertising to generate the foot traffic we had hoped for. I volunteered to throw a spike strip across Hwy 41 and try and snag a tour bus headed into Yosemite but the season was about over, and the buses were few and far between, plus I was getting low on spike strips. It is however a great event, and if invited, I’ll be back next year.

The site of my next event, five days after Yosemite, was the Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair. Manhattan Beach has the distinction of being a city with some of the most expensive residential real estate in the United States. It is NOT however, the demographic motherlode for NA style flute sales. With over 200 vendors, I found myself competing with embroidered baby dribble bibs, rhinestone dog collars, and wind chimes made from pop bottles. As the only flute vendor, I had folks wandering over, thinking I was selling firearms, or bongs, or both. I had couples coming over asking if I would play a little something to stop their infants from screaming. I could go on and on, and write a whole blog about this event, but I won’t. However, if you EVER see me participating in another generalized “arts and crafts” fair again, don’t come up and say Hi….instead, go back out to your car, root around in your glove box or under your seat, and find your gun. Then come back with it, and shoot me in the head.

I realize that during the two weeks I was on the road peddling flutes, your savings, stocks, and 401k accounts were vanishing into thin air. The economic perfect storm we are experiencing, fueled by greedy and imperfect people, is virtually unprecedented. We are experiencing the lowest level of consumer spending since 1980. I’ll be lowering the prices of flutes yet again for the Christmas season, and at the same time realize a lot of folks don’t need a flute, and won’t care….they need food, firewood, and a prayer. I’ll be doing my best to help out with all three for those folks too.

Switching gears for a moment, I recently built a custom flute for a client, and she requested dished, or slightly cupped finger holes. I had suspended this practice about two years ago, on the advice of a couple of entertainers who play my flutes. They had mentioned the cupping limited their creative latitude in playing the instrument. I don’t even know what that means, but they play these instruments far better than I do. Since that time, I’ve received feedback from a number of folks, particularly those who have collected my flutes over the years, suggesting they miss this feature. Since I sell far more flutes to enthusiasts than performers, some flutes will again have SLIGHTLY indented finger holes, in an effort to strike a happy medium. I’ll indicate both in photos and text which flutes have received this treatment. OK then… hope you had a great Halloween. ….. I don’t believe I’ve ever hoped, or said that before. Ever.

2008-08-10T20:08:00.000-07:00

Praise him with the strings and flute...

--Psalm 150

This will be a brief rant-free missive just to explain a little bit of pending weirdness on my “flutes for sale” page. Since I will be participating in two events this year, and they are virtually back to back……specifically the Yosemite Flute festival, and the Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair, I will in all probability be cannibalizing my website flute inventory in order to have about 20 available for these events. Since they fly out of my shop at the rate of about 35 a year, ……well, I don’t have enough flutes. What you will see within the next few weeks, instead of a price, is “Email for Price”, or some such thing, for those flutes I’m taking with me. This keeps you from buying on-line some flute that I may be simultaneously selling to some guy with lederhosen and a funny hat, up in Oakhurst/Yosemite.

This is the good part. …… If you do find a flute you want….and it’s earmarked for one of these events with “Email for Price”…AND you email me for a price…AND you mention you read this blog entry, I’ll rebate to you 10% of the purchase price, because I’m reducing the prices 10% for the events anyway.

This is truly a win-win. You win because the flute costs you 10% less, without having to drag yourself to Yosemite or Manhattan Beach, and I win because ONE, I get to find out if anybody but me reads my blog, and TWO, In all probability you don’t live in California which means I don’t have to deal with Edith from the Franchise Tax Board in Sacramento regarding your flute. I hopelessly screw up my business taxes every year, and every year, I get a call from Edith. Sometimes two calls.

If it’s currently Summer where you live, have a great second half. If it’s Winter where you live, Summer is coming. When that happens, it might be a good time to invite your favorite flute maker down to where you live for a couple of weeks,…. or months.

One last note……..for those of you who read this, and perhaps purchase my flutes…..I’m building them with a lot of BIRDS for the fetish block…and I’ll tell you why. I still have some systemically dyed maple…nobody else does, and some really expensive sheet abalone, and other stuff. Horses, gophers, pigs, wombats, giraffes, squirrels and prairie dogs never look right with hints of wild colors. …birds can get away with it, particularly if it’s a bird out of my imagination. Ok then…………….

2008-06-29T18:23:00.001-07:00

Play from the heart; the flute is a heart song...
like a sweet prayer, and it will teach you as well
as you teach yourself.

