Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 1

For Clint and Vera’s current schedule of workshops:

ClintGoss.com

2 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

 Eighth Edition

Course materials for participants of Native Flute Schools,

Retreats, Workshops, and Gatherings facilitated by Clint and Vera

by Clint Goss and Vera Shanov

August 3, 2020

Private electronic distribution

Not for sale or distribution

ISBN: 978-0-9632401-5-6

Copyright ©2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020 by Clint Goss and Vera Shanov.
All Rights Reserved. For information, contact Clint Goss at clint@goss.com.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 3

 For quick access to all our resources:
FluteCast.com

4 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

 Table of
Contents

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 5

Table of Contents

Click on the page numbers

to go directly to that chapter …

Preface ....................................... 9

Part 1 – Flute Playing

One-Breath Solos ........................ 23 Random Melodies ....................... 65
Long Tones ................................. 27 The Heavenly Rut ....................... 71
The Scale Song ........................... 29 Vanishing Wonderment .............. 75
Right in Tune .............................. 33 Right in Tune, Revisited ............... 77
No Pain, We Gain ....................... 39 Back to Back .............................. 83
The Rhythm Connection .............. 41 Active Listening .......................... 85
Leaps ......................................... 43 Playing (from the Heart)
Over Changes ....................... 89
Note Endings .............................. 47
Alternate Scales ......................... 93
The Major Minor ........................ 49
A Scale Codex ........................... 107
I’m Sorry, So Sorry ...................... 51
This Is My Music ........................ 111
Vibrato ...................................... 53
Widening the Circle .................... 115
Rhythmic Chirping ...................... 55
Performance Anxiety ................. 119
FluteCast Videos ......................... 57
Flying with Flutes ...................... 121
Technology and Headphones ......... 61

6 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Nudge, Nudge .......................... 129 Thriving Flute Circles ................. 287
Philosophers on Flutes ............... 133 Support and Shift ..................... 293
Taqsims .................................... 145 Tokyo Flute Circle ..................... 297
Free-Time ................................. 149 Flute Choirs .............................. 301
Cultural Insights ........................ 151 Duet Games ............................. 309
Honoring the Tradition .............. 159 Music Theory Questions ............. 315
Names of the Instrument ............ 163 Lessons on Lessons ................... 325
Your Brain on Flute .................... 175 Exploring the Voice ................... 333
Resonance ............................... 185 Distractions .............................. 339
Writing Down Your Melodies .... 207 Playing Nine Emotions .............. 343
The Native American Flute Songwriting .............................. 355
and the Future ..................... 217 Flute Psych 101 ......................... 359
Larger Groups .......................... 367

Part 2 – Flute Circle Facilitation Ethnographic Recordings ............ 371

What Is Our Job Title? ................ 221 Powerful Solos ......................... 377

That’s OK, Clint ........................ 223 Topic Map ............................... 383

Room Setup ............................ 227

Warming Up ............................. 231
Chapters shown in Bold Red are new with
Deep Listening .......................... 237
this edition of the Native Flute Handbook.
Modeling ................................. 243
Rounding the Circle .................. 245
Teaching Rhythm ..................... 251
A Bill of Musical Rights ............. 258
Success for All .......................... 260
Ensembles ............................... 265
Facilitating with Rhythm ............ 271
Keyboards in the Circle .............. 275

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 7

Part 3 – Poetry and Readings Part 5 – Sheet Music
Introduction to Poetry and Sheet Music Introduction ........... 500
Native Flutes ....................... 389 Amazing Grace .......................... 501
Haiku – One Deep America ................................... 503
Breath Poetry ...................... 392
Bridal Chorus ............................ 505
Benedictions, Invocations,
By the Waters of Minnetonka ..... 506
and Blessings ....................... 395
Colors of the Wind .................... 510
Poetry and Readings for
Memorial Services ................ 399 Death Song of the Cherokee ....... 512
General Poetry for Earth My Body .......................... 513
Music Performance .............. 409 Hon Shirabe ............................. 514
Readings for Flute Circles The Huron Carol ....................... 515
and Workshops .................... 423
Kayowajineh ............................. 516
Flute-specific Poetry
Maliseet Love Song ................... 517
and Readings ...................... 431
Ode to Joy ................................ 519
Rūmī Poetry
Related to Music .................. 439 Origin Song of the Flageolet ....... 520
The Masnavi ............................. 443 Pokarekare Ana ......................... 522
Rūmī 2000 ............................... 447 Sakura ..................................... 524
Readings and Shenandoah ............................. 528
Quotations on Music ............ 451 Simple Gifts .............................. 529
Readings and Summertime ............................. 531
Quotations on Silence .......... 465
Taps ........................................ 533
Wendeyaho .............................. 534
Part 4 – Rhythms Yaquis Deer Dance .................... 536

World Rhythms ......................... 471 You Are My Sunshine ................ 538

Zuni Sunrise ............................. 540

8 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Preface
This handbook is based on educational workshop. Other components of this
material we have developed over the last 16 approach include our FluteCast video series
years for musicians, especially Native (FluteCast.com) and Flutopedia
American flute players. It has been (Flutopedia.com).
organized and edited specifically as an aid The chapters can be read independently, in
to participants attending our yearly any order. The book is also designed for
workshops, retreats, and gatherings: straight-through reading, providing a
• Flute Haven Native Flute School – graded, building-block approach to topics
FluteHaven.com related to Native American flute playing as
well as facilitating community music
• Flute Harvest Native Flute Retreat –
gatherings such as flute circles.
FluteHarvest.com
• Native Rhythms Flute School – We hope you find this material useful!
NativeRhythmsFluteSchool.com
— Clint Goss and Vera Shanov
• Zion Canyon Native Flute School -
August 3, 2020
ZionCanyonNativeFluteSchool.com
• Tokyo Flute Circle (Japan) –
Contributions
Tokyo-FluteCircle.com
Many people have contributed to this
• Flute Life (Japan) –
material, especially my co-authors on some
www.Flute.Life
of the chapters: Lynn Miller, Eric Miller, and
• Other individual events – Mary Knysh.
see our schedule at ClintGoss.com
Kathleen Joyce-Grendahl, in her role as
The material offered in this book is part of editor for the INTERNATIONAL NATIVE
our effort to promote an “inverted” or AMERICAN FLUTE ASSOCIATION newsletter
“flipped” classroom – a type of blended Voice of the Wind and the WORLD FLUTE
learning model that offers a wealth of SOCIETY newsletter Overtones, provided
content outside of the workshop, allowing editorial input on a number of the chapters.
us to focus on activities (traditionally
Additional material and input has been
considered to be homework) inside the
provided by Randy Brody, David Darling,
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 9
Cornell Kinderknecht, R. Carlos Nakai, products. This standard was released in July
James Oshinsky, and many others. of 2003, so most up-to-date computer
Individual co-authors and contributors are systems should be able to access this
noted at the footer of each chapter. content.
However, as with any endevour of this
You can click on any of the hypertext links
magnitude, it is impossible to name all the
in this document to access related content,
people who have contributed to this work …
including web pages, audio recordings, and
this is truly a community effort. My role, in
other related PDF documents.
many cases, is collector and scribe.
The content of this handbook will likely
A great deal of the material is based on my
change from time to time. Different editions
training at the MUSIC FOR PEOPLE
of this handbook may contain substantially
organization (www.MusicForPeople.org),
different content.
founded by David Darling and Bonnie Insul.
The latest version can be found on its own
dedicated web site:

NativeFluteHandbook.com

This material is for your own personal

use. Please do not make copies of this
material or distribute it in any form.

If you wish to share this resource, please

provide a link to NativeFluteHandbook.com
Bonnie Insull and David Darling so that flute players and facilitators have
access to the most recent version.
The four-year music facilitation program at
MUSIC FOR PEOPLE has become the core of the
Hardcopy
techniques and exercises that Vera and I use
in all our music workshop, and has provided We do not provide hardcopy version of this
the core of the one-week program in flute book. Aside from the cost, labor involved,
circle facilitation that we lead each year at and environmental impact, we feel that the
Flute Haven. pace of revisions and additions calls for a
system that gives readers access to the latest
version of the content.
Accessing the Content
Beginning with the Second Edition of this If you truly require a printed version of the
Native Flute Handbook, the electronic content, we suggest using a retail or
distribution can be read by version 6.0 or commercial printing service. Most printing
later of Adobe Acrobat Reader and related
10 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 The Native Flute Handbook is
Copyright ©2014–2020 by Clint Goss and Vera Shanov.
All Rights Reserved.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of the
electronic version of the Native Flute Handbook (the “publication”) by registering their
name and email address on www.NativeFluteHandbook.com, to print or engage a third
party to print up to three physical copies of each edition of the publication, to be used
solely for their own personal use.

THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,

EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
PUBLICATION OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE PUBLICATION.

_________________________ _____________________________
Clinton F. Goss Vera Shanov

services will take the PDF file on removable GBC® CombBind® binding spines. These
media (e.g. a USB flash drive). systems typically require ¼″ of gutter width,
and the margins have been offset by that
The electronic version has been designed for
gutter bias. If you use a 3-ring binding
straightforward double-sided printing on
system, you will likely wind up with holes in
U.S. letter sized paper (8½″ × 11″). This
portions of the text.1
includes pagination (with occasional blank
pages) so that chapters begin on right-hand Printing on the A4 paper standard (210mm
pages. Margins also been set for even-odd × 297mm or about 8.27″ × 11.69″) used in
page pairs to allow for a gutter for binding many other countries is problematic – the
(a compromise, as you will notice a left- margins will be reduced to a bare minimum
right shift as you page forward on digital and may make binding difficult.
displays). The width of margins has been set
assuming a comb binding system such as

1
Thanks to Joe Yeatman for pointing this out, as well as
the issues related to printing in black and white.
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 11
We have designed this book assuming that it Internet addresses, such as Flutopedia.com,
is read in full color. Printing in black & are shown in a deep maroon color and
white will make some of the information underlined. Many systems on which you can
ambiguous or confusing (for example, the read this book allow you to click or activate
internal flute temperature chart on page 78). these hyper-links and got directly to the web
address.
A license is provided above, allowing you
(or a third party, on your behalf) to print up
to three physical copies of any one edition
Pronunciation Guide
of this book. We hope that this license is Pronunciations [proh-nuhn-see-ey-shuhns]
acceptable to any commercial service you are based on the Flutopedia Pronunciation
might use – contact us if you have problems Guide (Flutopedia.com/pronunciation.htm)
in this area. – a simplified phonetic respelling guide that
uses the 26 lowercase Latin letters, dashes,
Citations slashes, and spaced. Bold-faced type
indicates the primary stressed syllable of
Although this handbook is designed to be
each word.
practical rather than academic, some of the
chapters cite references and external Some additional examples:
sources. An example of a citation in the
• Anasazi flute [ah-nah-sah-zee floot]
body of the text is [AUTHOR 2014]. You can
find the details of the citations in a chapter • Karl Bodmer [kahrl bohd-mair]
at the end of that chapter. Where possible, a • R. Carlos Nakai
related web site is listed. [ahr kahr-lohs nahk-ahy]

Most of the cited works are also listed in the • Dario Müller [dah-ree-oh muu-ler]
extensive reference section on Flutopedia. • Görtler vortices [goert-ler vohr-ti-seez]
To browse the list of references on
Flutopedia, see: This phonetic respelling guide has a limited
Flutopedia.com/references.htm. facility to represent the myriad vocalizations
in world languages.
Typographic Conventions A glottal stop (also called a “voiceless glottal
Titles of publications and published material plosive”) is a gap in speech. For example,
are written in italics. Boldface is used for the “–” in the English-language phrase “uh–
emphasis. ORGANIZATIONS are shown in oh” is a glottal stop. It is often represented
SMALLCAPS. in print using the character “ʔ” (a character
similar to a “?” without the dot at the
Time signatures – – are shown as they
bottom).
would appear in staff notation.

12 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

This phonetic respelling guide uses a “/” in
place of the “–” between syllables to
represent a glottal stop. Some examples:
“uh–oh” [u/oh] and the Allegany Seneca
word for a whistle with no stops (from
[CONKLIN 1953], page 287) is káʔkē'taʔ
[kah/kee-tah/].

Please realize that there are many other

nasal, plosive, frictive, click, trill, and
ejective sounds, vocalizations, and co-
articulated consonants that are part of
various languages of the world that are not
represented by this phonetic respelling
guide.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 13

Revisions Third Edition
The third edition was released on February
First Edition 16, 2016. It comprised 320 pages in the
8.9MB digital release. It was updated with
The first edition of this handbook – 190
articles written over the prior year as well as
pages in length – was finalized on June 17,
a new section on Poetry and Readings.
2014. It was individually printed, bound,
and privately distributed to partcipants of This edition was a limited “mid-year”
our music workshops in 2014. This was release for advance review by the
costly, laborious, and environmentally participants in Flute Haven’s Leadership
unfriendly. However, since this first edition Program as well as for participants of the
of the book contained some elements that Japan Flute Life 2016 program.
were only distributable under fair-use
settings, a digital version was not an option. Fourth Edition
The fourth edition was released on July 22,
Second Edition 2016. It comprised 332 pages and 9.4MB in
In 2015, we removed copyright-restricted the digital release. It contained articles
content so that a digital distribution was written over the previous six months as well
feasible. The document was overhauled to as new entries in the Poetry and Readings
reduce the size of the PDF distribution (70 section and a new chapter on Flute-specific
MB to under 6.7 MB), provide clickable links Poetry.
to web sites and a table of contents outline
in Acrobat Reader, and to use fonts that are Fifth Edition
licensed for distribution. The content was
The fifth edition was released on December
also substantially updated to make
5, 2016. It comprised 350 pages in the
corrections, add information on our
10.4MB digital release. It was updated with
workshop schedule, and include 14 new
articles written and presentations developed
chapters based on articles written over the
over the prior year (in particular, an in-
last year, which brought the PDF
depth description of our Playing Nine
distribution size to 7.8 MB.
Emotions sessions), several new poems, and
The second edition was released in PDF an article by Malia Wollan reprinted from
format on September 26, 2015 and the New York Times.
comprised 252 pages. Note that this
document still retains aspects of the printed Sixth Edition
version: offset left and right pages as well as The sixth edition was released January 22,
blank pages to achieve the proper 2018. It comprisee 428 pages in an 11.3MB
pagination for duplex printing. digital release. It was updated with articles

14 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

written and presentations developed over chapters on Resonance, Writing Down Your
the prior year as well as updated scale Melodies, Room Setup, and Teaching
catalogs, an improved circle of fifth Rkythm. This edition also uses the latest
diagram, and new chapters on Performance release of the Kurinto fonts, v2.196, as of
Anxiety, Philosophers on Flutes, Taqsims, 7/26/2020.
Flute Psychology, Powerful Solos, Free-
Time, Honoring the Tradition, Names of the
Instrument, and Rūmī 2000.

The sixth edition also included an overhaul

of the digital typography, a substantial
undertaking including development of a
custom font family. See the Digital
Typography section below.

Seventh Edition
The seventh edition was released on July 22,
2018. It comprised 480 pages in the 12.2MB
digital release. It was updated with articles
written and presentations developed over
the prior year as well as new chapters on
Flute Psych 101, Larger Groups, Taqsims,
Ethnographic Recordings, Powerful Solos,
Flying with Flutes, and Vanishing
Wonderment. The Modoc Cradle Song was
added. There were also significant updates
to these chapters: Names of the Instrument,
as well as another major expansion of the
Digital Typography strategy (which spun off
a whole venture into the development of
Font Folios – see Kurinto.com).

Eighth Edition
This eighth edition was released on August
3, 2020. It comprises 541 pages in the
14.1MB digital release. It is updated with
articles written and presentations developed
over the past two years as well as new
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 15
Digital Typography Corporation, and this version of the font is
dated February 28, 1995.
Our goal is to make reading this handbook
The “drum language” – items written to be
as easy and enjoyable as possible, so we
vocalized during percussion exercises and
have put substantial research and effort into
rhythms – was set in Tekton Pro Bold v2.02.
layout and selection of typefaces.
It was designed in 1989 by David Siegel of
A confluence of technical issues and real- Adobe Systems as an informal typeface for
world considerations has led to several architectural graphics and building
distinct typographic eras in the history of construction, based on the hand-lettering of
this book2: Francis D.K. Ching, a Seattle-based architect
and noted author on design and drawing.
Printed Edition This version of the font is dated August 16,
2007.
The first (printed) edition used proprietary
commercial digital fonts that rendered well Finger diagrams such as  and
when directly printed.  were set in the NAFTracks series
of TrueType fonts. They are available at
The body text was set in Adobe Garamond
Flutopedia.com/fonts.htm.
Pro v2.04, named for the 16th century
French type designer Claude Garamond.
This version of the typeface was designed The Failsafe Era
for Adobe Systems by Robert Slimbach in Moving from print to digital distribution for
1989. This version of the font is dated the second edition proved problematic.
August 16, 2007.
• The typography of the book appeared far
Titles and headers were set in Chianti BdIt different on digital displays than it did in
BT v1.00, a bold, semi-italic font designed in print.
1991 by Dennis Pasternak of Bitstream. His • Despite the rich selection of typefaces
goal was to provide a humanist san-serif available to me (well over 2,000), very
font of high readability. This version of the few of those fonts were usable, in practice,
font is dated June 23, 1999. in a PDF file for distribution.

Internet addresses were set in Gill Sans MT • The file size of the resulting PDF with my
v1.65, a font initially developed in the chosen fonts ballooned to absurd
1920s by Eric Gill. This version was crafted proportions (over 100 MB).
in the early 1990s by The Monotype

2
This list is provided as an aid to future typographic
archaeologists studying the history and development of
this publication.
16 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
I encountered a long series of technical (Western classical notation as well as
issues, interoperability roadblocks, and Byzantine, Greek, Japanese, and Balinese). It
vexing commercial restrictions when trying also called for language-text in Cherokee,
to produce a PDF version. My long history in Japanese, Arabic, Cyrillic-based languages,
technology and software development and Canadian Aboriginal languages. A new
seemed of little help, and the process of strategy for digital typography was needed.
electronic publishing was far more involved
Based on the successful development of the
than just “pushing a button”.
NAFTRACKS fonts for finger diagrams and the
To ensure that the book would be readable availability of highly crafted, open-source,
in the widest range of systems that readers Unicode-compliant fonts, I undertook
might use, I reduced the typography to a developing a custom font family for this
“failsafe” set of digital typefaces that would book, beginning with the sixth edition.
always display correctly.
Kurinto Book, Kurinto Maru, Kurinto
• The elegant Garamond used for the body Mincho, Kurinto Mono, Kurinto Mono
text was replaced by Times New Roman. Narrow, Kurinto Naskh, and Kurinto Sans
• Tekton – used for the drum language – comprise 22 TrueType™ fonts embedded in
was replaced with Chianti BdIt BT, the this document. They were developed in
font used for titles and headers. FontCreator 11.0 Professional by HIGH-LOGIC
B.V.
The Failsafe Era spanned the second edition
These fonts were released in v1.07 of the
through the fifth edition of this book,
Kurinto Font Package in 2017 under the SIL
followed by …
Open Font License Version 1.1, allowing
open source access and reuse.
The Open Font Era
In October 2017, while developing playing The Font Folio Era
exercises for Flute Haven and Flute
The need for a coordinate collection of fonts
Harvest, I spent hours reading the text of
for digital publications led to the
the book from the perspective of a user
development of a “Font Folio” containing 21
rather than an editor of the content. It
typefaces and covering most of the
became painfully apparent that Times New
characters in every human language. This
Roman, while suitable for newsprint, made
development took substantial effort during
reading the body text of this book tiresome
the 2018–2020 timeframe, and resulting in a
and ponderous.
release of the Kurinto Font Folio v2.196 on
Also, new material for the sixth edition July 26, 2020.
called for font support for text-oriented
musical symbols of various cultures

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 17

Please see www.Kurinto.com for a full
description of the Kurinto font package and
to download the open-source fonts.

This electronic book is primarily set in the

Kurinto open-source family of Unicode
fonts, available under version 1.1 of the
SIL Open Font License.

NAFTracks Finger Diagrams

In addition to Kurinto, this book uses fonts
for finger diagrams (such as  and
 ) from the NAFTracks series of
fonts, available at
Flutopedia.com/fonts.htm.

18 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 19
20 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 Part 1 –

Flute Playing

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 21

22 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
One-Breath Solos
This is a wonderful technique that you can repeated, deep practice of playing within
use as a warm-up. It works wonders if you our breath-span.
are developing a new song. It is also a The real challenge is to turn off our thinking
humanistic way to invite participants at a engine – to disconnect our brain. The more
flute circle to introduce themselves in a we try to think about what we're going to
musical way: play, the further we get from playing from
the heart.
Take a reasonably full breath and exhale
into the flute, playing a melody for the In flute circles or workshops, we usually
duration of your breath. develop this exercise as a group by building
up from the very basics:
When you try the exercise for the first time,
you might find that you tend to “run out of
breath”. The goal is not to
squeeze every last drop of
breath out of your system, but
to end the phrase when most of
your breath is expired and you
can comfortably relax and let
your lungs naturally start to re-
expand.

After a while, you get to sense

the duration of your breath,
and build complete phrases to
fit within that duration. For
me, this is the first lesson in
“song composition” … the

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, October 2013. The section by Malia Wollan was added for the Fifth Edition.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 23

• Starting from taking full breaths and “You don't need special lungs or special
simply exhaling steadily, techniques,” says Giora Feidman, 80, an
• Moving on to making an “ocean” sound in Argentine-born Israeli clarinet player and
the throat during the exhale, klezmer musician who first blew into his
father's clarinet as a toddler. Feidman
• Then adding some soft vocalizations,
reckons the problem arises when people
• Exhaling into the flute on a single, long unlearn what
steady tone. they innately
• And finally, “moving the fingers” – playing know. When
a melody of any sort within the span of you emerged
that one breath. from the
womb, it's very
In addition to the value of simply playing likely you
one-breath solos, they also become building instinctively
blocks for a lot of other exercises. They can drew oxygen
be the basis for playing duets as call and deep into your
response – each person is playing one-breath lungs. You
solos. If you're working on structured songs probably did
in AABA song form – Simply play a one- not hunch
breath solo, repeat it, play something else over, draw your shoulders up to your ears or
(the “B”) and then play the first one-breath otherwise restrict your airflow.
solo again.
Breathing is a powerful involuntary
Finally, there's another benefit if you're in mechanism. Still, you can breathe better by
leading a flute circle: If you'd like everyone acting purposefully and observing some
to play a short piece in turn, you could ask basic rules. Don't smoke. (“It really kills me
for a one-breath solo (or even “two one- to see that,” Feidman says.) Take as much as
breath solos”), putting an implicit time limit you want. (“Air doesn't cost money. There is
on the solos. no tax!”) Go to the swimming pool or the
sea: In water, you have to calculate how
How to Breathe much to inhale to swim or dive underwater.
Similarly, if you're playing a particularly
This section is by Malia Wollan. It
complex musical composition, like, say, the
appeared in the Sunday Magazine issue of
bass-clarinet part in Richard Wagner's
the New York Times, July 24, 2016, page
“Tristan und Isolde,” you might have to take
24. The graphic that accompanied the
in an enormous quantity of air to make it to
article is by Radio.
the end of a phrase.
I think it is an excellent take on a topic so
central to all flute players.
24 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Relax. Inhale deeply. Sit up straight.
Appreciate your lungs. “When you know
how to breathe, the word ‘stress’ is not in
the dictionary,” Feidman says. This
sentiment is, in fact, borne out in scientific
studies showing that focused breathing
exercises can reduce the symptoms of such
things as stress, anxiety, obsessive-
compulsive disorder, depression,
schizophrenia, insomnia and attention-
deficit disorder. Playing a wind instrument
is itself restorative. After enrolling in a
wind-instrument program called Bronchial
Boogie, asthmatic British children exhibited
a 70 percent decrease in nighttime
symptoms and a 58 percent decrease in
daytime ones.

Breathing allows you to sing, and for

Feidman the human body is, at its core, “an
instrument of song.” (Children, he says, are
born wordlessly imploring their mothers to
sing to them.) To find the song inside you
requires trusting and believing in yourself.
“My clarinet teacher once said to me, ‘I
cannot teach you, you must learn,’” Feidman
says. “It is that way with breathing too.”

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 25

26 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Long Tones
Here is a wonderful exercise that I learned not to be gasping for air, but end the note
on my flute path from Paul Butler, while you still have a bit of air remaining
woodwind player extraordinaire: Long and before there is any tension for you to
Tones. The practice is so simple and so begin the inhale.
perfect for Native American flutes: If you have a choice of flutes to use for this
• Pick any fingering. For novice players, I exercise, pick a mid-range flute that is
often suggest three holes closed, three comfortable to hold in one hand. You might
holes open. start this practice on a flute with a fair
amount of back-pressure and progress to
• Take a reasonably full breath.
flutes with less back-pressure. (“Back-
• Breathe into the instrument for the full pressure” or “breath pressure” is how much
duration of your breath, working towards
a smooth, even sound with
no variation in volume.
• End the long tone when
you are mostly, but not
completely, out of breath.
Try making a “round”
ending to the note, so that
it drops off smoothly and
cleanly into silence.

The idea of long tone

practice is simplicity: no
vibrato, no fancy articulation
or attacks, no change in
volume. And at the end, try

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, November 2013.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 27

pressure the player feels in their mouth from this in a large hall such as a gymnasium,
the flute). and auditorium, or some other cavernous
space with a flat back wall, you can really
While this exercise may sound simplistic,
enjoy the game!
especially after you've been playing for a
while, realize that many experienced and The goal is to develop your projection of
accomplished woodwind players use this as sound and focus of listening so that it
a core daily practice. It's also a great always encompasses the entire space in front
exercise to get out of the “trying to play lots of you.
of notes” syndrome and help us return to the
mode where this instrument shines – long
held notes.

Reflected Sound
One of the main goals of the long tone
exercise is listening to your sound. To hear
your long tones better, you might try
standing in front of a wall so that the sound
from the flute is reflected back to your ears.
If the foot of the flute is almost touching the
wall, you will get quite a bit of sound off the
wall. However …

Be very careful not to hit the foot of

the flute against the wall (or any other
object) while you are playing!

… flute players have knocked out their front

teeth!

After you have some experience

hearing yourself clearly, try moving back a
step or two and keep your focus on the
sound coming from the wall. This is an
adaptation of an exercise used by public
speakers.

Over time, gradually move further and

further from the wall, while keeping your
focus on the reflected sound. If you can do
28 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
The Scale Song
The first goal of many novice flute players is
to play the primary scale of the Native
American flute cleanly and reliably. Simply
the exercise of playing:

 or


… in many different styles can be deeply
path from the primary scale to creating
improvised melodies.

rewarding.
The Scale Song
However, going beyond playing the primary The scale song is a straightforward
scale and moving towards improvising technique developed by Dock Green
melodies is often a stumbling block. For Silverhawk (shown above at Native
some, the suggestion to “just play any notes Rhythms 2010, photo by Clint Goss) for
in that scale, in any order” is enough to get creating songs on the primary scale. The
them started. But for other players, this can game is simple:
be a daunting challenge.
Progress through the scale and repeat any
This chapter provides some ideas for small notes you would like in your melody, as
steps that can be taken (or taught to many time as you wish. However, you
students) in a progressive exercise on the

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. It is an adaptation of the Flutopedia web page
From Scales to Songs at Flutopedia.com/from_scales_to_songs.htm.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 29

 still have to progress “forward” through terms in classical music for a full range of
the scale – there's no going backwards! dynamics, from very soft (pianissimo)
through very loud (fortissimo).
Audio Samples Changing dynamics can add dramatically to
The on-line version of this material has a set the music you play – adding power to your
of audio examples of each of the techniques. musical statements and drawing people in to
If you would like to hear them while reading listen to a quiet passage. Try playing a scale
this chapter, visit the Flutopedia web page song with the addition of dynamics.
From Scales to Songs at:

Flutopedia.com/from_scales_to_songs.htm Changing Articulation

Beginning and novice players often play
Changing Duration each note with the same attack at the
beginning of each note. Of course, there are
When you first play a scale song, hold each
many articulations that can be used,
of the notes in the scale for the same length
including connecting all the notes (legato),
of time. Changing the duration of the notes
various attacks (Haaa attack, Taaa attack,
you play – some short notes intermixed with
longer held notes – is one of the easiest and Kaaa attack), and ornaments such as
ways to add variety and interest, and is the double tonguing and triple tonguing.
beginnings of playing with rhythm. To begin working with these articulations,
Try playing a scale song with varying note try the primary scale several times using one
durations as well as added rests – pauses of these articulations for every note of the
between notes scale.
– of various
durations.

Adding
Dynamics
The term
“dynamics”
in music
means the
volume of a
note or a
section of
played music.
There are
30 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Once you're comfortable with these different scales is a great way to learn the
articulations, try using them in scales as well as getting comfortable with
combinations in the same scale – some playing music in them.
connected legato notes, some articulated
First, pick one of the exotic scales on this
notes with Taaa or Kaaa attacks, and
instrument and learn to play it up and
maybe even a double or triple tongue
down. Then try playing some scales songs in
ornament.
that new scale. As you get comfortable, try
And finally, try adding a mix of these bringing in the other elements described so
ornaments to the scale song technique far: duration, dynamics, and articulation.
described above.
Woven Scales
Adding Rhythm The restrictions of the scale song (only
If you are following along with the moving forward through the scale in steps)
progression of this exercise, you might may seem too limiting. If you would like to
notice that your playing is starting to sound experiment with reversing directions, you
like a “real” song. However, if the duration can simply change directions of scale steps
of the notes is used haphazardly, there may any time you wish.
be little sense of where the song is headed.
Steps and Leaps
What's missing? The main restriction of scale songs is to
move the melody in steps – each note in the
The changes in note duration in a typical
melody is followed by a neighboring note.
song are organized into a rhythm that
Adding leaps to your melodies can add
quickly becomes recognizable to the
dramatic power and interest.
listener. Try playing a scale song that uses
the durations of the notes in a more
rhythmic style, with recognizable rhythmic
motifs. You might try using a loose form of
A/B/A style, with an opening that is
repeated at the end, and a somewhat
different style in the middle for the “B”
part.

Changing Scales
Another thing you can change is the
underlying scale you are playing. The Native
American flute has many scales that can be
played (see the Scales section of Flutopedia).
Experimenting with scale songs over these
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 31
32 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Right in Tune
Native Flutes I had now acquired. We sat
down to jam and …
Standing on a grassy hillside in the
Berkshires, I played the first notes on my Cacophony!
first Native American Flute.
Sun … breeze … birds … and
that wonderful flute sound
that captures us all …

Heaven.

