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Happy Fathers Day + Multi-Cultural Fluting

© Karen Stafford

Before I begin this, I just wanted to let my readers know that, as I sat down one night thinking about all the possible topics on flute I could cover in the future, I realized just how extensive a topic this lil ole instrument is! So, starting today(!), I'm going to be writing new articles on a weekly basis.

I didn't want to let Father's Day slip by without a tribute to my own Dad, who passed away nine years ago. He was a slightly eccentric fellow who worked for the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers as a dredge boat engineer. (Dredge boats were used to clear off channels and banks of rivers for clearer "sailing".) Poor Daddy had a tin ear and absolutely no music background, so it came as somewhat a shock to him that he'd have a daughter that actually made it in band! He'd grumble about the extra rehearsals and extra expenses (clear through graduate school, when my teacher strongly suggested I really needed that Miramatsu flute!). But,hey! He was the guy that grabbed his tape recorder and taped every single band concert I was ever in in public school (which Mom actually found when going through his stuff, some 10 years later), and drove 150 miles several times a year to attend my college recitals, Parent's Day, Homecoming... Here's to you, Dad. Because of your sacrifice and your pride in me, I made it!

And, to a current Superdad: To Gary Stafford and all his time helping me do the KidTaxi stuff to piano lessons and choir, not to mention softball, soccer, 4-H, dance, horseback riding lessons: plus the the storytimes, cuddletimes, listening times... Happy Father's Day from your girls and me!

Now, for a total change of gears, here...

I have a lot of fun (and my private students, school students, and daughters get a kick out of) learning about and trying to play different ethnic flutes or learning about flute music of different cultures. Sometimes those of us of European heritage tend to forget that Boehm didn't exactly invent the flute, only perfected it! I'd like to cover just a few of the ethnic flute sites, both of the music and the instruments themselves.

For those of you lucky enough to get to Washington, D.C. and the Library of Congress, The Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection should be investigated. This extensive collection of over 1,000 flutes includes flutes of ethnic origins, including Native American and flutes from China. For more photographs of this collection, check Flute: The One and Only Resource You'll Ever Need. The author had the privilege of seeing the collection close and took some terrific pictures of it.

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