--Mato Wambli

Back in February I introduced my readers, both of you, to a flute maker who I found to possess some pretty remarkable talent in this field. At the time, I indicated I would rather collaborate than compete with him. What is it, almost July now? Five months. How’s that for just crashing ahead with reckless abandon. Anyway, as a result, I just posted one of his condor flutes to my website. He’s priced this flute very reasonably, considering its gorgeous voice, and the time invested in the build. The folks over at the flutecase store are pretty impressed with Mr. Jones too, so I stole a brief bio from them to paste here for either one of you that might be interested. As follows….. “Greg is a retired railroad conductor. He’s been a Hang glider pilot; a skydiver; BASE jumper; an avid fly fisherman and fly tyer; a martial art Master with two published books; and holds the Guinness World record for the highest bungee jump in the world (12,000 ft. affixed to another skydiver). He’s been a freefall video/photographer for many years and called his business “Wingshadow”. This name was chosen for his signature act of briefly painting the jumpers and customers with his shadow in freefall, and under canopy with his own parachute. He now calls his flute venture “Wingshadow”. He says, “I extended the name to flute making, because we all stand in the shadow of someone else’s wings; the people who had greatest influence in our lives, the people who taught us our greatest lessons, and the people who loom largest in our hearts.” He says, “The flutes are the living shadows of the flute makers themselves. Though they appear to be inanimate, dead objects, we breathe life into them and tap out the heartbeats with out fingers, guided by a common spirit.” “So, in essence, the flute itself becomes a vocal shadow of our own soul.” ……I personally find Greg a fascinating individual, mostly because I rarely understand fully what he’s talking about. Nevertheless, he can build flutes.

On another note… I just found out you can click on these blog pictures, and they get larger. Wow. Who knew? Nobody ever sent me a pamphlet or anything when I set up the blog. I like pamphlets.

On a closing note, I was recently talking with a few seasoned, well respected luminaries in the flute world, both recording artists and builders. In discussing how to make ends meet, put food on the table, and keep gas in the pickup, all echoed variations on the same theme. Too many producers, and not enough consumers. There are but a handful of folks who play this instrument for a living who know ANYTHING about music theory, and are classically trained in one instrument or another. Their skill is evident in their work, but this instrument is so easy to play, it has drawn hundreds of novice enthusiasts out from under that tree in the backyard, and into the ill conceived belief that they are SO GOOD, they need to cut a CD. A Google search of Native American flute music, will yield 283,000 web pages, and a great number of them, belong to just these folks. Those few artists with talent, passion and knowledge of fundamental theory, are being trampled by anybody with a flute and recording software. Likewise, the flute builders with any skill, history and following, face the same challenges, but on a smaller scale. A few excellent builders have assembled their valuable trial and error knowledge, into books and instructional videos. Some do it for profit; some do it as a public service. This is a fairly recent phenomenon, and has given birth to an explosion of flute peddlers. What they share in common in addition to their new how-to books, is a lack of originality, skill, creativity, and nuances that can only come from trial and error, and time. My own flute building was kick started with the help of instructional information, specifically from Don and Dave Rivaldo at Flutemaking.com, and I used the information necessary to coax a stick into making some noise. Once I got noise, I did not run out and try and sell my noisemaker. I began experimenting until a couple of years later I could build an instrument I could truly call my own.

The Native American flute community, to include builders, performers, enthusiasts, collectors, and supporters, is very, VERY small. I think my whole point in this rant, boils down to a request that as a consumer, you support those artisans who have truly dedicated substantial time and energy into fine tuning their building or playing skills. They’ve earned it, and done so on many levels ….On the other hand, If you have any money left, consider purchasing my flutes too. Ok then.

2008-05-08T05:15:00.000-07:00

"Never give a flute player a screwdriver."

--anonymous

"And if there come the singers and the dancers and the flute players--buy of their gifts also. For they too are gatherers of fruit and frankincense, and that which they bring, though fashioned of dreams, is raiment and food for your soul."

--Kahlil Gibran, in The Prophet

Hi. … Welcome to Spring. With gasoline currently on the wrong side of $4.00 a gallon, you’re probably not going on many of those Sunday drives, with the top down on the ol’ Buick. What you might do till this whole thing blows over, is find a tree somewhere in the yard, or plant one, then sit under it, and play your flute.

I think some of you folks are doing just that. I sold 17 flutes in the first three months of this year, which is twice the number sold during the same period over the last three years. The flute is turning into the perfect recession fighting tool. Although you can’t make soup out of it, you can noodle away on it, for free, until the economy flips over and rights itself. If things get REALLY bad, and you find yourself in some tent city, you can either play it for spare change, or set it on fire for a little warmth. It’ll make things all toasty for about a minute.