After playing solo for a

while, I went to a local flute
circle gathering. The
organizer provided a
heartbeat rhythm on his
buffalo drum, and we each
played our flutes in turn. One
pulse … one heartbeat …
one intent … melody and More exactly: sometimes cacophony,
rhythm together … sometimes heaven. Some flutes worked
Resonant Heaven. great with some instruments. Sometimes.
We would play together in a small room and
Later on, other musicians and instruments it might sound great. Playing the same
started showing up in my life. Guitar, piano, combination of instruments in a larger space
and cello players, all wanting to explore the with more people listening … “not so good”.
combination of their sounds with the bag of

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the November 2008
issue of Voice of the Wind, published by the INTERNATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE
ASSOCIATION (INAFA). An on-line version is available on Flutopedia at
http://www.Flutopedia.com/art_right_in_tune.htm.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 33

What’s going on?? It wasn’t the key we were tune yesterday is no guarantee of its tuning
playing in … the experienced people I today, in this musical setting, in these
played with knew how to play their weather conditions.
instruments in the minor key of whatever
There are two big kinds of “in tune”
flute I played. It turned out to be the
questions related to Native Flutes:
difference in tuning between my flute and
their instrument. Some instruments such as • Is the flute in tune with itself?
guitars and cellos, could re-tune to my flute, • Is the flute in tune with some outside
but that was a huge hassle. standard, such as another instrument or
Being a jam-loving player, I wanted to pitch meter?
maximize the Heaven, minimize the
Cacophony. I also wanted to minimize the
amount of re-tuning my friends had to do Playing Solo
with every new flute I pulled out of the For a flute to be in tune with itself means
ever-bigger flute case I kept showing up that the intervals between the notes have a
with. pleasing vibrational relationship. A flute
that is in tune with itself will generally
My first instinct was “this flute is out of
sound good to the ear when played solo.
tune”, but that did not ring true. The same
Since NAFs were traditionally played solo,
flute-and-piano combination would
sounding pleasing to the ear was the only
sometimes be Heaven and sometimes
tuning requirement for a good flute.
Cacophony. It was clear that the same flute
would sometime be in tune with the piano As we will explore below, being in tune with
and sometimes have a wildly discordant itself is as much a matter of the way we play
tuning. the flute as how the flute maker tuned the
flute.
Over the years, I have learned that the most
important musical instrument, by far, is our With the arrival of electronic pitch meters,
own ear. Listening deeply to our sound is a flute players began looking to an outside
musical practice that has grown to include source to tell them if a flute was in tune.
how our sound relates to the other sounds This has several pitfalls:
around us.
1. We play differently when we are standing
Playing in tune is a lifelong endeavor for all over a hovering meter, watching it waver
musicians. It is part of the game of to and fro. One of the biggest things that
constantly listening to our sound and its affect the pitch of a note on the NAF is
pitch relationship to the other sounds breath pressure. When we play freely, a
around us. Simply having a flute that the is particular player will often emphasize
“concert-tuned” or which happened to be in higher or lower notes with more breath

34 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

 pressure. When we stand over a pitch other cases the note is as much as fifteen
meter, that emphasis tends to change percent out of tune. The problem is
dramatically, changing the tuning of each particularly severe with the interval of the
note. minor third, which is the first interval
2. Pitch meters are typically based on a between the bottom two notes on typical
system of tuning called Equal Native Flutes.
Temperament, which has some For more information on this issue, as well
compromises and generally does not as some graphic and sound samples of
yield the best sounding instruments. different tunings, see the Wikipedia entries
for “Just Intonation”. Since each Native
This second point is a big one. Many systems Flute tends to be played in one or a very few
of tuning were developed, beginning with keys, it is an ideal instrument to be tuned to
Pythagoras and the ancient Greeks, where the more consonant “just intoned” tuning
the notes sounded in tune with each other. rather than equal temperament.
However, all these systems had the flaw that
the frequency relationship between The essential point, for me, is to go back to
neighboring notes changed from one note to the question “how does the flute sound to
the next. This meant that you could not me”. I play all the intervals and many songs
transpose a melody to another key without on a flute, and try to subjectively determine
retuning the instrument. Many cumbersome how I like the tuning of the flute.
solutions were tried, such as harpsichords
with 5 sets of keyboards, each tuned to a The Cents of Tuning
different key. Most electronic pitch meters have a small
Equal Temperament is a way of tuning the microphone and a moving needle that shows
12 notes in our scale that came into wide the pitch of a steady tone. The needle
use over the last 500 years, beating out typically points straight up when a tone is in
many other possibilities. The reason for its tune, to the left when the tone is flat, and to
predominance is primarily that the intervals the right when it is sharp.
between adjacent notes have the same ratio It is customary to divide the range of pitches
between their frequencies. That meant that from one note to the next higher note into
music could be transposed from one key to 100 “cents”. You can think of each cent as
another without retuning the instrument to one percent of the way between a note and
the new key. the next higher note.
The compromise is that each of the intervals
between notes in our 12-tone scale is out of Playing with Others
tune from the perfectly sounding interval. In When we begin to play with other
some cases, the compromise is slight, but in instruments, or play over recorded backing
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 35
tracks, we encounter a whole new set of or a backing track, chances are you will
tuning issues. When you hear a native flute need to blow harder to play louder and
against other instruments, even a 10 or 15 match volume with the other sounds. Your
cent difference between the flute and the flute will get sharp and sound out of tune.
other instruments can be very noticeable,
Another issue is that each player varies their
and a 30-cent difference will often be
breath pressure differently as they play up
blaring.
and down the scale. Some flutes are tuned
If the flute is in tune with itself, that's a so that they sound best when you blow
great starting point, because the whole flute harder on the higher notes. Others require a
tends to go sharp or flat in response to a more even breath pressure across the scale.
number of factors: So, whether a flute is in tune with itself
depends substantially on the playing style of
1. Breath Pressure
the player. A flute that, for you, is in tune
If we increase breath pressure, the pitch of with itself may not be in tune for another
the notes gets sharper. The sound also gets player.
louder. If you play a flute softly in front of a
pitch meter and the meter registers the notes I have a gorgeous flute that is, for me, in
in tune, that flute will only stay in tune with tune with itself, but is typically very flat on
the pitch meter if you continue to play the pitch meter when I play it at home.
softly. If you then start playing with a piano When I play with my riff-loving, groove
36 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
jamming piano friend, I've really got to blow 3. Humidity
it to be heard … and then it often sounds Increased humidity has the same effect on
perfectly in tune! NAFs as increased temperature, since humid
2. Temperature
air is less dense than dry air. However, the
effect is modest … I have been told that this
Every instrument reacts differently to
amounts to an increase of 7 cents from 0%
temperature. Most can be re-tuned with
to 100% relative humidity.
more or less difficulty, but most Native
Flutes cannot. 4. Position of the Block
This is the one straightforward adjustment
Our notes are generated from vibrating
that NAF players have for pitch.
columns of air. As that air gets warmer, it
becomes less dense and sound travels faster. As the block (bird, totem, fetish) on top of
It turns out that the pitch of a note that we the NAF is moved up the body (toward the
hear from a flute increases when sound mouth end of the flute), the flute gets
travels faster. sharper. Moving the block down the body
makes the flute flatter. These movements of
Our flutes get sharper as the temperature
the block are similar to changing the overall
inside the flute rises.
length of the sound chamber.
How much sharper? Standard physics
However, moving the block more than a
formulas published by Owen Cramer
small fraction of an inch has dramatic
([CRAMER 1993]) tell us that pitch rises
effects on sound quality. Try moving your
about 17 cents with a 10°F rise in
block up and down your flute while holding
temperature. That amount of pitch change
a single note. It can be done with one hand
would be noticeable to most listeners when
while covering some of the upper holes on
we play with other instruments.
the flute with the other hand. Listen deeply
Have you ever noticed a performer blow to the sound as it changes. When does it
into the finger holes of the flute before they become breathier? More reed-like?
play a song? This creates a nice, whooshing,
Also, move the block down the body and see
wind-texture, but it also has the effect of
how it affects the flute’s tendency to
warming up the air inside the flute. The air
overblow into the upper register. Each flute
temperature rises from room temperature
reacts differently to changes in the position
inside the flute in the space of a three-
of the block, and you need to experiment
minute song, and this is one way to pre-
with each flute to find the sweet spot.
warm the flute before playing and keep it at
a more even temperature. Another possibility is to change the block.
Some flutes have blocks that are designed to
be rotated 180° – one side has a flat face and

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 37

the other side has a chimney (i.e. with side block independently or trying to adjust
“wings”). This can produce a dramatic pitch breath pressure of one side verses the other.
change, as well as a change in the sound of
Once you know by ear the sound of “sharp”
the flute. See if you have any flutes where
and “flat”, this chapter has described a
the block can be easily rotated and give it a
number of techniques to adjust your playing
try.
to be in tune with the sounds around. In
Yet another innovation, found in both addition, vibrato can be used to effectively
traditional and modern NAFs, is a movable mask some tuning issues between
splitting edge. The splitting edge is the sharp instruments if the span of your vibrato is
edge at the foot-end of the sound hole that greater than the error between the
actually creates the vibrating air column instruments. If you can do that, then you
when you breathe into the flute. The effect can taper off the vibrato and slide into pitch
of moving the splitting edge is also with the other instrument. Some find the
dramatic. vibrato of Native Flutes is wider than most
other instruments, and this allows us to
And finally, there are flute designs that
dance around the other instruments.
allow you to change the length of the flute.
This usually takes the form of a two-part Of course, when we are playing solo, many
flute with a fitting that can be adjusted, as is of these tuning issues are academic. If the
common in orchestral instruments such as flute is in tune with itself, to our own ear,
the silver flute or clarinet. for our style of playing on that flute, that is
really all that matters. Then you can go back
Back to the Player and just … Play, Play, PLAY!
All this talk of technical issues makes our
head spin. As players, we want to just go out References
and play, play, play. Of course, our ears are [CRAMER 1993] Owen Cramer. “The
the most important aspect of our playing. Variation of the Specific Heat Ratio and
And it is our ears that tell us when we are in the Speed of Sound in Air with
tune with other instruments. Temperature, Pressure, Humidity, and
CO2 Concentration”, Journal of the
A wonderful exercise is to learn to listen
Acoustic Society of America, Volume 93,
deeply to our sound, and to come to know
Issue 5, May 1993, pages 2510–2516,
the sound of “sharp” and “flat” in relation to
doi:10.1121/1.405827
another sound. This is most easily done
when playing against a steady drone sound,
such as a shruti box or a didgeridoo. You
can also experiment with a double flute (a
“drone flute”), moving the position of each

38 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

No Pain, We Gain
A surprising number of us play in pain.
That's one of the big lessons from the
Ergonomics Study we've carried out in
2014.

I finished up the detailed analysis and

posted it in a paper oriented toward
researchers. It's rather lengthy and dense
(but does have a cool photo of Randy
“Windtalker” Motz shown at the right). If
you're interested, you can access the paper
as a pdf file:

Flutopedia.com/refs/Goss_2015_NativeAme • Females also reported having played

ricanFluteErgonomics_v2.pdf Native American flutes for less time than
males, but have a faster rate of progress
What does the Ergonomics Study mean for
(based on self-assessment of “level”).
the flute community? Here's what I think are
the big lessons: • It is likely that physical discomfort causes
some players to abandon the instrument.
• Physical discomfort was experienced by
• Playing Native American flute does appear
47-64% of players at least some of the
to cause players to be able to stretch their
time.
hands wider.
• Over 10% of players reported “moderate”
There is also a lot of information in the full
physical discomfort on an average basis.
paper about the characteristics and
• Females report significantly higher demographics of our flute community –
physical discomfort than males.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the February 2015
edition of Clint & Vera’s Flute Newsletter.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 39

check it out if you're interested in the full people playing Native American flutes for a
paper in PDF format at the link above. longer time.

Thoughts Predicting Flute Comfort

The fact that so many of us play in pain One of the goals of the study was to develop
strikes me as odd. In the world of orchestral a system where a flute maker could craft a
wind instruments, injuries and playing in comfortable flute “long distance”. The idea
pain happen frequently. However, orchestral was to find some straightforward
instruments have a dramatically different set measurements that would predict the limits
of priorities than Native flutes. of a comfortable flute. We used reported
measurements, direct measurements of arm
“Musical instruments are hardly
span, and photographs of the hands of flute
designed to be ‘friendly’; rather,
players spread out on a paper grid that I
they are designed to achieve the
designed for the study.
best fit with a highly skilled
human physiology” The results of that part of the study were
disappointing. I pressed a lot of computer
(Nicola Bernardini. The Role of Physical
power into service to find any combination
Impedance Matching in Music Playing,
of measurements that predicted the comfort
2010)
of a flute, and came up with a formula that
In the world of Native American flutes, we was “pretty good” but not reliable for flute
have the ideal situation for minimizing crafting. Awwww well!
physical discomfort: a community of players
focused on music for personal enjoyment, Ergonomics on Flutopedia
instruments that are comparatively Flutopedia now has a page that describes
malleable in their design, and a large some of the aspects of ergonomics. The page
population of flute makers who are well set is not based on the research study, but on
up to address issues of comfort in their flute my own direct experience and the advice of
designs. others.
I believe that we, as a community, have a If you would like to improve your
real opportunity to fix this problem! If we ergonomic fluting, this Flutopedia page on
take the mantra that: Ergonomics may help:
“No Pain, We Gain” Flutopedia.com/ergo.htm
… we can work towards flutes that are
comfortable, improve our playing, reduce
repetitive strain injuries, and help to keep

40 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

The Rhythm Connection
Rhythm is a wonderful tool in flute Playing with Rhythm: playing along with
gatherings – enhancing the music, helping an external rhythm that other musicians
flute players find new melodies, and have established.
providing group cohesion. However, it can Our experience tells us that players progress
also be met with resistance. That resistance faster if they first work on Playing in
is often voiced by the phrase: Rhythm first before moving to Playing with
“I don't have rhythm” Rhythm.

Vera and I have heard this at so many Playing in Rhythm

workshops and flute
Walk around a space that
circles. Maybe you were
has little or no furniture.
told that as a child, maybe
Walk slowly, deliberately,
you were intimidated by
with a relaxed pace. Now
someone with more
add flute playing.
rhythmic experience. But,
wherever it came from, Warning: Be VERY
unless you have a careful never to hit the
traumatic brain injury or bottom of your flute while
some extremely rare it is in your mouth – you
neurological condition … can knock your teeth out,
it simply is not true! or worse!

There are two sides to the Learning how to walk and

rhythm connection: play at the same time is
all most people need to
Playing in Rhythm:
introduce rhythm into
playing a song that has
their playing.
rhythm in it, and

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the January 2014
edition of Clint & Vera’s Flute Newsletter.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 41

 First find a rhythm background track that
you like. The Recording Kiosk page on the
Flute Haven site at www.FluteHaven.com
has a number of tracks you can use – either
directly off the web site or for download.
You might start with the Basic Beat, time,
90 beats per minute and then work with the
Cetacean track (which is a more fluid, live
recording).

Here's a basic outline of how we coach

people in workshops on playing with
rhythm:
Another approach: with the hand that you
1. Simply listen to the rhythm track.
use to play the lower holes of the flute, tap
your chest. Slowly, evenly, softly. Do it for a 2. Begin moving your body to the rhythm.
minute or two. Now keep going and try 3. Breathe along with the rhythm – slowly
playing your flute with your other hand and evenly, in any way that works for
(just the top three holes). Improvise a two- you.
note or a three-note or (if you get fancy)
4. Now breathe into your flute. The fingers
a four-note melody on top of your tapping.
don't matter. You're playing long tones
Finally, you can try the Nursery Rhyme on any note you wish, breathing along
method: Speak/Sing a nursery rhyme such with the rhythm.
as “Jack and Jill”. All nursery rhymes have 5. Try changing notes on each long tone.
simple, intrinsic rhythms. Now try
playing just the rhythm portion of the 6. Gradually – very slowly – add some
nursery rhyme on your flute. You're not melodic interest to your playing.
trying to play the notes of the nursery
rhyme – just play any notes to the rhythm The goal is always to keep on listening to
of the nursery rhyme and – bingo – your the external rhythm. If you lose it – no
melody will gain an underlying rhythm. problem! Just stop playing, center yourself
on the rhythm, move and breathe with it,
and go back to playing.
Playing with Rhythm
Once you have gotten some experience We can honestly say that we have never had
playing in rhythm, it's time to try playing a situation where a player was not able to
with an external rhythm. The easiest way is make huge strides in playing rhythmically
to work with a basic rhythm background and playing with rhythm in a very short
track. time.
42 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Leaps
When we first begin creating melodies, they why. They are named in alphabetical
are typically stepwise melodies: each note order according to a seven-letter alphabet.
in the melody is one step higher or lower in You step from a scale tone to an adjacent
the scale than the previous note. Stepwise scale tone; You leap over a scale tone or
melodies minimize finger movement, sound over several … [examples of a stepwise
familiar to the ear, and seem to nicely fit the melody and a melody of mostly leaps]
Native American flute, especially in a
contemplative or meditative mood.

A leap involves a larger melodic jump, and

can create a dramatically different feel.
Leaps are a great melodic tool when you
want to call attention, change the feel, or
provide contrast to a stepwise melody.

W. A. Mathieu provides a fantastic

description of steps and leaps on a track of
his two-CD set The Listening Book and the
Musical Life. You can listen to this three-
minute track by visiting the Flutopedia page
http://www.Flutopedia.com/steps_and_
leaps.htm (click the “Play” button on the
first audio player). Here is a transcript of the
spoken portions of the audio track:

Understanding melody begins with a

distinction between steps and leaps. Our
scales have seven tones – no one knows

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, March 2014, together with content from Flutopedia.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 43

 If you try to sing both of them, an axiom The first of the two charts shows some
will emerge: steps are easy, leaps are popular songs where the first two notes of
hard. This means that a stepwise melody the song demonstrate a leap interval. It also
sounds logical and naturally contoured, as shows the fingerings for getting that interval
if one could easily draw a line through on the flute, from the all-holes-closed notes.
the dots made by the notes. A leap, on the
other hand, is a special event, which the All the Leaps on the Flute
ear singles out.
The second of the two charts shows all the
A leap is a dramatic moment, a roughness leaps on the flute (without “overblowing”).
to be made smooth by the surrounding It shows all the pairs of fingerings that
stepwise motions, though not necessarily produce the same intervals. They aren't the
the less beautiful. same notes, but the pairs of notes are the
same distance apart, in terms of musical
Corollary: Some leaps are harder than semitones, or relative frequencies.
others. It is not especially difficult to hear
an octave or a fifth. Sixths and sevenths
Using Leaps
are almost always more difficult.
As with many new skills on the flute, we
Second Corollary: Leaps tend to get filled begin by practicing the basic mechanics of
in. If you leap from C to F, the chances the technique. Getting multiple fingers to lift
are great that the intervening E and D will and fall accurately can take a few minutes a
soon appear. day for a week or two.
My advice: Learn to improvise While trying this out, keep your ears open to
predominantly stepwise melodies, at first, the difference in sound between the leaps
passing time and gaining confidence in and stepwise playing. What emotion do they
the stepwise flow. Bring in leaps create? Is there a difference between
gradually, as dramatic events, and notice ascending and descending leaps? Can you
how you back-fill what you leapt over. incorporate leaps into your ornaments?
Appreciate how this simple distinction
enables you to get around, to recognize
the ridges and valleys of your own
melodic country.

Songs and Leaps

To help players make a connection between
songs that they know and leaps on the flute,
I've developed two charts on the next two
pages.
44 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 45
46 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Note Endings
Deep listening exercise: bring up your If you're like most flute players, as they gain
favorite solo flute track and listen to it. Now experience, you pay a lot more attention to
listen a second time and, with eyes closed, the beginning (the “attack”) of your notes.
listen to the endings of each long-tone note. You also focus on the body of the note
(especially when bringing in vibrato) and
What do you hear? A smooth ending? kind of lose interest at the end of the note,
Maybe an extended drop-off in volume (and especially because there's another note
pitch)? coming up to focus on.
Now play a long-tone
melody on your flute,
paying attention to
how you are ending
the notes. If you have
several flutes, you
can compare flutes
that have more and
less breath pressure
(or back pressure –
the pressure you feel
in your mouth when
you play). So, what do you hear? Does the ending of
If you can easily record your playing, that the note sound “shaky” and hesitant? Maybe
can be a real asset in this exercise, because with some burbles or whistles after the
it allows you to focus on listening to your intended end of the note? Does it improve
playing as a separate activity. on flutes with higher breath pressure or get
worse?

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, December 2014.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 47

I had this problem for many years before I
was taught a very cool trick to make smooth
note endings: the “air bleed trick”. Try this:

Press your lips against the back of your hand

and apply some breath pressure. Now relax
your lips around the sides, letting some of
the air bleed out. Continue to relax fully and
let all the air pressure escape. Practice this
for a while until it becomes normal and
natural, and you are just relaxing your lips
in a controlled way to let the air escape.

Now try it on your flute: just play a simple

long tone and relax your lips to let air bleed
around the edges. Compared with the back
of your hand, pulling off the air bleed on the
flute may not be as easy because of the
dramatically reduced breath pressure.
However, in a few minutes, most players
master the trick.

Now listen to the sound (or record yourself)

when playing a long tone. Is it a smooth
ending? I hope so!

48 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

The Major Minor

  
Try this experiment:

• play the lowest note on your flute – the

note with all finger holes closed. Then …
• pick up the bottom-most finger. Then … Now we have a different three note chord,
• pick up the next two fingers at the same only slightly different in pitch and fingering,
time. but a world apart in feel, emotion, and
cultural connection.
Those three notes make a chord. The
sequence looks like this: Again, get to know those three notes: Run
them up and down, make a song out of

  
them.

The difference between these two chords is

the dramatic split between “major” and
“minor”. If someone asks about this (maybe
Get to know those three notes: Run them up
in your flute circle) this Major/Minor is a
and down, make a song out of them, and
great way to demonstrate the difference
play with the intervals (that are really two
without delving into music theory.
small Leaps – see page 43).
For more on exploring and explaining music
Now repeat the whole exercise, but change
theory, see the Music Theory Questions
the finger you pick up in the second step.
chapter starting on page 315.
You can choose lots of other fingers to pick
up, but try picking up the second finger
from the bottom in that second step. The
sequence looks like this:

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, January 2015.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 49

50 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
I’m Sorry, So Sorry
What song is played the most on the Native grand adventure of improvisation – a duet
American flute? It's a song that I used to between our inputs to the instrument and
play (a lot!), and we still hear all the time at the actual sonic outcomes. If we can learn to
workshops. It goes like this: accept any sound that comes out, work with
it, make it part of our song … that can lead
♩ ♫ ♬ ♪ – “Oops, Sorry” – ♩ ♬ ♫ ♬ us to amazing and genuine improvisations.

♪ ♩ ♬ ♫ ♬ ♪ – “I'm Sorry” – ♩ ♪♬ Jazz musicians often joke that “once is a

mistake, play it twice and it's a motif, play it
♫ ♪ ♩ ♫ ♪– “Oh I'm so sorry, let three times and it's Jazz”. I suspect that this
me start over” is just a way of making light of a much
deeper practice of accepting and crafting
Native American flutes is an act of faith –
faith that the acoustics of the
flute will once again work as we
hope, and that a sound will
magically appear when we apply
the forces of will and intent and
breath. But playing from the
heart also involves the practice
of “freedom from attachment”.

We often form an attachment to

a particular sound that we
expect to hear. If we can re-
target that attachment and learn
to accept the sound that the
flute produces, we can go on a

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, January 2015.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 51

any sound that comes out into the song-of-
the-moment.

So, we encourage players to learn to play

through their perceived mistakes, then learn
to embrace them and work with them to
incorporate them into their songs. However,
we never had a name for the “Oops,
Sorry” song … We are trained to minimize the number of
mistakes we make in life, and that may
Last week I wound up in a jam session with
help you to succeed in school, but it
8 dulcimer players. Pretty cool! They had all
doesn’t really help you to succeed in life.
the improvisation forms down: call-and-
response, solo-over-ostinato, descending Success in life isn’t about never making
patterns, vamps and 12-chord blues, trading mistakes, it’s about recovering from the
8's and 4's, etc. Then, maybe 40 minutes mistakes you make.
into the session, somebody hit (what they
thought was) a klunker. “Oops, sorry” … People who succeed over and over again
and the entire group stopped and roared in in different areas aren’t just lucky.
laughter. Apparently, the group had long- They’re good at making mistakes –
sometimes even failing – and then
ago established a “No Oops” policy … and
learning from those failures and using
when somebody slipped they would all stop
that knowledge to help them to move
and actually give a name to the song.
forward.
So now there's a name for the song that
-- Art Markman,
embodies this mental hiccup, this
University of Texas
attachment to an expected sound, this
departure from the good energy and life
lessons that the flute can give us:

“I'm Sorry, So Sorry”

52 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Vibrato
Vibrato – that subtle variation in breath directly into your hand. Allow your hand to
pressure that seems to carry so much of the vibrate back and forth – toward and away
emotion of our playing – is one of the most from your body – in exact beat to the
important effects we have as flute players. vibrato.

Many of the techniques we use in our To help in this exercise, here is a three-
playing can be learned relatively quickly. minute sampler of music with interesting
With the right practice exercise, it might and dramatic vibrato. It is an MP3 of
take only a few minutes a day for a week to excerpts from historical and recent
“get it”. Our experience is that vibrato is not recordings that demonstrates how vibrato
one of those techniques. has changed over time.

Vibrato Sampler MP3

It took me a full year working at vibrato to
get it, and it is still the area of my technique http://www.flutopedia.com/mp3/Vibrat
that gets the most focus. o_01_VibratoSampler_mix01.mp3

Over the years, we have tried many Here is what went into this sampler:
workshop activities to help players “access
1. 1939. Marian Anderson – God Bless
their inner vibrato”. We have kept the ones
America at the Lincoln Memorial.
that work best and now do three or four of
these activities routinely for our 2. 1962. Joan Baez – House Carpenter.
participants. 3. 1976. Djivan Gasparian – I Will Not Be
Sad in this World. (And also a great
Conducting Vibrato demonstration of playing solo over
Place your hand in front of you, palm facing drone).
your chest. When you listen to music, focus 4. 1993. David Darling – The Tao of Cello
deep into the solo melody, and listen to just (What is Firmly Grasped Cannot Slip
the vibrato … and let the vibrato “conduct” Away).

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, April and May 2015.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 53

5. 2007. R. Carlos Nakai – Neishheeł pressure as you say, “Ha Ha Ha Ha …”
Dahashzhiizh – Dream Time (solo). during the exhales.

Now try this “vibrato conducting” technique Speed

on some of your favorite flute music!
Another thing you can control is how fast
the vibrato cycles. This can be done
Belly Breath independently of Depth.
Now that you have experience conducting
the vibrato of others with your hand, try it Experiment with a slow and soft vibrato, a
on your own breath: slow and deep vibrato, a fast and soft
vibrato, and a fast and deep vibrato.
Place your hand over your belly button and
push your hand forward with your belly. On the Floor
Allow the air to come in as you do this.
If you find it comfortable, try this exercise
Continue the normal cycle of breath, but laying down on the floor. Many people have
focus on your belly and the imagery of an easier time of the belly fluctuations when
pulling in air by pushing your belly button they are laying down – you can feel your
forward. hand and belly moving more easily.

Now, on the exhales, close your lips to

On the Flute
provide some resistance – as when you are
playing a flute. This is the “back pressure” Now move your exhales to the flute. Keep
that many Native flutes provide. Your one hand on your belly and close the top
exhales should extend in length, as when three finger holes on the flute.
playing your flute.
Can you create a vibrato on your long-tone
Finally, on the long exhales, begin saying exhales?
“Ha Ha Ha Ha …”. Focus on your hand as Now think back to the exercise of
you do this – your hand should move in a conducting vibrato … can you recall how
rhythmic pattern. This should be similar to the vibrato changed over the span of one
when you were conducting the vibrato of note?
others.
Can you hold a steady long tone, then bring
Depth in a soft and fast vibrato, and then slow
down the vibrato and increase its depth?
One of the key aspects of vibrato is how
much variation in pressure your belly
provides. Experiment with making very
slight and very dramatic variations in breath

54 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Rhythmic Chirping
Rhythm and melody make a fantastic Your middle finger should be off your body
combination. If you have ever played flute no longer than it takes to say “Chirp”. Work
with a percussionist, at a drum circle, or with that exercise until it feels natural to lift
over one of the many rhythm background your middle finger for the smallest
tracks, you have probably experienced an miniscule fraction of a second.
added dimension that even a basic rhythm Now start tapping your opposite foot at a
can provide. slow tempo. Lift your middle finger on each
But what if you are playing solo? tap of your foot.

This chapter describes a straightforward Your flute has rhythm!

technique for playing rhythm on your flute,
at the same time you play melody. You Melody
can hear the technique played on a wide After playing rhythmic chirps for a while,
range of flute recordings, including some of try closing the next lower hole while
the older ethnographic recordings. However, playing the rhythmic chirps on the upper
I have never heard a definitive name for the holes. Then try closing another hole and
technique, so I just call it “Rhythmic finally all three lower holes.
Chirping” or “Rhythmic Grace Notes”. You'll
see why in a minute. Can you ascend on the bottom three notes
while playing rhythmic chirps?

The Rhythm Can you change bottom notes every eight

While seated, place three fingers – the ones chirps? Every four chirps?
you use to cover the upper three finger holes
Can you progress to a basic melody on the
– on your thigh. Now say the word “Chirp”.
low finger holes while continuing with the
When you say “Chirp”, pick up your middle
rhythmic chirping on the upper three holes?
finger very briefly and place it back down.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, June 2015.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 55

With a bit of practice, some songs begin to second register, but this is hard to keep up
emerge … for more than a few chirps.

Challenges FluteCast Videos

On some flutes, you might find a tendency While developing this topic, we began to
to squeak, overblow, or jump into the realize that this description would benefit
second register, especially if you are playing from some audio and video examples. This
the lowest note. If that happens, try chirping began the development of the FluteCast
using the top finger, or the top two fingers series, distributed on YouTube.
simultaneously.
You can go to:
What happens if you want to incorporate
https://youtu.be/OHE7lesgMlg
  (or on five-hole flutes)
into your melody? On most flutes, you can … or skip forward to the next chapter to
switch to rhythmic chirping just using the check out the full series of FluteCast videos
top hole. being developed.

Adding the melodic note  (or

 ) presents even more challenges. I
usually switch to very fast notes in the

56 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

FluteCast Videos
Beginning in June 2015, we developed a
series of “FluteCast” videos to demonstrate
techniques and described topics related to
playing Native American flutes. These
videos are released monthly via our Flute
Newsletters and published simultaneously
on YouTube.com and Vimeo.com. Each video
closed captioned for accessibility in English,
Japanese, Spanish, and Russian.

The images at the right show the currently

published and planned FluteCast topics.

You can access all currently published

FluteCast videos by visiting:

http://FluteCast.com

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 57

58 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 59
60 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Technology and Headphones
We developed three FluteCast videos in
January – March 2016 that formed an
introduction with how to work with audio
technology. We developed the Microphones,
Mixers, and Digital Effects videos to provide
an introduction to the things that flute
players need to know, while avoiding the
unnecessary complexities that tend to come
along with “gear”.

One key component of the whole recording

/ technology system that was overlooked in headphones. Take your own music player
those FluteCast videos – and is often a and plug it into the various headphone
second-thought among musicians – is models.
headphones. This chapter fills that
oversight, with some basic suggestions: Make sure you have each headphone
adjusted properly. The cable is (by
1. Own Your Own convention) on your left side. The support
band connecting the ear-cups should be on
Headphones allow us to hear recorded /
the top of your head rather than the back.
reproduced sound in an environment that
Also, the overall size can typically be
isolates us from other sounds and gives
adjusted so that the ear-cups fit comfortably
complete separation between the channels
over both ears with no pinching.
of a recording. However, to be really useful,
you need to be familiar with how they While testing out headphones, pay attention
sound on different types of music. to:

If you can arrange it, go to one of the retail

music shops and try out a whole array of

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, February 2016.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 61

Fit. How they feel is very important – think accomplished by adapters that convert the
about spending hours wearing them. input into whatever your headphones take
as input.
Sound isolation. Do they block out ambient
room sounds? There are "open-cell"
headphone designs that intentionally allow
4. Know the Characteristics
in some of the ambient sound, and "closed- It is a great exercise to listen to music in
cell" headphones that are designed to block your headphones, and then listen in all the
out as much ambient sound as possible. other settings that you have available. Sit in
your car and listen to the same track on
Durability. Headphones take a lot of wear headphones and then on your car stereo
and tear, especially the cable. system. Do the same in your living room.
Sound quality. Always a subjective call, but Also try it with the near-field monitors that
the primary concern (for me) is the detail of mixing engineers typically use.
the sound. Consumer headphones that are One thing I began to hear while doing these
designed to "mellow out" the sound do not exercises was a noticeable difference in the
serve us as well as those that give a more amount of reverb that I could hear. The
accurate (and sometimes "harsh") headphones always sound more “dry” (less
reproduction of the sound. reverb) than a live-room listening setup.

