Review: Butch Hall Native-American-style flutes

ByBret Pimentel

For years now I’ve told anyone who will listen how much I love my Butch Hall Native-American-style flute in F-sharp minor. I recently bought it a little friend in G minor, and realized it is high time I did a proper review of these lovely instruments.

Hello, beautiful.
Hello, beautiful.

The modern instrument commonly referred to as the “Native American Flute” is related to a certain flute tradition associated with the Lakota people; of course labeling anything as “Native American” mistakenly implies that it is common to all the groups lumped together as “Native American.” As an additional complication name-wise, there are certain legal requirements regarding who can sell products under the designation “Native American,” so some flutemakers, for example, must sell their wares as “Native-American-style.” In general, flutes of this type, regardless of seller, are a contemporary take on a traditional instrument, often made with modern tools and processes and tweaked to suit contemporary Western-world pitch standards. This suits me just fine—I’m interested in the instrument’s history, but as a working musician I like an instrument that I can buy affordably and play in a variety of situations.

If you are in the market for an instrument of this kind, be very careful about souvenir-type flutes, including some popular makes sold on the internet and in souvenir shops as “professional” instruments. If you want an instrument that plays beautifully, easily, and in tune, and is genuinely suited to professional playing situations, I strongly recommend that you send money to Butch Hall immediately. These are real-deal musician-quality flutes, and the amount of money involved is shockingly small.

Hall’s “Concert” flutes, of which I now happily own two, have a clean and simple design; if you require elaborate carving and clichéd turquoise-and-silver inlays, then there are plenty of other makers who seem to consider those things to be major priorities. Hall’s flutes are not ornate, but they are made with meticulous attention to detail, and really quite stunning, especially under close inspection.

Get the bags, too. Don’t be a cheapskate.

The flutes have a deep, resonant tone, with articulation that is clear and crisp without being overly chirpy. I have tried flutes by many other makers and find nearly all of them to sound thin and whistle-y by comparison. These aren’t loud instruments, but they speak with authority, and besides, microphones love them. Bring one of these to your recording session and be a hero.

The fingering system is really well-designed; these respond well to the minor-pentatonic fingerings (well, technically a minor-sounding mode of a major pentatonic scale) that seem to be a de facto standard for modern NAFs. However, Hall’s flutes are also well-suited to cross-fingering and can produce more or less a chromatic scale if you do a little half-holing for the lowest few notes. (A fingering chart is included with purchase.) Still, you will need more than one flute if you want to be serious about playing in multiple keys.

Tuning is very good, but remember that as with any whistle/fipple-type instrument (such as recorders or pennywhistles), blowing harder or softer does affect the pitch. My F-sharp flute (a 2005 model) plays quite well in tune at A=440Hz with a moderate amount of air; the G (brand new) can take more aggressive blowing.

Here are some quick clips. These are totally unprocessed but the flutes sound especially amazing with a sort of canyon-esque echo.

F-sharp: 

G: 

If you’re shopping for your first flute, I recommend that you get either the F-sharp, which seems to me to be the “standard” size so far as there is one, or perhaps the G-minor, which Hall indicates is his “personal flute of choice,” or, preferably, both. Mine are red cedar, which is the least-expensive option, and they smell so heavenly that I simply must insist that you choose the same. You can get the pair for a tenth or less of what one nice clarinet would cost you.

And if all that isn’t enough, Mr. and Mrs. Hall are super nice; I got a handwritten thank-you note with my most recent purchase, which also shipped very fast and was packed with astonishing care. (Even the plastic beads on the flute bags were separately bubble-wrapped.)

Verdict: Highly recommended!

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    Anatomy of a bad bamboo flute

    ByBret Pimentel

    Bamboo flutes and other “world”-type woodwinds of true musician quality can be difficult to find, and if you’re not experienced with them it can be nearly impossible to tell if an online seller’s wares are genuinely playable or more like souvenir items. I’m going to share an experience of mine in which I gambled and got burned, in case it is instructive to anyone out there.

    Recently I needed a bamboo flute in a specific and unusual key (high B-flat) on very short notice for a gig (a performance of the Duke Ellington Nutcracker Suite). My favorite trusted flutemakers don’t currently make flutes in that key, so I placed an order with a flutemaker that I hadn’t bought from before. (I won’t identify the flutemaker here, but I will say that he and his staff were very nice to me. When there was a totally-understandable wrinkle in getting the flute shipped on time, they even overnighted it plus threw in a very nice flute bag at no extra charge.)

