The Ultimate Guide to Bone Flutes

by Howard Fosdick © FolkFluteWorld.com

Flutes devised from animal bones are thought to be the earliest musical instruments. Archaelogical evidence points to their existence as long as 50,000 years ago.

That's so long ago that it predates man's shift to agricultural settlements and his domestication of farm animals.

Yet it makes sense that hunter-gatherers, sitting around their life-sustaining fire after a meal, would make sounds using hollowed animal bones. Early flutes were fashioned from bear, deer, and bird bones of various kinds.

Much later, Native American tribes developed their own traditions surrounding bone flutes. Flutes made from eagle bones became cultural touchstones and were used for ceremonial purposes.

Modern flute makers have recreated several versions of prehistoric and Native American flutes.

You can commune with long deceased musicians and experience the primitive emotions they felt when surrounded by the blackest night. You can imitate bird calls and animal sounds, and some believe you can even commune with spirits.

This article tells you everything about bone flutes that you can buy and play. We'll tell which you flutes are meant as collectibles, and which are intended for spiritual or ceremonial purposes. We'll also point out those that are full-fledged musical instruments, and we'll explain how to play them.

The Neanderthal Divje Flute

While interpretations sometimes differ, many agree that the oldest of these bone flutes is the Divje piece. It was found in Divje babe cave near Cerkno in present-day Slovenia. The national museum in Slovenia dates it to between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, which would make it at least 10,000 years older than the next oldest known flute.

This flute was fashioned from the left thigh bone of a young cave bear. It has four pierced holes. Their size, number, and positioning indicate that this was a purpose-made musical instrument. Those holes could not have been accidental.

Played skillfully, the flute has a range of about 2.5 octaves. It's set to a pentatonic five note scale. This means it could play sophisticated tunes.

Above all what fascinates is that this flute would have been made by Neanderthals. Neanderthal man predates (but overlaps) our own species, Homo sapiens or "modern man." Neanderthals are thought to have died out somewhere around 40,000 years ago.

This flute's existence is a powerful proof of that Neanderthals were, "...like us, fully developed spiritual beings capable of sophisticated artistic expression."

Watch this beautifully produced video by Dr Peter Turk and the National Museum of Slovenia to learn the remarkable story of this unique flute.

Galactivator's Divje Flute Replica

If you'd like to try a Divje flute, Galactivators make a replica from PETG recyclable plastic. They call it their Divje Babe Neanderthal Tidldibab Bone Flute.

The flute is rim-blown. You blow to direct your breath across a small notch at one end of the flute. This is the same technique you use when you blow across the top of a pop bottle to sound a note.

This video shows how to play it, and how it sounds. Or, you can use this side blown technique to play it.

Like many bone flute replicas, it plays a variety of natural sounds that befit its heritage. For example, you can imitate birds and other kinds of wildlife, and play simple tunes. (It's not so much intended to play modern music.)

This flute typically sells for $30 to $40 USD, depending on where you purchase it.

Native American Bone Flutes

In contrast to European musical practice, Native American fluting embodies personal growth, healing, spirituality, and meditation. It's not about entertainment or public performance. It's a very personal journey.

Native American bone flutes support religious ceremonies. Examples are found in the Peyote rituals of some sects of the Native American Church, and in Sun Dance ceremonies such as those of the Crow and Lakota people.

Given their spiritual purpose, most of these bone flutes are what one might call whistles. They voice notes and imitate bird calls and animal noises. They produce unusual, ethereal sounds. Most are not intended as musical instruments that are tuned and designed to play modern music.

Bone flutes can be made from any bird or animal. Those of the American bald and gold eagles claim a preeminent place in Native American ritual.

Of course, it violates U.S. law to hunt, collect, or even keep bald or golden eagle bones. The penalties for violating these laws are severe. (There are specific exemptions for Native American uses.)

Thus, the "eagle bone" flutes in this article are not actual eagle bones but instead are imitative replicas. Clever makers with knowledge of ceramics are capable of creating such realistic pieces that you wouldn't know they weren't actual eagle bones unless you get close enough to touch them. Other makers will use bones from other species that look very similar to eagle bones.

Next up, we'll describe the several eagle bone flutes made by Songbird Ocarina. These are the most musically capable of the bone flutes available today.

After that, we'll describe some bone flutes made by Native Americans that embody their culture. Marlon Magdalena and Mohawk Arts' Kirk Ahsoquata make whistles that represent Native American traditions. These are ceremonial and spiritual in intent, rather than musical instruments designed to play tunes.

Songbird's Eagle Bone Flutes

Over the past two decades, Songbird Ocarina of Los Angeles, CA has made a variety of eagle bone flutes. Though they're made from ceramics, to look at them, you would think they were actual eagle bones. The realism is impressive.

