My Journey- I am one of those people who always has music in his head. From my childhood, I have sung or hummed constantly. My mother always said if she needed to find me in a store, she would simply stop and listen for me humming some tune. My love for music sent me to college where I earned a Bachelors degree in Music Education. I have continued to love music and the many diverse aspects of it to this day. As a young man I became involved in the Boy Scouts earning my Eagle rank at age 16. I continued in the scouting program as an adult for more than 35 years until I became involved with a Living History group called the Seneca Muzzlerloaders in Tiffin Ohio. While during my scouting years it was then that I received my spirit animal of the Owl. Everything that I did seemed to center around this mysterious and magical bird. About 8 years ago while attending a Living History Festival, I picked up a flute that I found in one of the vendors tents. It was a beautiful flute made of cedar and had an owl burned into the barrel. As I played it, I could hear the haunting and mystical hoot of my spirit owl coming out in the melody I was playing. I have always loved the sound of the Native Flute, but could never really afford to purchase one. Later at one of our club Rendezvous, one of our members with Native American Indian heritage allowed me to look at and play his flute. After a bit of discussion on construction and characteristics, I decided to try to make one of my own. I had high hopes of creating the perfect flute. After all how difficult could it be? I wanted to make something special, and tried to use a piece of exotic Purple Heart wood. But after many hours of preparation and mistakes, my perfect flute wound up being perfect fire wood for my campfire. To my fortune however, I kept the pieces of Poplar that I was using as a template for my first try. After leaving it set aside for several weeks, I thought that I would go ahead and try to finish this piece and see if it would actually work. I was surprised to hear the sweetest deep tones coming from this crude, very heavy flute, that was the final product. It truly did work and was remarkably clear sounding. Today that flute is still one of my favorites to play and is so clear and bright sounding, that I call it my outdoor flute. Oh by the way, Many an Owl has answered the sounds of this flute when I play it in camp. Since that first flute, there have been many failed attempts, but after purchasing the series of books by Lew Paxton Price, I have begun to refine my techniques in producing a very attractive yet clean sounding Native Style Flute.   All my flutes are hand made by me with few power tools. Although I do use a router to create the slow air and sound chambers, ( as with most flute makers), I do not turn the flute body on a lathe like many makers do these days, so each and every flute has its own personality and unique voice. Some may look similar, but no two flutes are the same. I tune my flutes in the six hole traditional Pentatonic scale. I enjoy playing the ancient songs in the traditional pentatonic scale, but being a music major, I also enjoy playing the more modern songs on these fabulous instruments. You can't do that very well with flutes that are tuned in pentatonic minor scales, but with a diatonic tuning, and using the correct fingerings, almost any type of scale can be played. So I sometimes tune flute to the diatonic scale when requested. Not being an American Indian or associated with a tribe or clan, I cannot make Native American Flutes. But I do consider myself a Native American, being born and raised in this blessed country. I create my Native American Style flutes out of the love for the traditions of our nations ancestors, and for the music they inspired, and the instruments they created. The songs I write and record on CD's are produced in the traditions of Native Music and in the spirit of Native American styles. I only record original music, not wanting to repeat someone else's music, and all the instruments played on the recordings are played by me. I hope that you will fall in love with the Music as I have and if you desire to own a flute of your own, I can create one for you. Dave