    Ability to ship quickly was certainly a factor in my choice of vendors, but I was also reassured by the fact that the maker sells flutes in three grades: student, intermediate, and professional. I ponied up the money for a professional flute, and expressed to the flutemaker my need for excellent intonation and a strong high register.

    Here is what I received:

    cute, right?
    cute, right?

    Now, the proof of a flute is in the playing, and there’s no way to know for sure if it’s any good without giving it a try. But here are some immediate visual warning signs:

    • Uh-oh
      uh-oh

      The embouchure hole is strangely shaped. I don’t know for sure what the flutemaker intended, but round-ish is pretty standard. Since bamboo is an irregular material, a certain amount of air noise (vibrational inefficiency) is to be expected, but this flute is very airy, and I suspect the oddly-shaped and roughly-finished embouchure hole is a contributor to this.

    • This is an extremely wide-bored flute. Often for flute-like instruments we see a length-to-diameter ratio of something around 30:1, but this one is closer to 15:1. To oversimplify the ramifications of this a bit, a wider-bore flute (a smaller ratio) will generally tend to be stronger in the low register and weaker in the high register. For this gig, I needed a flute that could play just to the second octave above the fundamental note—not an unreasonable demand for any common variety of bamboo transverse flute. I couldn’t get this flute to do it. A smaller-diameter bamboo would improve this flute’s upper range.
    • The finger holes are fairly large, and about the same size. Generally, similarly-sized holes leads to more even tone across the instrument’s scale, but also means that the right hand index and middle finger holes are placed very close together for a simple-system major-scale flute, and on this one the holes are uncomfortably close for me. Larger holes decrease the likelihood of finding usable cross-fingerings; I needed one good cross-fingering for this gig, and couldn’t find one that worked—couldn’t even “lip” the chromatic note into tune. A well-designed flute strikes a balance between large and small holes, and similarly- and differently-sized holes.
    • The second octave is quite noticeably flat. This is a common problem of bamboo flutes (or any cylindrical-bore flutes), but this one is particularly difficult to wrangle into tune. Really excellent bamboo flutes are sometimes made from bamboo carefully selected to have just a bit of taper in the embouchure-hole end, like a concert flute’s headjoint, or have some bore work done to create an internal taper; this helps to bring the upper register into tune with the lower.

    When I realized that the flute wasn’t going to be usable, I packed my piccolo and a B-flat pennywhistle as possible alternatives. As it turned out, we didn’t end up playing the movement in question, so I was off the hook.

    Shop smart!

  • Review: Ben Britton’s A Complete Approach to Overtones

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    A Complete Approach to Overtones: Vivid Tone and Extended Range builds on A Complete Approach to Sound’s foundation with 50-some pages of overtone exercises and explanatory text. Overtone exercises are often associated with development of the altissimo register (Eugene Rousseau, for example, uses overtones extensively in his altissimo book), but this book is not specifically altissimo-oriented; it is a more broad-based approach to improving every aspect of tone production (particularly tone, intonation, and response).

    Ben Britton: A Complete Approach to Overtones

    The exercises are very thorough and systematic. A number of the exercises are similar to the simple ones I use with my own students, but Ben’s are better thought-out and cover the technique in a much more complete way. Between the book’s thoughtful organization and incisive text, it covers all of the usual frustrations that overtone beginners deal with; any saxophonist with a general command of the instrument’s basics should be able to jump right in and start hearing results. At the same time, the material is enough to keep an advanced saxophonist challenged for quite a while. This is a book that could very well be studied as a high school student, reviewed again at the college level, and re-reviewed throughout a professional playing career.

    Grab your copy (paper or digital) now and thank me later. While you’re at it, pick up A Complete Approach to Sound and Ben’s album Children at Play.

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  • Review: The Woodwind Player’s Cookbook

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    Most of the articles deal with technique fundamentals on specific instruments, which should make this book valuable to school band directors, but it also works quite well as a handbook for woodwind doublers; in fact, there are several articles that deal specifically with doubling, by Mike Duva, James Nesbit, Elsie Parker, and Albert Regni. Read More “Review: The Woodwind Player’s Cookbook”

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  • ClariMate review follow-up

    ByBret Pimentel

    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

    Almost two years ago I posted a review of the ClariMate digital clarinet mute by Buffet-Crampon. My conclusion at that point was that the ClariMate was an interesting concept, but with some technical issues.

    At that point the ClariMate seemed to be positioned mostly as a tool for practicing the clarinet silently. I found that to be a bit of a stretch, maybe having limited usefulness for practicing fingerings but far less helpful with matters of tone production.

