Homegrown Music: Make a Bamboo Flute Part I

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Several years ago a friend gave me a bamboo flute . . . and I became so enamored of the little instrument's pleasing tone and appearance that I set out to learn how to make one myself.

Well, it didn't take me long to discover that fabricating a tube with holes that would make noise when I blew into it was fairly easy . . . but crafting an accurately pitched instrument that played true notes was quite another matter. Luckily though, I soon met Craig Rusbult. He showed me the right way to go about the project, and I'd like to share his instructions with you.

On Bamboo and Dimensions

Craig explained that the pitch and key of a homemade wind instrument—as well as the accuracy of each of its notes—are determined by the relationships between several variables: the size, shape, and placement of the mouthpiece and finger holes . . . and the length, internal diameter, and thickness of the tube itself.

The first step along the path of successful flutemaking, then, is to choose good-quality bamboo of the desirable dimensions. The tube's inside diameter should be between 3/4" and 7/8" . . . and Craig adds that thinwalled (about 1/8"-thick) specimens produce the best sound. Also, you should try to obtain a section of stalk that's well seasoned (not green) and free of cracks.

To make a flute that plays in the key of A, you'll need a 14" length of "pipe" . . . for the key of F, an 18" section . . . and for the key of D, a 21 " piece. Look for bamboo with joints that are just a bit more than half as far apart as the intended length of the instrument . . . so that when you cut the piece to size, it'll have a node at one end and another more or less in the middle. (For example, the ideal bamboo "blank" for a 21 " key-of-D flute would have about 11" of open "tube" between each pair of joints.)

And where can you find bamboo? Well, in some larger cities (including my home base, Seattle) sources for the material are listed in the Yellow Pages under—logically enough—"Bamboo". On the other hand, you may very well live in an area where the oversized grass grows wild or in cultivated backyard

Zpatches (it's distributed throughout most of southern half of the U.S., and in much of the north, too). If all else fails, try hunting up some stock at carpet stores . . . flooring is often rolled up on low-quality, but generally usable, bamboo rods.

If the specimen you find is a fairly lengthy piece, so much the better . . . you'll probably want to experiment a bit, anyhow. Indeed, a pole that's several feet long and tapers from a 1" inside diameter at its base to 1/2" at the other is likely to contain enough material for several good 3/4" flutes in its middle.