This is a photo of one of my bamboo flutes. It's the one
that I play the most, and that I keep at hand. This flute
was made by John Wydysh, whom I consider a personal
friend. He made it for me with custom hole placement, to
accomodate the fact that I play primarily southpaw. 

The metal ring you see on the flute is my own creation,
though the only reason I made it is because I wanted the
flute to have a more specific personality. It's made from
roughly hand-cut sterling silver half-round ring stock,
soldered and polished lightly.

Here is the shortish story of this flute. This is probably
as good a place as any to share it. I'm not a student
of the flute, but I am a student of music in some degree.
When I was about 6 years old, I saw a broken down old
violin on a glass shelf (remember those? they were big in
the 1980's) at my grandmother's house. I can still see it
in my mind's eye, just the way it was then- that violin
is another story all its own that I should write down
some time.

I begged my mother to buy me a violin. Since I didn't 
ever give up on the idea, she eventually did buy me one
when I was 10. I still have it here, within arms reach,
I should probably post a photo of it at some point. I
took lessons until I was 18. I won't pretend that I was
a master in any sense of the word, but I absolutely
loved playing.

What's this have to do with a flute? In the late 1990's
I went to France for a few years, and I did not take my
violin with me. I'm not really sure why I didn't, but I
certainly didn't understand at the time how much making
music meant to me. At the risk of sounding melodramatic,
I can say honestly that I languised without the ability
to make music.

Finally, I realized what was going on. I didn't have the
money to buy a violin, nor did I want to ask anyone to
ship me mine. Then, while I was walking down a street in
Saumur, I saw a bamboo flute in the window of a music
store. It was cheap, and it made music. I had no idea how
to use it, but I bought it.

I sat in my apartment and blew on that thing until I
figured out how to get a note. I didn't know how to hold
it properly, so I held it to the left as I hold my
violin... this is, unfortunately, backward of how you
hold a metal flute, but that doesn't really bother me.
I took that flute with me everywhere I went, and practiced
making music of whatever kind I could make. 

Then, while living in Bayonne, I had a friend who was
enamored of that flute. We found some bamboo growing near
an apartment complex, and as fantastical as it might sound,
we cut some down and made a copy of the flute. I recall the
nodes we had to punch out to make a tube, though I can't
recall how we did it. It worked pretty well. My friend got
the copy. I kept the original, but unfortunately, the 
original eventually cracked and broke.

When I came back to the states, to Portland Oregon where
I grew up, I was at the Saturday Market downtown when I
heard flute music playing. Bamboo flute music. I found
the booth of John Nester Wydysh, and excitedly found and
purchased a flute of approximately the same size and key
of the one I had lost. I kept coming back and purchasing
more of his flutes, helped him with his business a bit,
and got to know him. Eventually, he made me the one
pictured here.

Now I play the flute purely for my own enjoyment, without
any particular concern for how I'm doing it or any sort
of method. It brings me joy and peace, and that's enough
for me. Coincidentally, I still play the violin, but the
bamboo flute demands so little of me (I don't even have
to open a case) that I end up playing it a lot more often.
It's good to understand oneself, when possible, and I
have come to understand that making music is a joy and a
beauty for me, and so I do it. The flute makes it a
pleasure.