This was “Rip and Rout” week here at Rancho Relaxo. It’s the once a year mini-fest wherein I cut the insides out of a bunch of exotic woods, and find out first hand if the shavings are really as toxic as Google says they are. The sticks included Yacushapana, Amazique, Cedar of Lebanon, Port Orford Cedar, Huangana Negra, Buckeye burl, Myrtle, Cambodian flamewood, Afzalia, and a few more I can’t spell. Unless my flutes continue to fly off the shelves, this should last me until this time next year.

About ten days ago, I took an intermediate-advanced flute playing class at the Georgetown flute festival, held oddly enough, in Georgetown Ca. The class was taught by Scott August, and I was the worst player there. The venue was beautiful as it was held in gold country in the Sierra Nevada mountains, home of Sutter’s Mill, goats, wineries, alpaca, tiny horses, donkeys, geese, and more goats. Scott drove (7 hours).….and I flew (1 hour). I asked the airline staff to honk at Scott’s car over the I-5 but they said commercial airliners don’t have horns. Horn makers might want to take note of that little bit of information…. I bought a flute while I was at the festival too. Specifically, a high E ceramic flute from John Kulias of Meadowlark flutes. I couldn’t build a flute in that key, from wood, with those tonal qualities, if I had a gun to my head. The only downside to his truly beautiful fired ceramic flutes is you can never drop them. Ever.

Lastly, from the Upcoming Events Desk here at Querencia…..I had originally intended to defend my first place flute building title at this year’s Oklahoma Flute Festival, held in early October. Instead, on Sept 26-28^th, I’m going to participate in the first Yosemite Flute and Art Festival, in Oakhurst Ca. which according to my globe and measuring string, is about 1100 miles closer to home. Five days later, I’m thinking I’ll participate in Manhattan Beach’s fair, about two miles from Rancho Relaxo, …..and I won’t even have to unpack the car. That should be it for my snake oil road show for the year.

Well, that about does it. Remember, do as I say, not as I do. Practice, practice, practice.

2008-02-16T10:21:00.000-08:00

In the very near future, I’m going to begin showcasing, and collaborating with, another builder. The skill level of this flute maker is light years ahead of my work in many aspects of this craft, and he is unknown to all but a handful of serious flute collectors. He is a good friend, and I am proud to represent his work on my website. He is one of the very few builders who simply has a passion for building the finest instrument possible, one at a time, without deadlines, and first and foremost as a cathartic adventure. He is imaginative, innovative, and when you see and hear what he creates, you will understand why collaboration with this artist is much smarter than competing with him. His name is Greg Jones. He lives in Eugene Oregon. He is without question, a flute maker.

I went on another 650 mile gem buying safari to Quartzsite Arizona this week. Everything and everybody looked just a little more beat up than usual, thanks to rain and 60 mph winds the week before. I was able to sit around in the sunshine with folks I met last year, and I also sat down with a lot of total strangers, because I was most interested in just sitting down, after hours of rooting around endless bins of rocks. All it took to become my new best friend was an empty chair. The only photo I got that wasn’t truly insulting to those folks, was a BBQ or dirt picnic that went terribly wrong off in the distance. I love that place.

This year’s finds include black matrix opal from Honduras, Some Ammolite, enough Crazy Lace Agate to pave a driveway, Fire Agate, Azurite, 1300 year old Anazasi pottery shards, Australian boulder opals, and some rust colored rocks I’ll smash up for powdered inlay. I would probably move there if anybody knew how to make a decent margarita.

2008-01-15T04:39:00.000-08:00

"From the start, when it was the instrument of the wood-god Pan, the flute has been associated with pure (some might say impure) energy. Its sound releases something naturally untamed, as if a squirrel were let loose in a church."

--Seamus Heaney

"Flute music is love music from the heart. It must not stop, lest the pulsing of the heart be broken."

--Judith Redman Robbins, in Coyote Woman

Well it’s time again to answer a few of those questions that you folks over and over……never ask. A number of you have never asked… “Why do some flutes have no price, stating instead, ‘Email for price?’” Good question. I sell flutes to people all over the planet. Some folks want to pay for their flutes with goats, baseball cards, rocks, lumber, E-checks, and the ever popular 3^rd world bank draft. So until all the dust settles, one way or another, I have to temporarily suspend the potential sale of the flute to someone else. Another reason for doing so is that flutes occasionally go to art exhibits. There is no sale pending, but it’s a little vacation for the flute, and I get to drink free wine, and eat little cheese squares with toothpicks. Again, the offering is suspended for a couple of weeks.