Here's how they look. They're about 4" inches long, and 1" wide at their widest point. All flutes ship with a lanyard so that you can wear them around your neck. Given their small size and light weight, this works well. Including the lanyard, they weigh about 1 ounce each.

All Songbird flutes have a built-in fipple. This automatically directs your breath to properly produce notes. This makes them very easy to play. (It takes much more practice to play all the notes of a rim blown flute like Galactivators' Divje bone flute.)

Songbird has varied the flutes they've made over the years. They've had anywhere from 3 to 5 top holes, and either 0 or 1 thumb holes beneath.

The leftmost instrument in the photo has 3 top holes and no thumb hole on the underside. The two on the right each have 4 top holes, with a single thumb hole beneath.

Thus, the keying of these flutes differ. The leftmost flute is keyed to a standard five note pentatonic scale. It's lowest note (or base note) is E6.

The two rightmost bone flutes play the Hijaz scale. The Hijaz scale is popular in Middle Eastern, Arabic, Flamenco and classical music. The base note for one of these flutes is E6, while the other starts at E6♭.

Both the Hijaz and pentatonic scales are similar in that all the whole notes in those scales are complementary. Stick to the scale and you can't hit a wrong note!

This makes it easy to improvise great tunes. I like that audiences sometimes assume I'm some sort of musical genius when I improvise with it. (I don't let them in on the secret that it's the scale doing all the work, not me.)

Since the idea is that you will improvise with these flutes, rather than playing standard notated music, the Songbird flutes don't ship with a fingering chart.

Some purchasers have responded by compiling fingering charts on their own. Here are three of them:

Some Songbird flutes are tuned to other base notes and use different fingering schemes. So it's possible that none of these three fingering charts describes your instrument. In this case, go to an online musical tuner to "decode" your flute's fingering. Good tuners include those at Musicca and Online Metronome.

You'll notice that all fingering schemes include overblowing to attain high notes. In testing several flutes, I've found that overblowing only yields a couple notes on the high end. I haven't had the success in obtaining the very high notes that some fingering charts suggest.

Every Songbird eagle bone flute I've ever played sounds beautifully. They are sweetly bright and clear. And very importantly, they are not too loud -- the bane of many tiny flutes. What a pleasure they are to play.

Here are some sound samples:

If your goal is to play music on your bone flute, I recommend Songbird's offerings as the most musically capable instruments in this article. They're well worth it at about $40 USD.

Native American Bone Flutes by Marlon Magdalena

Marlon Magdalena is an artist, educator, and performer from the Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico. He handcrafts flutes from the bones of turkeys, bamboo, and copper. The flutes are designed to imitate eagles and other birds.

Take a look at a couple of his Youtube videos to learn about his flutes, their uses, and how they sound:

You can contact Mr Magdalena for any special requirements or for ordering here. Prices for bone flutes range from $40 to $60 USD.

Native American Bone Flutes by Mohawk Arts

Mohawk Arts produces a wide range of Native American collectibles. Kirk Ahsoquata is the Native American expert who designed their bone flutes.

The purpose of these bone flutes is "...to share with others the opportunity to personally experience the traditional bone whistle [that] plays so beautifully and allows the user to reflect on historical culture or add to their musical instrument collection."

Here are a few of the eagle bone flute designs available. Pricing varies dramatically. I've seen them priced at anywhere from $40 USD up to over $200.

Here's a Youtube video with a sound sample of the rightmost flute above:

Visit the Mohawk Arts website here.

More Bone Flutes

Search on a website like Etsy or Ebay, and you'll find a variety of real and imitation bone flutes. Most are made by individual crafters.

As with all bone flutes, they fall into three groups:

• Musically playable -- they play full scales in tune
• Collectible -- those of stylistic or historical interest
• Ceremonial -- those designed for spiritual or ceremonial purposes

Of course, some flutes fall into more than a single category.

The important point is that you know what you're buying. And that it fits your goals.

For example, if you're looking for a musically capable instrument, be certain your verify this by listening to a sound sample. Ensure that reviewers assess this positively. We recommend Songbird's eagle bone flutes as the most musical we've found.

In contrast, bone flutes on Etsy designed for other purposes include a replica Viking bone flute, a Necromancer deer bone flute, a prehistoric art flute, and a Tibetan kangling bone flute used in Buddhist rituals.

There's no end to the interesting, inventive (and sometimes even bizarre) flutes available. Check out the Aztec death whistle to the left. These skull-shaped flutes were used during rituals involving human sacrifice. Their unique design produces sounds that are variously described as "chilling" or "frightening."

Read all about Aztec death whistles in my article on them. You won't believe how terrifying they sound. Yikes!

Last Words

Bone flutes fascinate. They connect us through the millennia to ancient humans, even to our distant Neanderthal cousins. They lend us the spiritual and healing connection of Native American ritual. And some come to us as fully capable musical instruments.

We leave you with a video of a rather serious fellow playing a bone flute that is a 3D-printed replica of his own femur: