Echoes from the Road: Day 12: Corona Arch

The hike to Corona Arch
July 2, 2005. Day 12

Every so often, when I'm out touring, I get the urge to go play. This only happens about ten times a day. I rarely act on this because my schedule is so tight and I'm not supposed to be driving around putting hundreds of miles on my truck to go play -I'm supposed to be working. Once in a while though, I give in to these urges and I take off a little early from an appearance and head for a wild spot where there is more nature and less human.


Last June, while in Moab, I did just that. I packed up my flutes and headed north out of town. Just after crossing the Colorado river I turned left onto Potash road.

Potash road.

Potash road runs along the north side of the Colorado and passes some very nice petroglyph panels. They're right by the road. So close that if you get out to look at them you have to keep an eye out for cars driving by.


A little farther down from the petroglyph there are some dinosaur footprints. I'd say this guy wore a size 50 shoe.

A couple miles down the road there was a small dirt parking lot and a sign marking the trail head to Corona Arch. I had overheard some people in town saying how nice the arch was, but I wanted to see how far Potash road went, so I kept on driving. Soon, however, the paved road ended at the potash plant and became dirt. I realized that from this point on it continued into Canyonland NP and as it was about 5:00 pm I didn't have enough time for to really explore to road any further .


Before heading back I took some photos of a thin arch visible from the side of the road, when the Corona arch popped into my mind again. Ever since I had seen the trail leading off to it I couldn't get rid of the desire to hike out and see it. So when I got back to the trailhead I pulled my truck off into the parking lot, grabbed some water and my camera, and headed out.

The trail to Corona Arch

The hike started up a little hill and at the top, I was surprised to find the trail crossing some railroad tracks! The tracks, it turns out, were there for trains that haul potash from plant I'd seen at the end of the road.



The trail continued up a small side canyon and then came out on a flat area covered with small scrub and a dusty trail. I was completely alone. The trail crested a shallow rise and in the distance some cliffs with large alcoves came into view. For a while the trail kept heading toward them but soon it begin to curve off to the left, where after rounding a bend, I caught my first glimpse of Corona arch about a half mile up a canyon.


Even at that distance the arch looked huge, as big as any arch I'd ever seen. Picking up my pace I hoped to get up to it before the sun set behind the cliffs. The trail got rougher as it came upon some small ledges that were not passable without rock climbing gear. Luckily someone (the BLM) had run a chain-link hand rail attached to some posts sunk into the stone to aid the average hiker like me scale the rocks. Farther on there was a metal ladder for an even stepper ledge.



The trail then begin to cross a shallow lip between cliffs on my right and a canyon on my left. Looking back across the deep narrow canyon were the cliffs and alcoves I had seen before. I later learned this canyon was called "Bootleg Canyon". At the bottom of the Bootleg canyon ran the railroad tracks I had crossed at the start of the trail. The tracks continue up the canyon and through a one mile long tunnel until they reach Highway 191 and head toward Crescent Junction at Interstate 70. The Trains run several times a week hauling potash from the plant. Luckily for me, they weren't running that day.


I passed Bowtie arch on the way to Corona arch. One of the fun extras of the hike.


All the while I was getting closer to Corona arch, and it was getting bigger and bigger all the whole time. It was huge. Sculpted from Navajo sandstone it is also called "little rainbow arch" but it's far from little, it's opening being 140 ft by 105 ft. Rumor has it a local airplane pilot flew a small plane through it! Corona arch is a buttress arch as one end is set in the cliff face. It is one of the biggest arches I've ever seen as I climbed underneath it to get to the other side. I wanted to find out if the arch lived up to it's name.


Once I got far enough past it to be able to get the whole arch in a photo I turned around and was stunned by the beauty. The setting sun cast a glow of radiant light around the arch like a halo and the world seemed to enter a dimension of timelessness. Except for the far off cries of the local ravens there was only the silence of the breeze and lengthening shadows to keep me company. The arch stood passive. Unmoved by anything but time measured in millenniums.

After the sun had dropped below the cliffs I headed back to my truck in order not be be caught in the dark. On the way back I passed a couple hiking in with their dog, a chocolate lab. They were the only people I saw the whole hike. How that dog climbed the metal ladder I'll never know.

When I got back to LA I pasted six images together to create a panorama of Bootleg Canyon with Corona arch on the left.

Click on the image to see it full size.

Native American Flute Part 9: Keith Stanford

Last June I gave my first Native American flute class here in southern California. People came from all over the area but one person drove all the way from Tucson, Keith Stanford. At the time I thought this was a long way to come for a flute class but I'm glad he did. Why? Well, after the class ended and I was packing up I heard my friend, Barry, playing a flute behind me. I really thought the sound was unique. It was warm and mellow, yet strong and focused. As I turned around to check out the flute, Barry pointed to Keith who was standing next to him, and announced "Keith made this flute!". I knew immediately I wanted one of his flutes.