    At that time, some of the promotional materials also suggested that the ClariMate could be used as a MIDI controller. That turned out to be incorrect, and a Buffet-Crampon confirmed that the feature was “not publicly available yet.”

    There is now some MIDI functionality available. A dual purpose of silent practice plus MIDI capability is reflected in the current advertising copy (found at the ClariMate US website as of mid-September 2024): “Silent Practice, Digital Play,” “ClariMate is a Reversible Hybrid Instrument and Digital Practice Mute for Bb clarinets,” “Opening the door to silent practice and the world of digital music.” This is bolstered with some videos of prominent clarinetists using the ClariMate as a MIDI controller.

    Reliability

    As I mentioned in my full review, I had some issues with my unit, including sporadic inoperability and a persistent failure to complete the “reed calibration” process in the apps. (Calibrating the reed ostensibly makes it possible to bend pitch by applying more or less pressure to the reed. This is a common feature of many wind controllers, though I don’t think it’s an accurate reflection of how pitch is manipulated on the clarinet.)

    To their credit, members of Buffet-Crampon’s ClariMate team have stayed in touch over the last couple of years, and ultimately offered to exchange my ClariMate for a new unit. I have spent a little time with the new unit and I do find it to be more stable, though it’s not clear to me whether that’s due to a defect in the previous one or to improvements to the firmware and apps.

    I did manage to complete the reed calibration process in the Windows app, but only after many attempts with the new unit. And I still find that I do not have any real control of pitch bends. Most of the time the pitch is completely unaffected no matter how much or how little pressure I put on the reed. I do hear very occasional small bends while playing, but they are not intentional and I can’t figure out how to make them happen on purpose.

    MIDI features

    I also experimented a little with the new MIDI functionality. The ClariMate website now offers free “MIDIMate” software, a rudimentary soft synth for Windows and MacOS with a handful of sounds. I was also able to use the ClariMate with another Windows soft synth, and with a music notation program for note entry, though both were considerably more glitchy than MIDIMate or the ClariMate apps.

    In researching the new MIDI capabilities, I did a web search for “ClariMate manual” and clicked the first result, a PDF hosted on the ClariMate EU website. It contains this text: “MIDI will work in USB or bluetooth mode via Windows or MacOS, and in bluetooth mode via Android and iOS. We recommend using MIDI in USB mode to reduce latency as much as possible.” I was unable to get ClariMate MIDI working with my Android device, and a representative has now confirmed that MIDI is “not yet available on Android, but should be soon.” He also pointed me to a more up-to-date version of the manual, which does not include the misleading text. (If you are looking for a current manual, you should visit the ClariMate website to make sure you aren’t looking at something outdated.)

    The fact that MIDI capability was falsely advertised at the ClariMate’s launch, and that Android MIDI was falsely mentioned in a recent user’s manual, seem consistent with an apparent pattern of over-promising and under-delivering. That’s concerning when selling a not-inexpensive gadget to tech-savvy clarinetists, a finicky bunch if ever there was one. The older manuals should probably be removed from the ClariMate websites so they will disappear from Google results, and it would be responsible of Buffet-Crampon to be precise and truthful about which features are and aren’t available.

    Use cases?

    My ClariMate has mostly stayed in its case. I am fortunate to have a space where I can practice out loud, and if that were to change I don’t think the ClariMate’s silent practice functionality would suit my purposes. And the MIDI compatibility pales in comparison to the capabilities and reliability of my Akai wind controller. If you are a professional or semi-professional musician and finding good uses for the ClariMate, I would be curious to hear about them.

    I’m grateful to the ClariMate team for their ongoing communication and support, and I hope this device will be a first step toward continuing innovation.

  • Review: NewMusicShelf Anthology of New Music: Alto Saxophone, Vol. 1

    ByBret Pimentel

    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

    I don’t typically do reviews of new sheet music publications unless they have a specific woodwind-doubling focus, but I’m making an exception here because I think this is a project that is especially useful and has potential to change the landscape of “classical” saxophone repertoire (and other instruments, too).

    I have a repertoire problem. My file cabinet is full of wonderful, important music that is written almost exclusively by dead white men. I would like to change that—to perform and teach music representing a greater diversity of composers, and particularly living composers.

    But it’s hard to escape the inertia of the “standard repertoire.” And sorting through mountains of new pieces by composers I haven’t heard of (yet), to find the best ones, the ones at the right difficultly level for my students, and so forth, could cost me thousands of dollars and thousands of hours. It’s daunting, and so I fall back on the same pieces I’ve taught over and over.

