ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

JOURNAL ENTRIES

Unedited journal notes that I have written during the process about my instrument-making experiences and other observations

19.11.2021 

Koncovka building

I have been building a slovakian style overtone flute “koncovka”. The wood was collected already in the spring of 21 and drilled when fresh. I started to build the instrument in september-october. I shaped the flute but after that I started having trouble continuing. Koncovka is a fipple flute. I do like the sound of it and I have been studying the instrument but this was the first piece that I’m building myself completely from wood. I have made some overtone flutes from copper and PVC with Scandinavian style of blowing. I have been more interested in transverse and end blown flutes. They are a lot more primitive in their way of building, but the way to produce the sound is actually a lot harder than in a fipple flute. Basically anyone who is able to breathe can produce a sound from an overtone flute. Ney, shakuhachi and transverse flutes take some time to find the way to produce the sound. Of course all of these instruments will take a lifetime to master, but the first sound is easiest in overtone flutes. Creating the fipple on the other hand requires more knowledge about the production of the sound. It needs a right angle in the fipple, correctly shaped chamber and a right type of a pluck. Making of this pluck was the hardest part for me since it needs to be shaped exactly to the size of the opening diameter of the flute. Making this shape with only hand tools is a difficult job. If it becomes too small it won't stay in its place, if it becomes too big it wont fit the chamber, or it might crack the flute when forced inside.

I have been having troubles with finding balance and peace in my mind with dividing my time within all my works. If I spend a lot of time in the shed I will feel that I need to go and practice instruments and vice versa. This is because my mind is filled with other things on my to do list. On friday 19.11 I happened to be slightly ill which made me stay home. I was not able to do anything outside the house really and therefore naturally ended up in the shed with a focused mind for the work. I started to make the fipple and the pluck for the koncovka. I had already failed with two plucks (too small or wrong shape). I tried to really carefully carve and sand the piece to fit the flute. The piece seemed to be almost the size and I tried to carefully insert it into the chamber with the help of tapping it with a small hammer. It started to go down promisingly and I tapped it more. It reached almost the level of how deep it should go and I blew into it. It made its first sound. I was really happy that the flute had come to life and I tried to get a couple of more sounds. At that moment the wood cracked right on my lips, creating a tear on my upper lip which started to bleed. The piece had been a tiny bit too big and the small walls of the flute couldn’t handle the pressure. First I was really devastated and angry with myself. Soon I got to be okay with the fact that it had happened. Rest of the flute's body is still okay, so I still might have a chance of making a flute from it, either by gluing the crack or cutting down the part of the fipple and creating a new, a bit shorter flute from it. 

Understanding one's mindset is really important in instrument making, as well as in being a musician and a human being. I feel that my emotions will transfer into the instrument, and they do affect the way that it turns out. If I’m feeling anxious, frustrated or tired there is a huge chance that I will mess something up and potentially destroy the life of the instrument. This happened with the first pluck of koncovka. I was already feeling in my mind that I should call it a day and continue working on another day with a fresher mind. But I ignored the fact and continued to hammer the pluck down to the flute which made it crack. Likewise if I’m having negative thoughts I feel that it will not benefit music in ensemble situations. Anger can be a positive driver for improvisations, but should be used with caution. In many other areas in life as well I feel that if I could observe, understand and handle my thoughts better, I could get along with them and base my doings to fit them. Doing something while the mind fights against it doesn’t usually lead to anything positive in the long term.

17.1.2022

Alder and kuksa work

On Monday 17.1 I woke up at 4.30 am and just couldn’t get any more sleep. I had just traveled back from the USA after spending 3,5 weeks in the Pacific NorthWest. I guess that my inner clock was not really on time yet after that 10 hour time difference change. After rolling around in the bed for about an hour I gave up trying to get more sleep and went out for a walk. After coming back inside I was looking at some pieces of wood that I had hung on the wall to dry. I had decided to start working with some flutes after coming back to Finland. My plan was to work on shakuhachi, ney and bass overtone flutes. For all of these three flutes I already have a ready decided piece of wood that in my opinion would fit these styles. I didn’t really find any motivation or ideas to work forward on any of these options. I was looking at some other pieces that I had and came upon a piece of alder that I had pre drilled in the spring of 2021. For some reason I wanted to take this piece to the shed and so I did.