2. Bring Your Own This difference was borne out when I tried
to mix tracks on headphones. My mixes
If you go to a studio, bring your tried-and-
always wound up having too much reverb
true headphones. You will be a lot more
when I listened to them in a live-room
comfortable and familiar with the sound
setting. The room itself always adds to the
than whatever is available at the studio.
reverb, and that room reverb is absent in the
If you have closed-cell headphones these headphones. Lesson learned!
have the added benefit of reducing the
"bleed" from the headphones into the 5. In-Ear Monitors
microphone if you are overdubbing a track. Some musicians love in-ear monitors. I have
never used them, but here is some advice
3. Connections from Sweetwater:
Arm yourself with several connectors so that
Some musicians have started to use in-ear
you can deal with any situation. At the
monitors as their "headphones" in the
minimum, be able to deal with a ¼″ stereo
studio. For custom in-ear monitors, you
(three conductor) connector, a ⅛″ stereo
can go to your audiologist and get molds
connector, and a pair of ¼″ mono (two
made of your ears to ensure a perfect fit.
conductor) connectors. This is usually
Custom in-ears can also provide great
62 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 isolation and, depending on the model
you buy, sound amazing. But there are
also off-the-shelf in-ear options that sound
great, give you the isolation you need,
and don’t require a trip to the doctor. In-
ear monitors are also nice because you
can use them while playing live, so they
can serve double duty.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 63

64 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Random Melodies
Why would anyone want to play a random How long should you hold each note?
sequence of notes in their melodies? Isn't a Whatever inspires you.
“good song” made with a carefully planned For variety, feel free to add dynamics
sequence of pitches? (loud/soft), articulation (tonguing) versus
If you are skeptical (like I was at first), connected notes, different rhythms, or even
search for a video on YouTube.com titled different scales. Some of these techniques
What Pi Sounds Like by Michael Blake. are outlined on The Scale Song chapter on
page 29.
It is basically a melody based on some
element of chance or randomness. In the Play the People
video Michael has shown that it can become
Giving a classroom presentation? Ask the
a very interesting song!
people in the back row to stand up and play
But aside from making an “interesting them (e.g. “play their heights”) like the
song”, there are a lot of uses for these types exercise Play the Trees above.
of random melodies. Here are some
examples: Alphabet Songs
Once you're comfortable with turning
Play the Trees random melodies into songs, try out some
If you're ever stuck for a melody, look at a Alphabet Songs.
group of trees. Pick the topmost trees
The video What Pi Sounds Like assigned
silhouetted against the sky and follow the
pitches to digits, but most Alphabet Songs
height of the tops of the trees – using higher
assign pitches to the letters of an alphabet.
notes for the taller trees and the lowest
This opens up a whole set of possibilities,
notes for the shortest trees – your first
including creating personal songs from
“random melody”.
peoples’ names.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, May 2014, together with content from Flutopedia.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 65

History game. The side effect is that participants
The idea of alphabet songs goes back to at will learn the scale they are playing. They
least Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), will learn to play leaps (see Leaps on page
who used his own initials for the notes of 43) and start to introduce them in their own
the fugue “Before Thy Throne I Now melodies. For more advanced participants,
Appear” on his deathbed on July 28, 1750. you can teach alternate scales simply by
However, it might be far older and date playing alphabet songs based on that scale.
back to Greek philosophers.
Teaching song structure. To teach
R. Carlos Nakai has said that Doug Holly common song structure patterns:
was the first to use alphabet songs for
• Have people play select two phrases. Let's
Native American flutes. On the R. Carlos
call them “A” and “B”. For example, I
Nakai album Journeys (1986), the melody
might use my first and last name – “Clint
for the first track – Life is for Living – is an
alphabet song on its own title. Goss” as my “A” and my middle name –
“Francis” as my “B”.
The alphabet song technique has also been
• Have people play an alphabet song based
referred to as the “Fibonacci Technique” by
Robert Gatliff on his FluteTree.com web on the “A” phrase.
site. His Fibonacci Technique page lays out • Repeat the “A” alphabet song.
a mapping from the letters in the Latin
• Play an alphabet song based on the “B”
alphabet onto the pentatonic minor scale,
phrase.
but does not include the  octave
note. • Finally, play the “A” phrase again.
• People have just gotten experience playing
What can you use Alphabet Songs for?
the classic “AABA” song structure.
At first, alphabet songs seemed rather
whimsical, because of their arbitrary or
random nature. However, over the years, I
found them useful in more and more
situations. Here are some:

Personal songs. You can play a “person's

song”, based on their name. This is useful in
one-on-one situations as well as more public
settings such as in classroom presentations
and memorial services.

Teaching scales. In an educational setting,

you can use the alphabet song exercise as a

66 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Alphabet Song Charts of the scale from music theory – a method
Here is a chart that I use for playing that many people use to notate their music.
alphabet songs in the pentatonic minor
scale:

Here's how it works: Take a phrase and, for

each letter in your phrase, locate the letter
on the chart. Then read across to find the
finger pattern to use for that letter.

By the way, the colors in the charts on this

page are from the Color of Sound calculator
for the pitches on an F♯ minor flute. They
are the frequencies of those pitches, scaled
However, since we only use six pitches in
up 40 octaves and converted to a frequency the pentatonic minor scale, that leaves the
of light.
digits 0, 2, 6, and 9 with no corresponding
If I want to play “Clint Goss”, I would start finger patterns. I give two choices in the
by locating “C” on the chart: chart below: copying four of the other digits
or using some unusual notes outside of the
… and my melody would begin on pentatonic minor scale for the digits 2, 6,
 . and 9.
Continuing with “Clint Goss”, I would follow
this path through the chart:

If we want an alphabet song chart that maps

numeric characters onto the pentatonic
minor scale, we have some choices. What
I've done in my version is to use the degrees
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 67
Here is my version of the chart: Other Scales
One of the most beautiful and easiest scales
to use for alphabet songs is the Bugle Scale.
However, since most players are initially
taught the pentatonic minor scale, I usually
don't start with this scale:

This lets you score alphabet songs based on

numbers. Here are the first 28 digits of π –
3.141592653589793238462643383 – in a
pentatonic minor scale. Here are three more interesting scales to try:

Play the melody down each column starting

with the leftmost column:

68 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Other Alphabets
If you are really intent on playing world
music, you might try playing alphabet songs
based on other languages. Charts based on
Cyrillic, Katakana, Hebrew, Arabic,
Georgian, Greek, and Cherokee are available
on Flutopedia.com.

Printing Alphabet Charts

If you would like to use alphabet songs in
your flute circle or presentations, you can
print out full-page versions of all of these
charts. Visiting Flutopedia.com and
searching for “Alphabet Songs” will take you
to a page that has all these charts available
for printing.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 69

70 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
The Heavenly Rut
All your flute playing sounds
the same, the wandering
melodies don't take you
anywhere, and you're
dreaming of new musical
forms, styles, and horizons.
You're in a “rut” … but we
like to call it the “Heavenly
Rut”. Wherever you think
you are stuck, the music that
comes out is probably just
this side of heaven.

This chapter has a list of

ideas we have used to help
people build on their established flute and the “B” section is “something
playing and overall musicality, but expand different”.
into music that has a different sound.
The A/B/A form is very prevalent in most
genres of music. Maybe it is because the
A/B/A
repetition of the “A” section takes listeners
Sometimes, people are looking to add a bit back to a familiar motif. Or maybe it is
of structure to their songs. One of the most because A/B/A echoes the pervasive
direct ways to add structure is to
“journey” storyline: starting from home,
intentionally craft a song in the A/B/A going to a faraway place, and ending back
form. This is basically a song where the home.
beginning and end are noticeably similar,

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, April 2014, together with content from Flutopedia.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 71

Here are some straightforward ways to craft melody on that note: starting on the new
“something different” in the “B” section: note, returning to it at key points, and
ending the melody on the new note.
• Change the melody.
Every note on the flute can serve as a tonal
• Change the rhythm. This might be using a
center – many work like crazy, others are
different rhythm in the “B” section, or it
workable, none are unmusical. You might
could even be to simply play non-
spend a full week dedicated to songs with a
rhythmically in the A section and to use a
single tonal center – getting to know it like a
rhythm in the B section.
new friend, and finding out how all the
• Change tempo. other notes relate to that new tonal center.
• Change dynamics. You could do a loud /
You will find that using particular notes as a
soft / loud version of A/B/A.
new tonal center dramatically changes the
• Change the pitch range. You could play feel of your songs, and they seem to come
the A section on the lower notes, then from a new culture. Simply changing your
move to the higher notes for the B section. tonal center to the first note up from the
• Change articulation. Contrast playing all bottom note (  or ) will
the notes connected with playing slightly impart a major/Western feel to the music.
disconnected notes with tonguing or even
very short notes. Come from Rhythm
• Change emotion. Pick two different Many songwriters say that the best way to
emotions and intentionally move between find a new song is to start from a new
them in your sections. rhythm.

Put on a rhythm CD or track, get the rhythm

in your body (maybe even for five minutes
Begin in a New Place
before you start playing) and start jamming.
Most melodies and songs have one note that Some of the more complex rhythms can
provides the “tonic” or “tonal center” for the word wonders.
melody. It is often the note on which the
song begins and ends. • Stephen DeRuby has a rhythm CD
• Glen Velez “Rhythm of the Chakras” has
Very often, the tonal center for Native Flute
some incredible rhythms.
music is the lowest (all holes closed) note on
• You can also download an array of
the flute. It is certainly a gorgeous note, but
backing tracks (search for the rhythm-only
by no means the only starting point!
tracks) on the Flute Haven Recording
To add variety, try starting and ending your Kiosk site at
songs on a different note. Try to center the

72 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

 http://www.flutehaven.com/recording because they seem to come and go
_kiosk.htm. frequently).

To really expand your rhythmic repertoire, Play to the Clock

try one of the odd meters such as .
For me, this was the best exercise to help me
play structured songs.
Try a New Scale
Pick one of the Exotic Scales on Flutopedia The exercise is to improvise a composition
at that fits exactly in a one-minute timeframe.
http://www.Flutopedia.com/scale_inde It must have a beginning, a middle section,
x.htm. and an ending. The goal is to take the
listener on a (short) journey. You can do this
• Start by practicing the scale up and down. in front of a big clock with a sweep second
• Then progress to doing a woven scale hand – starting and ending on the “12”. Try
(there is a demonstration of that on each to bring it in and land it at exactly one
of the scale pages on Flutopedia). minute.
• Then experiment with playing some scale In the words of W. A. Mathieu:
songs (see The Scale Song chapter on page
29, or see the on-line version on We live a lifetime in each one-minute
Flutopedia at song, and then we get to do it again and
http://Flutopedia.com/from_scales_t again and again …
o_songs.htm.
Blues Form
Finally, try some free improvisations in The 12-bar Blues form is very familiar
the new scale and see where it leads. You to most Western listeners. Here is an
could spend a few weeks in the new scale to approach to structuring a song in this form:
really get comfortable with improvisation
with that new set of notes. Find a motif that you like that begins and
ends on the lowest note:  or
Play with a New Instrument  . Try for something about 10 or
15 seconds long. Play it until you are very
Explore playing with a guitar, piano,
comfortable with the motif. I'll call this the
dulcimer, or any type of percussionist –
“root motif”.
especially ethnic percussionists. You could
take your flute (preferably a high-pitched Then follow this outline:
instrument) to a community drum circle.
You could try going on-line to one of the • Play the root motif.
live jam services (which I hesitate to name • Repeat the root motif.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 73

• Play a similar motif that begins and ends
two notes up … on the  or
 note. Try to make it the same
length and in the same style as your root
motif.
• Repeat the root motif.
• Play a motif that starts on  or
 , and make it half the length of
the root motif.
• Play a motif that starts on  or
 , and is half the length of the
root motif.
• Play the first half of the root motif.
• In place of the second half of the root
motif, blues players often “go wild”. They
may play something entirely different or
even stop playing.

Cycle back to the start of this sequence, and

you just might get the sense that you're
following a song form you've heard many,
many times.

74 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Vanishing Wonderment
We live in the Era of Vanishing
Wonderment. I came across this phrase
today, and it got me thinking …

We used to wonder. As children.

Our distant ancestors wondered.

Cultures we call “primitive” have lots
of wonder.

Wonder of the Sky, of the Earth, of Life,

of the Past, the Future, of Time itself.
But, most of all, we wondered about
Ourselves – about our own ability to
imagine, to create, and then manifest.

How wonderful.

Wondering about Something means that the “Oh, that was nothing.”
Something has Worth. Wonderful things “It wasn’t really so good.”
have Worth. Worthless things are not “I’m really not that good.”
wondered about. “I’ll never be that good.”
“I don’t have what it takes.”
When we stop wondering about Ourselves –
“It’s too late.”
about our own ability to imagine, create,
“I’m too old.”
and manifest – We become worthless.

Every day, every one of us does creative, We throw away our wonderful creations,
and ourselves with them.
amazing, wonderful things. And then we
throw them away.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, March 2018.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 75

Pick up a flute. Breathe into it. Create a So I made the conscious decision to adopt
thing of wonder. A thing of creative beauty one very simple mental practice.
whose resonance touches the hearts of all it
I say to myself, at the end of everything I
reaches. Then revel in that Thing of Wonder
play, one simple word: “Wow”
– that You created.
― Clint Goss, February 3, 2018
And then … Be that wonderful thing. Own
it. Live it.

Maybe that’s what Rūmī meant when he

wrote: “Be your Note.”
Illustration by Kate Greenway (1846–1901),
I didn’t invent these ideas. I learned them engraved by Edmund Evans (1826–1905),
from my teachers – by osmosis, by living in from Robert Browning, The Pied Piper of
their sphere, from the incredibly wonderful Hamelin, Frederick Warne and Company,
things they created, and from their own 1888.
wonderment. They found wonder in My
creations … long before I did.

76 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Right in Tune, Revisited
After you've played solo flute for a bit,
you might want to try your hand at
playing with other instruments. If the
other instrument has pitched sounds (such
as a guitar or a piano), one of the things
you will likely want to do before you start
playing together is to get your flute in
tune with that instrument.

Notice I said, “get your flute in tune”.

There are some players who think it’s the
sole responsibility of the flute maker to
get the flute in tune, but it's really a
cooperative effort between the flute maker the pitch of the other instrument by
and the flute player. The maker has tuned using breath pressure. The more breath
the flute with certain goals – firstly to get pressure you provide, the sharper the pitch
the flute in tune with itself and to be in tune of the flute gets (it also gets louder). As you
with other instruments under certain reduce breath pressure, the flatter the pitch
conditions (primarily temperature and gets (it also gets softer).
breath pressure). Chances are, when you
play, you are under different conditions and Time to Play
you won't be quite in tune. OK, enough of the “head space” explanation.
Here's the fun part … this is a wonderful
From the player's perspective, the easiest
practice and will really prepare you for
thing to do is let the flute warm up by
quickly hearing the sound of another
playing it for two or three minutes (or
instrument and bringing your flute up to
breathing a few times into the finger holes)
pitch.
and then bring the flute into tune with

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. Similar articles appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, December 2013 and January 2015, together with content from Flutopedia.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 77

• Pick up your favorite flute (one where you • Choose the note (row) that matches the
know the “key” of the flute) and … key of your flute.
• Head over to the Flutopedia Reference • Click the Play button on the green player.
Drones page at the address:

On your flute, play long tones on the bottom

http://www.Flutopedia.com/reference_ note. Experiment with how much breath
drones.htm pressure is needed to be exactly consonant
(in tune) with the drone. Get comfortable
(optionally, you can go to with bringing your flute from very flat,
www.Flutopedia.com and enter the text through “in tune”, to very sharp in relation
“Reference Drones” in the search box) to the drone sound.

This page has recordings of “drone” sounds.

They are all about a minute long and have The Sound of Consonance
an announcement of what note they are and How do you know when you are exactly
how they are tuned. The audio players in consonant?
the green column are “on pitch” and that's a
When two pitches are at slightly different
good place to start:
frequencies, they set up a oscillation that
our ears hear as a “wah wah wah …”

78 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

variation in the timbre of the sound. To hear
this oscillation, try playing two reference
drones at the same time (you can click on
more than one audio player on the
Flutopedia Reference Drones page).

Click on two players that have pitches

which are very close together, such as the
in-tune C and the slightly sharper C +25
cents. Can you hear the oscillation? Now try
C and C +50 cents. This produces an
oscillation of a different, faster speed.

When you bring your flute into perfect

consonance with the drone, you can hear
that oscillation. The speed of the “wah
wah wah …” starts out fast when you are
far from the pitch, slows down as you get
closer to the pitch of the drone, and ceases
when you are right on the drone pitch.

One thing you may find is that the breath

pressure needed to get a flute in tune with a compared with the lower notes (for
drone sound makes the flute louder or softer example:   and ). Moving
than you'd like. If you are playing flat the block also affects the timbre of the
relative to a crystal bowl at a meditation instrument and the tendency to overblow.
session, breathing harder into the flute will
just make you too loud for the situation. The Effect of Temperature
Here are some suggestions – taken from the As the temperature inside the sound
Frequently Asked Questions page chamber rises, the flute tends to get
(Flutopedia.com/faq.htm) on Flutopedia: sharper. Lower temperatures correspond to
flatter pitches. Several factors affect the
As you move the block toward the foot end temperature inside the sound chamber,
of the flute, the flute typically gets flatter. including the ambient (room) temperature
Moving the block toward the head end and the tendency for the air in the sound
typically makes the flute sharper. However, chamber to get warmer as you play for a
realize that the effect is more pronounced while. The chart below shows readings I
on the higher notes of the instrument (for took with a small thermometer inside
example:   and ) several places inside a flute. It shows a

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 79

substantial increase in the temperature more vertical or forward-sloping will
inside the slow air chamber of about 18°F typically lower the overall pitch of the
over the first 90 seconds. However, the rise flute (make it flatter).
in air temperature inside the sound chamber • Changing from a block with a flat,
was slower and more modest – about 7°F forward-sloping face such as the lower
over the first 3 minutes of continuous block in the picture to a block with a flat
playing, which would amount to a rise in face that is more vertical or back-sloping
pitch of about 12 cents. will typically raise the overall pitch of the
Finally, there have been a lot of discussions flute (make it sharper).
and confusion about the effects of humidity • Changing from a block with a flat face to a
and altitude. block that has wings will (with other
things being equal) typically lower the
Humidity has a very small effect on tuning. overall pitch of the flute (make it flatter).
At 72°F, there is only a difference of 7 cents
• Changing from a block with wings to one
between the minimum of 0% relative
with a flat face will (with other things
humidity and the maximum of 100%
being equal) typically raise the overall
relative humidity.
pitch of the flute (make it sharper).
Altitude, in itself, has virtually no effect on
tuning. The confusion was caused because
temperature tends to change with altitude, More Uses for Reference Drones
but simply changing altitude does not affect Below the grid of recordings on the
temperature directly. Flutopedia Reference Drones page, there are
See the Frequently Asked Questions page a lot of suggestions for using the reference
(Flutopedia.com/faq.htm) on Flutopedia drones.
for a discussion of why altitude does not Explore things like playing your flute with
affect tuning. the bottom three fingers open and top three
closed. Can you bring this in tune with the
Swapping Blocks drone note? … A bit more challenging.
In rare cases it might be possible to swap the
Bringing your flute in tune with the pitches
blocks on two flutes and change the tuning.
around you is one of those basic skills that
This is generally only possible between
improves very quickly. If you try just a few
blocks that have a flat bottom. Here are
minutes a day for a week, you'll probably
some general guidelines:
find you can very quickly “zoom” your flute
• Changing from a block with a flat, back- into consonant tune with another sound
sloping face such as the upper block in the using your breath pressure.
picture to a block with a flat face that is

80 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Pitch Shifting Background Tracks flute with one hand and adjust the player's
I'm trapped in a corner. I’m sitting in a Yoga pitch-shift setting with the other hand.
session, playing my flutes. In that setting, a The application I'm using is Best Practice
soft background track to support the flute version 1.03. It is freely available, open
really makes a difference, and the sound source, and seems to have no commercial
system at the Yoga studio is great. So, I plug component. I downloaded the latest version
my laptop in and put on a sparse, drone-like from:
background and play a low flute that should
be consonant. And what comes out? … http://SourceForge.net/projects/best
Complete dissonance. practice/

The yoga instructor's eyes go up and my With the “anti-alias” option checked, I can
flute goes silent. pitch shift up to two semitones without
problems and even use a different key flute
Wrong backing track? No. if appropriate.
Wrong key flutes? No. Best Practice works well for me, but it only
The problem is that the volume I need to runs on a PC. I am hoping to get
play at for that situation is quite low. So … recommendations for audio player
my flute is very flat compared to the applications that run on different
background track. environments, specifically, Apple products
from iPhones and iPads through laptops. If
The next yoga session is in two days, and I'm you happen to know of (or locate) an
totally focused on fixing the problem. I application for other environments, I would
could record some new background tracks love to hear your recommendation. I think it
that are 20–30 cents flat, but that would would need to be:
mean my entire database of music (60,000+
tracks!) would be off-limits. And what if I'm • Freely available;
50 cents or 80 cents flat? Then I stumbled • Non-commercial in nature;
across a simple solution: • Work on MP3 and WAV/AIFF files and,
optionally, on some database of music
An audio player that has a pitch shift
(such as an iTunes database).
function!

Two days later I saunter back in, plug in my If you know of (and have tested) other
laptop with its new software, and quietly pitch-shifting audio player applications that
soar over all my favorite backing track set to meet these criteria, please email me and I'll
anywhere from 20 to 60 cents flat. I find spread the word.
that I can even adjust the pitch while I'm
playing: I can play the upper notes on the

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 81

82 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Back to Back
We always stress that making a connection
with another musician when you are playing
duets or trios or quartets is very important.
So why are the two musicians at the right –
Deb Almy and Pam Hackworth-Dickey –
playing back-to-back?

It's part of a technique that was developed

by Rona Yellowrobe. You can use it as an
exercise to emphasize the non-visual senses,
put it to use in performance, or set it up as
an activity in your next flute circle.

As described to me by Deb Almy, two

players stand back-to-back with their backs
touching as much as possible. Of course, it's
best if the two players are about the same
size and are “comfortable” with each other. strategize about “what can I do next”, it's
One player starts and the other comes in. best to simply respond to each other's
You might want to do it with eyes closed to movements and sounds.
really emphasize the listening and physical There is often a question of “who is
connection to your partner's music. leading”, but I've found that this quickly
The goal is to get players out of their head fades away to the point where neither player
and make this a “play from the heart” can tell who has the lead. As Deb says: “If
exercise based, as much as possible, on this is truly working, you will feel when
sensory input. Rather than thinking about your partner takes a breath and, if you
song forms and structures, trying to

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, August 2014.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 83

believe in this sort of thing as I do, you'll
begin to play off of each other's energy.”

Playing Your Heartbeat

On another topic, I had a very interesting
experience during a medical test I had to
take last week. They hooked me up to a
heart monitor … Beep Beep Beep … but
unlike most medical tests I was standing up.
Of course, for a musician the fairly steady,
70ish beats-per-minute sound invites music-
making!

When they left for a few minutes to set up

the test, I began to improvise over the
rhythm: vocal sounds, hand percussion,
body beats, foot tapping. Must have looked
pretty comical since I was in one of those
“open air” hospital gowns and had wires
coming out on all sides.

Aside from it being a whole lot of fun

playing to your own heartbeat, an
interesting thing happened: my heart rate
went down. Now that is something we've
seen during flute playing, but not something
I would expect when making the physical
motions of body percussion.

Love to hear if anyone else has had an

experience such as this …

84 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Active Listening
Music listening is part of our daily existence,
part of our culture. It is often said that
passive music listening is the “soundtrack of
our lives”.

For those of us who have allowed our

musicianship to wake up, listening is one of
the most useful tools we have. However,
rather than just letting the sounds of music
osmose passively into our brains, it can be
extremely valuable to convert our habitually
passive music listening into an occasional
active listening experience.
81, Number 1, published by Sage
An excellent example of how you might Publications for MENC: The National
create an active listening experience, either Association for Music Education, July
for yourself or for a group of players, is a 1994, pages 17–23. Publication 3398792
lesson plan developed by Patricia Shehan on JSTOR (subscription access).
Campbell that appeared in 1994. It was
developed in response to the need by music This chapter is partially based on the ideas
teachers to increasingly incorporate music from that lesson plan, augmented with our
that originates from outside the Western own experience facilitating active listening
European music tradition: experiences.

[CAMPBELL-PS 1994] Patricia Shehan

Selecting the Music
Campbell and David P. McAllester (1916-
2006). “David P. McAllester on Navajo Your first job is a fun one (of course, they're
Music”, Music Educators Journal, Volume all fun): Select the ideal music for an Active
Listening session.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, September 2014.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 85

And, to be clear, the Active Listening CD on his participation as part of the extended
cover I composed above is not a real family of the Navajo people.
production CD! It's a “virtual” album that
you compose of your favorite music that you Environment
think encourages the kind of conscious
For an active listening session, it helps to
listening experience that will be most
have a good listening environment. While
helpful.
technology has provided us with access to
You can select tracks that are extremely more music, in more places, on smaller
sparse and clear in their music. Solo Native devices, and at less cost, the actual auditory
flute tends to be ideal for this, or flute tracks experience has often suffered. Compressed
that just have a simple drone or heartbeat digital files, inexpensive ear-buds, pervasive
rhythm accompaniment. background noise, and frequent
interruptions often frustrate attempts at
Another approach is to compose a playlist active listening.
based on a theme – in workshops focused on
developing vibrato, we have a playlist that So, wait till you have reasonable control of
demonstrates the kind of vibrato that female your listening environment and set aside the
singers have used over the last seven time to treat yourself to a true auditory
decades. The short excerpts of their singing experience. You don't need to go overboard
clearly demonstrate how vibrato has slowed in the audiophile direction – just try to get a
down over the years, and how singers have CD-quality source or an MP3 with minimal
begun to bring in vibrato gradually rather compression (192Kbps or better), reduce the
than at the beginning of the note. background noise as much as practical, and
use reasonably high-quality speakers or
Background headphones.

It sometimes helps to know the back-story

or motivation behind a piece of music.
Listening
When listening, it can help to actively
For example, the track Origins on the Cycles engage the mind with some questions or
album by R. Carlos Nakai was created for a exercises. Different activation techniques
multimedia presentation at the Heard work with different listeners, so you can use
Museum in Phoenix. Nakai's intention was a range of questions or exercises to promote
to portray the sound experiences he felt in active listening.
the open expanses of the Southwest and
Northern Plains. He describes his inspiration Here are some things you might try to listen
this way: “My clan, Naashteezhi dine-e to the musical aspect of the recording:
Taachiinii, allows me to be one of the
• Can you follow the rise or fall of the
people.” The piece is his musical reflection
melody? Try drawing, painting, dancing,
86 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 or conducting the rise and fall in the • Is the song completely consonant, or does
melody. it use dissonance at any point?
• Can you identify what ornaments – grace
notes, trills, pops, mordents, or turns – are Performance and Recording
used to dress up the melody? • Was the song composed, improvised, or
• Experienced musicians and listeners might some combination?
find it very easy to follow the melody, so • How was the song recorded? Live? In a
ask them to try to identify the intervals studio?
used in ornaments. This can be a very
• Are the performers playing together or
challenging exercise.
were different tracks layered onto the
• Can you identify the phrases played within music at different times?
a single breath? Where is the performer
• Is the tempo “perfect” (e.g. done to a
breathing? Are they taking hidden gulps
“click track”), slightly loose (as in a live
or sips of air at unusual places?
performance), or completely free with
• Can you identify the various instruments large changes in tempo?
in the recording?
• What effects are being added to the sounds
• Listen for the use of vibrato and match the of the instruments?
movement of an open, outstretched palm
to the speed of the vibrato.
• Conduct, draw, paint, or dance the
dynamics of the music – how loud or soft
it gets. Are there sudden changes in
dynamics during ornaments?
• Can you identify the over-arching
structure of the song? Many songs use a
structure of A-B-A or alternating verse and
chorus.
• Is the song in a duple meter (such as 1-2-
1-2 … or 1-2-3-4 …), or a treble meter (1-
2-3-1-2-3 …)?
• Is the song in a major key (bright, like
most Western European music), a minor
key, or some other unusual key?
• Does the music change key or change
between major and minor?

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 87

Reflection might structure activities to heighten
• Is the song familiar? Does it sound like listening.
another song I know?
• What is the mood of the music? Is the
performer trying to convey an emotion?
Does that emotion change throughout the
piece?
• How does the music make me feel?
• Does the music trigger any memories?
• Are there any smells (or smell-memories)
that are evoked by the music?

Voice
Here are some activities you might try with
your voice:

• Can you match your voice to the melody?

Can you hum or sing it?
• Can you follow the melody with your
voice an octave higher or lower?
• Can you sing other harmonies against the
melody?
• Can you hold a single drone note with
your voice against the melodic line?

Deep Listening
These questions and activities are all
designed to help us create a deeper
connection with recorded music. Going
beyond using recorded music, there are
many other activities and approaches we
can use to create deep listening experiences
in flute gatherings.

If you are facilitating workshop session or

flute circles, see the Deep Listening chapter
on page 237. It has a discussion of how you
88 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Playing (from the Heart) Over Changes
Native flute players often like to hang out in When a Native flute player first encounters
one key. We might even be happy in one an accompanist – typically a guitar or
chord for a song, or a day, or even our keyboard player or a background track – we
whole playing career. G minor flute … G are often at a loss for how to handle playing
minor chord, singing our heart song through over chord changes. From our listening
our flute, and the music is sublime. experience we understand that melody
somehow “tracks” those changes in harmony
We share this one-chord preference with a in a kind of symbiotic harmony-dance. But
lot of other music genres and world music without any experience moving between
cultures – trance music, Kirtan singing, and chords on the flute, we have no idea how to
many forms of East Indian music – many of handle “playing over changes”.
which seem to focus on that sublime aspect.
This chapter describes a very simple
At the other end of the spectrum are genres technique to achieve this symbiosis in
such as Bebop that are constantly, almost harmony. It extends the idea of “playing
frenetically, moving through chord changes. from the heart” and “one-breath solos” (see
They zig, zag, and zing through major, page 23) to include chord changes, while
minor, seventh, diminished, suspended, and avoiding the head-space music theory and
augmented chord progressions, dazzling our charts that typically crop up in this area.
senses into harmonic ecstasy.
The next History section describes how this
Most of our culture's music lies somewhere technique developed. Feel free to skip it and
in between: moderately paced and (after a go right to The Technique section that
verse and chorus) predictable chord follows …
changes. The songwriter's mantra: “Three
Chords and the Truth” has been at the History
center of many of our culture's most popular
I tried for about 10 years to facilitate
music.
“Playing over Changes” in flute workshops.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, March 2015.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 89

Some sessions had moderate success.
Most were abject disasters. Some of
you reading this chapter were in those
sessions, and I can almost see a smile
on your face.

The general format was to work with

a guitarist or keyboard player – Eric
Miller, Dave Jorgensen, Adam Page,
Peter Dubner, Ron Volkman, and
many others – all outstanding
accompanists and all very familiar
with Native flutes. They would play a I was dumbfounded. Why hadn't I thought
typical straightforward accompaniment of this? I had played a concert the evening
chord progression and we would all try to before – entirely improvised – and had
identify (eyes closed) when each change in never thought about music theory. But I also
chord occurred. That typically worked well. had never verbalized how I do improvise
over chord changes … so I just blurted out:
I would then proceed to derail the whole
session by launching into music theory. The “I play any note I feel like and,
One, the Four, the Five, the Relative Major, if it sounds right, I hang out there.
the Major one step down from the Minor, If it doesn't sound right,
the Circle of Fifths, and on and on and on I move up or down one note.
down the Rabbit Hole. My early failures at
Both notes – one note up or one note
verbal descriptions of music theory gave
down – seem to almost always work
way to charts, tables, diagrams, slide shows,
harmonically.
and finally videos. There was even a slide
chart. So it doesn't matter which way you go.