Another frequently never asked question is, “Why don’t more people view this blog?” Wow, this one is easy. “I have no idea.”

Another good one, “Are you Native American?”… No. Not even close. 3^rd generation Californian by way of Tennessee and Scotland. …..and a natural extension of that never asked question would be… “So your flutes aren’t Native American?” … They’re Native American style flutes, although as of late, I’ve been pushing that envelope to where they are probably best characterized as North American woodwinds, or paint mixers, depending on what you folks do with them. And lastly, I’m constantly never hearing this question… “How old are you? Sometimes it sounds like you’re about nine.” I’m 60. The website shot of me was taken three years ago @ 57, and about two hours before I accidentally destroyed the flute I’m holding in the picture. Ok then, that pretty much wraps up this segment of endless questions that you folks never ask.

On another high note, I mentioned in my last entry that pricing would be going up, based primarily on the cost of materials, and the time I’m taking to do what I do with those materials, which is true. HOWEVER, as I mentioned in Nov. of ’06 and which prompted my first Holiday sale, the speed of your computer on my website, particularly for dial-up folks, is inversely related to my current inventory. More flutes on MY website equals slower behavior on YOUR computer. It has something to do with being on a local server, I think, and I don’t even know what that means. Frankly, my Black Friday/Holiday sale this year could have been better in terms of making room for more flutes, but like Citigroup Inc, or Proctor and Gamble, I am a victim of lower consumer spending. So, I’m reducing the prices on ALL of the currently listed instruments, so I can keep building them since it seems to keep me out of trouble. We here at Querencia are just trying to do our part to move this recession train onto a new track. In the meantime, have a Happy, and Healthy New Year. Rich.

2007-12-12T06:12:00.000-08:00

Well……….ok then. 2007 is about to lose power, and come slamming into the tarmac, blowing open the doors to 2008. You folks --collectors, recording artists, enthusiasts and novices of the flute world, as well as everybody in between -- have again validated my desire to keep making and selling flutes and not pencils during the coming year. Thus far, here in early December, my website has received over TEN GAZILLION page loads for the year. I lied. But still, 24,000 is a lot. And, I sold about 35 flutes…….which is handy since that’s about the number I fire out of my 6ft. by 8ft. “factory” each year.

During the coming year, I plan to introduce a few truly remarkable flutes, of no equal on earth. And some will cost a fortune. One is on the verge of completion at this writing. I will also do another three-flute series of 50,000-year-old New Zealand Kauri over the next two years. Specifically, “Whitebait Kauri”, possessing the finest figure available from this wood, according to Bob Teisberg, the US distributor. Overall, the prices of many of my flutes will be going up, substantially ………. because I bought a new Lexus. ….I lied again, about the Lexus anyway. Seriously, the cost of materials I’m fond of using in flutes, i.e. diamonds, amboyna burl, fire opals, ammolite and most recently, Lightening Ridge Australian boulder opals, take their place as some of the most expensive decorative materials on the planet, and they will in some cases, add hundreds of dollars to the cost of a flute. However, you will be paying no more for the materials than I did, and I NEVER pay retail. You will however be paying for what I DO with those materials, and the time it takes to do it. On another note, I tried building a basic flute, I think back in July or August… just wood and noise. It was no fun. I won’t do it again.

As your chestnuts roast on whatever you roast them on, and things unseen nip at your nose, please take a moment to again, let those folks that love you, know that you know, and feel loved by them. Also take just a moment for a prayer of health and safety for our military personnel and an end to global conflict. My prayer is that this time next year, I can suggest something else to pray about. Historically, our primitive nature, and everyone’s inflated sense of entitlement tells me we will always engage in some kind of behavior that could use a prayer, or an apology. Have a healthy and happy New Year. RH.

2007-11-15T15:19:00.000-08:00

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832)

“The greatest thing you can do is surprise yourself”. Anonymous

Both of these quotes resonate with me this month. Life seems to be all about raising the bar, on a daily basis. When I developed the website, I also built a whimsical rock garden, as what I felt to be a pleasing backdrop for photographing my flutes. Since that time, my cat pee’d on my neck while I was asleep in bed, so sooner than later, my little rock garden will double as a nifty gravesite for ‘Cisco the wonder cat’. Anyway, over the last year or so, I see that many other flutebuilders are now providing a pleasing photographic backdrop for their work as well. What used to be a linoleum floor, or the dining room table, has given way to propping up the flute in Grandma’s rosebush, or next to some potted cactus. Cute. I am also seeing more right-brain effort to explore building this instrument as playable art. This is good. From my perspective, I see a lot of woodworkers now attempting to create art, while I’m an artist trying to create a flute. It’s sort of like trying to reach the same goal from two different directions. I like to think my work has been influential in this regard…….but then I also like to think I’m the King of Denmark on occasion.

