For the longest time, I can remember wishing I had learned to play an instrument when I was younger. I wasn’t set on any particular instrument, I just wanted to be able to make beautiful music and develop more of my artistic side.
Then, in the summer of 2022, I decided, after much deliberation, to get a flute. Why a flute? Well, not only because I like the sounds flutes make, but also because I was living and traveling in Mexico at the time – about 2.5 years into a life of near-constant travel that I still maintain to this day.
Flutes are small and compact, perfect for my lifestyle. Not only this, but my idea of playing the saxophone while traveling wasn’t so practical due to the excessively loud nature of these horns. So, I ordered a Jean Paul flute on Amazon Mexico but decided to cancel the order as it was being shipped.
Why? Well, because I realized that the Native American flute was more my style. I’ve always enjoyed the more natural/raw sounds coming from this variety and so I had one shipped from Texas which was quite expensive with the import fees at the time.
This first NAF of mine was, and still is, a Butch Hall Little Horse A-Minor, recommended by Jonny Lipford from over at jonnylipfordmusic.com. I ended up signing up for his beginner course in playing the NAF and this was what he recommended due to it having a sturdy construction and being reliably tuned among other reasons.
My first encounter with the NAF didn't last long. I just didn’t feel very confident while playing in the Airbnbs and such while I was traveling and so I eventually backtracked and settled upon an electronic Roland’s saxophone which I purchased on Mercado Libre – kind of like a Latin American version of Amazon.
I could play this however loud or quiet I desired, and so I played quite a bit over the autumn months of 2022, without ever picking up the NAF. I was enjoying it much of the time, although I will say that I never did care for holding a big piece of electronically operated plastic in my hands. I still dreamed of the NAF in the back of my mind – playing at the top of a mountain/at a waterfall or something cool like this.
Then, in late autumn, my girlfriend and I broke up as I went back to the US to visit my family. This was really hard on me and I lost the desire to do a lot of what I was doing in my life up until this time, one of which was playing the saxophone. It’s hard to explain why, but I just lost the desire to practice; to get better. However, during this time I once again became interested in my Butch Hall Little Horse A-Minor. I picked it up once again while still in the US and that was that. My next destination was Colombia and my Little Horse A-Minor came with me.
*Sidenote: About 4 days before my flight out of the US I decided it was a good idea to try to tune up my flute a bit. The home note was cracking pretty easily and so I watched some Youtube videos on potential fixes for this, one of which was slightly filing down the lower lip. It turns out I filed a bit unevenly and so while trying to make things even again I ended up filing too much overall. So, I USPS express shipped a new Little Horse A-Minor to my house before leaving – a disappointing but educational experience.