These also failed miserably. And … I've learned to use ornaments and
effects to make it sound like that's what I
Then came Flute Haven 2013. We were
had intended all along.”
near the end of yet another of these “going
downhill” sessions. Amid the confused faces The group stared at me and someone asked
and head-scratching, long-timer participant “That's all you do?” I started to get a sinking
Pat Kay (pictured above right at the closing feeling in my stomach until someone in the
of Flute Haven 2010) asked: back said “Cool!”

Clint – how do YOU play over chord And then … they all did it. Everyone seemed
changes? to get it. First time – first shot – all the way
around the room, playing over a guitar who
90 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
was now progressing through all kinds of 3. Four-beat Long Tones
wild chord changes. And it sounded great. Play long tones with full breath (see the One
We had come back to the home-place of this Breath Solos chapter on page see page 23).
instrument – long tones, playing from the Play the long tones while tapping your foot.
heart, ornaments, and listening. Every four beats, change your note to
another random note. You don't need to take
The Technique a breath between notes. Play as many four-
Here is a general outline for “Playing (from beat notes as you reasonably can in one
the Heart) Over Changes”. You can breath.
customize it for your own personal use, one- 4. One-beat + Three-beat Long Tones
on-one teaching, or facilitated group
Instead of holding the same note for all four
sessions:
beats, play your random note for only the
1. Listening Exercise: first beat. Then, after the first beat, move
Identifying Chord Changes either one note up or one note down, and
You can do this with live or recorded music hold that note for beats 2, 3, and 4.
(such as the sample background tracks 5. Combinations
provided below). You can do this any time –
Combine four-beat long tones with One-beat
even listening in your car. It's best to listen
+ Three-beat long tones. You can start
to music genres with occasional, clear chord
alternating and then work towards doing
changes such as most Country, Blues, 50's
one or the other, randomly, almost without
Rock, Western Pop, Acoustic Folk, and many
thought as to when you hold your initial
others.
note for four beats or move up or down after
The exercise is simple: nod your head at the first beat.
each chord change. At first it is reactive –
6. With Accompaniment
recognizing that a change in harmony has
happened. Then it becomes predictive – Now play over a simple accompaniment that
nodding right on the downbeat of an is in the key of your flute. “Simple” usually
expected chord change. means that it has few chord changes and
they change regularly.
2. Rhythm
Tap your foot slowly. Nod your head on Background Tracks
every fourth foot-tap (every fourth “beat”).
Here are some example tracks. These were
You can count “1 – 2 – 3 – 4 –” to yourself, developed on an iPad in Garage Band (on
but this often isn't needed since we can feel headphones while on an Amtrak train!) and
a four-beat so easily. recorded on the Recording Kiosks
(http://www.FluteHaven.com/recording_
kiosk.htm) we now use at workshops. No
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 91
processing or cleanup was done (since our At the beginning, “hanging out” can be just
computers were down at the time), so they a long tone. With more experience, and
are a bit “raw” at the start and finish. especially with different music styles, you
can play around with ornaments and even
They are MP3 files, so you can either play
little melodies centered on the “hanging
them by clicking on the links, or using Save–
out” note.
As to download the tracks. All tracks are
licensed as CC–BY (Creative Commons – Here is a track I did to demonstrate the
Attribution), so you can use them for any technique. It's a bit rough since I was
purpose (even commercial) but you need to playing GarageBand and my flute at the
credit Clint Goss: same time and mixing it directly to the
recording with no post-processing. The first
Playing (from the Heart) Over Changes …
2 minutes are the “straight” technique and
… in A Minor: then I get a bit more experimental using
some melody lines and ornamentation. By 3
http://www.flutopedia.com/mp3/PHC_Ba minutes, it starts to feel (to me, at least) like
ckgroundAMinor_March2015.mp3 a “real song”:
… in G Minor: http://www.flutopedia.com/mp3/PHC_Cl
http://www.flutopedia.com/mp3/PHC_Ba intDemoGMinor_March2015.mp3
ckgroundGMinor_March2015.mp3 With experience, you will find that you will
… in F♯ Minor: start hearing where the harmony is going.
You will also start to bring in ornaments and
http://www.flutopedia.com/mp3/PHC_Ba transitions that create a complimentary
ckgroundFsMinor_March2015.mp3 melody over the chords. It will begin to
First, get coordinated with the rhythm. Then sound like “everything is as it should be” …
bring your flute up to tune with your breath and all done with no sheet music, no music
pressure so that it is consonant (“in tune”) theory, and from the heart.
with the backing track. On some flutes, this
might take substantial breath pressure, so
you might need to play surprisingly loudly.

Now try the Combinations technique

described above: Play a note and, if you like
the combined sound, “hang out” there. If
not, move up one note or down one note
and “hang out” there.

92 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Alternate Scales
Most players learn one primary scale on • want to play a particular melody that is
their instruments. They then go off and outside of the primary scale,
work on creating melodies, improvising, • need to play in a different key, but don't
playing from the heart, and generally have that key of flute (you can actually
expressing their creativity … all within that play most flutes in more than one key of
one primary scale. pentatonic minor),
• need to play in a mode, such as major,
Other scales – “alternate” scales using
that is not part of the primary scale, or
different fingerings – tend to get a bad
reputation. They can feel like you are taking • simply want to increase your creative
a step backwards since the new fingerings possibilities on the instrument.
do not feel natural. And simply the word
“scale” tends to evoke images of music
theory or memories of endless practice
sessions running mind-numbing scale
progressions to satisfy some childhood
music teacher.

Over the years, I have come to appreciate

the creative opportunities that alternate
Getting Started
scales have to offer. They can be a huge
The first thing you might explore is the
benefit if you:
simple rule: “pick up your fingers in a
• feel that your playing has gotten into a different order”. This rule has the advantage
rut, of keeping alternate scales in the realm of a
• want to evoke images of a different world listening game.
music culture,
Starting from  , rather than picking
up your ring finger for the next typical

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, October and November 2014.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 93

finger (giving you  ), try picking • Try a “woven scale” (see below).
up your middle finger for . After • Try playing every other note on the way
that, proceed up the scale in a normal order, up, then the top note, then every other
which would give you the sequence: note on the way down. If the scale has an
odd number of notes, you get to play all
You have a new scale! Now try a few slow
runs up and down the scale to answer the the notes in the scale in an unusual order.
most important question: Do I like it? If not, • Now try working on leaps: sequences with
it's back to square one to find some other large intervals between the notes. This is
combinations of “pick up your fingers in a where I usually have problems …
different order” that you like.
If you start making mistakes, rather than
You could also try some other rules, like: getting frustrated, take as a message that
you have tried to proceed too fast. This is a
• “skip a note”,
• “add a closed finger below a finger you
are opening”, and
• “add a note in the upper register”.

Learning the New Scale

Once you find a scale you like, it's time to
learn the new finger pattern. This is where
many players get sidetracked in their learning experience, not a contest, so go
attempt at a new scale. Remember that it back and try what you are doing twice as
will take a little while for you to be slowly and deliberately. Or you might have
comfortable in the new scale. You cannot to try it ridiculously slowly and deliberately.
expect to simply run it up and down a few But in the end, remember the old adage:
times and expect to have learned the finger
pattern. Remember how long it took you to “The slower you play it,
become comfortable in the primary scale? the faster you learn it”

Here are a few techniques you can do to

Woven Scales
ingrain the new scale in your finger-
memory: Woven scales (also called “broken scales” or
“scale ladders”) are a way of playing scales
• Run the scale repeatedly, from bottom to that involve changing directions rather than
top and back down again. playing the scale in strict ascending or
• Try playing Scale Songs in the new scale descending order. Woven scales make good
(see page 29). finger dexterity exercises as well as

94 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

providing a basic melody that is more The remainder of this chapter describes the
melodically interesting that a straight scale. scales on each of the pages in the Scale
Catalog.
The formula for playing a woven scale is
simple: Core Scales
The first scale that most people teach is the
Two forward, One back.
pentatonic minor scale. However, I've found
Try starting from the bottom note of the that a great alternative is the Bugle Scale. It
scale, play the next two notes, then go back is also a great scale to teach as a first
one note. Repeat this all the way up the alternate scale – after experimenting with
scale. At the top of the scale, you might the “pick up your fingers in a different
have to experiment a bit to figure out the order” approach.
best way to turn it around and proceed back
Note that the root of the Bugle Scale is not
down. The sequence might look like this
 . If you improvise melodies in this
(with the “one back” notes in red):
scale, you will find yourself ending on
 – the root of this scale.
A Scale Catalog
Once you have experimented with finding The great thing about the Bugle Scale is that
your own alternate scales, you might like to it is a great lead-in to playing one of the
pick a scale out of the scale catalog that I core songs in the Native flute's repertoire:
put together. Amazing Grace.

The complete Scale Catalog (all eight pages Note that all the other scales on this first
shown in this chapter plus a descriptive page that I am calling “Core Scales” also
cover page) is available in a Scale Catalog have a root that is above the fundamental
PDF:  note on the instrument.

http://www.Flutopedia.com/pdf/ScaleCata Pentatonic Major can be a revelation for

log_SixHole.pdf many novice and intermediate players,
because it opens the door to playing in a
It has typical fingerings for contemporary major key. Simply keeping the same notes
six-hole Native American flutes (sometimes
as Pentatonic Minor, but moving the root
called a “mode 1/4 flute”).
note of your playing (where you begin and
This list of 58 scales is meant to be a tool for end your phrases and melodies) changes the
exploration of scales from world music key to major.
traditions. Most players of Native American 3-Note and 4-Note Scales
flutes use a very small number of alternate
These “sparse” scales follow the rule of
scales, so please do not feel compelled to try
dropping notes. They are typically easier to
to learn the full set of scales provided.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 95

learn than the other scales because they the typical melodies played on this
have relatively few notes. instrument.

Note the fingerings in red: they are notes in Upper Major and High Major are two
the upper register of some (but not all) versions of the Diatonic Major scale. On
Native American flutes. I've added them to these two scales, you can play many songs
the charts to make them available if your from the Western European tradition of
flute happens to be able to play those notes. music, especially those that stay within one
octave (such as many hymns).
Exotic Pentatonic Scales
These are often the best scales to begin with Diatonic Scales
if you are exploring new scales. They This page shows fingerings for a full set of
provide a “sparse” feel that evokes Asian seven diatonic scales.
cultures.
Each one starts on  and, if you can
The notes in orange are not recommended – access three notes in the upper octave, gives
I've added them to the scale catalog simply you a full one octave in the scale.
to show that these notes are in the scale, but
Other Pentatonic Scales
playing them can be extremely difficult on
most flutes. However, their corresponding And finally, the last two pages show an
notes in the second register, in particular the array of other 5-note scales from world
note typically played with the fingering cultures.
 , can be excellent replacements.

Variants of Pentatonic Minor

These scales are all slight variations of the
Pentatonic Minor scale. They differ by only
one note from the core Pentatonic Minor
scale.

It is fun to explore how making just a small

change in a well-known scale can
dramatically change the feel of the scale.

Expanded Scales
These scales increase the number of notes
from the five notes of Pentatonic Minor. The
seven scales on this page are among the
most versatile, although they take the feel of
melodies in a whole different direction from

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A Scale Codex
The prior chapter I provided a list of all the meant to be a tool for exploration of scales
scales I could find on the Native American from world music traditions.
flute (there were 58!) In an interesting The remainder of this chapter describes the
aside, the very next melody I improvised elements on each page of the Scale Codex,
after sending out that newsletter used a using the Pentatonic Minor scale as an
scale not on that list (!!) Amazing what example.
scales this instrument holds!

After sending that list out and distributing it Pentatonic Minor

at our workshops, we've gotten a number of The image at the right shows the first page
requests for more specific information on of the Scale Codex – for the Pentatonic
each scale: what are the intervals, what Minor scale, typically considered the
about written tablature, what are the notes primary scale on most Native American
on each key of flute, and how do they relate flutes.
to chords and harmony.
The top of the page shows the notes for the
So, I've cooked up the idea of a “Scale scale in Nakai tablature – the system used
Codex”. Each page shows a single scale with for most sheet music for these instruments.
lots of detail. Below each note are the finger diagrams for
the most typical fingering for each note.
The complete Scale Codex is available in a
Note: Each flute is unique. Fingerings
Scale Codex PDF:
needed to get any particular pitch vary,
www.flutopedia.com/pdf/ScaleCodex.pdf sometimes dramatically, from flute to flute.
While the fingerings for the Pentatonic
It has typical fingerings for contemporary
Minor scale are fairly standardized, most of
six-hole Native American flutes (sometimes
the other scales have notes that call for a
called a “mode 1/4 flute”). This
wide variety of fingerings across the range
comprehensive info about each scale is
of flutes.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, December 2014.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 107

Below the fingerings are the intervals (in
Western classical music theory terms) from
the root note of the scale.

One of the best ways to learn a scale is to

sing it. The Scale Codex uses the vocables
that are used in two common systems for
“note singing”: The Western Solfege system
and the East Indian Sargam system.

Next comes twelve rows that show the notes

of the scale on each of the twelve keys of
flutes. The key of flute is always the first
column. However, note that the root note of
many scales is not the lowest note on the
instrument!

Below the notes, each Scale Codex page has

the intervals (number of semitones) between
each note in the scale, and the cumulative
number of semitones from the root note of
the scale.

The “Perfect Ratio” row gives the ratio of

the frequencies in relation to the root note.
These frequencies are very close to (but not
exactly) the tunings that we use in the
Western classical music tradition – typically
called “Equal Temperament”.

And finally, the bottom row shows the

intervals as they are known in the Jazz
world.

108 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 109
110 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
This Is My Music
One of the most useful tools we have as some “deep listening” sessions during
musicians is the ability to record and hear tracking and mixing, and experiment with
our own sound creations.
The technology revolution
has given us the ability to
make high-quality recordings
relatively conveniently and
inexpensively.

Sometime during each of our

Native Flute workshops, Vera
and I offer this challenge to
the group: commit to getting
your music down on a CD.
It’s the greatest gift you can
give friends, family, and
people who want to hear
more of your music … a little CD package graphic design to complete the package.
that essentially says: “This Is My Music”. But despite these benefits, it can still be a
The benefits are enormous. Beyond having a daunting process to go from playing your
heartfelt creation to offer as a gift or a flute to handing “This Is My Music” out to
calling card, the process of creating a CD your friends. This chapter is an overview of
can be so valuable for improving our some of the ways to get from music to
musicality. We get to practice particular recording.
songs and focus on particular flutes, do

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the February 2012
issue of Voice of the Wind, published by the INTERNATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE
ASSOCIATION (INAFA).
An on-line version is available on Flutopedia at: Flutopedia.com/art_this_is_my_music.htm

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 111

One approach is to hire a producer who only can you hear your own flute playing
shares your vision, and place the project in clearly and get experience with how to use
his or her hands. The job of a producer is to the microphone to control the volume and
coordinate and oversee every aspect of the timbre of your sound, but you can record
project that is needed to bring the project to your playing as well as broadcast your
completion. This is the typical approach music over the Internet. To record your own
taken by larger record labels, and can work playing, you’ll need one of the many
for musicians who have some significant recording programs available. Audacity is a
finances behind the project. good (and free) choice, if you’re not daunted
by the numerous features. For something
If you don’t have a bountiful budget, there
simpler, just do a Web search for “simple
are many ways to approach the project,
recording software”.
right down to recording and mixing your
own project and burning CDs on your If you’d like to get involved with other flute
computer’s CD writer. players, try some of the live, Internet-based
audio chat rooms that function as high-tech
The first link in the recording of your sound
open mic sessions. PalTalk is a free service
is the microphone. One of the challenges of
that hosts a number of such sessions
playing Native American flutes is that they
throughout the week (PalTalk.com). With
are constructed so that we, as the player, are
the simple microphone and headphones
often in the worst location to hear our own
setup, you can join in and blast your live
sounds. The vibrations project from under
playing to all corners of the Earth.
the block and sound hole and finger holes
out to our listeners better than they project Selecting a microphone for playing flute is
back to our own ears. And one of the huge always a challenge. There are many kinds
benefits of recording our sound is learning and brands of microphones, and they can be
to work with this microphone. confusing. The good news is that many
brands of high quality microphones that are
Even if you intend to use a studio to record
ideal for flute playing are available
your music, it’s a good idea to learn to work
relatively inexpensively. You might begin
with the microphone. A simple setup that
with a simple all-purpose dynamic
routes the microphone back into your ears
microphone such as the Shure SM-57
(via headphones) can let you hear the real
instrument microphone, generally available
sound of your flute for the first time. It
for about $90. However, for more detailed
might be as simple as connecting a
recordings and a better overall sound, using
microphone to your computer’s “Mic” port
a “large diaphragm condenser” microphone
and ear buds to the speaker jack.
will get you noticeably better sound quality
With this simple setup, you have added a lot and recordings.
of possibilities to your musical world. Not

112 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

However, using a condenser microphone its own sound reverberant profile that can
brings one added requirement: you must be emulated with digital effects.
supply power to condenser microphones.
Getting practice on your own or during
One easy way to accomplish this is to run
PalTalk sessions with how to set the EQ and
your microphone into a small mixer and
effects can be a huge benefit during
then run the output of the mixer into your
recording and mixing sessions.
computer on a USB or Firewire interface.
Depending on your goals and finances, you Another possibility for recording is using
can choose a mixer that has some added one of the new portable digital recorders
features (in addition to the “phantom rather than a computer. These are
power” needed for the condenser inexpensive and can produce a great sound,
microphone): especially if you use your external
microphone and/or mixer. Vera and I have
• the ability to add effects such as reverb
travelled with an older Zoom H4 to many
and delay,
great locations around the world and caught
• the ability to equalize the frequency of the sounds of many musicians and sound
your sound by adjusting the balance of the environments.
high, middle, and low frequency
components of the sound signal, and When you’re ready to record your music for
• the possibility of mixing in other posterity, you might consider getting
instruments and/or background tracks that someone else to handle the tasks of
you can play over. recording while you just play. This frees you
from the angst of getting the best recording
Digital effects such as delay and reverb can (or “tracking”) of your sound.
add a whole new dimension to your flute
After recording, the project generally
playing, smoothing out any unwanted
proceeds in stages toward completion:
irregularities in your breath pressure and
laying down other tracks that will become
bringing you close to the sound that is
part of a song, mixing the tracks together
typically heard on professionally mixed and
(using mixing software such as Audacity),
mastered CDs. On the downside, digital
audio mastering of all mix tracks to polish
effects can be over-used, making your sound
the overall sound of the CD, pre-mastering
muddy and distant. This is where deep
of the CD image to add the meta-data that
listening over extended periods comes into
can be added to your project, graphic design
play … finding just the right amount of each
and printing of the package, and duplication
effect to add to get the sound you want. For
(using CD burner technology typical of
my taste, the goal is to capture the ambiance
computer CD writers) or replication (which
of the natural environment you want your
is a larger-volume production process using
listeners to visualize. Each environment – a
a glass master).
cathedral or a canyon or a concert hall – has
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 113
If the prospect of tackling all the tasks alone
is too daunting, you could consider
recording some of your tracks at home and
hiring an audio engineer to mix them and
produce the CD. Alternately, you could seek
out a program that at a flute school or
festival that handles as many of the tasks as
you need.

Whether you hire a producer or undertake

the process yourself the important thing is
that you get “This Is My Music” produced
and out into the world.

Your audience awaits!

114 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Widening the Circle
Every musician should have their own polycarbonate and saying, “this is my
CD. music”.

That may be a controversial statement, but One of the big questions that comes up
… There … I said it. before, during, and after producing your CD

The process of crafting your

music into a permanent
recording has so many
benefits and generates so
much positive energy that I
have come to love it almost
as much as playing. I’ve done
it six times now, and look
forward to the seventh.

When we are crafting a CD,

we play more, focus on our
musical ideas in a larger scope, interact with is: How do I promote my CD? When you
other musicians, perceive our music more produce a CD, widening the circle of your
from the listener’s perspective, and spend listeners is part of the process. This chapter
many wonderful hours listening deeply to has some suggestions for how to get your
our own musical sounds. All good things! music out there in gradually wider circles of
And there is nothing that compares with distribution. We start from the smallest,
handing another person a little disc of closest circles and widen outward from
there … starting for a self-produced CD for

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the May 2009 issue
of Voice of the Wind, published by the INTERNATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE ASSOCIATION
(INAFA). An on-line version is available on Flutopedia at
Flutopedia.com/art_widening_the_circle.htm

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 115

small-circle distribution up to a serious as you wish, but keep tabs on the monetary
attempt to be an Indie artist. and time cost.

This Is My Music “Niche” Sales On-line

Most debut CDs by musicians I know are At this level you're looking to distribute
what I call a “This Is My Music” CD. It is directly to people who are beyond your own
generally the music we love to play, circle of friends and family. They may be in
regardless of marketing considerations like a circle of ardent fans of either your
specific genres, target audience, and particular “niche” style of music or fans of
packaging. your group itself.

For a CD of your own music designed for Consider moving to CD replication rather
friends and family, as well as limited sales at than CD-R duplication. Replication is
your own gigs, most people begin this way: typically done by an outside house such as
DiscMakers (DiscMakers.com). Cost is
• Burn your music to a CD-R on your
typically around $2 per CD, but minimum
computer, design a label for the CD on a
quantity is realistically 1,000. The
computer graphics program such as
advantages of replication over CD-R
PhotoShop, and give it away or sell it.
duplication are many, but the big one is
• If you get tired of burning CDs one at a reliability. Replication uses a glass
time off your computer, you could get a master/stamping process that is very
multi-disc CD burner (I have a Sandy reliable, as opposed to the reflective dye
Yang duplicator and it works well). “burning” process of duplication.

Get a UPC bar code on your product. To do

Alternately, you could use an outfit such as anything in the “real world” with your
DiscMakers (DiscMakers.com) for “short-run” product you'll need a bar code. Typically,
duplication. It will cost maybe $4–5 per CD the replication house will supply one,
in quantities of 300 and under. sometimes for free. Alternately, you can use
This may be all you need! Personally, I CD Baby (see below) if you are still doing
believe all musicians should strive to have home production.
their own personal CD. Gifting your music Sign up with CD Baby. This is the best thing
to friends and family is a wonderful act … you can do for yourself. They are incredibly
“This is my music” is your best calling card! useful and supportive in every dimension of
Getting more sales and exposure may be what an Indie artist needs. For a $35 fee per
tempting, but it carries a tax in effort, CD, you get a dedicated web page for your
organization, paperwork, and cost. Go as far music, listings in their often-perused
catalog, distribution to a slew of digital

116 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

download services (the big one being all the performance of your music, and pays those
regions of iTunes), fulfillment of physical royalties back to the songwriters and
CDs (they warehouse your CD, take credit publishers. There are three organizations in
card sales on-line and fulfill them), the U.S. (ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC) but most
fulfillment of digital download off their own other countries have a single organization.
web site, and provide a pile of advice.
Establish a relationship with a publishing
For a flavor of CD Baby and for the advice company, or create one of your own. The
they offer, check out their “General Advice publishing company receives 50% of many
for Indie Artists” at CDBaby.com. classes of royalties, so having your own
company allows you to retain that portion of
CD Baby does make many things easy, but
any royalties. Note that in the US, there is a
there are many, many things that they do
complication because of the multiple PROs.
not do. The big thing is that they do not
In practice, your publishing company needs
actually promote your music … that's
to have an affiliation with the same PRO as
squarely in your domain. They do give you
the songwriter. To handle this, most
advice however (“when you do a gig, take a
publishing companies have separate
picture of the audience from stage and put it
divisions, each registered with a different
up on your web site the next morning – and
PRO.
tell everyone in the audience what you are
doing so they rush to your web site to see Register all your songs with the Harry Fox
themselves”). agency (HarryFox.com). This is done by the
publishing company and is a convenient
Get your songs into GRACENOTE/CDDB and
way to collect mechanical royalties, in the
FREEDB. These are the on-line databases that
case where someone else wishes to record
provide the title and artist information to
your songs.
your iTunes software when you import a CD
into iTunes. To populate your information Register your songs for copyright protection.
into the GRACENOTE/CDDB MEDIA DATABASE Typically done in the U.S. through the
(GraceNote.com), you can use the ITUNES LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, using form SR within 3
application itself and the Advanced → months of publication.
Submit command. For FREEDB (FreeDB.org),
Register your music with SOUNDSCAN at
I use the AudioGrabber PC software.
Soundscan.com.

Covering the legal and royalty bases in Register for an ISRC code prefix. ISRC codes
anticipation of royalty income are stamped onto CDs for track
identification.
Sign up with a Performance Rights
Organization (“PRO”). A PRO handles Register your songs with your PRO.
royalties derived from airplay and

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 117

For sales to a wider audience and wish to accept orders that you fulfill
Consider professional cover design. Your yourself.
cousin might be great with Photoshop, but a Submit your music to ALLMUSIC at
professional graphic artist will make a huge AllMusic.com.
difference to your shelf-appeal.
Consider various music awards such as the
Consider professional mastering of your INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS, INTERNATIONAL
tracks. After mixing of your music, a ACOUSTIC MUSIC AWARDS, and (of course) the
mastering engineer will often provide a GRAMMYS!!
substantial improvement to the sound
quality of your CD by balancing the sound Consider using Pump Audio for promotion
level and EQ across the tracks, removing of your music to the video/film industry.
low rumbles, and adding ISRC codes.

Get your CD(s) on Amazon.com. There is a If you get to the point of being a serious,
straightforward program for vendors called possibly full-time Indie artist or decide to
“Amazon Advantage”. become a record label and publishing
company that represents and promotes other
Selling CDs directly to retail stores is artists, there is an excellent book: All You
typically done through distributors. There Need to Know About the Music Business by
are many music distributors – I cataloged Donald S. Passman.
206 when I was looking for distribution in
mid-2007. Distributors tend to specialize in However, it is not for the casual reader!
a segment of the retail market and/or (Unless you want to buy the book just to
geographic region. Examples include: CD convince yourself that you'd rather spend
“Bins” at truck stops, new age stores, your time on your music instead of
museum shops, and “captive markets” such descending into the legal and financial
as airline style channels. For example, New morass that surrounds the music business).
Leaf and Music Design distribute to New
Age shops, with New Leaf being primary for
the US East Coast and Music Design for the
US West Coast.

Consider submitting your music to Pandora

(www.Pandora.com) – a very widely used
service.

Consider your own web site. This might be

worthwhile if you have more than one CD

118 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Performance Anxiety
Your heart is racing, and your hands are checking the block position on my flute!)
sweaty. You're pacing around nervously The psychology research behind this simple
trying to reason with yourself: technique is substantial. It centers around
There's nothing to worry about. the concept of “arousal congruency” – re-
Performing is just like playing at home. framing one emotion in terms of another,
The microphone means nothing. related emotion that has a more positive
All those people listening are your result. If you're interested in the science,
friends. check out a paper by Alison Wood Brooks,
“Get Excited: Reappraising Pre-Performance
But it doesn't work. Your heart races even Anxiety as Excitement”, Journal of
faster. Experimental Psychology: General, Volume
143, Number 3, pages 1144 – 1158, 2014.
Try this: Say, out loud:
However, try your own experiment the next
I feel excited.
time you're about to perform. Does it work?
Follow it up with:

I feel energized …
I feel alive

That's it!

This trick of psychology lets you use

the stress that comes from anxiety as
a source of positive energy. It's
worked for me many, many times
and it's simply become my pre-
performance mantra (along with

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article, titled “Stressin’ Out – How to
Harness Performance Anxiety” appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute Newsletter, March 2017.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 119

120 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Flying with Flutes
Commercial air travel is wonderfully safe
these days … if you are a person. For flutes,
the story was not so good – dire in some
cases. There are many sad stories of
uninformed officials, mis-communication,
and loose regulations that have resulted in
dented, cracked, or completely pulverized
musical instruments. John Herrington, the first tribal registered
Native American astronaut, with his
However, the story has changed over the
Native American flute on the
last few years, and your flutes can rejoice in
Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2002.
the new U.S. regulations for air travel with
musical instruments. number of flutes to festivals and shows,
have different considerations and strategies).
(We are writing this chapter in Costa Rica,
after watching our luggage sail in a This chapter reviews the current rules and
beautiful arc over the luggage carrousel and recommendations put forth by U.S. Agencies
land with a thud on the floor. Thank and offers some specific advice for traveling
heavens I didn’t check any flutes!) safely with your Native American flutes.
Text from the published rules and advice for
This chapter is oriented toward flute circle traveling with musical instruments from the
facilitators who may travel to workshops official sources are shown as “quoted text in
and community music gatherings as flute italics” (or in quotation blocks). The original
players who will be carrying a small number sources are listed in the References section
of flutes on commercial air carrier flights. at the end of this chapter.
(Flute makers, who often transport a large

This chapter, written by Clint Goss, was substantially revised in the Seventh Edition of
this book based on new information and legal statutes. Versions of this article appear in
Clint & Vera’s Flute Newsletter, December 2013 (“Up in the Air”) and in a 2019 issue of
Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 121

Thanks to JoAnn Calavan of the Oregon
Flute Store for specifications on flute cases
Background Preparation
and helpful advice on this chapter. The first line of defense in protecting your
flutes is a good flute case. “Good” does not
Which Flutes? necessarily mean expensive. There are
several vendors of cases that we have found
The first decision may be the most
to be well-made and rugged. Some are
important: Which flutes do we take?
purpose-built case for Native American
No matter how well we pack and prepare, flutes, and some were designed for other
on every trip, our instruments are always at uses, such as fishing gear.
some risk. We also incur a mental burden,
The core of most of these flute cases is PVC
worrying about those instruments.
tubing. It provides a rugged and cost-
We can dramatically reduce the risk and the effective backbone for a sturdy case.
mental burden by selecting instruments that
Depending on how many flutes you wish to
are relatively inexpensive and replaceable. I
carry, the diameter of the tube and the
no longer travel with flutes that are
overall length of the case are critical
expensive, delicate, or have historic
considerations. The goal will be to take the
significance.
flute case on board as carry-on baggage, and
Of course, most Native American flutes are whether that can be done on the smaller
one-of-a-kind and therefore irreplaceable. regional aircraft depends on the dimensions
However, there are some flute makers that of the case.
produce lines of flutes that are all very
My main case for air travel – the red case in
similar to each other (or virtually identical).
the photo – has an inside diameter of 6⅜″
These flutes are often reasonably priced. I
and is 34″ long. I also have one that is 42″
think these make excellent candidates for
long with an inside diameter of 5⅞″ – the
stress-free flute travel. There are even some
blue case. However, this longer case can be
lines of plastic flutes that are inexpensive
a problem on regional jets.
and much more durable than flutes of wood.

122 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Here are the specifics of the other, more
specialized, cases in the photo. All
diameters are inside the case, and all
lengths are approximate inside diameters:

• Green: 3⅛″ × 25″ – I have found that

this can fit inside my knapsack, with the
flute case sticking a bit outside the top.
This seems to be acceptable to airline
personnel for making this case an integral
part of my carry-on.
• Large Black: 7¾″ × 33″ – this is
My array of flute cases
significantly wider than the red case (the
additional 1⅜″ or diameter means you suspect you may be purchasing flutes
noticeably more storage capacity). It is at, for example, a festival.
also lighter than the red case because it is Finally, the large, multi-color tan case on
constructed of aluminum rather than PVC. the left side of the photo – dubbed the
• Narrow Black and Tan: Custom cases for “Honker” by the manufacturer – is
single flutes that call for special constructed of three tubes with inside
protection. diameters of 5⅞″, 5⅞″, and 4⅛″ and a total
• Semi-rigid black case: An experimental length of about 39″. I use it in workshop
case that can be folded up when not in use settings where I need to frequently relocate
– ideal for taking in your luggage when with my flutes. The three tubes keep them
organized and saves the hassle of extracting
them and setting them up at each location.

