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1. |
Lesson 1
13:09
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Excerpt:
I am going to help you get started on your new Native American style flute. I’ve been making and playing the Native American style flute for more than ten years. I am entirely (or almost entirely) self-taught. But, I now realize that if I had been given a lesson or two along the way my playing would have progressed that much faster. So I thought that I might help others if I put down in writing what I have learned.
In this lesson I am not going to teach you about notes, scales, intervals, tempo, theory or any of the other facets of music. Instead, you are going to learn how to make beautiful sounds on your flute.
I imagine you feel excited and a bit nervous if this is your first experience with the Native American flute. If you’re like me (and most other people) you may have tried various other instruments in school and like me you gave them up at some point. Maybe you studied piano or one of the other complicated and difficult modern, highly technical musical instruments. Unlike the Native American style flute these instruments were developed over centuries to meet the needs of professional musicians.
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2. |
Lesson 2
05:27
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Excerpt:
Now that you have learned how to make six different sounds (notes) on your flute it is time to start using these notes to make music. Our body, mind and soul love new experiences. The desire and capacity for learning new things is just amazing. And, it’s fun too. We will begin by building on what you have learned in lesson one.
Breathing correctly
Before you start playing your flute, let’s make sure you are using your breath properly. Stand up and put your right hand over your solar plexus or stomach area. Now take a breath in and let it go out through the mouth. You should feel your solar plexus rise as you breath in and fall back down as you breath out. To do this you do not need to take a big, deep breath. Just be sensitive to the rise and fall as you breath in and out. Remember, it’s not your chest that rises and falls; it’s the stomach area. When you feel this rise and fall you know that you have a foundation upon which all the rest of your playing can be built.
Blow into your Native American flute and sound the fundamental note. Pause and breathe in and blow again after raising the ring finger of the right hand to sound a second note. Keeping the ring finger up take and breath and raise the middle finger off of it’s hole and blow into your flute again to sound the third note. Do the same with the index finger. Skip the ring finger of the left hand and raise the middle finger of the left hand and blow into the flute to sound the last note on the pentatonic scale. Pause and raise the index finger of the left hand and blow to sound the second octave fundamental or sixth note.
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3. |
Lesson 3
05:27
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Excerpt:
If you have gone through the first two lessons and have experienced the thrill of hearing real musical sounds come from your flute you will be more than ready to develop some new skills. In this lesson I will show you how to add variety and dynamics to your playing.
First, make the sound tah by touching the tip of your tongue to the top of the pallet of your mouth just behind your teeth and blowing some air pressure against it as you suddenly let the tongue go slack. It’s a tah like the beginning of the word table. Do you feel the air blow outward explosively? Try it again – make the sound tah, tah, tah out loud. Now, do it again silently. Put your flute to your mouth and with all holes closed. Make a silent tah into the flute as you sound the fundamental note. Now, sound the fundamental by just blowing into the flute. Do you hear the difference between these two sounds? The one made with a tah is sharper and quicker than the plain blowing into the flute. This is called a different articulation of the note.
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4. |
Lesson 4
13:36
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Excerpt:
In this lesson we are going to add some new techniques to your flute playing. Remember, to master these techniques requires a certain amount of repetition. Don’t let yourself fall into the practice trap. Keep a sense of lightness and play in your heart. Then even the effort needed to attain proficiency will seem easy and even enjoyable. With that said, we will start with Pitch Bending.
Pitch bending
Pitch bending means to change notes slowly. You glide upwards or downwards in pitch with a sort of continuous shift of tone. This is different in feel than the abrupt shift from one note to the next, which you have done so far. When you do a bend correctly, the pitch slides up or down. It doesn’t jump or have any abruptness. You do a pitch bend on the Native American style flute by lifting or lowering a finger slowly. It is done with either a sliding or pivoting motion of the finger. Personally I prefer to slide my finger forward across the flute to the left to bend up. I slide the finger backward (from left to right) as I slide down. You raise the finger gradually as you are sliding it across the hole bringing the tip of the finger up and off the hole. When you do this correctly the hole opens gradually instead of all at once. It takes a little experimentation to get it right, so play around with it until you start to hear it happening. Then, practice with it until it becomes refined. A great variety of changing pitch patterns is possible. Try some faster, and some very slow. Pitch bending will add a highly effective tool to your repertoire.
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5. |
Lesson 5
04:52
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Excerpt:
"Well, here in Lesson 5, we put it all together ...."
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6. |
Afterward
01:25
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Bill Leyden Prescott, Arizona
Bill Leyden is a prolific composer of ambient music and an accomplished modern-day interpreter of the Native American-style
flute.
His music has become a fast favorite with massage therapists, healers and practitioners of meditation and Yoga.
His melodies may be heard in film and television.
... more
Bill Leyden recommends:
Check it out!
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