Friday, the 23^rd of November is known around here as black Friday. All flutes will be marked down 10%, and remain discounted through Christmas. Those of you who are already members of the Querencia Woodwind family know what that means. ….woo-hoo.

2007-10-20T19:47:00.001-07:00

Ok then. Back from Oklahoma. Hung out with the relatives for a couple of days before Oklahoma’s first flute festival,…. Held in Keys/Tahlequah. Highlights of the visit included finding out the relatives are all much older than they used to be, while I'm much younger; that there is a new Indian Casino a short walk from the house in Perkins, and it has a bar, and the town still has no traffic signal.

The festival was a real treat. Aside from selling some flutes, I hung out with Mark Holland, Jan Seiden, Jeff Martindale, and the fallen branch flute folks, Leonard Lone Crow, and 23 other flutemakers. I even bought a flute from Leonard, and let my compadre Mark Slater, peddle flute cases from my table. The best part was the whole event was about 12 steps away from my motel room door…but It was humid. It was REALLY humid. Something about all the lakes, and the moist wind bumping up against the Ozarks..I didn’t get it. But I’ve been to Guatemala…more than once….don’t even know why, and Guatemala has NOTHING on Keys Ok. for humidity. Look up humidity in the dictionary. You will find a map of Keys Oklahoma.

As you can see from the photo, they liked me…….well, they liked my flutes anyway. I was probably best characterized as mildly irritating. I know the term “colorful” was used. I was subsequently offered $2,130.00 for the flute. I turned it down, and did so because I knew folks were going to want to see the first place flute, and I didn’t want to be the one to tell them it was in a car trunk headed for Little Rock AR. Plus he wanted to pay by check.

The return trip was a breeze. I shipped 15 lbs. of flutes in a 45lb. German military foot locker via UPS, TO the festival, because at Los Angeles Intl. Airport, the TSA folks would have seen what they thought was 15 pipe bombs in the footlocker x-ray, and I was in no mood for a body cavity search as well. TULSA…on the other hand. …those folks need an award or something. The guy let ME weigh it, and throw it on the cart. It’s like Mayberry with an airport. They did everything but offer me a warm muffin.

Once I got home, I had to clean house web-wise. So I posted eight new flutes this morning. I have a little trick photo thing on the home page of a couple of my first flutes, and another shot of the flute that won at the festival, when you fiddle with your mouse over the picture. Cute.

As of this afternoon, I’m working on a flute of Blue Mahoe, which I don’t even think is wood, and camphor burl, which makes my shop smell like a cough drop. Too much information.

2007-07-19T06:23:00.001-07:00

“The real risks for any artist are taken in pushing the work to the limits of what is possible, in the attempt to increase the sum of what it is possible to think.”

- Salman Rushdie

My flutes, your fingers, and some changes.

Your fingers aren’t changing…….but my flutes are. Specifically, I’m discontinuing my practice of dishing or indenting the finger holes, and I’ll tell you why. Dishing, cupping, indenting etc. facilitates learning the instrument in that the holes are easy to find as you begin play, and half-holing, or rolling your finger off the hole feels more natural from a cupped surface. After discussing the issue with a number of NA flute recording artists, archivists, enthusiasts, collectors, and folks who possess an uncanny ability to play this instrument,…. dished finger holes cease to be a nice touch, and turn into a liability for the advanced player, in terms of creative latitude. To continue building flutes with this feature, is kind of like giving you a bike with training wheels you can never remove. I realize this modification isn’t particularly earth-shaking, but I thought I should mention it since I don’t routinely see skipping a building process altogether as an advancement for the instrument.

On another totally unrelated note. I now have California Buck eye burlwood. I have a lot of it. I have enough for a room addition. This stuff is gorgeous, un-stable, and almost always has voids and fractures that I’m filling with crushed turquoise from Arizona’s famous Sleeping Beauty mine, and crushed red jasper from Africa. This wood provides a stunning contrast to virtually any flute woods I use. I’m going to attempt to build an entire flute from buckeye sometime this year. I’ll be pretty upset if I can’t pull it off, as the wood required to build one flute was $140.00 US. Ok then....back to work. Thanks for stopping by.

2007-03-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

I thought I would take a few moments … and answer a couple of the questions that you folks, over and over … have never asked. For example … “Why did you stop painting altogether, after 30 years, and begin building flutes instead?” Funny you should ask. I suffered blinding trauma to my right eye in an accident on a farm in Perkins, OK. When that happens, you lose your perception of depth and perspective. Everything you see looks like a two dimensional postcard. Driving takes on a whole new level of thrills as well. Anyway, I was pretty upset with myself for quite some time. I was also pretty angry with God as well … because this effectively brought my plans of purchasing a shiny new Harley-Davidson to a screeching halt. What a trickster. However, since I could still HEAR fairly well, I started building flutes with specific voice characteristics, since those I purchased in the past didn’t have much volume. I figured short, plus big bore, equals loud, and basically I was right. What I wasn’t prepared for, was the creative and cathartic path I found myself traveling. The need to express, also known as creativity, is kind of like toothpaste. It’s going to go somewhere when you squeeze the tube, and life presents a number of challenges that more or less squeeze your tube on occasion. All in all, I would rather have my sight back, but then I probably would have killed myself on my shiny new Harley-Davidson…and I wouldn’t be building flutes

Another blog reader never asked, “How long does it take you to build a flute?” Ok then … that’s a tough one. Twice a year, I engage in a celebration I call “rip-n-rout week.” That’s all I do. I destroy my saw blades and my router bits. Then the table saw and the table router go back in the shop to become, oddly enough, tables, for all the stuff I use the rest of the year. I end up with about 70 blanks of about 20 different woods until I do it all over again. From that point forward, I spend about 30 hours, depending on how nasty the wood is, turning the sticks into a flute. The time factor keeps going up, as I spend more and more time on fetish blocks, and it doesn’t factor in “rip-n-rout week,” but I’m firing these things out at the blistering speed of about 3 a month.

I’ll post more questions you never asked later. Thanks.

Rich Halliburton President, CEO, CFO, COO/ Querencia Woodwinds

2007-02-21T18:36:00.000-08:00

About 3 weeks ago, I dragged my wife down I-10 into Arizona for 4 days. Specifically, we went to Quartzsite, AZ on a buying safari for gemstones and other oddities of inlay for my flutes. During the months of January and February, that particular eastbound speed bump west of Phoenix balloons from a few thousand to over 3 million folks. The entire town becomes a sea of motor homes, little white tents, dirty shredded banners, and rocks, millions of rocks. If you have never been, you may want to kick it up a few notches on your list of things to do before you die. I did, and I’m truly glad I did, but probably for all the wrong reasons.

Sight unseen, I picked Ehrenberg, AZ as our base of operations. The attached photos are the views from our room. No joke. Blythe, CA demarks the state line, and I wanted to be well into AZ but about 10 miles AWAY from Quartzsite. Turns out, Ehrenberg pretty much IS Blythe, except it’s on the other side of the 2-foot painted line separating Arizona from California. I don’t like Blythe. During the summer, the streets literally melt in Blythe. Blythe competes with Thermal, California for hottest spot in the nation awards. Blythe usually wins. You can see Blythe from Ehrenberg. You can throw a rock and HIT Blythe from Ehrenberg. I found out that Ehrenberg is the ‘Flying J Truck Stop/Motel’, and that’s pretty much it, period. However … it is a SERIOUS truck stop. I grabbed a 20-ouncer of coffee in their “diner” for my wife to take along on the drive into Quartzsite. Two hours later, shuffling around in the dirt among the tables of rocks, she thought she was having either an out-of-body experience………..or a stroke. Truck stops KNOW coffee.

On our particular trip, Quartzsite was hosting four rock and mineral shows, running simultaneously, and set up wherever the dirt was level. Each included perhaps 100 vendors, their motor homes, tattered poly tarp awnings, and plywood table tops, boxes and bags… of nothing but rocks. Specimens included virtually everything in God’s inventory, from agate to zircon to meteorites, to anything that would hold still long enough to become petrified. Lapidary vendors were also out in force, as these folks also sold nicely cut and polished gems, as well as 200-lb. boulders, should you want to throw a few in the trunk of your car and look for the gems at home in the comfort of your own driveway….with a hammer. I opted for cut and polished. By the end of the day I had some Robinson Ranch plume dendrite, boulder opals, fire opals, abalone, agates, ammolite, ammonites, and some beautiful pieces of stuff I can’t spell. I also had dirt in my teeth, just from being there in the first place.

As we pulled out onto the interstate, and into the setting sun, I glanced back in the rearview at the sea of tarps and sagging, tired motor homes. These nomads who sell rocks were beginning to cluster in groups to form up plans and provisions for their dinner barbeques, and ward off the Arizona desert chill with what I suspected would be more than a few adult beverages. I romanticized about those folks for all of the 4 seconds it took to re-focus on the highway and blast through a giant dust devil crossing the interstate. I’ll be back.

2007-02-04T21:48:00.000-08:00

A couple of words to, and about NA flute players, those of you who play in your sleep. You folks take a wooden tube with standard pentatonic tuning,……and turn it completely upside down. This is just what you do. You have taken my flutes, and made noises and notes I haven’t heard on ANY instrument. I will never even approach the level of skill I’ve seen and heard from professional musicians, recording artists, and those of you whose first passion is the performance of this instrument. That being said, I am blessed that you have chosen to do WHAT you do, and HOW you do it, with MY instruments. …….HOWEVER, although there are a number of things I do in building a flute, that are unique to my flutes, I am not going to tell you I engineered into these instruments whatever noises you folks seem to be able to coax out of them. Based on some degree of consistency I would say it’s 65% whittling, and 35% ………… luck.

Do I want to become a better performer then? …… No. If I learn any more about playing them, I may decide the flutes I build now are unacceptable, and I’ll start engineering them right into the fireplace. Plus, you like them now. You just do so for reasons that I think are partly out of my control, but thanks. I appreciate your loyalty, and your skill. You carry the torch for this instrument, and pretty much set the bar for proficiency. I am so far under that bar, I can't even see it, but this instrument is magical, and continues to feed "mi querencia". Thanks again, on behalf of the rest of us. ………too much information again.

2006-12-08T18:49:00.000-08:00

As 2006 comes careening into the station, I want to wish everyone who stumbled upon my website/blog, a joyous and healthy holiday season. I truly do. Thus far this year, over 5,700 of you folks have visited flutes, totalling over 29,000 pages on my site. I'm glad you all didn't drop in for Margaritas...... at least all at once, but I sure do appreciate the interest in my work. That interest represents over three times the activity/sales I had for 2005, my first year with a website, and ensures, at least for another year, that I will build the finest, most beautiful instruments available anywhere on earth.........instead of trying to make pencils.

During the coming months, I'll be building flutes from Paldao, Argentine brown ebony, Sydney Blue Gum, Curly Walnut, Mesquite, Laotian flamewood, Lignum Vitae, Goncalvo Alves, two or three varieties I can't remember how to spell, and addl. flutes from those woods that seem to enjoy becoming flutes instead of firewood. I'll also be building another 50,000 year-old Kauri flute, and its materials will be at least 4 billion years of age. Most will include abalone to some degree, as it has a lot of varied color, complementing different woods. Most will also include natural faceted diamonds set as eyes .... black, cognac, green, etc. The fetish blocks will continue to be some variation on the theme of birds and horses. If you want a skunk, or a giraffe, you can have one.......but it's going to look like a bird or a horse. This is because every other animal I try to craft ends up looking like a gopher. There ya go....too much information again.

During the year, I have come to realize that buying a flute on the internet is like buying shoes from a catalogue. You will never get all the information you need until you hold it , and walk around with it for awhile. My sound files will concentrate on scale voicing rather than trying to dream up some ditty. I like ditties, but somewhere, I will accentuate the tonal scale. Plus, you can always call, and we can talk about your skill level, and how appropriate a particular flute might be, as long as you're not drunk, and it's not 3 AM.

Ok then.......... Have a MAGICAL new year, set yourself some realistic goals, keep them, and let those folks who love you, KNOW that YOU KNOW they love you. Merry Christmas, and please have a Happy/Healthy new year.

2006-11-24T21:56:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays...to all of you folks who celebrate stuff that occurs during the next few weeks. Ordinarily, for me, ...it's Christmas. But this year will be somewhat subdued. The festivities are in Oklahoma, and its cold, and windy, and I don't want to walk around two airports,.....TWICE...... carrying my boots and pants....so I'm staying put... ANYWAY.... I always thought Black Friday had something to do with the stock market crash.......until about 7 hours ago. So in an effort to kick start your interest in the NA flute,...I'M HAVING A SALE....STARTING TOMORROW, AND RUNNING TIL THE END OF THE YEAR. Specifically, starting tomorrow, I'm going to reduce the price of all my flutes by TEN PERCENT...Now this is a great opportunity to own a flute that is a stunning one of a kind piece of fine art, as well as a HUGE opportunity for those of you who already own a Querencia Woodwind, because you already get a 10% discount as you add to your collection, and this nets you an ADDITIONAL TEN PERCENT. The last time I checked, that works out to around TWENTY PERCENT.

I will admit here, that I don't know ANYTHING about marketing my flutes. I just know how to build them....and I want to build more, ....but I have to sell a few to make some room on the website. ....this is sounding far too much like an automobile commercial...however, it's true. Too many flutes slows down your computer, on my website.
In any event, have a healthful and joyous holiday season, .......and take a moment to pray for those in harm's way. There are far too many of them, and they truly need your prayers. Rich.