The cases are covered in both nylon (the

solid color cases) and wool (the fancy
patterns) and have found both to the be
durable, but the wool case does tend to pick
up more dirt. Also, the fancy pattern does
seem to call more attention to the case, so if
you goal is to be more inconspicuous,
consider the plain, solid color.

Three tubes keep flutes organized and

safe
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 123
 Case for the Slovakian fujara and several other long flutes

And finally, I have a custom-built case for I try to pack the case tight enough to
extremely long flutes. This case, built by prevent free-movement of the instruments,
Calzone case company in Bridgeport, CT, is but still allow a bit of “give” in response to
designed for the Slovalian fujara, but can jarring and shocks. If the flutes are not
also accommodate several other flutes. In packed tightly enough, you can add some
practice, I place foam cushions between small-cell bubble wrap or even some
each of the flutes in this case before taking it clothing around the flutes.
on the road. While this case extremely
One decision is whether to remove the
sturdy and protective, it is also heavy and
blocks from your flutes. You will be able to
unwieldy.
fit more flutes in your case if you remove
Each flute case has several of the “please the blocks. However, leaving the blocks on
return” labels shown on the right. your flutes protects the delicate area as well
Fortunately, I have never had to test as the delicate bottom of the block.
whether they work. These internal labels are
in addition to the standard luggage tag on
the outside of each item of checked and
carry-on luggage.

I pack each flute in its own flute sock before

putting it into the flute case. These are made
of some soft material – typically wool or
synthetic “fleece”. The flute socks can be
folded over at the top to give a bit more
protection to the head end of the flute. I
would not recommend traveling with flutes
that have an ornate, delicate, or carved foot
end such as a “bird head” flute. The label that I place inside each flute case

124 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Another item to pack in your flute case: a these times, and thus less competition for
copy of the regulations. I pack the single- space in the overhead bins. If you must
page, highlighted copy of FAA fly on peak travel days, flights will often
Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 (see be less crowded mid-day and late in the
below), in the hopes that it will be useful evening.
evidence in supporting my case.
Check Tim’s original article (see the
This single-page, highlighted copy is References section) for lots of additional
available at: advice on selecting an airline. Tim also
provides advice on insurance limits for
http://www.Flutopedia.com/img/FAAModRef
carry-on items and musical instruments, an
orm2012_MusicalInstrExcerpt_lg.jpg
area I have not explored.

Booking a Flight
The Regs
Here is some advice from Tim Kelley of the
The patchwork of arbitrary and
Department of Transportation ([KELLY
contradictory airline rules and practices for
2017]):
musical instruments were swept away by a
Whenever possible, choose a nonstop combination of the FAA Modernization and
flight before a direct flight, and a direct Reform Act of 2012 ([USPL 112-95]) and
flight before a connection. A direct the subsequent Final Rule issued by the U.S.
flight—sometimes called a “through” Department of Transportation ([DOT
flight—has a single flight number. It may 2015]).
have one or more intermediate stops, but
The central rule for flute players in the
passengers do not have to change planes.
typical situation is the “Small Instruments”
If your instrument is checked into the
rule stating that passengers are permitted to:
baggage compartment, choosing flights in
this order will reduce its chances of “… carry a violin, guitar, or other
misconnecting or being offloaded at an musical instrument in the aircraft cabin
intermediate stop. Selecting a direct flight … if the instrument can be stowed safely
rather than a connection will also in a suitable baggage compartment in the
eliminate the need to find space for a aircraft cabin … and there is space for
carry-on item on a second flight. Note: such stowage at the time the passenger
nonstop flights sometimes cost more than boards the aircraft.”
connections.
I have added emphasis to the phrases that
… consider flying at an off-peak time are particularly important. Here are some
such as Tuesday through Thursday, additional points from the Reform Act, the
Saturday afternoon or evening, or Sunday Final Rule, and the Department of
morning. There are fewer passengers at
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 125
Transportation Frequently Asked Questions excellent set of example scenarios for
([DOT 2015A]) that are relevant: foreign air travel, see the Frequently
Asked Questions in [DOT 2015A].
• If the flute case “fits in the overhead bin,
it must be carried regardless of size or
weight (unless it exceeds a manufacturer
At the Time the Passenger Boards …
limit) assuming space is available.” This is a key phrase in the law. If there is no
• If the weight of the flute case “is less than
the placarded maximum weight capacity
of the bin and the instrument was in the
bin before the other items that cause the
bin to exceed the maximum weight
capacity, it is the later item(s) that should
be removed.”
• Air carriers are required to “count the
musical instrument towards its limitation
on the number of carry-on items.” So, in
the typical situation where the airline
allows one carry-on bag plus one
“personal item” such as a briefcase or a
laptop bag, and the flute case is too large
to count as a “personal item”, the flute
case will count as your “carry-on bag”. In
practice, I have been allowed to carry on
both a knapsack and my flute case on
large and wide-body jets. However, on Highlighted excerpt from Public Law 112-
regional aircraft, I am prepared carry on 95. I pack a copy in each flute case
my laptop and my flute case and gate- space in the overhead storage compartments
check the rest of my knapsack, if “at the time the passenger boards” … we are
requested. out of luck.
• Brass instruments do not qualify as “Small
This means that boarding as early as
Instruments” and must be carried as
practical is an important element in flute
checked baggage. This may be an issue if
safety. You will often find me at the head of
you carry a metal instrument – you may
the line for my boarding group, long before
need to convince the staff that your metal
we are called to board. Most airlines offer
flute is not a “brass instrument”.
priority boarding for an extra fee – this
• All these regulations apply to flights service allows you to be in the first general
operated by non-U.S. carriers. For an
126 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
boarding group (after elite frequent flyers aside for a physical inspection. While I
but before most other passengers). cannot assist a TSA officer in removing the
instruments from the case, I do request to be
If we get our flutes stowed first, and other
allowed to re-pack them after the inspection.
bags do not fit in the overhead as a result,
I have never had damage of any kind from a
we still get priority. A typical scenario is the
TSA physical inspection.
rollaboard bags that just fit in the overhead
– but not if a flute case is behind them. Personally, I think that TSA officers have
Some passenger will slam their rollaboard one of the most challenging jobs, and one
bags harder and harder to make them fit – that is key to improving safety and even
unaware that there is a flute case in the making commercial aviation possible. I
back. It pays to stow your flutes near your always try to remain positive and pleasant
seat and keep an eye on the proceedings. in these situations and thank them for the
service they provide in “keeping us safe”.
If you are ticketed in economy class and
there is no space left there, but there is
space in business class, the Final Rule does
Last Resorts
not require the airline to allow you to stow What will you do if, despite all your efforts,
your flutes there. However, the Department you are told you must check your flutes? I
of Transportation does “encourage carriers think that this is a decision that should be
to fully utilize all the stowage spaces made early on, long before your flight. It
available on a flight to ensure the safe should probably be part of your decision
transportation of carry-on items of all process in selecting the flutes you will take.
passengers, including musical instruments.” If I decide to pack only low-cost flutes that
can easily be replaced with substantially
Security Checks similar instruments, I might be willing to
release my flutes into the netherworld of
Getting your flutes safely through a
checked baggage. Otherwise, my only option
checkpoint of the Transportation Safety
is to not board the flight.
Authority (TSA) calls for a combination of
preparation and finesse. In addition to the There is a long history of musicians who
luggage tag on the outside of every piece of have been denied boarding, who have
luggage – even carry-on luggage – I put a chosen not to board rather than check their
prominent “Fragile” label on my flute case. delicate musical instruments, or who have
had their instruments destroyed during air
The advice of the TSA is to “inform the TSA
travel. One classical ensemble set up their
officer if your instrument requires special
instruments and broadcast a concert over
care and handling” so those are exactly the
YouTube while their aircraft pulled back
words that I use – “special care and
from the gate behind them. Others have
handling” – when my flute case is taken
tweeted their predicament. And the most
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 127
famous sad musician story – United Breaks https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/f
Guitars – went viral. It is hilarious and sad iles/docs/Musical%20instruments_FR_final%2
and has been viewed over 17 million times 0rule.pdf, retrieved February 9, 2018.
on YouTube … check it out at:
[DOT 2015A] U.S. Department of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4z Transportation, Office of Aviation
Oqozo Enforcement and Proceedings, Answers to
Frequently Asked Questions Concerning
A BBC report analyzed the economic impact
Enforcement of the Musical Instruments
of the video on the value of United’s stock
Rule (14 CFR Part 251), March 4, 2015,
price, which dropped $180 million in the
https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/f
month after the video was released.
iles/docs/DOT_Musical_Instruments_FAQ_2_
It may be possible that the Congress and the 0.pdf, retrieved February 9, 2018.
FAA undertook an overhaul of the
[KELLY 2017] Tim Kelly, Musical
regulations for humanistic reasons – to
Instrument Tip Sheet – Flying with a
support the arts and working musicians who
Musical Instrument, U.S. Department of
are simply trying to get to the next venue.
Transportation, Aviation Consumer
However, I personally believe that the threat
Protection, October 5, 2017,
of another public relations disaster provides
https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/f
musicians with a powerful tool when
iles/docs/resources/individuals/aviation-
seeking to simply travel safely with our
consumer-protection/47261/musical-
treasured instruments.
instruments-tip-sheet.pdf, retrieved February
9, 2018.
References
[TSA 2018] Transportation Security
[USPL 112-95] U.S. Public Law 112-95 /
Administration, Frequently Asked Questions,
House Resolution 658, FAA Modernization
https://www.tsa.gov/travel/frequently-asked-
and Reform Act of 2012, 112th Congress
questions/, retrieved February 9, 2018.
(2011-2012),
https://www.congress.gov/bill/112th-
congress/house-bill/658/, retrieved February
15, 2018.

[DOT 2015] U.S. Department of

Transportation, Office of the Secretary,
Carriage of Musical Instruments, Final Rule,
14 CFR Part 251, Docket No. DOT–OST–
2014–0231, RIN 2105–AE37, Federal
Register, volume 80, number 2, pages 161–
166, January 5, 2015,
128 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Nudge, Nudge
It’s happened to us all … we go to
a flute circle, festival, or
workshop and get inspired. We
listen and learn and play and play
and play. Our playing improves,
and we come away from the
event with new inspiration and
with the conviction to practice
more, write down our songs, and
start recording our CD …

Then we return from the event.

Work intrudes, projects pile up.
Life happens. Four weeks later,
we’ve barely picked up the flute.
every week, was deemed impractical by the
That intense feeling of wholeness we had
very practical Vera, my wife of 26 years. I
when we were expressing our music is
had to agree with her.
replaced by a hollow feeling of failure and
inability to play. Our promise to practice an Then she pointed out that my playing wasn’t
hour a day feels like a failed New Year’s the problem, it was my practicing. Her
resolution to lose weight. advice: don’t play for a solid month. Instead,
spend the time focusing on how to structure
After I had many of these roller-coaster
my life to fit the music in.
cycles of “workshop love” and “homeplace
draught”, I began to take aim at the One month of not playing seemed severe.
problem. One solution, go to a flute festival But I had to admit I probably would not

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the August 2008
issue of Voice of the Wind, published by the INTERNATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE
ASSOCIATION (INAFA). An on-line version is available on Flutopedia at
Flutopedia.com/art_nudge.htm

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 129

have played much that month, and the Vera was not impressed with my “success”. I
exercise of restructuring my life to fit in the had not, after all, spent one full month
music began to be fun. I did not need to “set thinking about music in my life, but had
aside time” for this exercise, I could do it simply found one quick (but admittedly,
anywhere! awesome) way to focus on music. Knowing
that she is usually right about these things, I
So, I started thinking about it while driving
returned in earnest to the mental task. I
to work. The first realization was that if I
came up with many ideas and tried them
could think about restructuring my life
over the years … here is a list of some of the
toward music while driving, why couldn’t I
successful ones:
just do music while driving? The next day I
had a stack of CDs in the car, and within a
week I had a huge list of CDs and iPod
Create a safe space for your music
music that I had wanted to listen to … This is a place and a time where you can be
enough for a year’s worth of commuting. yourself musically – to do whatever strikes
your fancy, including vocalizing, playing
W. A. Mathieu, the famous jazz pianist and your flute loudly, doing physical warm-ups,
music educator, advises musicians to spend and playing other people’s music. The
¼ of their time listening to other people’s physical space could be as little as a shelf
music, so I was already 25% of the way to with your favorite flute(s) and some sheet
my goal. music.
Then I happened to listen to a recording of The time aspect is often more challenging …
the great jazz flutist Yusef Lateef, where he creating a half hour where others in your
was scat singing at the same time as life acknowledge that this is “your time”.
improvising on his flute. So I tried singing Getting a switch where I could send my
along with some simpler NAF melodies. At telephone calls directly to the answering
first it was difficult to even find the first machine without having it ring was a key
note, but once I was able to match pitch step here.
with a few long-tones, singing became easier
and easier.
Sprinkle flutes around your living space
Then something magic happened: I began If you happen to have more than one flute,
playing flute without a flute! I could develop try placing them in places that invite you to
NAF melodies just by humming, and I found play. It just might encourage you to pick it
I could immediately play them on a flute up if the time is right. For me, playing flute
along with my humming. I was running 5 times a day for 5 minutes was much more
home after parking the car and playing for valuable than playing for a straight half
an hour while humming melodies. hour.

130 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Loop pedal I used these tricks and techniques over time
I am lucky to have a loop pedal attached to to nudge me into playing. But as I settled
my microphone and speaker setup. I found into playing more regularly, something
that if I lay down a simple rhythmic loop amazing happened. I found that the positive
and leave it running, then I am drawn back feeling I got from playing each day exceeded
to my music space over and over throughout the effort of getting started. Was I getting
the day to jam with that background. addicted to playing flute? So be it!

Keep the music going

I organized my iPod by creating a playlist of
background listening music, and play it a
low volume all day. It’s so low that a person
on the other end of a phone call will not
hear it, but for me it’s there. This was a
huge inducement to play.

Create a goal
Every time I had a concert scheduled, I
practiced like mad. In the weeks leading up
to a workshop that we would lead, my
music came to the forefront. When I got
serious about doing a CD, I played like mad.
Eventually, I realized that if I had a series of
nicely spaced events, that I would be
encouraged to play all the time.

Reading
I found that the more I read about music,
the more I wanted to play. After reading
VOW I would play for days. The great books
on music and improvising spurred me on:
The Listening Book by W. A. Mathieu,
Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner, and
The Music Lesson by Victor L. Wooten all
spurred periods of intense music making.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 131

132 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Philosophers on Flutes
Six friends sit on the shores of the
Mediterranean and discuss their image of
an ideal society. Based on justice, rich in
creativity and culture, and free of
tyrannical governments, they envision a
world where the leaders are philosophers,
the creative arts take center stage, and
the human soul is immortal.

Plato
That discussion happened, not in person,
but distilled in the fertile mind of Plato
(c.426 – c.348 BCE) from the ideas of his
Plato in his Academy1
circle of great thinkers – the Greek
Socratic philosophers. Plato wrote it all
down in The Republic – a set of books women and men be educated equally? What
that has flourished for the last 2,400 years. is the role of Law and the nature of Justice?
Those books provided a key foundation for
Music and the Arts figure prominently in the
what we now call Western culture, politics,
discussions of the Greek Socratic
and philosophy.
philosophers. The sentiment that “music is a
But Plato’s Republic does more than paint a moral law” is attributed to Plato2. On the
vague picture of Utopia. It addresses specific topic of music education, the text of The
issues: Should people own property? Should Republic is specific:

This chapter was written by Clint Goss in Taipei, after spending three days in at the
Confucian Temple exploring ancient Chinese music and flutes. A similar article appeared
in the December 2017 issue of Overtones, pages 10–14, published by the WORLD FLUTE
SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 133

 Musical training is more potent than any
other discipline of education, because
rhythm and harmony find their way into
the innermost places of the soul. Those
who are well-educated in music become
graceful, and music provides a true
education of the inner being. They gain a
shrewd perception of omissions and faults
in art and nature. They receive the good
around them into their soul.

Without even knowing the cause, they

become noble and good themselves. When
Reason arrives, their musical training
allows them to recognize it and salute it
as a long-time friend.3,4

And their thoughts of the value of music for

an ideal society:

When we allow music to pour into our

soul through the funnel of our ears, those
sweet, soft, melancholy melodies enrich Title page of the earliest existing
our whole life in warbling and the manuscript5
delights of song. Our spirit and our
The flute calms the spirits and penetrates
passion are tempered like iron –
the ears with a sound so graceful that it
transformed from something brittle into
brings peace and tranquility to every
something strong and useful.4
movement, down to the very soul. Should
But Plato is careful to point out that the some sorrow dwell in our mind, some
distinction between player and listener does thought that wine cannot banish, the flute
not diminish the listener … lulls us to sleep with its sweet and
gracious sound. However, the music must
Can a musician, by his art, cause others to
be modest and not inflame the soul with
be un-musical? Certainly not! 4
too many notes and passages, or it would
This line of thinking was an inspiration for weaken the soul, which could easily come
Plutarch, who wrote this often-quoted to grief because of the wine.6
description of the flute, 500 years after
Plato:

134 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

And finally, Plato discusses the roles of Confucius
musicians and instrument makers in the last In the same era
book of The Republic: of history as the
The musician must tell the instrument Greek Socratics,
maker the good or bad qualities which on the other side
develop while playing their instruments. of the known
For example, the flute player will tell the world, Confucius
flute maker which of his flutes are (551–479 BCE)
satisfactory and how he should modify his was laying the
instruments. The flute player knows, and groundwork for
therefore speaks with authority, about the what we now
attributes of the flutes. The flute player call Eastern
has the knowledge, and the flute maker is culture, politics,
compelled to hear what the player has to and philosophy.
say, because the player has the However,
knowledge.4 instead of
painting an
These images of the role of music that were image of an
presented by the Greek philosophers ideal society, Confucius proposed that an
resonates with our image of music in ideal society evolved from the moral
present-day society, but there is also a cultivation of its people.
dichotomy:
To promote moral cultivation on a personal
• For the Greek philosophers, the attainment level, Confucius led a school for thousands
of music perfection was paramount, of their future leaders. His core curriculum
leaving little room for creativity and self- is based on the study of key disciplines,
expression. described in The Analects of Confucius:
• The suggestion to avoid “too many notes
The process of education begins with the
and passages” that might “inflame the
epic stories of History, then builds with
soul” seems at odds with our experiences
the understanding of Moral Behavior, and
listening to highly accomplished
completes with the study of Music.
musicians.
Through History, the mind is aroused.
• The idea that the flute makers are Through the understanding of Moral
subordinate to flute players is definitely Behavior, the character is established.
not the way things work today. And Music nourishes the spirit, purging
away depravity and corruption. It is the
climax of a perfect education.7

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 135

 Bone flutes from Jiahu, China (贾湖骨笛), 5750–5620 BCE. Photograph courtesy of the
Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China.

Music Before the Philosophers

Both Plato and Confucius, operating
independently on different sides of the
known world, had incredibly similar
thoughts about the perfect society. And
music was a key element for both schools of
thought.

Maybe this was because the mechanics of

musical tuning, scales, and harmony was
already well-established by 500 BCE – the
era of the great Eastern and Western
thinkers.
Sumerian Woman Playing Flute, Nippur
Humans had been making flutes for at least (present-day Nuffar, Iraq), c.2600–2500
40,000 years and finely crafted flutes with BCE, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 62.70.46
precise tuning had been in production in
China 5,000 years prior to Confucius.

136 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

 Hurrian Hymn Six – the earliest complete written song, from Ugarit
(present-day Ras Shamra, Syria), c. 1400 BCE 9

Images of flutes, looking very much like the many believe was the beginning of human
Ancestral Puebloan flutes, appeared in the consciousness.10
Fertile Crescent by 3000 BCE. Sumerians
writers had cataloged 23 types of musical Dichotomy
instruments by 2600 BCE. And by 1800 BCE,
While there are amazing similarities to how
Babylonian musicians had documented
Confucius and the Greek philosophers
precise tuning procedures for a wide variety
approached music, the differences are also
of scales, including our seven diatonic
telling.
scales.
The Greek thinkers had inherited
By the time of Confucius and Plato, the
Babylonian musical knowledge through
music of both Eastern and Western cultures
Pythagoras (c.570 – c.495 BCE), for whom
was rich and complex. We do not know the
music was, literally, a branch of
exact routes of this early understanding of
mathematics.11 The Greek philosophers
tuning, scales, and harmony – the Silk Road
became enchanted with the perfect,
trade routes were not fully established at the
wondrous ratios of the movement of the
time of the Greek Socratic philosophers. But
planets and the laws of Geometry and
we do know that, in any situation where
Arithmetic, and Music shared those same
two cultures share the same knowledge,
precise ratios. So, while Plato clearly
sharing between cultures is far more likely
recognized the profound value of music
than independent invention.8
education to the inner soul, the value of
But the inspiration to place music in the Music derives from the perfection and
service of creating an ideal society seems to precision that it shares with Astronomy and
have come upon us suddenly, at a time that Geometry.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 137

 12
The Medieval Quadrivium (“Four Roads”), based on Pythagorean mathematics
For Confucius, Music was one of the six down – this produces a crisp, beautiful
primary disciplines, on equal par with sound.
Mathematics, but serving a very different
Confucius teaches that life is the same
purpose: to educate students in the
way … we can go through life with a
principles of effortless action, simplicity,
natural ease, just like the exemplary flute
and spontaneity – core principles of present-
performance. The morally ideal person
day Daoist traditions. Alexis McLeod
possesses this natural ease in all they do,
interprets the Confucian teachings:
in part because they are free of tension
Often, the most effective way of acting is and psychic distress … they are able to
with a natural ease, without forcing, act without ulterior motive, without need
almost as if not using any effort at all. An to gain, deceive, or force. They can be
easy way to see this is to consider playing this way because they are fully satisfied.13
an instrument. If one concentrates too
hard and applies too much pressure when
playing the flute, one will produce a
harsh, unpleasing sound … miss notes,
make mistakes, and generally perform
badly. What will often produce the best
sound is a relaxing of one’s effort. To
allow one’s instincts to take over, to blow
through the flute in a relaxed and natural
manner, to allow one’s fingers to float
over the keys rather than force them

138 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Al-Fārābī Central to the use of music in therapeutic
Fast forward settings is the dynamic nature of the
another thousand situation: the musician, as a therapist, is
years: Western simultaneously diagnosing, prescribing, and
culture is in the performing in a fluid environment of the
Dark Ages, but changing reactions of the patient.
Persian culture is Improvisation replaces recitation in the
flourishing. service of alleviating suffering.
Scholars in the The concept of free improvisation developed
Islamic Golden in Middle Eastern music traditions into the
Age dramatically “taqsim” – an improvisation played at the
expanded on the beginning of a composed piece. The taqsim
Al-Fārābī 16
Greek concepts of is played solo or over a steady, long-held
integrity, learning, and the image of a rich drone. The soloist begins on the
and vibrant “ideal society”. But while fundamental of a scale, expanding the
Classical thinking centered on intellectual melody through the scale, and modulating
attainment by a select aristocracy, Islamic to different scales, all developed in-the-
thinking asked questions concerning the moment to the reactions of their audience.17
breadth of society: What is perception and
experience, and how do they affect Al-Fārābī equipped musicians with a
morality? What is illness and how can we complex set of tools – thousands of scales
address it? How do we test whether a cure built on a 25-note system, versus our 12-
for illness is effective? note chromatic scale. The goal of the taqsim
is to hold the focus of the audience for 1 or
At the height of this movement, the Turkish 5 or 15 minutes – whatever the experience
philosopher Al-Fārābī (Abū Naṣr and skill of the musician could sustain –
Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Al Fārābī, 872– before “bringing in the rest of the band” and
950 CE) wrote The Great Book of Music entering the composed, ensemble portion of
(Kitab al-Musiqa al-Kabir) and Meanings of the piece.
the Intellect. They explore how music can be
used to address illness and suffering and lay
the groundwork of our present-day Music
Therapy and Therapeutic Music practices.14
Al-Fārābī’s works marked “a fundamental
intellectual shift from theory based on Greek
philosophy to theory based on actual, local
practice”.15

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 139

Rūmī and if the whole world's harp
The writings of should burn up,
classical there will still be hidden instruments
philosophers, playing, playing
while profound, The writings of Rūmī are more than poetic.
can be seriously They seem to me to bridge between worlds:
dense. The works from a world where music is used as a tool
of Al-Fārābī, of an aristocratic class to shape a society, to
originally in a world where musicians are inspired to
Arabic, are doubly create, therefore enriching the society from
dense. the “bottom up”.
Transcending that See the Rūmī Poetry Related to Music,
Rūmī 16
density and Masnavi, and Rūmī 2000 chapters on pages
inspiring 439, 443, and 447 for more Rūmī poetry.
musicians with the mystical nature of music
was the domain of the Persian Sufi mystic, Ibrahim Ozdemir summed this up in his
Rūmī (Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, comparison of Confucius and Rūmī:
1207–1273 CE). Rūmī’s teachings present us a rich and
Here are two examples:18 meaningful world, which has been
created and sustained by God and
Become Your Note entrusted to human beings alone.
God picks up the flute and breathes. However, we are not the owners and
Each note is a need masters of the natural environment, as
coming through one of us, such. We are only the trustees and
a passion, a longing pain. vicegerents on earth. This stewardship
includes the maintenance and utilization
Remember the lips
of the natural environment in accordance
where the breath originated,
with what God has created these things
and let your note be clear.
for, and to take into account the order
Don't try to end it. and the ecological balance of nature on
Become your note. the other.19

Everything is Music
We have fallen into the place where
everything is music.
The strumming and the flute notes
rise into the atmosphere,
140 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Summary Footnotes and Citations
The development of music can be viewed in 1. Woodcut by an unknown artist based on a
three distinct phases: painting by Carl Johan Wahlbom (1810–
1858), from the Swedish journal Svenska
• From at least 40,000 BCE, we learned the
Familj-Journalen, 1879, page 73.
mechanics of music: crafting instruments,
exploring tunings, scales, and harmony, 2. For a discussion as to the source of this
and the beginnings of song writing; quote, see Denise Grocke, “Music is a Moral
• Beginning around 500 BCE, philosophers Law” — A Quotation from Plato?, Voices: A
in different parts of the known world World Forum for Music Therapy, 2006.
considered how music might contribute to The full quotation attributed to Plato, from
an ideal society. They generally explored Wordsworth Dictionary of Musical
the concepts of perfection in music and Quotations, 1991, page 45 is:
the use of music for training highly-
educated members of society. Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the
• About 1,000 years ago, the focus of the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the
great thinkers shifted more to the imagination, a charm to sadness, and life
emotional, creative, and improvisational to everything. It is the essence of order,
aspects of music. They considered the use and leads to all that is good, just and
of music in treating illness and the beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but
relationship between music and society as nevertheless dazzling, passionate, and
a whole. eternal form.

I believe that these different lines of 3. Quoted material in this chapter are based
thinking about the role of music tell us on the translations in the cited sources. I
something about music in our present-day have modified the translations, substantially
society. There is a dramatic shift when we in some cases, for clarity, readability, and to
move from the world of music education, as highlight the essential ideas.
typically experienced in the school systems
4. The four excerpts are sourced from The
based on the Western Classical music
Republic (Πολιτεία) by Plato (c.426 – c.348
culture, to the world of community music,
BCE), books 1 and 10 (both Socrates –
often inspired by world and indigenous
Glaucon) and book 3 (Socrates –
music traditions.
Adeimantus). The quotations are based on
If North American indigenous cultures had the translation in Benjamin Jowett (1817–
developed writing systems, what would 1893), The Dialogues of Plato, Second
those elders and sages have written? Edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1875.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 141

5. Title page of the oldest extant manuscript the Bicameral Mind, Houghton Mifflin,
of The Republic, Bibliothèque Nationale, 1976. Yet another profound side-trip in the
Paris, 9th century (Gr. 1807). evolving story of our culture.

6. Sourced from Plutarch (45–120 CE),

Symposiacs (Συμποσιακά) – Table Talk,
Book 7, Question 8. The quotation is based
on the translation provided in Richard W.
Payne (1918–2004), The Native American
Plains Flute, Toubat Trails, Oklahoma City,
1999.

7 Sourced from The Analects, Volume 4,

Book 8, Chapter 8:

【第八章】【一節】子曰、興於詩。

【二節】立於禮。【三節】成於樂。

The quotation is based on the annotated and

expanded text of William Edward Soothill
(1861–1935), The Analects of Confucius,
published by the author, Yokohama, 1910.
See also James Legge (1815–1897), The
Chinese Classics, Volume 1, Confucian
Analects (論語), London Missionary Society,
Hongkong, 1861.

8. See Everett Rogers, Diffusion of

Innovations. Free Press, New York, 1983.

9. A composition of cuneiform tablets RS

15.30, RS 15.49, and RS 17.387. Image is
from: Anne D. Kilmer, Richard L. Crocker,
and Robert R. Brown, Sounds from Silence:
Recent Discoveries in Ancient Near Eastern
Music, Bit Enki Publications, Berkeley,
California, BTNK 101, 1976.

10. See Julian Jaynes (1920–1997), The

Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of

142 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

11. See John L. Bell, The Art of the
Intelligible: An Elementary Survey of
Mathematics in its Conceptual Development,
The Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of
Science, Volume 63, Springer Science &
Business, 2012, page 11.

12. See Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie (1871–

1940) and David Fideler, The Pythagorean
Sourcebook and Library, Phanes Press,
Grand Rapids, MI, 1987.

13. Alexus McLeod, Understanding Asian

Philosophy, A & C Black, 2014, pages 37–
38.

14. See Amber Haque, Psychology from

Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early
Muslim Scholars and Challenges to
Contemporary Muslim Psychologists,
Journal of Religion and Health, Volume 43,
Number 4, Winter, 2004), pages 357–377.

15. Josef W. Meri (editor), Medieval Islamic

Civilization: An Encyclopedia, Routledge,
2005, page 534.

16. Images of Al-Fārābī and Rūmī courtesy

of Ethem Onur Bilgiç, EthemOnur.com.

17. Curt Sachs (1881–1959), The Rise of

Music in the Ancient World, East and West,
Courier Corporation, 2008, page 290 –
originally published in 1943.

18. These versions of Rūmī’s poetry are

based on the translations of Coleman Barks.

19. Ibrahim Ozdemir, Rūmī and Confucius:

Messages for a New Century, Tughra Books,
2013.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 143

144 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Taqsims
This chapter is closely
associated with the
previous chapter,
Philosophers on Flutes.

We started writing this

chapter while sitting in
the heart of traditional
Korea – in a walled
garden in the
Gyeongbokgung Palace,
which was the center of player accelerates and climbs through the
royal and state matters for five centuries. scale, demonstrating extreme skill on the
We are being treated to a traditional instrument. The audience becomes far more
instrumental performance with a Korean animated and responsive and I realize that
table harp, fiddle, percussion, and the large the flute player is looking at everyone in the
“daegeum” flute audience for the first time.
(Korean: 대금 or 大琴). Each piece is
This flute solo has gone much longer than
announced in turn by a mistress of
the other instruments, and the mistress of
ceremonies in traditional dress, and the
ceremonies actually steps forward,
whole concert is very refined and beautiful.
apparently to move on to the next scheduled
Then things get interesting. The mistress of piece. However, she is completely ignored
ceremonies asks each of the musicians to by both the flute player and the audience.
demonstrate their instrument with a solo. We get the feeling that this might be a
The flute demonstration is last, and the flute breach of protocol in a society that is very
player begins with a low, slow melody, orderly, but everyone wants to see how the
using rich, deep vibrato. Then the flute improvisation will develop.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the December 2017
issue of Overtones, pages 10–14, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 145

Then, at the height of the solo, the flute • Begin with an improvisation using just the
player signals the group, and they all break lower half of the scale. Connect with the
into a traditional song. Everyone is on their audience and try to gauge how long you
feet and singing, even some of the elders can hold their interest while improvising
who had been in wheelchairs. The effect was in the lower half of the scale.
magical. • When you sense that the audience wants
We have seen this song form in many music something new – maybe after 30 or 90
traditions: Middle Eastern, East Indian, and seconds – you can “pivot” around the
now traditional Korean. We call it by the central note and move into the upper half
name used in Middle Eastern cultures: of the scale. Improvise in that upper half
“Taqsim” (also spelled “Taksim”). It is an in the same way as the lower half:
ideal song form for performances on Native connecting with the audience and trying
American flutes, especially if you want to to hold their interest for as long as
use a familiar melody. possible.
• When you sense that the audience again
Here is an outline of the Taqsim song form wants something new, smoothly work
that we facilitate at flute circles and your song into the familiar melody.
gatherings:
The improvisations are typically done
• Prepare by choosing a familiar melody without rhythm – in the “free time” style
that you know very well, and reviewing that is often used in Native American flute
the notes that the familiar melody uses. playing in the New Age genre. This creates a
Those notes form a scale. It is best if you nice contrast with the familiar melody that
choose a melody that uses at least six follows, since most familiar melodies are
pitches – songs such as Taps that use only played in a specific rhythm. Extending the
four pitches can be
limiting in the Taqsim
song structure.
• Divide the scale into
lower and upper halves,
with a central note that
is part of both halves.
Here is an example
using the Spanish
Gypsy scale and typical
fingerings for
contemporary Native
American flutes:

146 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

form by adding a short improvisation at the play a taqsim improvisation that spans two
end of the song can create an A / B / A, or different scales. If the scales are very
“bookends” structure that can be very different – minor pentatonic and the Spanish
pleasing. Gypsy scale shown above – the effect can be
very dramatic. You could even use this type
This “how to” outline is from discussions we
of improvisation as a bridge between two
have had with an oud player from Syria, a
familiar melodies that are in the two
Bengali bansuri player performing in
different keys.
Switzerland, a vocalist in Calcutta, several
musicians in the vast “Music Arcade” in
Seoul, Korea, and Iraqi nay and oud players
References
at an ethnomusicology conference in If you would like to explore this song form
London. They had all used the taqsim song more deeply, these references provide
form in performance. Although they come starting points:
from a wide range of cultural music
[DEDE 1945] Neyzen Hacı Emin Dede
backgrounds, they all described very similar
(Turkish nay performance), Acem Taksim,
outlines to the technique.
recorded before 1945, available on
However, in addition to the value when YouTube at
performing, we believe that teaching the http://youtu.be/oOtZje3NIWA.
taqsim song form is ideal in lessons, flute Background on this recording can be
circles, workshops, and other facilitated found in:
settings:
[HAMMARLUND 2005] Anders
• Playing a specific melody often involves Hammarlund, Tord Olsson, and Elisabeth
some degree of “anxious concentration”. A Özdalga (editors). Sufism, Music and
song form that begins with a free Society in Turkey and the Middle East,
improvisation, especially one played in Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul,
free time, gives the player the opportunity Transactions Volume 10, Papers Read at a
to warm up and relax. Conference Held at the Swedish Research
Institute, Istanbul, Turkey, November 27–
• Players who are new to performing often
29, 1997, 2005, 165 pages, ISBN 0-203-
focus inwardly, trying to “get it right”. The
34697-1.
suggestion to connect with the audience
and respond to them widens the player’s [ERGUNER 1995] Kudsi Erguner. La Flûte
focus. Sacrée des Derviches Tourneurs «The
If you want to build further on the taqsim Sacred Flute of the Whirling Dervishes», 7
format, you can suggest to experienced tracks, 1995. From the liner notes: “In
players a more advanced technique: rather Sufi music, both to play and to listen to a
than spanning two halves of a single scale, taksim is a form of meditation.”

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 147

148 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Free-Time
Say this phrase: Then I heard the flute.

More specifically: I heard the classic long-

I make music with all my friends
tone style of playing. That style is ideal for
Say it rhythmically … the New Age genre: take a full breath and
play a phrase. Pause – to inhale, “hear” the
I- make- mu sic -with
echo from the canyon walls, to let the
all– my- friends- -- listener really listen – then play another
… then play it on a hand-drum. phrase.

This was my introduction to community Gone was the a-one-and-a-two … nature

music – a room full of newbie drummers of rhythm, replaced by a loose kind of
with borrowed djembes, all brought into pacing. There was no actual pulse or
rhythmic resonance by a single phrase. rhythm.

“If you can say it, you can play it” is a When we began facilitating Native American
teaching and facilitation technique used in flute workshops, we needed a term for this
drum circles around the globe: style of playing. Music that is free of rhythm
but still retains a loose cadence to the
• Jah RAH Ce-dih-cu-LAR in Cape Town, phrases. The classic how-to book ([NAKAI
• Gah-mah-lah Tah-kee Dee-mee in 1996]) used the term “parlando”. We began
Calcutta, using this term, but problems started
• Ta-ka Ta-ka TA-ka-dah in Aswan, and cropping up.

• Walk -the Big Dog in Ashland. Aside from being a technical term of music
Rhythms came to encompass my entire theory, it actually means something
world of music-making for almost a decade different. The link to this style of playing
… Native American flute was tenuous.
Kathleen Joyce-Grendahl pointed this out to

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article, appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, December 2017.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 149

 Finally, early in 2017, Kathleen did some
research and found the ideal term –
wonderfully intuitive, comfortably
colloquial, and it just happens to exactly
describe this type of playing:

Free-Time

Free-time has been described as a “musical

anti-meter” that is written with no time
signature and has no discernible beat. The
rhythm is replaced by an intuitive and free-
flowing structure.

So … go forth and play in Free-time!

[NAKAI 1996] R. Carlos Nakai and James

DeMars; David Park McAllister and Ken
Light (additional material). The Art of the
Native American Flute, published by
me several times, but the term had already Canyon Records Productions, Phoenix,
spread to many places and I resisted change. Arizona, 1996, 122 pages, ISBN 0-
Besides what term should we uses as a 9647886-0-8 (978-0-9647886-0-2),
replacement? softcover.

150 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Cultural Insights
For those of us who did not grow up in a • Why is there no music theory in
Native American culture, traditional music traditional approaches to the Native
can sometimes be mystifying: American flute?
• And what do the phrases “All My
• Why are some songs secret? Relations” and “Wakan Tanka” mean?
• Why are improvised melodies preferred
over composed songs? Along my journey with the Native American
flute, I have come across some writings that
have shed light on these
core questions. They are
written by people who did
not grow up in a Native
American culture, but I
believe their insights are
keen. Of course, these
writings are not a substitute
for talking with elders of
the culture – but maybe
they can augment such an
experience.

I address each of these

questions below, as best as
I currently understand it
from the writings that

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. It contains a major contribution from Barry
Higgins, who provided numerous and detailed suggestions and additions, as well as most
of the Preamble. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute Newsletter, June 2014.
The images in this chapter are photographs and paintings by Eanger Irving Couse (1866–
1936), the Taos Society of Artists, Taos, New Mexico. Photos courtesy of Russell Wolf.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 151

follow. I have slightly edited some of the these powerful songs a secret protects
writings to better fit the context. people – performers and listeners – who
might be harmed.
I hope you find this useful!
The traditional concept that “speech and
Preamble song are actions” is described by Emily
Brown in her lecture titled Musical
Although most Native American cultures
Performance in Rituals of the Ancestral
share a common core of beliefs, the belief
Puebloans of the American Southwest. This
system of each culture is unique and specific
is an edited excerpt from a video of that
to that culture. This also applies to social
talk, provided by the SAR School for
areas such as language,
ceremonies, medicines, and
traditions.

This chapter looks at beliefs

and customs of specific
cultures. While this can give
us insight and
understanding, these beliefs
cannot typically be applied
universally across Native
American cultures. The
popularized notion of an all-
inclusive “pan-Indian”
philosophy does not
typically serve us, or the
cultures involved, with an
accurate and deep Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New
understanding. For example, medicinal Mexico:
herbs used by one tribal group for a specific
There is a belief that is widespread among
function may be taboo to another group.
the pueblos and it may be of some
antiquity: Speech can be an action that
Why Are Some Songs Secret?
has real-world consequences.
For Ancestral Puebloans, songs have the
power to directly cause actions. Performing What this means is that some words,
a song can possibly have dire consequences. songs, or prayers are so powerful that
Those consequences can happen even if the they can be dangerous to people who are
performer did not intend harm. Keeping not supposed to hear them. Some songs
are sung in a whisper so that people won’t
152 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 hear and be harmed. Along with this goes unconscious and to be acutely aware of the
the idea that the power of the song or mysterious.
prayer can be diluted if it is shared
This perspective on how songs arise is given
between too many people, and so some
by this excerpt from Frances Densmore’s
are kept secret for that reason.
1953 paper “The Belief of the Indian in a
Some songs are sung only in very private Connection between Song and the
spaces, sung very quietly, or even sung in Supernatural”, Smithsonian Institution,
very archaic words or words in other Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 151,
languages, so that few if any people will pages 217–223:
understand what is said.
An important phase of Indian music is
known as the dream song, which is
common to many tribes. These
songs are not composed but are
said to come to the mind of the
Indian when he has placed
himself in a receptive attitude.
To this extent the source of the
song is not unlike the
inspiration sometimes
experienced by composers of
our own race, but the use of the
song is entirely different. Our
composer regards the song as a
possible source of applause or
wealth while the Indian
connects it with mysterious
power. …

To a white man, the term

“dream” is connected with
Why Are Improvised Melodies
unconsciousness, but the Indian term
Preferred?
implies an acute awareness of something
There is a tradition in many indigenous mysterious. Dreams and their songs may
North American cultures that melodies are come to an Indian in natural sleep if his
not composed, but arise spontaneously when mind is conditioned to such an
the player “has placed himself in a receptive experience, but the first important dream
attitude”. The goal is to connect with the comes to a young man in a fasting vigil.
He is alone in some silent place, and his
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 153
 mind is passive, as he hopes for an Music Theory and Traditional Cultures
impression to come to him from a George Herzog wrote about the role of
mysterious source. The silence becomes music theory in the cultures he studied. This
vibrant, it becomes rhythmic, and a is an excerpt from his May 1938 article
melody comes to his mind. This is his “Music in the Thinking of the American
“dream song,” his most individual Indian”, Peabody Bulletin, Series 34,
possession. Number 1, pages 8–12:
An aged man once recorded his dream Indians have no musical theory, in our
song for the writer, then bowed his head sense of the word. That is, they do not
and said tremulously that he thought he have a system of ideas and definitions
would not live long as he had parted with which attempts to formulate specific rules
his most precious possession. The white of composition, construction principles of
musician composes
songs addressed to his
deity. The Indian
waited and listened for
the mysterious power
pervading all nature to
speak to him in song.
The Indian realized
that he was part of
nature—not akin to it.

Even though songs might

best be described as
arising spontaneously,
this does not diminish
the fact that many songs
were memorized, shared
through oral traditions,
music for the creator and the analytically
or put to specific uses. Even in a culture
minded listener. This may be for a
without a formal written language or the
number of reasons: partly perhaps
structure of music theory, a system often did
because music and words form such an
exist that could preserve and direct the use
intimate union – instrumental music
of music. This informal system might be
independent of singing is comparatively
considered analogous to the process of
unimportant. Also, because music is so
music composition and publication.
often part of a larger setting, a ritual,
dance, story. In itself it may not control so
154 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 much attention except as part of a more The land was put in order,
inclusive whole. when people came
and began to dance.
… the most important notions about
music, at times rather elaborate, concern ― Tarahumare Indians, Northern Mexico
themselves chiefly with its ultimate origin
Incantations, rituals, and prayers
and meaning. Its potency and place in the
were given to people by the gods
human scene are more significant matters
before the emergence.
to Indians in general than its technical
― Zuni Indians

The Phrase “All Our

Relations”
Briefly: all the things – plants,
animals (including humans),
rocks, planets – that we are
connected and co-dependent
within our web of shared
existence. It is a translation of
the Lakota phrase “Mitakuye
Oyasin”.

A description of this phrase is

provided by Malea Powell of
Michigan State University,
published in the invitation to
the 2011 Annual Convention of
character and mode of construction, or
the Conference on College Composition and
even its capacity for conveying personal
Communication, available at the National
expression and emotional meanings. A
Council of Teachers of English web site at
few quotations may be suggestive:
http://www.NCTE.org/. Here is an excerpt:
When the Earth was
The phrase “all our relations”
newly created
encapsulates an entire philosophy of
Then the first time came
humans in relation to other living things
the songs — plants, animals, rocks, Earth. “All our
― Pima Indian Song relations” emphasizes the intricately
connected web of relationships that

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 155

 sustains our mutual ability to live out our controversial Lakota activist Russell Means,
shared existence on the Earth together. the meaning is closest to the English phrase
“Great Mystery”.
All living things matter, all are important,
all must be treated as relatives. Even This description is from Frances Densmore’s
harmful, frightening, or negative relations 1953 paper (cited earlier):
are important and must be understood
Among the Sioux Indians the term
and honored if we are to survive together
“wa’kaŋ” is used in referring to any
in the same spaces. “All our relations” is a
mystery. The term “Great Spirit” is
phrase used both as invocation and
commonly used as the English equivalent
conclusion. It forces us to consider the
balance between the
weight of each human's
responsibility in
maintaining the balance of
the world and in
understanding the
smallness of each
individual in relation to
the larger web of
meaning.

However, while it is valuable

to understand the intent of
this phrase, if you are not
from a Sioux culture and
want to actively use and
quote the phrase, care is
of the Sioux word “Wakaŋ’ taŋka,” which
suggested. For a description of how the
consists of two adjectives, wa’kaŋ,
phrase has become a misused slogan in
“mysterious” and taŋ’ka, “great.” … In old
popular culture, see Animals of the Soul by
times this word was not used in ordinary
Joseph Epes Brown, Element Books,
conversation, as it was held too sacred to
Rockport, MA, Second Edition, 1997.
be spoken except with reverence and at a
proper time. That which remains
The Phrase “Wakan Tanka”
unspoken must be considered in any
This phrase from the Lakota language, study of Indian thought, together with the
written in various sources as Wakȟáŋ fact that a “sacred language” is sometimes
Tȟáŋka and Wakaŋ’ taŋka, is often translated used by which ideas can be conveyed
as “Great Spirit”. However, according to the
156 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 between initiates without being
understood by others.

The phrase translated as “Great Spirit”

varies across Native American cultures and
language groups, together with subtle
shades of meaning and intent. Here are just
a few of the hundreds of variants: Gici
Niwaskw (Abenaki), Usen (Apache),
Apistotoke (Blackfoot), Ababinili
(Cickasaw), Orenda (Iroquois), Ketanitowet
(Lenape), Kisu’lkw (Micmaq), Gitche
Manitou (Ojibwe/Anishnaabe), Wakonda
(Omaha, Ponca, Osage).

Indian Music and Spontaneity

And finally, one of my favorite quotes by the
early anthropologist Alice C. Fletcher. This
is from her Indian Story and Song from
North America, published by Small,
Maynard & Co., Boston, Massachusetts,
1900, from the preface, pages viii-ix:

Aside from its scientific value, this music

possesses a charm of spontaneity that cannot
fail to please those who would come near to
nature and enjoy the expression of emotion
untrammelled [sic] by the intellectual
control of schools. These songs are like the
wild flowers that have not yet come under
the transforming hand of the gardener.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 157

158 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Honoring the Tradition
To experience the Native American flute is Responsibility
to know that the instrument is very different
Working with an instrument that carries a
from other instruments that many of us have
deep cultural history can raise issues of
grown up with in the Western world.
ethics, methodology in handling artifacts
The Native American flute is deeply rooted and publication of information, and a
in traditional cultures, yet blends beautifully general responsibility to strive for a level of
with contemporary music. Makers do not cultural sensitivity.
strive to create instruments to a common
See [HODGSON 2002] for an overview of
standard, but each craft their personal style
indigenous rights movements in Africa and
and sound into their creations. The music is
the Americas. See [KREMERS 2004] for an
rooted in an uncommon scale for Western
overview of U. S. policy and how it relates
music, but one that is home to much of
to traditional knowledge, genetic resources,
World music, and one that encourages free
and folklore (“TKGRF”).
expression. And it channels the energy of
the player away from technique and toward
creating expressive, beautiful music Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
regardless of their level of experience as Peoples
musicians. A contemporary movement to address and
strengthen the rights of indigenous peoples
Players and makers of the Native American
has resulted in the United Nations
flute are always bridging a wide span of
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
cultures, music, and roles for the
Peoples ([UN 2008]). Article 31 of this
instrument. The traditions surrounding the
document states that:
instrument are honored at the same time as
the boundaries are pushed forward.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss, as part of the Flutopedia.com web site.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 159

 Indigenous peoples have the right to of 1990 (the “IACA-1990” – see [IACB
maintain, control, protect and develop 1935], [IACB 1990], and [IACB 1996]). A
their cultural heritage, traditional recent amendment, the Indian Arts and
knowledge and traditional cultural Crafts Amendments Act of 2010
expressions, as well as the manifestations ([CONGRESS 2010]), was signed into law by
of their sciences, technologies and President Obama on July 29, 2010.
cultures, including human and genetic
This public law distinguishes a maker who is
resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of
“a member of any federally or State
the properties of fauna and flora, oral
recognized Indian Tribe, or an individual
traditions, literatures, designs, sports and
certified as an Indian artisan by an Indian
traditional games and visual and
Tribe” from other makers (this text is quoted
performing arts. They also have the right
from this Web-based description of IACA-
to maintain, control, protect and develop
1990 by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board,
their intellectual property over such
the author of IACA-1990). The IACA-1990
cultural heritage, traditional knowledge,
restricts how musical instruments can be
and traditional cultural expressions.
named, reserving certain terms only to
On behalf of the United States, President instruments made by such distinguished
Obama declared on December 16, 2010 that makers ([Joyce-Grendahl 2009a]).
the U. S. would sign the declaration.
See [WOLTZ 2006] for extensive
background on the IACA-1990.
Indian Arts and Crafts Act
One responsibility that all who make and Two classes of Indian tribes are covered by
play the Native American flute have is to IACA-1990: federally-recognized Indian
specifically honor and distinguish the tribes and state-recognized Indian tribes. (I
makers of these instruments. In my have been told that the IACA-1990 was the
experience, it is valuable to be aware of who first introduction of the term “state
had crafted an instrument and, where recognized tribe” into federal law3). Here
possible, know and acknowledge the maker are some references for these two classes of
who crafted the instrument and at least tribes:
some basic information about the history of • For the official list of the 565 federally-
the instrument. recognized “Indian entities” as of October
One aspect of this responsibility does carry 27, 2010, see ([BIA 2010] as well as the
the force of law in the United States, as supplement [BIA 2010A]).
specified in The Indian Arts and Crafts Act

3
For the above “I have been told”, see
http://taskforce.cherokee.org/SovereigntyatRisk/IIIFederalLa
wsaffectingstaterecognizedtribes.aspx.
160 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
• For a list of state-recognized Indian tribes, However, while this responsibility applies
some good sources are the National as a matter of truth-in-advertising when
Congress of American Indians State talking about a specific flute by a specific
Recognized Indian Tribes and the National maker, it does not extend to our
Conference of State Legislation – State discussion of the instrument as a whole.
Recognized Tribes. In this book (and on Flutopedia.com), I
• In addition, and outside of consideration use the term “Native American flute”
under IACA-1990, you may be interested freely when discussing the design,
in this list of un-recognized tribes in the playing, and body of music for the
United States maintained on Wikipedia, instrument.
many of whom have petitioned for
Likewise, I freely use terms such as “Anasazi
recognition.
flute”, “Mojave flute”, and other flutes that
To honor that responsibility and tradition, it name a particular tribe, culture, or tradition
is widely held that a flute can only be when describing a style of instrument.
offered for sale as a “Native American Flute”
(or “American Indian Flute”) only if it was
Implications Beyond Flute Makers
crafted by such a distinguished maker. The
IACA-1990 does not directly address use of The IACA-1990 specifically “prohibits
the term “Native American”, but it does misrepresentation in marketing of Indian
address “any art or craft product in a arts and crafts products within the United
manner that falsely suggests it is Indian States”. One concern has been that the word
produced …”. Flutes crafted by makers who ‘art’ in the Act could be applied to a
are not distinguished by IACA-1990 often performance, workshop, or recording.
call their instruments “Native American This issue was addressed by Kathleen Joyce-
Style Flutes”. The terms “Native Flute” and Grendahl ([JOYCE-GRENDAHL 2010C]):
“North American Flute” are also used. See
[HERMANN 2004] for an in-depth discussion
of these issues.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 161

 I asked Ken Van Wey to define the words
‘arts’ and ‘crafts’ as they are applied by
the IACB and understood with regard to
the law. He clarified that “an ‘art’ or
‘craft’ is any item that is handmade. If it is
being sold as Indian-made or Native
American-made, then it must have been
created by a Native American of a
federally-recognized tribe. This act does
not include recording artists or their
products and will not be applied to said
individuals.”

I again asked him specifically if the word

‘art’ could possibly be extended into the
realm of performing artists and recordings
themselves. He clearly state, “No that is
not in the Act. It must be a handmade
item.”

For clarification about labeling a Native

American flute that is created by a non-
Native person, Ken Van Wey stated that
using the term “in the style of” or “in the
spirit of” or “replica” are acceptable ways
to label a flute not made by a Native
American.

162 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Names of the Instrument
To experience the Native American flute is This list includes names in various world
to know that the instrument is very different languages, particularly ethnic languages, as
from other instruments that many of us have a possible aid for linguistic research related
grown up with in the Western world. to flutes.

The Native American flute is deeply rooted Names in English

in traditional cultures, yet blends beautifully
Most of these English phrases have many
with contemporary
citations – I am listing the earliest
chronological references that I have found,
Language Preservation based on year of publication.
There are many ways we can preserve the
traditional use of the instrument: • American Indian Courting Flute –
[WAPP 1984A], [BALL 2001]
• We can curate and preserve traditional • Courting Flute – [CATLIN 1841],
recordings and artifacts. Volume 2, page 147, [CATLIN 1903], page
• We can refer to culturally accurate names 147, [DENSMORE 1929B], page 72, and
for indigenous cultures. many others
• We can also preserve the cultural names • Grandfather's Flute – [PRICE 1995]
for the instrument itself. • Indian Flute – [WELD 1800], page 496,
In support of preserving cultural names for [HUNTER 1824], page 78
the instrument, Flutopedia.com began • Love Flute – [EASTMAN-MH 1853],
maintaining a list of names for the Native [GOBLE 1992]
American flute in 2004. That list has
• Native American Courting Flute –
expanded over the years as new citations
[HALL 1997]
have been found. This chapter was added
with the sixth edition of this book, and • Native American Love Flute – [PRICE
should track the entries on Flutopedia.com. 1994]

This chapter was written by Clint Goss, as part of the Flutopedia.com web site.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 163

• Native American Style Flute (“NASF” — Beyond English
many sources) I am including names for Native American
• North American Flute – [PRICE 1990] flutes in this list, as well as words in some
• Plains Flute – [PAYNE 1988] other languages for flutes of different
designs. Check the context in the references
• Plains Indian Courting Flute – [KEELING
provided, if you would like more detail on
1997], page 274
the use of the term.
• Pueblo Indian Flute – [BREWER-K 2004]

Cherokee
Contemporary English-language Naming
ᎾᏘᎥᎡ ᎠᎺᎢᎧᎾ ᎷᏖ is a transliteration of
Conventions
“Native American Flute” into the Cherokee
By convention, contemporary English- Syllabary developed by Sequoyah
language uses of the name of the instrument (Cherokee: ᏎᏉᏯ, [se-kwoh-yah]) in the
are capitalized as “Native American flute”. early 19th century.
This is in keeping with the English-language
capitalization of other musical instruments Sarah Kay DrowningBear provided this
that use a cultural name, such as “French translation of “flute” into Cherokee4:
horn” ([CMS 2003], pages 366–377). ᎠᏤᎷᎯᏍᏗ (transliteration in Latin letters:
atseluhisdi, [ah-tse-lu-hi-s-di]). An alternate
Abbreviations such as “NAF” and "NASF” translation was provided by the Cherokee
are discouraged. Consortium (Consortium Word List by Jeff
The prevalent term for a person who plays Edwards, dated August 3, 2015, retrieved
Native American flutes is “flutist”. This term February 19, 2016): ᏗᎦᏤᏡᎯᏍᏗ
predominates the term “flautist”. This is (transliteration in Latin letters:
based on searches on the Google search digatsetluhisdi, [dihg-aht-set-lu-hi-s-di]).
engine performed on February 26, 2016 for
“Native American flutist” (about 23,800 Cheyenne
results) and “Native American flautist” The title of the Cheyenne-language
(about 3,090 results). Wikipedia page for the Native American
flute is: Tâhpeno.
“Flute maker” is the predominant term for
people who “craft” Native American flutes.

4
Later confirmed by a translation provided
on www.Cherokee.org

164 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

The following definitions are
from the Cheyenne-English
dictionary of the Chief Dull
Knife College:

tâhpeno ni. flute; whistle or

other wind instruments such
as a horn or trombone.
Apparently animate for some
speakers. Plural:
tâhpenonôtse. Alternate
Plural: tâhpenono.

-tâhpenoné vai. play the

flute. É-tâhpenöne. He's
playing the flute.

tâhpenonénootôtse ni. flute

songs [this entry is augmented
with double question marks in
the original source]

tâhpenonó'êstse ni. flute

shrub. wood used to make
flutes.

Lakota / Siyotanka
Siyotanka [see-yoh-tahn-
kah] – Lakota, literally “flute”
or “great song” in English.
Also written “Sĭyotanka”,
“Ciyotanka”, “Cotanka”.
([BUECHEL 2002], pages 53
and 54).

Kevin Locke notes that the

present-day meaning of
“Šiyótȟaŋka” is “flute” as well An early reference to Siyotanka,
as “Eagle bone whistle” [Densmore 1918], page 470–471

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 165

(personal communications, May 11–12, are daunting, and more work needs to be
2013). done in this area …

Early references to “Siyo tanka” translate it Other References

as “large grouse” or “prairie chicken” These are references from various sources,
([RIGGS 1893], page 163, ¶4). The earliest listed in alphabetical order:
reference relating it to the flute that I have
found is [DENSMORE 1918], page 470-471 achipiquon, “flute, fiddle (any musical
(see image). instrument, A.)”, Lenape — [DOYLE 2000].

See also The Legend of the Flute — Brule bĭbĭ'gwûn [bih-bih-gwoon], “flute”, for
Sioux in [ERDOES 1984], page 275. what we call a Native American flute,
Chippewa — [DENSMORE 1913], page 42.
See also the play and Grammy®-nominated Shown as bĭbĭg'wûn [bih-bihg-woon] in
CD Siyotanka by Michael Brant DeMaria. [DENSMORE 1929B], page 21.
In addition, [BUECHEL 2002] page 333 lists bibugwen [bih-bug-wen], “you are a
the Lakota word “wakanh'an” as a verb musician / you are playing a flute”, Micmac
meaning “to court a woman, as by playing a — [METALLIC 2005], page 65.
flute, etc.”.
bícusirina [bahy-kus-ee-ree-nah], “flute”,
Other North American Indigenous in the Eudeve language of the Teguima, a
Languages people who lived between the Pima Alto and
The names are as shown in the original cited the Pima Bajo — [BANCROFT 1875C], page
reference, including any pronunciation 700.
directives. One common pronunciation
bidda-kóhotse [biduh koh-oh-ht-su],
directive is a glottal stop, here represented
“whistle (or flute)”, Minnitarris, or
by the Unicode character ʔ
Grosventres — [WIED 2007], page 273,
The pronunciation provided uses the which notes that: “(o full; ot short; e 1/2)”.
Flutopedia pronunciation guide. It is my
cakwalenya, “Blue Flute”, Hopi — [CULIN
best understanding of the pronunciation as
1907], page 337.
provided in the cited reference, considering
any pronunciation directives and additional cho'-tan-ka, “flute”, which means literally,
pronunciation guides that are provided in “big-pith”, Dakota — [RIGGS 1869], page
the cited reference. 478.
Please realize that this list is under ćotaŋke, “rude pipe, from the bone of a
development. The challenges of representing swan's wing, or from some species of wood”,
the characters from the original references Dakota — [RIGGS 1893], page 205.

