Tag Archives: Musical Instruments
The art of business cards
I just had new business cards printed. The process of designing the new cards made we think about the evolution of my business cards and my art endeavors. When I first began my own business, my focus was on making Native American-style flutes. (I still make those flutes!) One of my goals was to make […]
Creativity and Purple Elephants
In making and selling both musical instruments and watercolors, I have conversations with many adults who tell me that they couldn’t play the flute or try watercolors themselves because they aren’t creative or artistic. Recently when I suggested to a friend that we could paint watercolors together on my upcoming visit with her, she emailed […]
WrenSong Kanteles
The kantele complements the Native American flute wonderfully. These are delightful instruments and easy to learn to play. They may take some time like the ukulele and Native American style flute to learn to play well. The kanteles I primarily make are 5-string versions. In 2018, I released a 6-string version but find that […]
Ukulele & Native American Style Flute
I am reworking my website and reducing the number of pages dedicated to specific topics. This blog post was previously a page on the site dedicated to Native American style flute and ukulele music. I will no longer be creating this particular mode of music but want to leave it available for the many who […]
Mandolin and Chris Thile in Gainesville
Chris Thile — mandolin player, composer, songwriter and singer. Playing the mandolin for and hour and a half…with no break. His performance in Gainesville at the Phillips Performing Arts Center was amazing. For the first hour, I watched with my inner jaw hanging open. The mandolin was an extension of him as he played. He […]
Happy Make Music Day
Happy World Music Day! What a great way to recognize the importance of music and its ability to bring people together. World Music Day (also called Make Music Day) started in 1982 when the Ministry of Culture in France launched the Fête de la Musique (“festival of music”). The event was a day of free, […]
Woodworking stores & projects
Woodworking stores provided a creative break for me during a recent road trip to visit relatives. Walking through woodworking stores always gives me ideas for projects and usually includes purchasing a special piece of wood or a tool I need. Rockler – The surprise was finding a Rockler store in Sharonville, OH — one of the […]
Lessons from Shakuhachi flute
It’s always fun to experiment with making different flutes. Lately I have been experimenting with making Japanese shakuhachi flutes from PVC cold water pipe. It is not an easy flute to learn to play but it is a wonderful sound when you do get a note. Given how hard it is to achieve playing a […]
GFAA Artists’ Café, March 17
Join me at SweetBerries for an afternoon of art, live music and tasty snacks on Saturday, March 17. The GFAA Artists’ Café is from 3 to 6 p.m., with members of the Gainesville Fine Arts Association displaying and selling our work on the patio. I’ll be selling my wood abstracts, which are inspired by all […]
WrenSong flutes at Leesburg Festival
The Leesburg Arts Festival provided me the opportunity to do two activities I enjoy — play my flutes for listeners and sell my flutes to people who are drawn to the sound of the flute. My WrenSong Woods tent was just a few yards from the east stage of the festival. (You can see my […]
Visiting Leesburg Flute Gathering
This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit the Leesburg Flute and Drum Gathering held in the Leesburg Center for the Arts. My friend Deb, who I’d met at Flute Haven a few years ago, has always been ready to pick up a flute and jam. With Deb’s Leesburg friends and my Gainesville friends […]
Improvising Strategies for Am Native American Style Flute
The Native American style flute lends itself to improvising. I remember meeting a man from Jacksonville, Florida who would climb out on his roof after work and decompress by “playing” the skyline. Depending on where he looked, the skyline was different. He said he’d never played the same thing twice using this way of improvising […]
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