Warbl2 Fingerings and Configuration for Native Flutes

Warbl2 Standard NAF Fingerings

This page describes the Native American flute fingerings available for the Warbl2. The Warbl is an electronic wind instrument designed and produced by Andrew Mowry in Oregon, USA.

This web page and the PDF documents on this page use a special font from the Warbl Font Folio to display finger diagram inline (e.g. ). This font is Open Source, and can be downloaded and used in documents and web pages.

The codes below the finger diagrams on the Fingering Charts to the right (“EEFE” on the first finger diagram, for example) are the hexadecimal code points for those characters in the fonts in the Warbl Font Folio.

The Standard NAF Fingering

The fingering shown to the right is my rendition of the fingering for Native American flutes developed by Jim Hanks. It is part of the firmware of the Warbl2 and you can directly select this fingering in the configuration app for the Warbl2.

This fingering covers about 1½ octaves and follows the typical behavior of acoustic Native American flutes. This is typically extended by one octave using the thumb as a register-shift hole.

Click on the fingering chart to the right to download a PDF document with the Standard NAF fingerings for the Warbl.

The Custom NAF–CG6 Fingering

NAF–CG6 Fingering Chart — Page 1

The remainder of this page describes my custom fingering for the Native American flute. This “NAF–CG6” fingering:

• Expands the Native Flute range to 6½ octaves.
• Is fully chromatic from MIDI 32 to MIDI 108 (G1 to C7).
• Is designed for harmonic grace notes. Momentarily flicking a closed finger on many fingerings will produced a grace note that harmonizes with the primary fingeringing. For example, if the basic note is , momentarily playing  will get you a grace note a musical fourth above and momentarily playing  will get you a grace note a musical fifth above.
• Has optimizations for certain fast runs that use special fingerings.
• Has a section of fingerings where the upper hand (the thumb and top three holes) are open. These “UHO” (Upper Hand Open) fingerings let you play a primary scale with your lower (typically right) hand while fiddling with dials and such with your upper (typically left) hand.
• Uses both the thumb hole and the pinky hole as “register holes”. The pinky shifts down two octaves and the thumb hole shifts up one octave — and these work in combination.

The primary register (without the thumb and pinky “register holes”) is extended both up and down. The down extension fingerings give you two very convenient notes below the funamental of the instrument. For example, going from  to  goes down a whole step below the typical fundamental, and gives you an excellent transition note up to the fundamental of the primary NAF scale. (See the first and third notes and finger diagrams in the page the right right).

The fingering charts shown on this page are available for download as a high-quality PDF file. You can also click on any of the four pages of fingering charts to the right to download this same PDF document with the NAF–CG6 fingerings for the Warbl.

To install this fingering on your Warbl2, see the bottom of this page …

The Registers

NAF–CG6 Fingering Chart — Page 2

My terminology assumes that Register #1 (R1) is the primary, default, or “middle” register of the instrument. I also assume that Middle C = MIDI note «60» = C4, and I indicate MIDI notes numbers in «angle brackets». With these conventions:

• R1 spans A3 «57» through G#4 «68»,
• R2 spans A4 «69» through G#5 «80»,
• R3 spans A5 «81» through G#6 «92»,
• R4 spans A6 «93» through G#7 «104», and
• R5 spans A7 «105» through G#8 «116».

On the pages below, I also use “Negative” Registers:

• R–1 spans A2 «45» through G#3 «56» and
• R–2 spans A1 «33» through G#2 «44».

Register Holes

The Pinky and Thumb holes act as register-shift holes:

• The Thumb hole shifts up by one octave.
• The Pinky hole shifts down by two octaves.

These two holes can be used in combination. For example, Thumb open and Pinky closed is a shift down of one octave.

The Design File

NAF–CG6 Fingering Chart — Page 3

This fingering was designed in a Excel workbook that is available for download.

This is an augmented version of the Google Sheets version provided on the Warbl.xyz web site.

Upper Hand Open

NAF–CG6 Fingering Chart — Page 4

Upper Hand Open (UHO) fingerings. These fingerings provide an extended A minor scale and free the upper hand of the player for other things (turning knobs, drinking beer, …).

Installing the Custom Fingering

The NAF–CG6 fingerings are available as a custom fingering that you can easily enter into the Warbl2 using the Configuration Tool (the tool that runs as a iOS app as well as a web page).

Follow the promts in the Configuration Tool to install the NAF–CG6 fingerings into your Warbl2. You can copy the column of 256 numbers below and paste it into the Text Box in the Configuration App or Web Page:

82
58
94
93
79
96
89
91
81
100
87
95
84
98
86
88
81
57
80
56
80
56
79
55
80
56
79
55
84
60
83
59
96
105
90
102
95
101
89
104
93
103
92
99
91
100
88
98
88
64
83
59
87
63
83
59
86
62
85
61
84
60
82
58
67
43
106
82
108
84
107
83
79
55
97
73
68
44
94
70
79
55
78
54
78
54
77
53
78
54
77
53
77
53
76
52
78
54
77
53
76
52
75
51
77
53
76
52
75
51
74
50
76
52
70
46
75
51
71
47
74
50
73
49
72
48
69
45
70
46
82
81
67
84
77
79
69
88
75
83
72
86
74
76
69
45
68
44
68
44
67
43
68
44
67
43
72
48
71
47
84
93
78
90
83
89
77
92
81
91
80
87
79
88
76
86
76
52
71
47
75
51
71
47
74
50
73
49
72
48
70
46
55
31
94
70
96
72
95
71
67
43
85
61
56
32
82
58
67
43
66
42
66
42
65
41
66
42
65
41
65
41
64
40
66
42
65
41
64
40
63
39
65
41
64
40
63
39
62
38
64
40
58
34
63
39
59
35
62
38
61
37
60
36
57
33