166 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

chotonka-chanta-ki-yapi, “vertical flute”, káʔkē'taʔ [kah/kee-tah/], “whistle (no
Sioux — [MORRIS-F 1913], page 127. stops)”, Allegany Seneca — [CONKLIN
1953], page 287.
chotunkah, “flute”, Dakota —
[SCHOOLCRAFT 1884], page 177 ¶3. kakush [kah-kuhsh], “flageolet”, Arapaho,
Wind River Reservation — [HILGER 1952],
domba, “Courting Flute”, Kiowa —
page 199.
[MERRILL 1997], page 299.
A lover also let his presence be known at
do'mba', “bugle, flute, or flageolet”, Kiowa
night by playing a flageolet close enough
— [MOONEY 1898], page 400 (with the
to a girl's home to be heard by her … A
added note that “Nearly every tribe of the
flageolet (kakush) collected on the Wind
plains and eastward has its native flute.”).
River Reservation by Dorsey in 1900 can
Note that this word was the source of the
be found in the collections of the Chicago
name of “Toubat” given to Dr. Richard W.
Natural History Museum (Cat. Number
Payne, according to Dr. Payne in 2002
61315). Its length is 18½ inches. It is of
(personal communication).
wood, fringed with buckskin strips and
gusau-ōka, “eagle bone whistle”, Northern held together by being tied at intervals
Ute — [DENSMORE 1922], page 20. with buckskin bands. The wood and
buckskin are painted with red ochre.
ha'hpkopig', “a flute, or the sound of a flute
or any wind instrument”, Chitimacha — ka-putatshigan [kah-poo-taht-shee-gahn],
[DENSMORE 1942], page 12, footnote. “Flute”, Naskapi, Davis Inlet — [DIAMOND
1994A], page 69.
hano or "ka hano", “nose-flute”, Hawaiian
— [BECKWITH-MW 1919], pages 526–527. kir-mu, “bamboo flute”, Wapisliana —
[ROTH 1924], page 455.
harri-harri or yarri-yarri, “flute”, Arawak
of Guiana — [ROTH 1915], page 182 and ku'ku'ki'ka''tci, – “blow the flute” (with
386. auxiliary -ga-) ; an onomatopoetic and
archaic stem, Fox — [MICHELSON 1925],
hiju'juk, “Flutes”, Winnebago — [RADIN
page 634.
1923], page 442.
Kyana'w*' (T), “player of flute”, Fox —
hižužu´k, “Flutes”, Winnebago — [SUSMAN
[MICHELSON 1925], page 42.
1943], page 59.
le’nûñ, “Flute” (the name of the Flute
ikiázis, “flute”, Blackfoot — [HOLTERMAN
kachina), Hopi — [STEPHEN 1929], page 31
1996].
¶3.
I'k'oce war'axue, “flute”, Crow — [LOWIE
1912], page 222.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 167

lh-koschka [luh kosh-kah], “Flute (without ohe hano ihu, “nose-flute”, Hawaiian —
holes)”, Mandan or Númangkake — [WIED [EMERSON 1909], page 134.
2007], page 239.
o'kaiyatan, “flute”, Acoma — [White 1943],
lh-wochka [luh wokh-kah], “Flute (with page 316.
holes for fingering)”, Mandan or
O'ni pe'pigwä`ckwi me`sōtäwi'megu
Númangkake — [WIED 2007], page 239,
ma'netōwA wī`kā'`cke-`tAmwA
which notes that the “och” is gutteral.
änwäwä`tA'mägwinni`. “And all the
łokᴀn', “flageolet”, Yuchi — [SPECK 1909], manitous will hear the flute when you blow
page 62 ¶2 and Plate VII, Fig. 2. it.”, Fox — [MICHELSON 1921], pages 42–
43.
lula, “flute”, Miwok — [BARRETT 1933],
page 250 ¶3. “Flute” is shown as lúliš and Pá:kav’lena, “flute”, Hopi — [WRIGHT-B
lú·la in Jesse O. Sawyer's handwritten notes 1979], according to [BROWN-EJ 2005]
([SAWYER 1975], 24th page, which also page 170.
cites “lul·a in Broadbent's dictionary”), and
Pakaf lena, “reed flute”, Hopi — [WRIGHT-
“to play the flute” is shown as lùliš.
B 1979], according to [BROWN-EJ 2005]
lullulʔi [luhl-luhl/ee], “bubble fife, flute”, page 170.
Yavapai — [SHATERIAN 1983], page 508.
papigan [pa-pih-gahn], “Flute”, Attikamek
Na'`k ā'gw Anwäwä`tA'megini — [DIAMOND 1994A], page 69.
pe'pigwä`ckwi`, “Nor is the flute blown”,
Pe'pigwä`ckw aiyā`cō`kA'megu
Fox — [MICHELSON 1921], pages 24–25.
Anwäwä'`tAmōg īni'gi ne'niwAgwi`.
nicudetunga, “flute”, Omaha — “Those men alternately blow the flute.”, Fox
[FLETCHER 1911], page 372. — [MICHELSON 1921], pages 14–15.

nisude, “flute”, Omaha-Ponea — [GILMORE Pe'pigwä`ckwi nyäwe'nwi`, “The flute is

1919], page 80. blown four times”, Fox — [MICHELSON
1921], pages 20–21.
o-ba'-da-zhe, “flute”, Osage —
[LAFLESCHE 1932], page 120. pib-be-gwun [pih-beh-gwuhn], “flute”,
Sioux — [BANCROFT 1875B], page 514,
odre'nod'a'kwa, “flute ("something to
plate 75 as cited in [MORRIS-F 1913], page
produce song")”, Cayuga — [SPECK 1949],
110, footnote 4, with the explanation that
page 455.
“Bancroft mentions a similar Siouan flute
O'-gump, “Whistle, made of reed; a music (pib-be-gwun) with five, six, or seven holes,
of same; any music”, Southern Numa — made of a split tube of cedar, glued
[FOWLER-DD 1971], page 145. together, sometimes held by rings of pewter,
and states that the Dakota made it from a
168 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
single tube of wood while the Chippewa pugwin, “flute”, Potawatomi —
frequently drew a snake's skin over the [MCKINNEY 1997], sourced from Martha
cedar tube.” Lewis, who kept notes and handouts from a
series of Potawatomi lessons taught in
pib be gwun — [SCHOOLCRAFT 1839],
Topeka in the 1970s.
page 37. “And not content with these proofs
of his attachment he fasted himself, and quama, “bamboo flute”, not sure whom —
would often take his pib be gwun* (Indian [ROTH 1924], page 455.
flute), and sit near the lodge indulging his
sepuunnes, “flute”, Nez Percé — [PETERS
mind in repeating a few pensive notes.”
2003].
pibbegwon [pih-beg-wahn], “a kind of
Shoh-k'on-ne, “Sacred flute”, Zuni —
flute, resembling in simplicity the Arcadian
describing artifact 69467 in [STEVENSON-J
pipe. It is commonly made of two semi-
1884], page 583. This is from a collection of
cylindrical pieces of cedar, united with fish
about 4,900 “archæologic and ethnologic
glue, and having a snake skin, in a wet state,
specimens collected in Arizona and New
drawn tightly over it, to prevent its
Mexico during the season of 1881. These
cracking. The holes are eight in number, and
collections were all obtained from the
are perforated by means of a bit of heated
pueblo of Zuñi in Northwestern New
iron. It is blown like a flagolet, and has a
Mexico, and the pueblos comprising the
similar orifice or mouth piece.” The tribe
province of Tusayan, in Northeastern
being discussed is not clear —
Arizona.”
[SCHOOLCRAFT 1845], page 42.
sho'kona and sho'konna [shoh-koh-nah],
potacikan [poh-tah-see-kahn], “Wind
“flute”, Zuni — [STEVENSON 1904], pages
instrument”, Cree — [DIAMOND 1994A],
48 (first spelling) and 256 (second spelling).
page 69, citing a work of Ellis 1983.
sinīgādtci-, “blow the flute (with the
podájigànsan [poh-dah-jee-gahn-sahn], “a
auxiliary -gä-). 522.23”, Fox —
real flute of cedar”, Ottawa language —
[MICHELSON 1925], page 640.
[KURATH 1955], page 62.
Sk-a'na, “Whistle or reed”, Northwest Coast
puhpequon, -quoan, n. “an instrument of
… — [GALPIN 1903], page 117.
music; pl. -ash, Eccl. 2, 8; I's. 150, 4; Gen.
31, 27. From puhpequan, for puhpequan- so-wen-tuk'-wah, “flute”, Onondagas —
un. [Abn. bibi8an, trompette. Del. ach pi [BEAUCHAMP 1905], page 177.
quoan, flute, pipe, Zeisb.]”, Natick —
[TRUMBULL 1903], page 133. Sogán, “wooden trumpet or flute”, Navaho
— [MATTHEWS 1902], page 288.
pulipequon, “musical instrument”, Natick
— [TRUMBULL 1903], page 299.
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 169
tayazo, “the flute player”, Dakota. Adopted “to play the flute for someone else”; tsa-
as the stage name by Samuel C. Kurz — puun/mii-u-wat, “a flute player”; tsa-
[KUHL 1998]. puun-mas/hanyawaat, “a flute maker”.

Tchá-he-he-lon-ne, “Sacred
warbling flute”, Zuni —
describing artifact 69312 in
[STEVENSON-J 1884], page 583.
This is from a collection of about
4,900 “archæologic and
ethnologic specimens collected in
Arizona and New Mexico during Apache flute at the Nohwike’ Bágowa (“House of Our
the season of 1881. These Footprints”) White Mountain Apache Cultural Center
collections were all obtained and Museum.
from the pueblo of Zuñi in Northwestern ts-tsêhs, “reed flutes”, Osage — [KURATH
New Mexico, and the pueblos comprising 1953], page 278, citing [TIXIER 1844], page
the province of Tusayan, in Northeastern 225.
Arizona.”
Tsį Sól, “Flute”, Apache — Translation
tekaluloʔtá-lu, “flute”, Oneida — [ABBOTT shown in the display case at the Nohwike’
2006]. This word, spoken by Maria Hinton, Bágowa (“House of Our Footprints”), the
is from the Oneida Language Tools web site: White Mountain Apache Cultural Center and
Museum, near the Fort Apache National
too-too, “bamboo flute”, Surinam —
Historic Landmark. The flute on display is
[ROTH 1924], page 455.
the Field Museum of Natural History item
totoqpi [toh-tohk-pee] or ta-toyk-pi [tah- 68793. Photo provided by Bill Bezemek on
toik-pee], “eagle bone whistle”, Hopi — February 26, 2018.
[MORRIS-F 1913], page 110.
u-bi'-xo", “any wind instrument, as a flute
tsal-eet-quash-to [tsahl-eet-kwah-toh], or horn”, Osage — [LAFLESCHE 1932], page
“courting flute”, Winnebago — [CATLIN 166.
1857], page 243, letter 30. Also cited in
uskulushi, “whistle, fife, or flageolet”,
[MORRIS-F 1913], page 110, footnote 4,
Choctaw — [BYINGTON 1915], page 360
and alternately describes it as a “deerskin
and [HOWARD 1990], page 29.
flute, which has three, four, and six finger-
holes producing the same number of notes Wahí nisúde, “bone flute”, Omaha —
with their octaves”. [DORSEY 1896], page 282.

tsa-puun-mas, “flute”, Nez Percé — wilwil, “flute”, Mojave (part of the Yuman
[NPSMMP 2007]. Also: tsa-puun/miute, language family) — [HERZOG 1928], page

170 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

189, ¶1. This word is also shown in two Ya-ah-ga-da-wasta, “vertical flute”,
recordings made in March 1908 now Tonawanda-Iroquoian — [MORRIS-F 1913],
curated by the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of page 126.
Anthropology.
Ya’lu, “flute”, Maiduan — [DENSMORE
wilwiraxtii', “transverse flute”, Yuma — 1939A], page 116.
[DENSMORE 1932], page 25.
Ya’lulupĕ, “Flute-Player”, Maiduan —
wilwirtelhuku'p, “vertical
or end-blown flute”, Yuma
— [DENSMORE 1932],
page 25.

wi'nip, “flageolet”,
Northern Ute —
[DENSMORE 1922], page
20.

woina, “flutes”, Paiute —

[STEWARD 1933], page Flutes acquired in 1906, from [NYStateMuseum 1908].
277, ¶8. “… were Note in the above image the text: “Flute made 1804 by Chief
elderberry, 8 or 9 inches Senoiucieh”. Almost surely a typographical error that should
long, end blown with have read “Flute made 1904 …”
several holes. Mono Lake [DIXON 1902], page 101.
said 4 holes, blown across the end. Three
Western Mono flutes in Field Museum ya-o'-da-was-ta, “flute”, Senecas —
(specs. E-71446, 7, 8), from Hooker's cove, [BEAUCHAMP 1905], page 177.
are this type with four holes each, made of yä-ó-dä-was-tä, “flute”, Iroquois —
Sambucus mexicana, elderberry. B.T.'s [Morgan 1922], volume 2, pages 38 and
[Bridgeport Tom's] doctoring flute, 320.
supposedly made by hand, had 6 holes near
the distal end, a seventh near the mouth yé'ōtawásthaʔ [yey oh-tah-was-th/], “white
end, and was end blown. No standards in man's flute with finger holes”, Allegany
flute making were known.” Seneca — [CONKLIN 1953], page 287.

Wu-suk'-wi-nump, “Whistle made of reed,

a” — Southern Numa [FOWLER-DD 1971],
page 156.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 171

ye-o-da-wus-toh, “lover's flute”, Seneca / vnanis, “a reed pipe, a flute”, Namaqua-
Tonawanda reservation —
[NYSTATEMUSEUM 1908], page 104
(see below).

Names in Central and South

American Indigenous Languages
akai-kara, “bamboo flute”, Makusi
(spoken by 25,000 people in Brazil,
Guyana and Venezuela) — [ROTH
1924], page 455.

pfilica or pivillca, “flute”, Mapuche

— [IZAGUIRRE 2008], page 135. Also
note the translation of the Spanish Nama greeting. Photo by Greg Willis, October 4,
“flauta de la paz” in Mapuche as 2006, Swakopmund, Namibia
paillapifil, which is also shown as “die
Friedensflöte” in German by Michael
Palomino (2011). Hottentot. Spoken by the Nama people
(Namaqua in older source) of South Africa,
waña [wahn-yuh], “flute”, Wanka Quechua
Namibia, and Botswana — [TINDALL 1857],
— Catalog card of the NMAI (National
page 117, which also cites “vnani-vnon as
Museum of the American Indian) for item
“to play the flute” and “vnani-churu-aup as
14/2732.
“one that plays the flute”.
xo'lb', “flute”, Q'eqchi Maya — Catalog card
of the NMAI (National Museum of the Names in Other Languages
American Indian) for item 26/2683,
Here are names is other contemporary
Collected by Francisco Caal (Q'eqchi Maya)
languages. They are ordered by the name, or
in Cobán, Guatemala in 2003.
their Romanization:
Names in African Indigenous Languages
아메리카 인디언 플루트, (Romanization:
mabusa, “flute”, Hausa. Spoken by about 39
“Amelika indieon peulluteu”), “Native
million speakers, mainly in northern Nigeria
American flute”, Korean, Google Translation
and Niger, and also in Benin, Burkina Faso,
service, February 15, 2016.
Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Congo, Eritrea,
Germany, Ghana, Sudan and Togo —
[OLDEROGGE 1960], page 797.
172 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
bucinae, bucinam, “flute”, Latin — ネイティブアメリカンフルート,
[WOLTERBEEK 1985], page 59 and (Romanization: “Neitibuamerikanfurūto”),
following. “Native American flute”, Japanese.
flauta, Spanish, in Cuba, December 2017. A Translation by Moto Ozaki and
flute player is a “flautista”, and a flute- Romanization from the Google Translation
maker’s workshop would be called a service, February 6, 2016. Also commonly
“flautisterera” (according to musicians in known as インディアンフルート,
Santiago de Cuba, December 30, 2017). (Romanization: “Indianfurūto”).
flauta nativa americana, “Native American
vorsatz, a German-language term used some
flute”, Spanish, Google Translation service,
European ethnomusicologists to denote a
February 22, 2016.
Native American flute. The German-
flet indiański, “Native American flute”, language term “Vorsatz”, literally “intent” or
Polish, from the title of the Polish-language “intention” in English, might have been
Wikipedia page for the Native American chosen because of the traditional use of
flute, February 15, 2016. Native American flutes in courting.

Indiaans-Amerikaanse fluit, “Native From [HALL-RL 1997], page 116:

American flute”, Dutch, from the title of the
The design of the body of the courting
Dutch-language Wikipedia page for the
flute requires that a piece of cedar wood
Native American flute, February 15, 2016.
be split and hollowed, except for a narrow
Indianafletn, “Native American flute”, septum left behind the hole over which
Bavarian, from the title of the Bavarian- the slide will be tied, and then glued back
language Wikipedia page for the Native into one piece. This does not have to be
American flute, February 15, 2016. done if the flute is made of cane. Cane
(American bamboo) is already hollow,
Indianerflöte, “Native American flute”,
and holes need only be drilled above and
German, from the title of the German-
to each side of the natural septum within
language Wikipedia page for the Native
one of the many nodes. Karl Gustav
American flute, February 15, 2016.
Izikowitz [1903–1984, Swedish
indiĝena amerikano fluto, “Native ethnomusicologist] calls this kind of
American flute”, Esperanto, Google instrument a Maraco whistle when it does
Translation service, February 19, 2016. not have additional holes or stops to
produce other tones. With the addition of
Коренной американец флейта, stops he calls it a duct flute. With the
(Romanization: “Korennoy amerikanets additional use of some movable object to
fleyta”), “Native American flute”, Russian, partly cover the hole over the septum, for
Vera Shanov, January 10, 2018. use in adjusting the flow of air over the

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 173

 septum, the instrument is called a vorsatz-
flute by Izikowitz, following the
terminology of Curt Sachs.

See also [IZIKOWITZ 1935] and [CONRAD

2000].

174 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Your Brain on Flute
How do we respond, physically and report methods rather than objective
mentally, when we breathe into our flutes? measurements of basic brain and body
Could the positive effects that we feel from metrics. So, during the Flute Haven Native
playing flutes indicate a potential use of Flute School, we carried out a research
Native American flutes in music therapy study to measure the effects of both
settings? As an alternative therapy for listening and playing on the heart, nervous
specific clinical conditions, could playing system, and brain.
the Native American flute have a place It is common in a single research study to
alongside
traditional
breath-centered
practices such as
Yoga, Qigong,
and Zazen?

Many research
studies have
explored the
effects of
listening to music (see [CERVELLIN 2011] test a very limited set of hypotheses. This
for an overview). Far fewer studies have approach makes data analysis
investigated the effects of playing music on straightforward and increases the statistical
our minds and bodies. After an exhaustive significance of the results. However, our
search of the literature, we could find only a goal was to identify which directions might
few studies on the effects of playing Native be fruitful for future research.
American flutes, and those studies used self-

This chapter was written by Clint Goss and Eric B. Miller and edited by Kathleen Joyce-
Grendahl. A similar article appeared in the May 2014 issue of Overtones, pages 10–14,
published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 175

Our curiosity and quest for future directions a short distance to a lab that we set up for
caused us to look at a wide range of the study. Their flutes were:
measures and test many hypotheses. This
• a “lower-pitched flute” – a mid-range E
approach, combined with the relatively
minor flute or lower, and
small number of participants (15 flute
players) and several other limitations, places • a “higher-pitched flute” – a mid-range G
our research within the context of an minor flute or higher.
“exploratory pilot study”. While we
Participants were fitted with sensors on their
identified several interesting trends and
scalp and the fingertip of one pinky to
future research directions, we consider the
measure heart, skin, and brain activity.
results of this study as “preliminary” and
Participants then put on headphones and
suggest additional research to confirm the
listened to an audio program, which guided
effects that we found.
them through a program of relaxation
The detailed results have been recently periods, listening to several kinds of music,
reported in several articles for the scientific and playing their flutes. Measurements
community ([MILLER 2014] and [MILLER taken during an initial period of silent
2014A]). See those articles for a full relaxation served as a “baseline” to compare
description of how the study was done and against measurements taken during later
the limitations associated with our results. periods of listening and playing.

This chapter looks at the results of our Throughout the study, we recorded the
research study from the perspective of flute electrical activity of the brain in seven
players and facilitators of community music frequency bands, which provided an
gatherings. What are the preliminary lessons indicator of the overall emotional state of
learned? How can we use them as players the participant. We also recorded the level
and facilitators? In this chapter, we have of skin conductivity, which is an indicator of
kept the literature citations to a minimum, nervous system arousal and sometimes
since they have been included in our two anxiety. This measure of arousal increases as
publications cited above. This chapter also small moisturized particles (sweat) on the
includes some results that have not been skin are produced.
reported earlier.
For heart metrics, we recorded precise
pulse-beat measurements at the fingertips.
The Study Outline
These pulse-beat measurements allowed us
We enlisted 15 volunteers to participate in to determine three cardiac measures: heart
the study from the Flute Haven Native rate, volume of blood flow per heartbeat at
Flute School. Each of them took about an the fingertip, and a key metric called “heart
hour off from the program of workshops and rate variability”, which is described below.
playing sessions, bringing two of their flutes
176 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 • a “trend” indicating a comparison between
Summary of the Significant Results the first half and the second half of the
The chart “Changes in Physiology when period of flute playing; or
Playing Native American Flutes” on the next
• a comparison between the periods of
page summarizes significant results that we
playing lower-pitched flute and playing
found during this study. The remainder of
higher-pitched flute.
this section provides details and discusses
those results. If you find the results in this Items marked with † indicate that the result
section too detailed, feel free to skip forward showed statistical significance and ‡
to Practical Applications on page 180. indicates a result with strong statistical
significance.5 However, we again stress that,
The effects described below are based on
since we tested many hypotheses in this
several types of comparisons:
study, the effects that we found need to be
• a comparison between the period of flute confirmed in subsequent research studies
playing and a “baseline” period of silent with larger populations of flute players.
relaxation;

5
The † marking indicates a significant result with a ‡ marking indicates a highly significant result with a
paired, two-tailed Student’s t-test result of p < 0.05. The paired, two-tailed Student’s t-test of p ≤ 0.01.
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 177
Heart Rate, Blood Flow, and Skin Heart Rate Variability
Conductivity When you inhale, your heart rate increases.
The first time participants played their flutes As you exhale, your heart rate decreases.
during the study, we asked them to play Similar variations in your heart rate occur
their lower-pitched flute. As we might on longer cycles of minutes, hours, and
expect, compared with baseline silent throughout the 24-hour sleep-wake cycle.
relaxation, their heart rate increased‡, they
These normal variations in your heart rate
had more skin conductivity‡, and the are called “heart rate variability” or “HRV.”
frequency bands of electrical brain activity Higher HRV – i.e. a larger variation in heart
associated with muscle control increased†. rate – turns out to be a reliable indicator of
The trend while playing lower-pitched flutes health and general resilience to stress. A
was toward an increase in the volume of very steady heart rate – i.e. low HRV – is
blood flow per heartbeat in the fingertips‡. associated with a range of clinical
conditions such as anxiety, hypertension,
During the second flute-playing period, we
COPD, panic disorder, depression, and is
asked participants to play their higher-
also a predictor of sudden cardiac death.
pitched flute. Again, skin conductivity
increased during flute playing† when With the goal of effectively treating those
compared with baseline silent relaxation, clinical conditions, various techniques have
and the trend while playing was toward an been explored to raise HRV. Biofeedback
increase in the volume of blood flow per training has been found to have various
degrees of effectiveness in the treatment of
heartbeat†.
asthma, PTSD, hypertension, anxiety, COPD,
The heart rate of participants was lower recurrent abdominal pain, music
during the second flute-playing period than performance anxiety, and fibromyalgia. In
during the first flute-playing period†. This the treatment of major depressive disorder,
might be expected, again because higher- biofeedback training to raise HRV
pitched flutes are smaller and also because demonstrated effects that appeared to be
there may have been less anxiety during the stronger than drugs often prescribed for the
second flute-playing period. However, condition.
contrary to what we might expect, average
Our study found that HRV increased an
heart rate when playing higher-pitched
average of 84 percent when playing Native
flutes was actually lower than during the
American flutes when compared with
baseline period, when they were sitting in
baseline silent relaxation. The increase in
silent relaxation. This divergent response –
HRV compared to baseline silent relaxation
heart rate decreasing while skin
was statistically highly significant when
conductivity increased – begs further
investigation.
178 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
playing both lower-pitched flutes‡ and period while playing both higher-pitched
higher-pitched flutes‡. flutes‡ and lower-pitched flutes. The trend
reversed during the playing period itself,
We found that subjects with less meditation with Alpha waves trending upward during
experience correlated a greater increase in
playing for both higher-pitched flutes‡ and
HRV. The increase in HRV did not correlate
lower-pitched flutes. This suggests a pattern
strongly with age, gender, or experience
of decreasing Alpha waves during initial
playing Native American flutes, although
playing followed by increasing Alpha as
this could be due to the limited number of
playing continues. This pattern is consistent
participants in our study.
with participants closing their eyes,
Studies have established that adults relaxing, and attaining a light meditative
typically breathe in cycles of about 3 to 5 state, but only after playing for a period of
seconds. During our study, we found that time – about 90 seconds in this case.
playing the Native American flute tends to
It is also interesting to note that the highest
increase the breath cycle to about 10
Alpha waves measured during our study
seconds. Other research has shown that HRV
were during the two silent relaxation
is highest at breath cycles of about 12 to 15
periods that followed periods of listening to
seconds – or about 4 to 5 breaths per
music. While it was not a goal of this study
minute. We believe that the increased length
to explicitly examine the effects of silence,
of the breath cycle that naturally occurs
the enhancement of Alpha waves agrees
during flute playing is a major factor
with prior research that has demonstrated
causing the increase in heart rate variability.
activation of the auditory cortex during
Brain Activity periods of musical silence ([KRAEMER
Several frequency bands of brain activity 2005]), and the positive impact of silence in
showed interesting results during the music on retention and recall ([OLSEN
periods of playing. 1995]).

Alpha. Brainwaves in the range 8 to 12 Hz6 The increase in Alpha band activity from
– often called the Alpha band – are baseline silent relaxation to flute playing
associated with a light meditative state, correlated strongly with years of experience
relaxation, and closing of the eyes. Alpha reported by the participants playing Native
waves decrease with eye opening and American flutes. We can surmise that, over
mental exertion. time, players become more adept at quickly
entering a light meditative state when they
During our study, Alpha waves decreased in begin playing.
relation to the preceding silent relaxation

6
Hz = Hertz = cycles per second
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 179
Beta. Brainwaves in the 15 to 25 Hz range – study† – i.e. between the initial baseline
termed the Beta band – are usually silent relaxation period and a similar period
associated with alert, active thinking or of silent relaxation after all the periods of
anxious concentration. playing and listening to music.
Our study showed different reactions in the Our results provide some indications of
Beta band for novice and experienced movement during flute playing towards the
players. When compared with baseline silent attributes associated with increased Theta
relaxation, novice players showed band activity. The overall experience of the
significant decreases in Beta activity when study – listening, playing, and interim silent
playing both higher-pitched† and lower- relaxation – did increase Theta activity in
pitched† flutes while experienced players novice players. We suspect that these
showed slight increases in average Beta measured trends would be more robust if
brainwave activity during the flute playing longer playing periods were used in future
periods. We propose two conjectures: studies.

• Less experienced players are not as Delta. The 0.5 to 4 Hz range is termed the
habituated to the tones of the Native Delta band. These slow waves dominate
American flutes, where the more brain activity in adults during slow-wave
experienced players exhibit a reduced sleep, a phase of deep, non-rapid eye
novelty effect; and movement sleep.
• More experienced players tend to make When compared with the silent relaxation
greater mental use of music theory rules to period preceding the two periods of playing
create melodies. flute, our study found that flute playing had
the opposite effect on Delta than it did on
Theta. The 4 to 8 Hz range is termed the Alpha band activity: While Alpha waves
Theta band. Elevated Theta waves have decreased, Delta wave increased for both
been found in various studies during
lower-pitched‡ and higher-pitched flutes†.
creative processes, deep meditation,
This increase in Delta showed no significant
drowsiness, inattention, and is associated
trends during the flute playing periods.
with working memory.

We measured increasing trends in Theta Practical Applications

band activity during the periods of playing Although this broad-based study was not
higher-pitched‡ and lower-pitched flutes. designed to provide definitive answers to
We also found a significant increase in theta specific questions, we can infer some
band activity in novice players, but not potential guidelines from the results. This
experienced players, between the silent section combines the results of our study
relaxation periods at the very ends of the with information from prior research studies
180 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
to suggest some practical applications for challenge to facilitate in flute gatherings.
flute players and facilitators of community Here are some ideas of things you can do
music gatherings. Several assumptions are with the group as a whole, or with segments
implicitly made in these suggestions, but we of the group, while inviting individual flute
believe they are reasonable. players to solo:

Breathing Rate • Have everyone chirp very short notes to a

Playing the Native American flute appears to rhythm that you establish. If the notes are
slow breathing rate from about 15 breaths very short, the differences in pitch will not
per minute to about 6 breaths per minute. produce too much dissonance.
Encouraging players to slow their breath • Have everyone hold the same long tone as
rate a bit further – to about 4 to 5 breaths a drone. If people have different key
per minute – may have some health benefits. flutes, you can ask them to hold these
fingerings, which should all sound roughly
One approach we use in workshops is to
the same pitch:
have people play “one-breath solos” – first
on their voices and then moving to their ‣ D flutes hold:   or
flutes. Depending on what a person plays, ‣ E flutes hold: 
we might ask them to play the same solo ‣ F♯ flutes hold: 
slower, hold some of the notes longer, or ‣ G flutes hold: 
play it two times in a single breath. These ‣ A flutes hold: 
activities combine a memory exercise ‣ B flutes hold: 
(repeating the same one-breath solo) with
• Establish a simple repeated pattern and
an exercise that slows their breath rate.
have all flutes of a particular key play that
Another technique is to have players focus pattern. You can engage others in the
on their inhalation. This type of mental circle who are not playing the pattern by
focus often causes players to breathe in asking them to create texture sounds, such
more deeply and slows their overall as the sound of the wind by breathing
breathing rate. Another technique, used by across the finger holes on their flute.
Cornell Kinderknecht, is to focus on
“squeezing out some extra air” from the Showcasing Players
lungs to extend a phrase.
One technique in drum circle facilitation is
Length of Playing Time to showcase a single player, either as a solo
The lengthy time it takes for flute playing to or playing above an established pattern. In
affect Alpha and Theta waves suggests that practice, having that player be more
longer playing periods are preferable. experienced seems to have better results.
Longer playing periods are common in Experienced players tend to be adept at
community drum circles, but can be a more musical techniques, and our study

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 181

suggested that experienced players can enter group, players take turns stopping for a few
a light meditative state more quickly when bars. You could make it more challenging by
they play. This suggests that players with asking them to re-join the music with a
more experience can quickly become different part, and see how the pattern
attuned to the group and the situation, and changes as the silence moves around the
they may also serve as a model for less group.
experienced players on playing “in the
Disengage the Visual
moment”.
One of the most powerful techniques we
Using Silence have found for facilitating a deeper listening
The effect of silence noted in the Brain experience with a group of flute players is to
Activity section on page 179 underscores the have them close their eyes. This simple
general belief among musicians in the power technique helps participants focus on the
of silence. Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett sound, raises Alpha brainwaves, and seems
famously said that “Silence is the potential to reduce any level of anxiety associated
from which music can arise”. with playing in front of other people.

Along these lines, experiment with the effect We often use this technique when we want
of adding slightly longer pauses when you to emphasize an exercise, activity, or
play. Does it engage your audience? Do they teaching point. Simply having the group
“lean forward” just a bit? close their eyes and repeat the activity can
be a powerful aid to learning.
If you are facilitating a group with a
conducted improvisation, you might include
an occasional “stop/cut”. This can be done
Future Directions
by clearly conducting the entire group from Our study is in an area of research that deals
full play to complete silence, then marking with some fundamental questions. What are
four or eight beats of silence before the physical and mental effects of playing
signaling them all to resume playing. You music? What are the implications for music
could emphasize this technique by inviting therapy? Is playing music effective as an
other people in the group to try their hand alternative therapy for specific clinical
at conducting a stop/cut. conditions? Our initial goals were to develop
techniques for measuring the effects of
A common game in small ensembles is to Native American flute playing, to record
“pass the solo.” With the group engaged in a basic metrics of the body and mind, and to
steady-state repeated pattern, each player identify fruitful directions for future
takes a turn soloing over the pattern. To research.
incorporate silence, you could ask an
ensemble to “pass the silence.” After a We believe, despite the limitations of our
steady-state pattern is established by the study (described in detail in [MILLER

182 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

2014]), that these goals have been met. value of playing Native American flutes
And, in particular, the results showing a for their condition;
significant increase in heart rate variability • There is a body of research showing
during flute playing indicates that our various benefits of wind instruments on
exploratory approach to measuring parameters of lung function.
physiological metrics has proved fruitful.
We believe that the confluence of these
The past several decades have been witness
indicators suggests the possibility of a direct
to a profound shift in the practice of
causal link between playing the Native
Western medicine. In addition to new
American flute and the reduction of the
medicines and procedures for treating the
symptoms of asthma.
sick, there is a growing focus on wellness
care, alternative therapies, and the mind- We suggest that a compelling direction for
body connection. Many of these alternative future research would be a direct
modalities come from traditional practices investigation of the effect of a music therapy
such as Yoga, Qigong, Tai Chi, various forms program of Native American flute playing
of meditation, a broad range of expressive on asthma.
arts, and from biofeedback training.

Many of these alternative modalities share a References

common focus on the breath. There is a [CERVELLIN 2011] G. Cervellin and G.
growing body of evidence for the Lippi. “From Music-beat to Heart-beat: A
effectiveness of various breath practices on a Journey in the Complex Interactions
variety of clinical conditions. Flute playing Between Music, Brain and Heart”,
can also be seen as a breath practice. Is it European Journal of Internal Medicine,
possible that Native American flute playing Volume 22, Number 4, 2011, pages 371–
could be effective for some clinical 374, doi:10.1016/j.ejim.2011.02.019
conditions? In answering this question, we
[KRAEMER 2005] David J. M. Kraemer, C.
have several indicators:
Neil Macrae, Adam E. Green, and William
• Research has established that Biofeedback M. Kelley. “Musical Imagery: Sound of
training to raise HRV is “probably Silence Activates Auditory Cortex”,
efficacious” for asthma ([WHEAT 2010], Nature, Volume 434, March 10, 2005,
page 238); page 158, doi:10.1038/434158a
• Our study demonstrated that playing [MILLER 2014] Eric B. Miller and Clinton F.
Native American flute raises HRV; Goss. “An Exploration of Physiological
• Throughout the course of this study, we Responses to the Native American Flute”,
have received many unsolicited accounts ISQRMM 2013, Athens, Georgia, January
from asthma sufferers testifying to the 24, 2014,

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 183

 http://arxiv.org/abs/1401.6004
Also available in the Second Biennial
Conference of the Interdisciplinary
Society for Quantitative Research in
Music and Medicine, Steve Jackowicz
(editor), pages 95–143, ISBN 978-1-
62266-036-7.