Like many good flute makers Keith Stanford does not make flutes full time, it is his hobby, so it took a couple months to get a flute from him. But he didn't just send me one flute, he sent me three and told me to pick the one I liked the best. They were all in F and all of them had that same sound I had heard back in June. One was made of Rosewood, one of Purpleheart, and one of African Padduk. After going back and forth over which one like liked the best, I finally made my pick, the Rosewood.

The flute

This flute is 23 1/2" long with a 1" bore. The body is made of Rosewood. Rosewood is a general term and refers to many richly colored woods, mostly brown. All rosewoods are strong, being a hard wood. The most widely know is Brazilian, or Rio rosewood, that was once highly sought after for acoustic guitar construction and fret boards.

The name rosewood comes from its strong, sweet, lingering scent. Because of this in the 1920's it became one of the ingredients for Channel No. 5. The use of Rosewood in fragrances, soaps, and guitars lead to overexploitation and the wood became endangered. It is now protected by CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and is very carefully controlled and hard to obtain.

Other rosewoods used for musical instruments are Cocobolo, for Native American flutes, we've looked at one made by Yazzie flutes, and Honduras rosewood for Marimbas and xylophones.


The block is in the form of an abstract Javelina and is made of two woods, Walnut on top and Hickory on the bottom.

This flute has that wonderful sound that I first heard back at my flute class.
Listen to a sample of this flute.

EARTH & SKY


The tone of this flute is so nice I've started playing it during concerts for the song Earth & Sky, from my second CD Sacred Dreams. That version was recorded using a Woodsongs flute. In November of last year I gave a concert in Tucson, AZ and just for fun I decided to play flutes made only by Arizona makers: J.P. Gomez, Mike Gulino, Pat Haran, Richard Maynard, Keith Stanford, Ed Pendrys and others. I performed Earth & Sky on Keith's flute and the recording made of that performance came out well enough that I've posted it in both audio and video formats on cedarmesa.com. It's available to everyone on my E-mailing list. Joining the list is free and you can do it Here.

Keith's Native American flute making Manual
Although Keith doesn't make a lot of flutes as it's his hobby, he has written a book for those that do: the "Ki-e-ta Native American Style Flute Manual". This manual is very popular with beginning and more advanced flute makers. Keith is an engineer by profession and brings that detailed analyzes to his work. I have met people that use his manual who are very pleased with the results and speak very highly of it. I have also played some flutes made using the Ki-e-ta manual as a guide, and they all sounded very pleasing.


Keith says that "No prior Woodworking experience necessary and you don't need to have a lot of tools". He has also included over 40 pictures to make each step clear.

Keith lives in Tucson, and is a member of the Tucson flute circle.

To find out more information about Keith Stanford and other flute makers check out the Flute Makers page on my web site.

If you want to read more posts about other Native American flute makers visit my Blog index.

More information
For a more detail look at the construction of the Native American flute read the History and Construction article on www.cedarmesa.com.

Comments
Let me know if you enjoyed this post. Leave a comment below.

Do you have a flute by any of the Makers we have looked at so far? If so let me know what you think of it.
Scott August

Native American Flute Part 8: JP Gomez F#

Many of the best Native American flute makers I know live in Arizona. We've looked at flutes from two of these: Michael Gulino and Pat Haran. In this post we’re going to look a third, JP Gomez. I only recently got a few flutes by him, after I had finished New Fire, so I haven't released any recordings using his flutes, yet. However, once I got a few I've begun to play his flutes frequently during my live performances and have done some recording with them as well.

The F# flute
The flute I've choosen for this post is an F# made of walnut from his Concert flute series. It has very clean lines, but closer inspection reveals some wonderful little touches.


The flute made from walnut with a black walnut block, lace wood tips and maple bands. It is 25" long and has a 7/8" bore. This is a larger bore than most F# flutes, but I really like the clean sound that this produces. I can punch them with a hard attack and they almost never over-blow or squeak. Is this just a by-product of the larger bore? I'm not sure.

Details

JP pays close attention to detail in his craftmanship. One of the things that he has told me he really pays attention to is the matching of the two pieces of wood that make up his flutes. This is the seam where the top and bottom pieces are joined together. He wants it to be very hard to see on his instruments, as if it wasn't there. He also does some very beautiful inlay work on some of his flutes, which we will look at in a later post.

Mouthpiece and End cap

Another very nice touch on this flute can be found on the mouthpiece and end cap. These are both made from Lacewood, from Australia, which gets it's name from the lace like pattern, or rays, in the grain. This pattern is only visible when the wood is cut a certain way. JP has placed his mouthpiece and end cap so that the lace pattern faces the top of the flute. The side that the player and audience sees the most.


The mouthpiece is espcially nice as the rays in the grain seem to arc in layers as the wood tapers toward the end as can be seen in the photo above. A subtle touch, but one which I really enjoy.

The Sounds
This flute, has a lovely warm, woody classic Native American sound. There is a is a slightly hollow quality to it as well.
Listen to this flute

From the Player's POV
JP's flutes are very easy to play. Like all the flutes we've looked at so far, the finger holes are comfortably spaced and well laid out. The flute is very well tuned and does not require very much change in breath pressure when moving from low to high pitches.


With JP Gomez in Sedona, AZ.

JP lives in Sedona where he first heard the NAF. He has been making flutes for a long time and I'm sure we'll talk about him more in this blog. To find out more information about JP and other flute makers check out the Flute Makers page on my web site.

If you want to read more posts about other Native American flute makers visit my Blog index.

More information
For a more detail look at the construction of the Native American flute read the History and Construction article on www.cedarmesa.com.

Comments
Let me know if you enjoyed this post. Leave a comment below.
Do you have a flute by any of the Makers we looked at so far? Let me know what you think of it.
Scott August

NAF Part 7 Guillermo Martinez Mayan Double flute - Temple of the Sun

In this post we’re going to look at a Mayan Double flute made by Guillermo Martinez. I recorded this flute for a song called Temple of the Sun on my latest CD New Fire.

Based on Mayan design this is a very unusual flute as it is really two flutes in one. As you can see in the photo above there are finger holes on both sound chambers giving the player the ability to change the pitch on both flutes. The other style of flute that has two sound chambers are called Drone flutes, which we will look at in later postings.

Measurements and Tunings
The longer chamber is 24 1/2” long with a 1" bore, while the shorter one is 18 1/4” with a 3/4" bore. The two flutes are tuned a perfect 5th apart. The longer, lower flute is tuned to D, while the shorter one is tuned to A. The fingerings on each flute consist of the first four notes of the minor pentatonic scale: Root, Min 3rd, perfect Fourth and Fifth.


There are two thumbholes on the back the flute, one for each chamber, that play the interval of a minor 6th from the root note, when it and all the front holes are uncovered. This interval is not uncommon on flutes of Meso American design. The Mayan Moon Goddess flute discussed earlier also has a thumbhole that plays this interval.


The Wood


This flute is made from Alaskan Yellow Cedar with Padauk blocks. There is also beautiful inlay of turquoise, mother of pearl and jet.

The Flute
Alaskan Yellow Cedar is native to the west coast of North American from Alaska to northern California and was first identified on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. It tends to grow on the wet side of coastal mountains and is an evergreen tree. Scientists think essential oils from yellow-cedar heartwood may be a mosquito repellant. Its name is somewhat misleading as it is not a cedar but a cypress. It has many other names including Yellow Cedar, Alaskan Cedar and Nootka Cedar, from the native Nootka culture of Vancouver Island.

The Blocks
Padauk is native to Asia and Africa. The name is of Indonesian origin. It is a favorite with woodworkers for it's red color that fades to a warm brown when exposed to sunlight.


A Hybrid


Although based on Mayan design this flute is really an ingenious hybrid of Mayan design and Native American flutes from North America. The sound chambers are based on Mayan design, while the mouthpiece and sound mechanism are based on Native American flutes from North America.

Wood vs. Clay
Traditionally a Mayan double flute would be made out of clay, not wood, but Guillermo has chosen to use wood for his double flutes. Traditional Mayan flutes are made of clay due in part to the symbolism clay has with the four sacred element of Mother Earth. Earth mixed with water becomes the clay, which is then fired in a kiln. Then the player’s breath is the wind. Clay, however, is a very hard medium to work with. It shrinks during firing, which changing it’s tuning. It can also break or even explode during the firing possess. Wood, however, is very stable. It doesn’t shrink like clay, or explode.

Air Flow
The other major difference between this flute and a traditional Mayan flute is the construction of the sound mechanism or fipple. Like Penny whistles, Tin whistles and Recorders, traditional Mayan flutes have a mouthpiece that is directly connected to the sound hole, the hole next to the mouthpiece, called the fipple. Also traditional Mayan flutes don’t have the block that rests on top of Northern Native American flutes, which this flute clearly has.

Also this flute, like Native American flutes from North America, has an additional chamber in front of the fipple called the slow air chamber or the high-pressure wind chamber. The player blows into this additional chamber where the air builds up pressure. From there the air stream is forced into a slot located between the top of the flute and the bottom of the block toward the fipple. This design is vastly more complex than traditional fipple flutes and, to my knowledge, is unique to Native American flutes.

For a more detail look at the construction of the Native American flute read The History and Construction of the Native American flute article on www.cedarmesa.com

Temple of the Sun


The title of the song on which I recorded this flute, Temple of the Sun, takes it's name from one of a pair of sandstone monoliths in Lower Cathedral Valley in Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah. The larger of the two is named Temple of the Sun, the smaller Temple of the Moon. Each of the temples is composed of the Jurassic Entrada Sandstone, which is approximately 160 million years old. This sandstone also makes up the arches and fins of Arches Natural Park.

Cathedral Valley is only accessible by high clearance or four-wheel drive vehicle, and as it's name would suggest it's spires and pillars of sandstone are reminiscent of the Gothic Cathedrals of Europe. During my last trip to Capitol Reef I made the rough and bone jarring trip to Cathedral Valley and that trip was part of the inspiration for the song Temple of the Sun.

Pyramid of the Sun


I was also inspired by The Pyramids of the Sun and Moon in the ancient city of Teotihuacan north of Mexico City. The name is Nahuatl and translates as "City of the Gods". The Pyramid of the Sun is the largest stone pyramid in all of Pre-Columbian Americas. When I purchased the flute from Guillermo the name he had given to this flute was Teotihuacan.

Mp3 Sample
Listen to Temple of the Sun from my latest CD New Fire


More information
For a more detail look at the construction of the Native American flute read the History and Construction article on www.cedarmesa.com.

For more information on the location and cultures of Meso America and their flutes, read the Mayan Moon Goddess flute post of this blog.

To find out more information about Guillermo Martinez's flutes, and other flute makers check out the FLUTE MAKERS page on my web site.

Capitol Reef lodging
Cowboy Homestead Cabins

Comments
Let me know if you enjoyed this post. Leave a comment below. Don't be shy.
Scott August

How to buy a Native American flute

From Chapter One of
The Complete Guide to the
Native American Style Flute

Many people have asked me about what I look for when purchasing a Native American flute. There are many factors to consider, and in this post we'll cover some of ones I consider the most important. Hopefully these tips will help you purchase a flute even if you've never played one before.

The top 5
When I look at a Native American flute (NAF) with the thought of purchasing it, there are five major things that I look for in the following order:

• Quality of Workmanship
• Quality of Sound
• Tuning
• Fingering
• Ease of Playing

I consider all of the points above as a whole before I go ahead and make a purchase. However, one can make a compromise on some of the criteria listed above. As we will see, every player is looking for something a little different, and it should be noted that the the "Perfect Flute" doesn't exist. Keep in mind that Native American flutes are hand-made, so no two are alike. I never expect to find the perfect flute, but rather enjoy each one in my collection for its unique qualities.

Quality of Workmanship
The first thing I look for in a NAF is the workmanship. Simply put, is the flute well made? For example, is the tube perfectly, or near perfectly round? Are the wall of the bore the same thickness through out? Are the seams straight and even? Is there any glue noticeable? Are the finger holes clean, and round or are they ragged and oddly shaped? Take a very close look at the sound hole. This is very important. Are the edges clean? Does the block line up with the sound hole or is it crooked even when the block is lined up with the body of the flute?

We'll talk more about block placement in the How to look like a Pro when buying a Native American flute section later.

Look for any slivers of wood in the sound hole, the finger holes or the inside of the flute. These disturb the air flow and might be a sign of a maker not paying attention to detail. Take your finger and feel the inside of the flute. Is it rough or smooth? Smooth is better.

Fancy or Museum Quality Flutes
Personally I am not as impressed by fancy blocks, exotic woods, intricate carvings or inlays as I am the basic workmanship of the flute. I have seen many flutes that look great as works of art, but upon closer inspection are not well made flutes. This does not mean that all Fancy Flute are not well made, just don't be impressed by looks alone.

When buying from a recommended or well known maker this is not something you need to worry about. The top flute makers today are expert craftsman and produce flutes that are both excellent instruments and incredible works of art. They stand behind their work and want you to be happy with your purchase. Also, as I record my flutes, I know that my microphones don’t care whether a flute is fancy or not. They only care if it sounds good. So I tend to not spend the extra money on flutes that have a lot of decorative elements like carvings and stone inlays.

Pick your flute to fit your needs. If you are just starting and plan to really learn how to play, then a simple, plainer flute is better to start with. If you want something to hang on your wall, well that’s another story. Both options are equally valid.

READ THE REST IN SCOTT AUGUST'S NEW BOOK The Complete Guide to the Native American Style Flute

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