I worked with the piece for a while thinking about making an overtone flute. The drilling was not really centered and therefore the wall was very thin on one side of the piece. I did realize this on good time and I made some marks for myself that I wouldn’t carve too much wood away from that spot since it would lead into the wall breaking. 

I feel a certain pressure and compulsory feeling when I’m practicing or composing. It is hard for me to find that flow state of mind, a state where I’m not criticizing myself or thinking ahead of time. I force myself to work with music but I don’t feel good doing it. I feel that these music related practices have a certain stigma due to pressure built from institutions and from inside of my own head. Instrument making used to be a thing where I didn’t necessarily feel that pressure. I could work on my own without caring about the end result. Now that I have picked instrument making to be a topic of my Bachelor thesis, it suddenly became pressurized as well. While I was working on that piece of alder my mind was just rushing ahead of time. I was thinking how I will present the ready product in my thesis. I was picturing and writing in my mind about the stages of building that I wasn’t even close to starting to do yet. All of these thoughts wandered in my head while I was peeling off some extra wood from the flute with a draw knife. And just like that I missed my own markings about the weaker spot and tore off a big piece from the wall of the flute. This mistake most likely made that potential flute into a piece of firewood. 

Feeling frustrated about breaking the blank I decided to stop instrument related work for that day. The day was still very young, the sun wasn’t even fully up. I decided to stay in the workshed and start finishing one kuksa (wooden cup) that I had carved last summer. I got the piece and some tools and just started working. And there I was in a flow state. I didn’t worry too much about the end result and I was in a good state for concentrating on the work. And that concentration obviously is needed for that type of work. Later on I acknowledged the differences in my state of mind while working within music related activities or others. It made me feel devastated but I believe that it was a good thing to become aware of at this point.

This decision at 6 am to start working with a piece of wood that motivated me became an important factor that I want to keep up on my work. I can’t really decide beforehand what flute should I work on at any certain point. If I don’t feel motivated towards a certain piece, then working with it will do no good to myself or the instrument. I will try to work with some piece of wood every day for at least a moment but I need to follow my instincts on the decision. If I don’t feel motivated to work on any flute then I shall carve a spoon. Time spent carving wood with full concentration will always be valuable, destroying a potential instrument because of lack of concentration is not.

20.2.2022

Affection of traditional instruments

I was sorting out some of my field-recordings in my Zoom recorder and I came across a recording that I had recorded in October 2021. It was just a quick recording of a melodic idea that I had captured as I tend to do. But what struck me was the fact that I didn’t remember at all that when I had recorded it and the bigger confusion was that I did not recognize the instrument that I was playing. The instrument sounded like some sort of a fipple flute with diatonic scale (härjedalspipan or tin whistle for example), but to my remembering I have not been playing any of those for the past couple of months. I had to really pay attention to the sound quality of it. I didn’t hear any mechanics in the sound so therefore I believed that it was an open-holed flute. It didn’t sound like bansuri at all so I believed that it was not a transverse flute. After really hard thinking I realized that it was in fact a c-silver flute, the flute that I have been playing or feeling connected to the least. Then I remember the evening when I came across this melodic idea and for some reason silver flute was the only instrument reachable to me at the moment. This was a strong moment for me to realize how much all different open holed instruments with different sound qualities have been affecting my playing on western instruments. My education on the silver flute has been purely with classical teachers or practicing jazz on my own. After that I pretty much stopped playing the instrument and concentrated on other instruments. All of these other explorations with diverse wind instruments can be heard in my playing of a well known silver flute.

Another realization of this phenomena happened with the same silver flute in November 2021. I was at a gig playing some Brazilian music. Because the rehearsal time was limited and most of the music was played from sheets I ended up playing a lot more silver flute as I can read the C sheets more easily than with alto or other flutes. I was playing some solo in the concert and I suddenly felt rather good, I felt that I was able to play more ideas and with better sound than before, even when I hadn’t been playing this instrument for months. Then I realized that my fingers were really far from the standard western playing style where the fingertips should be on the flutes pads. I was playing the mechanical silver flute with the same style as bansuri, fingers far over the board. This posture would most likely drive my classical teachers mad, but for me it felt so much more natural and easier.