Shepherd's flutes

Six-hole shepherd flute

This flute has probably come to Slovakia with Wallachian colonization in 16th century. As for fingering technique and sound device (which is a recorder-type fipple), it is almost identical with the Irish whistle. Range is more than 2 octaves, simple fingering plays a diatonic scale, but with (fork) cross-fingering, the instrument is fully chromatic. Due to its size, it is one of my favourite travel companions.

I make shepherd flutes in all keys from small D (flute length 28 cm) to large D (56 cm). Popular keys are D, G, C.

Sound samples: a shepherd flute in G (tune 1, tune 2)

Download: Fingering chart for a shepherd flute in C (pdf)