Turtle Mound Flutes Homepage

Welcome to the cyberspace home of Turtle Mound Flutes. Native American flutes sing a soothing, meditative song that many believe has a healing power. Turtle Mound Flutes shares this belief and promotes the making, playing, and listening to these wonderful instruments.

We craft high quality wooden flutes in the Native American style, each themed with images of an animal. In tribute to my Cherokee heritage, I give each flute the Cherokee name for its animal. As the popularity of our flutes has grown, so have been the orders for custom flutes. If you can envision a theme for your special flute, let's talk about making it a reality. See examples of our custom work on our Custom Flutes page.

In addition to our wooden flutes, we also make a more rugged version of this style flute that we call our Knock-About Flutes. These use a heavier gauge of PVC than most similar flutes and have the sound mechanism crafted in the same manner as with our wooden flutes. This produces a sound that more closely resembles that of wooden flutes than most other PVC flutes on the market.

Finally, we offer a line of hand painted Native American style hand drums to play alone or to accompany your flute music. The designs used on these deerskin and elk skin rawhide instruments are all of authentic Native American origin.

Now Available: If you would like to make your own flute, we now offer a Knock-About Flute Kit. This kit contains all of the parts you need to construct your own Knock-About Flute, along with a detailed, highly illustrated instruction booklet. The PVC tube is the same heavy "schedule 80" material used in our commercial Knock-About Flutes, and is pre-machined to provide a flat nest area and flue. Other parts in the kit include a pre-drilled hardwood mouthpiece (either cherry or walnut), a pre-shaped cedar block, a cork barrier, and deerskin laces (to hold the block to the nest area). All you need are some simple hand tools, including a drill, needle files, a hacksaw, and sandpaper, to create a beautiful, durable flute. Add your favorite wood finish to the wooden parts and decorate to suit your spirit and you are done.

Now Available: Hybrid nylon-stringed classical / electric guitar from Turtle Mound Flutes.

Turtle Mound Flutes has just introduced a line of hybrid classical / electric guitars, ideal for accompanying the Native American flute in duo arrangements or in larger groups. These instruments feature the same pyrographic (wood-burning) artwork as on our Native American style flutes.

The photo to the left shows the prototype of this instrument on-stage at the 2010 Brevard Cultural Alliance Fall for the Arts festival. It incorporates a traditional nylon-stringed classical guitar with ARTEC electronics and a couple other modifications to adapt it for playing by steel-string guitarists. The prototype has the Waya (wolves) theme with a pair of howling wolves prominently on the guitar face. Other designs incorporating eagles and ravens are also currently available.

See our new Guitars page for a description of this instrument, complete with detailed photos, specifications, and a video showing it played on-stage at the 2010 Native Rhythms Festival.

All of our flutes come with a little "Getting Started" book on the care and playing of your new flute. It contains a few songs and hints on playing techniques to get you started. Then visit our Flute Music page to download some more songs for your flute. These songs are free to all. These song sheets include chords so that the flute may be accompanied by guitar or other chording instruments (autoharps sound especially nice with the Native American Flute). Some songs include lyrics in Cherokee as well.

New: If you would like more comprehensive instruction, we are pleased to now offer John Vames' wonderful book, The Native American Flute: Understanding the Gift. This spiral bound book not only includes detailed instruction and exercises in elements of flute playing technique such as finger control, breath control, embouchure, and tonguing & slurring, it also contains a 25-song songbook of traditional American and Native American music. This is all supplemented by an audio CD that supports both the instruction and the songbook. In all, it is a very complete package to learn both beginner and many intermediate techniques.

Also visit our Legends page for some interesting myths and legends surrounding the Native American Flute. In particular, enjoy the beautiful painting of the woodpecker by our dear friend, Dr. Frances Rinaldi, that illustrates the Legend of the First Flute.

Also visit our Extras page, where our friends have sent us poems and such for us to share with you. Please visit it and enjoy the beauty to be found there. A recent addition to this page is the beautiful artwork of our dear friend, Joyce Bugaiski.

Turtle Mound Flutes Now Featured in Sundancer Gallery: We're excited to announce that you can now find Turtle Mound Flutes at the Sundancer Gallery in historic Cocoa Village. Located at 6 Florida Avenue in Cocoa Village, FL 32922 (the intersection of King St. (S.R. 520), Forrest Ave and Florida Ave.; 321-631-0092), the Sundancer Gallery features a beautiful collection of top quality Native American art and artifacts. Turtle Mound Flutes will maintain a selection of our Native American style flutes and drums on consignment to the gallery for you to see and play. If you're in the Brevard County area, we encourage you to stop by and see all of the beautiful items on display there.

Turtle Mound Flutes is excited about our involvement in the organization and presentation of the Native Rhythms Festival in Melbourne, FL this coming November 11-13! This three day event during Native American Heritage Month honors the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas through music, and especially the music of the Native American Flute. Admission to the festival grounds is free, as is admission to all of the on-stage performances, including some of the biggest names in the Native American Flute world. Get all of the particulars from the event's website at www.nativerhythmsfestival.com.

When you're in the Central Florida area, stop by and visit us at the Indian River Flute Circle. We meet the 2nd Tuesday of each month, between 6:30 and 8:30 in the evening, at the Central Brevard Library (308 Forrest Ave., northeast of S.R.520 and U.S.1) in Cocoa, FL.

The circle also offers free performances at the Enchanted Forest Sanctuary in Titusville on the last Saturday of January, April, July, and October (normally at 10AM).

For more info, visit us at:
groups.yahoo.com/group/flutecircle

or contact Laura Clark at 321-268-5473.

Our events are informal and encourage, but do not require, participation from anyone interested in sharing, playing, learning more about, or just listening to Native American style flutes.

We hope you will visit these pages often, as we are constantly adding new content.

Send mail to webmaster@turtlemoundflutes.com with questions or comments about this web site.