What Is a Drone Flute? Two Chambers, One Steady Note

Whenever I play a drone flute for people, it moves them more than a single flute does. There is a kind of shock and awe the moment they hear the second chamber. That reaction is the main reason I keep building them, so I should explain what is going on inside.

Two chambers, one breath

A drone flute is two flutes joined side by side. You play both chambers with a single breath. One chamber has finger holes and carries the melody, the same way it does on any Native American style flute. The other holds a single note for as long as you keep blowing.

Take my F# drone in sapele and maple. It is 25 inches long with a one-inch bore, and the second chamber runs right alongside the melody side.

Two-chamber flutes are older than the wooden ones I build. Clay double flutes come from Mesoamerica, and the wooden drone flute is a modern relative of them.

What the drone does

The melody moves and the drone stays put. If you have heard bagpipes, you already know the idea: a tune walking around a note that never leaves.

I like having it there. It is always present if I need it to color my expression, and that is what hooked me on this design in the first place.

How it feels to play

The melody side plays like a single flute. Same fingers, same pentatonic minor scale, nothing extra to finger for the drone. Most of my flutes also have a seventh hole, a thumb hole on the back. Keep it covered and you are playing a six-hole flute. Open it and you get one more note above the scale.

You will probably use a bit more breath than on a single flute, since two chambers are sounding at once.

Single or drone?

A single flute is one voice with a lot of range, and I love building them. A drone flute gives you two voices. Neither is better. I point people toward a drone flute for breathwork, meditation and ceremony, and toward a single flute for composing and for playing on your own.

The easiest way to hear the difference is to listen to two of my flutes in the same key. Both of these are in E.

And three chambers?

A triple flute adds a third chamber. I build them to order, so if you are curious about one, send me a custom order and we will talk about it.

Where to start

If you are choosing a first drone flute, a mid-range key like G, F# or F is comfortable for most hand sizes. Lower keys sound deeper and need more breath and a wider finger spread. My Start Here page goes through keys, woods and sizes, and the Watch page lets you hear flutes before you decide. Trust your ears.

If you want to go deeper, Clint Goss’s Flutopedia has a page on drones for Native American flute players, and it explains where the name “drone flute” comes from for flutes with two or three chambers.

A flute is a chamber of empty space with a sharp edge that splits the air. A drone flute has two of them. That is really all there is to it.