    NewMusicShelf Anthology of New Music: Alto Saxophone, Vol. 1 is an elegant solution. For the price of a standard-repertoire concerto, it contains 16 works composed (or at least revised) within the last 20 years. The composers (listed on NewMusicShelf’s website) are diverse and distinguished. Many are young.

    The collection is curated by Alan Theisen, a composer and saxophonist well-positioned to accomplish this task due to his interests and connections in the world of new music. (One of his own compositions is included in the anthology.)

    For me as a performer and educator, this anthology helps solve several problems: the pieces are thoughtfully selected for quality and variety, the publication is very affordable, and its presence in my studio is a strong step toward currency and representation in concert saxophone music. All are for solo alto saxophone or saxophone and piano, so the performance logistics are simple (no large/unusual ensembles, electronics, or other potential barriers). The pieces are playable by undergraduate-level students (but, as Theisen points out in his introduction, “absolutely suitable” for more advanced players as well). It’s an easy, cheap, and practical way to grow my performing and teaching repertoire. (This is an unsolicited review of a copy I purchased myself.)

    A couple of small complaints: the saxophone and piano parts are “perfect bound” (like a paperback book) and thus don’t lay flat on a music stand. NewMusicShelf indicates on their website that this is to facilitate library shelving (and points out that, hey, you can disassemble and re-bind it yourself if you want), but I’d rather see a more performer-oriented solution. And the books contain a web link promising composer headshots and program notes, but the link is currently broken and I couldn’t locate the content on the website. Still, a very worthwhile purchase.

    The “Volume 1” label is hopefully indicative of more to come. A flute volume appears to be in the works, and calls-for-scores for clarinet, bassoon, and some other instruments are currently open. Collections for voice and for viola are already available. Kudos to NewMusicShelf and Alan Theisen for this extremely valuable aid for teachers and performers.

    NewMusicShelf Anthology of New Music: Alto Saxophone, Vol. 1

7 Comments

  1. I could not agree more with your review. I too have the F# in red cedar and it is a lovely and wonderful work of art and instrument.

    Reply

  2. Have to agree with you on Butch Hall Flutes. A few weeks ago I purchased my first Butch Hall flute, my 4th flute and 4th maker. I am ordering another Butch Hall Flute today, the other makers just do not come close.

    Reply

  3. I am a total and absolute Butch Hall fan! I have wanted to learn to the NAF for a number of years,having accidentally stumble across a Carlos Nakai track while searching iHeartRadio. I fell instantly in love with the NAF. I purchased my first and I only NAF while in Sedona AZ for memorial day weekend 2016, but what was so wonderful about this was that the shop I purchased in was owned by a Carlos Nakai student who was so gracious with me and the flute I purchased was a Bit Hall Le Mita Cola GM!!! I knew nothing about NAF but subsequent to my purchase I have done some research and have come to the conclusion that my Butch Hall was am absolute perfect purchase FOR ME. However I must say in all candor that I am NOT a Butch Hall customer……I am a BUTCH HALL FAN!!!!! I will be making all subsequent NAF purchases from Both Hall. Got to dance with one that “brung” you! Many thanks to Butch and Laura Hall for a superior product and service!!!!!

    Reply

  4. I stopped in a store in Sedona, AZ (Bonanza) and they had a nice collection of NA flutes. I purchased an Am. The store owner (Clara) gave me a quick lesson and away I went. I really appreciate the simple design and nice quality of Butch Hall flutes. They are very affordable. Plus they are bored and not made from two halves. I went back in a couple days and had to have the Am. Again I stopped back in a few weeks to say hello and should have never tried the F# concert. LOL. I don’t know which one I like best.

    Reply

    1. My comment is to Wade, who bought his from a store in Sedona, AZ. My F#, Bruce Hall flute #44, is made in two halves that is barely visible. I bought mine in 1998, so he might have changed since then, but it is definitely two halves. I have been satisfied with mine!

      Reply

  5. I bought a butch hall flute at a resale shop. It says “little horse” #629 ’99 and his name. Can you tell me anything about it.?

    Reply

  6. I have a nice New World Flute collection (somewhere around 300) and I can say, without any reservation that Butch Hall Flutes are wonderful instruments. Though his flutes have changed over the years (from a split body construction to a single piece of wood bored down the center), they continue to be a great value for the purchase price. From a play-ability perspective, I feel they stack up well against any of the NAF makers on the market and from a cost perspective, they are very hard to beat.

    Reply

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