Flute Maker Spreads High Spirits

Wednesday, 27 April 2011 09:16

If one ventures off the beaten trail in Patagonia, a small community of less than 1,000 people, they might suddenly stumble upon drifting notes of music and the smell of cedar. Odell Borg, the founder and owner of High Spirits Flutes, has been selling a broad selection of handcrafted flutes for over 20 years.

Though it began in a one-car garage in California, High Spirits Flutes has expanded year by year through word of mouth and now offers 65 flutes of differing keys and pitch ranges which are crafted onsite in their workshop and sold both locally and internationally. Their clientele includes buyers in Germany, France, Japan and Australia, and musicians like Grammy-winner Bill Miller and Native American flute player Jan Michael Looking Wolf. 

One way High Spirits caters to diverse tastes and interests is through specialized flutes tuned to scales common in certain cultures. For example, they offer scales for Middle Eastern, Japanese, Gypsy and east Indian music, among others. Though word of mouth and internet retail have helped foster its international market, the majority of its sales are still made domestically. Borg remains committed to producing quality local products.

“Our business is grown through word of mouth. One thing I’ve noticed is that the American craftsman has gone by the wayside. Very few things are made in the U.S. anymore. I’ve always been a craftsman, but I’ve noticed that there’s not that many craftsmen around nowadays. It’s a small cottage industry we’ve created here and I love it.  I’d love to see more of that in the country,” Borg said.

Before he decided to start making flutes, Borg had worked as a leather-crafter, a jeweler and various other odd jobs. But when he found none of these jobs ultimately fulfilling, he turned to the flute, which he’d started playing in the 1980s. At first, both the technical and musical aspects to the craft presented challenges. Though Borg said his knowledge of musicology has come a long way since the beginning, initially it was difficult for someone like him, with no musical background, to find the elements and techniques that would produce the best sounds.  A flute’s key and range are determined by the length of the instrument, its diameter and bore, the thickness of its walls and the way air is directed through it.

One of the most elusive qualities of a good flute, though, is consistency.  Traditionally, native flutes were played by themselves and didn’t need to be tuned to a standard other than its own scale, or set of pitches. “Nowadays, when you’re playing with other instruments, be it guitar, piano or any other instrument, it has to be in a certain key,” explained Borg. “That’s always a challenge, to get consistency in tuning. That’s the hard part.”

Odell Borg plays one of the flutes in their showroom:

The small staff of 14 has worked hard to achieve the kind of consistency expected by more discerning customers. Borg is proud of their quality control process and specially developed techniques. It is a process that has been honed through a lot of trial and error, especially during the company’s early years, according to Borg. It takes between two and three weeks to transform blocks of wood into musical instruments. Flutes need to be precisely carved, sanded, coated in nontoxic oils, tweaked and tuned before they’re allowed to be sold. Their flutes are single pieces that are bored into, as opposed to split in half and later rejoined, which is how many flutes are built. The humidity of climate and breath makes the wood expand and contract, which can lead to problems with the glue-lines of flutes that are assembled in two pieces.

Consistency is one reason Borg believes people buy High Spirits flutes. Another is the appeal of an instrument that anyone can pick up and learn quickly, regardless of their musical experience.

“The reason there’s so much interest, I think, is because if you take a hundred people and ask them if they’re interested in learning an instrument in five minutes, and being able to play in 15, I think 90 percent of them would want to. I think that’s the beauty behind the native flute, that anyone can play it,” said Borg. “The fascinating aspect of the native flute is that it has its myth and its history and its story, but beyond that, you can play anything you want. You don’t have to be a musician, you can just have fun with it.”

Borg estimated that between 60 and 70 percent of their customers had never picked up an instrument before. The company’s best-selling flutes are also their easiest to learn, and are often smaller and mid-ranged in terms of pitch due to the greater breath control required to master large flutes with a lower range of sound. The most popular key is A, which Borg identified as more “lively and upbeat.”

“The craftspeople that work here, we’re all very proud of what we do. We’re not making rockets and bombs, we’re making things that can enhance people’s lives.”

Written by Sean Yuan Ma You are reading Flute Maker Spreads High Spirits articles