2006-10-20T09:31:00.000-07:00

A few thoughts about Zion, and flute festivals in general ..... 960 miles and 7 days later, I have a couple of observations. Notwithstanding the fact that THE day to sell flutes ... Saturday, was rained out, I met and hung out with the most talented builders and performers in the world. I managed to sell a couple of flutes during the 16 hours I was set up to sell flutes, but in conversations with a good number of the 25 builders in attendance, There was a prevailing theme. Most of the flutes being sold, were the least expensive available for sale, and the reason is that most of the attendees were novice/first time flute buyers. This was made evident by the timidity in the testing/playing done by those in attendance, and I don't blame them one bit for picking instruments that may end up as a chew toy for the dog if the buyer loses interest.
........... I've tried on no less than 25 flutes, to create a basic flute, and I can't do it. When I get to what looks and sounds like a basic NAF .... It's about 50% completed, because that's when the creative fun starts. A lot of flutemakers rely on flute sales to put food on the table for their families. They are consequently compelled to build instruments that appeal to the widest spectrum of potential buyers. I build flutes as a personal cathartic adventure, best defined by "Querencia", and involving a process that is totally selfish. The effort has its drawbacks. I have had to learn far more about gemstones and exotic/rare/bizarre woods, than I ever wanted to. My pricing is straightforward, based on time and materials, and working out to about $6.00 to $7.00 an hour. The hardwoods/rosewoods are my favorite, but they don't EVER want to become flutes, and are therefore generally more expensive. ..... Overall then, ....the beauty of Zion is beyond words, at least in English,........ building a basic flute feels too much like work,.... and I want the next flute festival to be held in my front yard.....So there ya have it. A few thoughts, and a little glimpse inside at the workings of the monster conglomerate that is Querencia Woodwinds.
............ At the conclusion of the festival, some of the builders were packing up not to head to the comfort of their homes, but to drive to yet another state, and repeat this process once again. For them, I ask for God's blessing and protection on their journey.

2006-10-20T09:18:00.000-07:00

From the Odds and Ends Dept. ...I'm in the process of adding 5-6 new flutes to the website. The bad news, is I have an inaudible hum somewhere in the cables, preventing me from creating clean sound files for the flutes. I can't hear it, but Adobe Audition sure can. I welcome any ideas/fixes before I actually break something.........Ok, it's sort of fixed. I need a new microphone. Five flutes were posted.

2006-10-08T06:38:00.000-07:00

Direct from the "What's New" Dept at Querencia World HQ ..... about a year ago I began fiddling with fetish designs that would remain aligned with the airway exiting the compression chamber, even if the flute was thrown from a train..... It could happen. I came up with a stylized waterbird, that hugs the sides of the sound chamber, cut from one piece of wood. Last week I finished this East Indian rosewood flute, and took the idea a step further, building a fetish that grips the sides of the flute without the need for a leather tie in securing it to the flute. The only downside at this point, is that it takes almost as much time to make and properly shape this thing for a compression fit, as it does to build the flute. Nevertheless, I think it's going to turn out to be pretty handy.
This particular bird includes overlays of some blond mystery wood, macassar ebony, Virginia walnut burl, and SE Asian flamewood. The inlay consists of (2) 1.8mm faceted black diamonds set as eyes, and a .75ct faceted black diamond to the bird's back.

2006-09-28T15:39:00.000-07:00

First of all, I wanted to let you flute fanatics know that I'm dragging 4-5 of my flutes off the website, and taking them to the Zion Flute Festival, starting Oct 13th. They're still available until the 11th, when I leave town, but with my limited computer skills, Its easier to zero out the price, so it defaults to "Email for price" than it is to make it completely disappear from the site. ....only to re-submit everything again later. ...............................too much information again.
Mark Slater of the flutecase store, and the flute addict's website, as well as a number of other luminaries, have been telling me for months, that I have to participate in at least ONE event like this.....so I chose this because of its location and plus I get to pass through Las Vegas enroute to Zion. I bought a 10x10 tent/canopy thing for this, and I fully intend using it when I get home. Specifically, I'm going to set it up in my driveway, and sell lemonade.

2006-09-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome. This is the official blog of Rich Halliburton, maker of Native American style flutes. Visit my main website at http://www.querenciawoodwinds.com . At some point, I may have to modify the descriptor, as I'm starting to fiddle with creating alternate tunings.... specifically Diatonic and Middle Eastern Maqam melodic scales. .....too much information huh.