[MILLER 2014A] Eric B. Miller and Clinton

F. Goss. “Trends in Physiological Metrics
During Native American Flute Playing”,
Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, April
29, 2014,
doi:10.1080/08098131.2014.908944

[OLSEN 1995] G. Douglas Olsen. “Creating

the Contrast: The Influence of Silence and
Background Music on Recall and Attribute
Importance”, Journal of Advertising,
Volume 24, Number 4, Winter 1995,
pages 29–44,
doi:10.1080/00913367.1995.10673487

[WHEAT 2010] Amanda L. Wheat and

Kevin T. Larkin. “Biofeedback of Heart
Rate Variability and Related Physiology:
A Critical Review”, Applied
Phychophysiology and Biofeedback,
Volume 35, Number 3, 2010, pages 229–
242, doi:10.1007/s10484-010-9133-y

184 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Resonance
We begin with some more insight from W.
Like things vibrate alike.
A. Mathieu on the aspects of musical
Walking with my buddies, swaying in resonance:
step; Clapping with the crowd in time to
the band; Dancing at the disco; Making Two cellos: one leans alone against a
love like a single beast; Timing my breath wall; you play the other one. The un-
to the breakers on the beach; Breathing in played one sings.
unison with a circle of friends; Home run Press down the right-most piano pedal. It
at the ball park – 50,000 screams of will un-dampen the strings. Sing or call:
joyous aggression; Waking up, glad to be HEY! Sneeze or bellow: ROAR! Your
alive. sound comes back to you in string-
Everything is resonant, or nothing is. language.

How to be aware of that? We need to find Broadly speaking, resonance is an answer

the special resonances that affirm our coming from the unknown. A
lives, that make us feel in-tune with the confirmation of order. It bridges the
way things are. phenomenal world, and the world within.
Things and their essences, students and
I can think of no better description of teachers, teachers and what is taught.
resonance than these words of W. A. Even its shallow traces confirm meaning
Mathieu. and purpose and give courage. They are a
trail of clues in the hunt for beauty.
This article explores many aspects of
musical resonance and provides a number of Speaking more narrowly, resonance
techniques you can use in your music and depends on periodicity, the evenly spaced
practical exercises and activities you can vibrations of music. Every physical thing
lead in flute circles and music workshops. has its natural vibration: the chair its

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. It is part of an article that appeared in the
November 2019 and February 2020 issues of Overtones!, published by the WORLD FLUTE
SOCIETY (WFS).

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 185

 squeak, the pot-lid its clang, the guitar As you sing your sliding pitches, imitate
string its sweet purity. When two strings the trajectory of your voice with the
are tuned to the same pitch, their movement of your hand – scoop your
vibrations are synchronized one-for-one. hand up to the high notes and swoop it
They are in step, in tune, and each down to the low ones. Body involvement
reinforces the other’s energy, like the helps pitch awareness.7
good feeling that arises when you walk in
step with your close friend.
Exercise: Resonant Sirening
Resonance, in this sense, is the very core Find a medium sized room with parallel,
of musical experience. When you move hard walls and no carpet. A large bathroom
with music, and sing and play in tune can work. Stairwells can be fantastic.
with it, you are feeding its energy, and it
is feeding yours. Start sirening with your voice and listen for
the pitches where the sound changes –
This is the musician’s heaven world. As where the room seems to come alive. Slow
you become more conscious of resonance, down your vocal sirening and see if you can
that heaven world grows wider, more zoom in on exactly the pitch that makes the
vivid, and more down to Earth, where room cavity resonate. Play with this pitch …
people can use it. go slightly higher and slightly lower in
pitch to the borders where the resonance
This chapter covers several techniques and
disappears, and then make it return, like a
exercises for exploring the resonance of the
magician with a rabbit in a hat.
flute, your voice, and resonant spaces. It
also explores how resonance relates to the
Group Exercise: The Game of Sah
world at large, from the atomic to the
cosmic scale. This is a great warmup exercise for any
community music group and gets everyone
Exercise: Sirening ready for the resonance activities that
follow.
Imitate the sound of an ambulance siren
with your voice – starting as low as possible First, lead the group in vocal sirening
and sliding up very high. Then cycle back (described above) to warm up the voices.
down again and continue up and down. Then get everyone to settle to a single pitch
– some mid-range pitch that is comfortable
for both men and women. Ask them to keep
singing or humming the pitch, taking
breaths as needed and coming back to the

7
James Oshinsky, Return to Child, Music for People,
Second Edition, January 2008, page 26.
186 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
pitch. It can be challenging for novice Duet Exercise: The Game of Sah on
vocalist to “pitch match” directly with their Flutes
voice – it is far easier to siren up or down to
As a flute circle activity, ask for two
locate and match the pitch.
volunteers with flutes in the same key. Ask
Now lead the game of Sah: hold your hand both to play a steady tone with the fingering
out with an open palm to indicate the initial  . Typically, they will produce a
pitch and then raise your hand a bit and sound that is slightly discordant. Everyone
lead everyone up (sharp) one semitone (or will hear the sound with a “WAH … WAH
“half-step”). A semitone is the space … WAH …” quality. The beats that we hear
between the pitches of  and is caused by the two frequencies of sound
 on most Native American flutes. that are slightly different.
This is a much smaller interval than we
Ask one player to hold steady breath
typically play in flute melodies.
pressure (taking a breath when needed), and
Return your open hand to the original level the other person to vary their breath
and lead everyone back to the initial pitch. pressure slowly. As they raise their breath
Then lead everyone down one semitone and pressure, their sound gets louder. The
back up to the original pitch. Do this a few beating will either increase or decrease in
times until everyone gets the feel of moving speed. If it increases in speed, the frequency
up and down by a semitone. of the two sounds are getting further apart.
If the speed decreases, the two sounds are
How Flutes Work coming closer together. The game is to vary
the breath pressure so that the beating of
Native American flutes produce sounds that
the two notes slows and eventually
share many of the characteristics of the
disappears. At that point the two flutes are
human voice. How they do this is a
producing the same frequency of sound –
fascinating story … best demonstrated by
they are perfectly consonant and “in tune”
the animations in the How Flutes Work
with each other. This is the sound the
FluteCast video:
musical interval we call “Unison” – two
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOQ1
sounds with the same pitch.
XiDhqkE
This game of bringing a flute in tune with
The important take-away from the How
another pitched sound using breath pressure
Flutes Work video is that the inside of the
is extremely valuable for flute players. It
sound chamber of a Native American flute is
teaches us how to get our flute in tune in
a resonating chamber.
any situation, just by using our ears.

Now have one player slowly rock their

finger partially off the bottom-most closed

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 187

finger hole:  . The sound should be Technique: Humming into the Flute
gratingly discordant. You may be able to Try this: Play your bottom note –
hear the “WAH … WAH … WAH …” sound

– and hum into your flute at the same time.
at a very fast pace. Have them return to the The combination of the two resonances
consonant sound of Unison. inside the sound chamber of your flute
produces a dramatically different texture
Duet Exercise: Intervals than the pure vibration of the flute alone.
Continue the duet exercise of the Game of
Now siren the pitch you are humming up
Sah on Flutes by having them repeat the
and down. See if you can siren towards the
breath-pressure exercise, but this time with
pitch of the note you are playing. This is a
both flutes on
 . When the flutes bit like walking and chewing gum at the
are in tune with each other, have one player same time – it might take a few minutes to
switch to  . Rather than the get comfortable with, but you will shortly be
interval of Unison, this is the interval of an able to hum and listen at the same time.
Octave … the next most consonant interval
after Unison. You can repeat the breath As you locate the pitch of your flute with
pressure exercise with these two notes that your humming, there is a dramatic shift in
are playing an Octave apart. It is a bit more the texture of the combined sound. If you
challenging to hear the dissonant beats, but are able to hear this shift, you can find the
they can be heard with a bit of deep exact point where the combined resonance
listening. becomes purer and your humming is in
pitch with the flute. If you cannot hear it,
This exercise is valuable from several you can use an outside listener to give you a
perspectives. It gives us a deep-listening thumbs-up signal when the resonance
experience in a slightly more challenging changes.
situation. It also gives us a tool to establish a
consonant resonance between pitches with In a flute circle setting, you could have one
vastly different frequencies. participant try this exercise, and the rest of
the circle provide the thumbs-up signal. You
A pitch that is one octave above another
pitch has double its frequency. This simple
“doubling” relationship holds true for each
higher octave: two octaves higher
corresponds to four times the frequency,
three octaves is eight times, and so on. The
process of doubling or halving a frequency
to change its octave is called “octavation”.

188 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

might even ask them to close their eyes to interval than an octave and match the pitch
deepen the listening quality of the exercise. for or on your flute.

You will again hear the shift in the texture

Exercise: Singing with your Flute
of the sound as your humming passes
Hold the pitch of your humming steady and through the frequencies that are consonant
open the bottom finger hole:  . with the flute.
Then allow your humming to slide up to the
new, higher pitch. You are sirening from the The Unison interval happens when the
lower pitch to the higher pitch. Open frequencies are the same – a 1:1
another finger hole and slide up again. Keep relationship. The Octave interval happens
moving up the primary scale of the flute to when the frequency doubles – a 2:1
the octave note, then turn around and come relationship. What about the two pitches
back down, sliding down to each new pitch.   and ? This interval –
considered the most perfect of (non-octave)
This is more than a performance technique – intervals by the Greeks – is called the
you are learning to sing with your flute. This “Perfect Fifth”. Instead of doubling the
process is very valuable for flute players. It frequency, you get the Perfect Fifth by
is the beginning of the general musical tripling the frequency and dividing that in
exercise of “Sing what you Play / Play what half – a ratio of 3:2. The pitch 1 and 4
you Sing” that is often used by jazz provide another beautiful interval: the
musicians. “Perfect Fourth”, which has a ratio of 4:3.
The process of singing with your flute These “perfect” relationships – intervals that
enables you to “hear” the next note you have a ratio of two small integers – are so
want to play in your mind, before you play compelling that an entire branch of
it. This is a mental process called musicology is dedicated to studying them:
“audiation”. With a bit of practice, you will “Just Intonation”.
find that you can develop entire melodies in
your mind, without even playing it on the Physical Resonance
flute.
Play a steady pitch on your flute and then
hum into your flute at the same time. This is
Humming Intervals
an example of creating physical resonance.
When you get adept at matching the pitch of
your flute in Unison, try holding a different There are many kinds of resonance. Some,
pitch from your flute. You might start by such as atomic, astronomical, and emotional
sirening up an entire octave from the resonance, have a tangential relationship
bottom note and humming a pitch an octave with flute music. But when we work with
higher. You could also siren up a smaller music, we are primarily immersed in the

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 189

resonant relationships between physical As a Solo Exercise
vibrations. You might begin by slowly walking around
the space and just listening. When you
Resonance in physics involves:
intentionally open your ears to all the
… the reinforcement or prolongation of sounds around you – listening “out to the
sound by reflection from a surface or by horizon” – you begin to hear the smallest
the synchronous vibration of a ambient sounds. Now listen not just to the
neighboring object.8 sounds, but to their echoes. Listen for
“impulse” sounds – ones that are very short
This seems to describe two distinct modes of and sharp, like the clap of a hand or the
resonance. However, I believe that the snap of a twig. Can you hear the
Resonant Sirening exercise described above reverberation – the “reverb” – after the
involves a combination of these two modes: actual sound? Do you hear echoes?
the reflection of sound from the walls of the
room, combined with the sound As you walk around the space, begin making
reinforcement of the source and reflected impulse sounds. You can “Click” with your
sound when a particular frequency is used. cheeks or “Cluck” with the back of your
throat. You can snap your fingers. Now try
Physical resonances are powerful tools. As single, short staccato notes on your flute
musicians, we create consonance and using a “Tat” articulation. Listen to the
dissonance, control textures, and develop space sing back your sounds.
harmony with intervals and chords. As
human beings, we use those musical tools to Where is the sound the best, to your ears? If
create emotional resonance with our you have a friend with you, you can have
listeners. them wander through the space and give
you their opinion of the best place for you to
play.
Exercises in Resonant Spaces
What is the best place to play a flute, to Continue the sound exploration by playing
maximize the reverb effects? melodies on your flute. However, keep the
spirit of exploration by playing short
This is a great question to explore whenever
phrases, allowing time for the sound to
you get the chance to play in a large,
completely “tail off” into silence.
reverberant space. If you are lucky enough
to have such as space near your flute circle, This was the approach of Paul Horn when
this makes for a wonderful activity for the he played in the Taj Mahal. After fleeing the
group. hectic L.A. lifestyle and meditating for

8
Oxford English Dictionaries, retrieved February 21, 2018
from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/.
190 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
months in India, he took his flute into the
wonderfully reverberant space and simply
played phrases. The recording of that first
sound exploration, made on April 25, 1968,
is credited as beginning of the New Age
genre of music.

As a Group Exercise
When facilitating a flute circle or a
workshop in a reverberant space, I usually
try to keep the talking to a minimum. Before The Basilica of Saint Denis
entering the large space, I tell them that
they will be playing in a specific order, so I
ask them to simply remember who they will floorplan of the Basilica of Saint Denis,
be following. Then participants are free to North of Paris. The cathedral was the
wander around the space, playing short birthplace of Gothic architecture in the 12th
“impulse” notes at first then playing phrases. Century and is acoustically amazing.9

The goal of the group exercise is the same as My first impulse was to play at a central
the personal exercise: explore the best places location. This is shown by the red dashed
to play in that space. line I have drawn on the floorplan of the
Basilica. However, this seems to be the
Clint’s Experience worst place to play, especially for other
I have experimented with playing flute in listeners in the space.
many resonant spaces. Some of the most
From many experiments of this type, I
acoustically inspiring places are churches
believe that the best sound for all listeners
and cathedrals. (I have personally taken the
in the space is to play on a line that
approach of not asking for permission to
connects opposite corners of the space.
play in these spaces. My playing has mostly
Those lines are shown as the blue dashed
been met with acceptance and approval. At
lines. If I position myself on that diagonal,
the other end of the spectrum was the
about ¼ of the way from one corner to the
candlestick-wielding priest in Spain …)
opposite corner, that seems to provide the
Although I have not done any acoustic best sound. These locations are shown by
analysis, my personal experience is that the the green bars on the diagram.10
best places to play in a large, rectangular,
reverberant space are demonstrated on this

9
Photograph of the interior of the Basilica of Saint Denis 10
Floorplan of the Basilica of Saint Denis provided by
is courtesy of Gilles Messian, May 30, 2009. Pierre Poschadel, October 2, 2015.
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 191
 The floorplan of Saint Denis. The solid green lines mark suggested places
to play for maximum reverberation throughout the space.

• an octave (   – ),
The Deep Dive
• a fourth (   – ), and
We are feeling beings, and we are thinking
• a fifth (  – ).
beings. Whenever we feel something, we
want to intellectually understand it. When they discovered that these
Whenever we find some phenomenon, we corresponded to ratios of small integers –
want to analyze it. 2:1, 3:2, and 4:3 – they began to relate
music to the movements of the “Movement
The unfolding history of musical exploration of the Spheres” – the stars, planets, and
is a constant see-saw between the feeling Moon.
and the thinking. We improvise a melody,
then write it down in detailed notation. We This fascination with how musical ratios
play some harmonic pitches of a particular relate to ratios in other realms continues
quality (beauty, wonder, fear, hope) and through the present. Perfect ratios abound
then name, analyze, categorize, and publish in nature, and it is natural to wonder
it. This allows others to recall, reuse, and whether the perfect ratios of the music we
share the harmony. It also separates us from produce somehow relate to the perfect ratios
the initial experience. of those other realms – planetary orbits,
atomic resonance, and the resonance of the
All musicians ride this see-saw between the Earth itself. This article will look at some
rational and the emotional. Some call it correspondences that have been proposed.
“head space” and “heart space”. However, the question I always ask is:
The Pythagoreans of Ancient Greece became
How does this serve our music?
enamored with “perfect” intervals of

192 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Light and Sound
The realization that light has the
properties of a wave and that
different colors of visible light have
different wave frequencies occurred
in the mid-19th century. However,
Isaac Newton had already proposed a
correspondence between the colors of
light and musical pitches three
centuries earlier.

He illustrated the relationship in his

books on Opticks, shown in the image
at the right.11

Throughout his books on Opticks,

Isaac Newton compared colors of
light to the seven-note Dorian scale.
This scale is the white keys on a
Isaac Newton’s Color Circle, 1704.
piano ascending from D. A six-note
subset of this scale is played on most
Native American flutes with these
fingerings: Newton divided his color wheel in musical
proportions around the circumference of the


circle. Each segment of the circle is assigned
a color of light, starting from red at D→E,
through orange, yellow, green, blue (spelled
“blew”), indigo, and ending with violet back
… or, if our flute can reach into the second at C→D.
register, you can try these fingerings:
The center of each arc of color are shown by
the letters p, q, r, s, t, u, and x. The center of


the circle, marked by “O”, is taken to be
white.

11
5 Isaac Newton, Opticks: or, a Treatise of the numbered) following page 144, published by the Royal
Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light, Society, London, 1704.
Book 1, Part 2, Figure 11 on the third fold-out leaf (un-
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 193
 The Color of Sound

light spectrum are consonant with the

Frequencies of Light and Sound musical pitch F.
Newton’s work was clairvoyant in one
significant respect: the colors of visible light The chart above maps colors of light to
span a range of frequencies that is musical notes. The colors have frequencies
approximately one octave.12 However, in the range 384–768 THz (that’s
without the benefit of knowing the 384,000,000,000,000 Hz through
frequencies of the various colors of light (or 768,000,000,000,000 Hz). The frequencies
without know that light has a frequency), of light are scaled down 40 octaves to the
mapped the bottom and top of the visible range 349.2–698.5 Hz – the frequencies of a
light spectrum to the pitch D. Most mid-range F minor Native American flute
contemporary mappings between sound and (F4 – F5). For a digital version of this chart,
color scale the frequencies of light down by and an on-line calculator that converts
40 octaves to establish a correspondence musical pitches to colors of light, visit
between musical notes. Using this method of Flutopedia’s Color of Sound page at
octavation, the two extremes of the visible www.Flutopedia.com/sound_color.htm.

12
The typical frequency range of human vision is 430– Biology: Concepts and Applications, Thomson
770 THz – somewhat less than an octave. See: Cecie Starr, Brooks/Cole, 2005.
194 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 Technical note: The notes in The Color of are based on a mid-range F# Native
Sound chart are given in International American flute.
Pitch notation: a note name and its octave
as a subscript. The primary scale of a mid- Using the Sound–Light Connection
range F# minor Native American flute While both sound and light have measurable
spans the notes F#4 to F#5. To get pitches frequencies, the two phenomena are quite
in finer degrees that one semitone, we different. Sound is a compression wave
divide the semitone into 100 cents. For carried on alternating high-pressure and
example: C5 + 32 cents is 32/100 of the low-pressure zones of air molecules,
way between C5 and C#5. All conversions propagating locally at the speed of sound.
between frequencies and musical pitches Light (and hence color) is an
in this article assume a pitch standard of electromagnetic wave traveling about
A4 = 440 Hz. 875,000 times faster than sound.

From a scientific perspective, the link

Re-Calibration
between sound and color is tenuous, or even
The original Color of Sound chart was whimsical. However, in situations where
developed in 2016 based on the range of you wish to represent pitch as some color,
visible light with wavelengths in the range this mapping might be useful in the absence
780.8–390.4 nm. This corresponds to a of any other scheme. This mapping has also
range of visible light frequencies of 380–768 proved useful when mapping some colors
THz, which is consonant with the octave back onto pitches, as was the case for our
range F4–F5 … the primary range of a mid-
range F minor Native American flute.

However, in 2018, I became aware

of the solar spectrograph from Kitt
Peak (shown at the right) which
indicates a visible range of 692–
392 nm.13 This centers on a range
of colors that translates to a
consonant octave range of F#4 –
F#5 … the primary range of an F#
minor Native American flute.

Based on this new information, the

subsequent harmonies and charts The Kitt Peak Solar Spectrograph

13
The spectrograph is corrected for the absorption of the https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/ssp/stars_planets/solarspect
Earth’s atmosphere by R. Kurucz. See rum.html.
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 195
development of workshops on playing significant, or valuable, and some of which
techniques based on emotions. have come out of my own research.

Over the years, we have received reports The relationships which have a (potentially)
from practitioners who have successfully consonant relationship with the primary
used the Flutopedia Sound ⇔ Color range of a mid-range F# Native American
calculator to treat synesthesia, develop flute are shown on the Consonant Frequency
music education resources, lead meditation Map. (For a higher resolution version, see
sessions, and in therapeutic music-making as http://www.Flutopedia.com/img/CFM.jpg)
well as music therapy. In these settings, the
The bottom scale shows the frequency,
connection between Sound and Light
wavelengths, and note names in the primary
appears to have value.
range of a mid-range F# Native American
flute. The section above it marks the
A Map of Consonant Frequencies locations of the notes – equal temperament
We can use the relationship between light in white and notes with perfect ratios –
and sound as a basis for mapping many called “Just Intoned” in green (for the most
other resonant relationships. The rest of this consonant) and yellow.
chapter examines a number of the frequency
relationships – some of which have been Each box indicates a frequency relationship
proposed as musically interesting, with the note in that mid-range flute. The

The Consonant Frequency Map

196 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
center of the box is typically the reference Atomic Resonance
point on the chart. In cases where rectangles One fertile area for conjecture about
would overlap, a black or white dot shows resonant relationships with music are the
the location. basic elements of the periodic table – such
The horizontal scale is a logarithmic scale of as hydrogen (H) – and the compound
frequency, which provides equal spacing for molecules they form in nature – such as
the equal-tempered notes. water (H2O). However, resonance at the
atomic (or “quantum”) level is very complex
The vertical scale indicates the number of and does not lend itself easily to basic
octaves of translation between the item and resonant relationships.
a mid-range pitch between F#4 and F#5.
There are two contiguous sub-ranges on the Microwave ovens operate at 2.45GHz, but
vertical scale: from ‒6 to +4 octaves and - this causes H2O molecules to spin, not
41 to ‒30 octaves. Each sub-range has its
own scale (one upper is twice the scale of
the lower), and the space between ‒30 and
‒6 octaves has been collapsed to save
Spectral Lines for Oxygen
space.
resonate. Atoms and molecules absorb
The various classes of items on this chart are specific frequencies of radiation – a
described below. However, … principle that we use to identify the
Please note that some real understanding chemical makeup of stellar objects.
of the items on the Consonant Frequency The spectral diagram represents the
Map is required before the information frequencies in the visible spectrum absorbed
can be used. Some of the items are by oxygen.14 However, the frequencies that
absolute relationships and some are are absorbed for a given element typically
relative to the pitch at the left side of the run the full spectrum of the electromagnetic
scale (F#4). Some of the relationships spectrum and are far more numerous than
change over time, or depend on specifics shown. This does not lend itself to a useful
of temperature, humidity, or dimensions. resonant relationship with sound.

For elements and compounds on the

Consonant Frequency Map, I have taken a
different approach: the frequencies are
based on the speed of sound for that element

14
In the actual spectrum that we observe, the bright lines
are dark, since the element is absorbing radiation at those
frequencies
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 197
or compound, as compared with the speed To this end, I have added items on the
of sound in air. For example, the speed of Consonant Frequency Map for various
sound in H2O – 1,498 m/s – corresponds to materials that are used in flute construction.
a shift of two octaves plus 1-2 semitones Various woods, such as:
above the speed of sound in air.15 This is
shown on the chart as:

are charted.16 Also, the chart shows a

number of plastics that may be used in flute
One challenge in this approach is that the construction.17 In particular,
speed of sound is dependent on various
conditions such as temperature and
pressure. For any particular application, the
values of the speed of sound would need to represents Polylactic Acid, a primary
be adjusted (by measurement or calculation) material used in 3-D printing.
for the conditions in that situation.
In order to make use of the concept of
“resonance-matching” the sound chamber
Sound in the Flute Body with the body of the flute, a number of
Extending the speed-of-sound approach to conditions need to be considered:
more complex materials is potentially useful
for flute makers. While the body of the flute • The actual vibration length of the body of
does not resonate like the soundboard of a the flute.
violin or harpsicord, the acoustic wave • The humidity of the flute material, which
inside the sound chamber may induce a affects the speed of sound in the body of
corresponding resonant wave in the body of the flute.
the flute. If these two waves were tuned • Air temperature inside the sound chamber,
with each other, based on the actual speed which affects the acoustic speed of sound
of sound in the material of the flute, would of the flute.
this affect the sound of the instrument?

15
Values for the speed of sound of elements and Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation of Wood
compounds are from: John Rumble (editor), CRC Symposium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2015, pages 7–14.
Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 98th Edition, CRC 17
see Alan R. Selfridge, Approximate Material Properties
Press, 2,560 pages, 2017. in Isotropic Materials, IEEE Transactions on Sonics and
16
see Ergün Güntekin, Tuğba Yılmaz Aydın, and Peter Ultrasonics, Volume SU-32, Number 3, May 1985, pages
Niemz, Prediction of Young's Modulus in Three 381-394, and N. G. Parker, M. L. Mather, S. P. Morgan,
Orthotropic Directions for Some Important Turkish Wood and M. J. W. Povey, Longitudinal acoustic properties of
Species Using Ultrasound, General Technical Report FPL- poly(lactic acid) and poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid),
GTR-239, Proceedings of the 19th International Biomedical Materials, Volume 5, Number 5 (2010),
055004, https://arxiv.org/pdf/1005.4304
198 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Sound in the Body Ignoring octavation, the relationship of
Measurements of the speed of sound in body these three environments is shown in the
tissues is generally available from graphic at the bottom of this page.
ultrasound studies. Data for a few types of
Is it possible that our preference for the
body tissue18 raise some interesting
“perfect” intervals of a musical fourth and
questions.
a musical fifth is influenced by a
Based on the speed of sound, persistent resonance between the ear,
brain tissue, and our skull?
tissue, More detailed work is needed in this area,
drawing from detailed studies on the
which is slightly more dense that water, is
propagation of sound waves in body
consonant with acoustic waves in air shifted
tissues.19
two octaves higher plus a major second (two
semitones). The

is far more dense. It corresponds to three

octaves higher than air, plus a perfect fifth.

18
Artur Teymurazyan, Physics in Medicine, Chapter 4: Human Neuromodulation with Transcranial Focused
Acoustics of the Body, April 22, 2004, published by the Ultrasound, Journal of Neural Engineering, Volume 14,
University of Notre Dame, 066012, 19 pages, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-
https://www3.nd.edu/~nsl/Lectures/mphysics/ 2552/aa843e
19
See, for example, Jerel K Mueller, Leo Ai, Priya Bansal
and Wynn Legon, Numerical Evaluation of the Skull for
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 199
Schumann Resonance
The Earth itself behaves like a huge,
resonating cathedral. The atmospheric
cavity between Earth’s surface and the
ionosphere 40 miles above flows with the
current generated by the 500–2,000
lightning storms active at any given time.
This current resonates in a series of
electromagnetic waves called Schumann
Resonances.20

The strongest (“primary”) Schumann

Resonance frequency is 7.83 Hz. The series
proceeds upward with decreasing intensity Accepting that the phenomena of sound and
at frequencies of 14.3 Hz, 20.8 Hz, 27.3 Hz, electromagnetic waves are two very
33.8 Hz17, and so on at intervals of about different phenomena, we can use octavation
6.5 Hz. These average frequencies vary on a to scale up the Schumann frequencies. The
daily basis by as much as ±0.5 Hz, probably primary Schumann frequency of 7.83 Hz is
in response to solar activity and changes in extremely low – well below the frequency of
the shape of the Earth’s atmospheric cavity. a cat’s purr (22–24 Hz),22 which is well
below the lowest frequencies of low
A great deal of research and speculation has
(“Baritone”) Native American flutes (around
been done on how Schumann Resonances
130 Hz).2319
interact with humans and living things in
general.21 However, we are primarily Scaling up the primary Schumann frequency
interested here in the question: of 7.83 Hz by 6 octaves gives us a musical
pitch of B4 + 25 cents.24 We can play this on
How might Schumann Resonances relate
a mid-range F# minor Native American flute
to the music we play?
with the fingering  and giving the

20
Dieter R. Poelman, On the Science of Lightning: An (Acinonyx jubatus) and in the domestic cat (Felis catus),
Overview, Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium, Proceedings of Fonetik 2010, Lund, Sweden, June 2–4,
Number 56, 2010, 56+iv pages. The frequencies of 2010, pages 17–22.
Schumann Resonances are provided on page 22. 23
19 See Flutopedia’s Flute Keys page at
21
See, for example: Irena Ćosić, Dean Cvetković, Qiang http://flutopedia.com/keys.htm.
Fang, Emil Jovanov, and Harry Lazoura, Responses to ELF 24
For a general overview of Schumann phenomena, see
Schumann Resonance and Artificial Electromagnetic Davis Campbell, Schumann Resonances, Chapter 11 in:
Fields, Transactions of the Faculty of Mechanical Hans Volland, Handbook of Atmospheric
Engineering, Belgrade, Volume 34, 2006, pages 93–103. Electrodynamics, Volume 1, CRC Press, 1995.
22
See Robert Eklund, Gustav Peters, and Elizabeth D.
Duthie, An acoustic analysis of purring in the cheetah
200 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
flute some extra breath pressure to raise the instrument. Find the current primary
pitch 25 cents. Schumann frequency, and play it on a drum.
Playing each beat of a 7.83 Hz frequency
However, since Schumann frequencies vary
means playing 470 beats per minute, which
on a daily basis, the resonant note also
is a very fast tempo. You can divide this by
changes. If we use the range of ±0.5 Hz, we
four – essentially scaling the rhythm down
get a range of notes from A#4 + 11 cents to
by two “octaves” to get a more reasonable
C5 + 32 cents.
beat of 117½ beats per minute. Interestingly
Similarly, the second Schumann frequency this is very close to the commonly used
of 14.3 Hz can be scaled up by 5 octaves to musical tempo of 120 beats per minute.
A#4 – 32 cents. Allowing for the daily
Typical values for the first five Schumann
variation, we get a range of A4 + 6 cents to
frequencies are plotted on the Consonant
A#4 + 27 cents.
Frequency Map as, for example,
All of the resonant pitches for the first and
second Schumann frequencies, allowing for
daily variation, lie in the range of fingerings
from  to on an F#
ELF Waves
minor Native American flute.
The extremely low frequency (ELF) waves in
With some research, you can locate Web our environment come from many sources.
resources that report the current Schumann The Schuman resonance waves described
frequencies. One such site at the time of this above provide some of those ELF waves, but
writing is the most dramatic contributor is the ELF
http://www.vlf.it/cumiana/livedata.html, waves generated by our power grid. The
which is reporting 14.15 Hz for the second wires carrying electrical power operated at
Schumann frequency. However, realize that an alternating current of 60 Hz in the U.S.
the web sites that report live Schumann data and 50 Hz in Europe.25
tend to change frequently in
content and format, so you may
need to do some searching on the
Web to get the current
information.

One alternative to using a resonant

frequency on the flute is to use the
actual frequency on a percussion Plot of Low Frequency emissions in Eastern Europe

25
Graph courtesy of Jerzy Kubisz and the Krakow ELF
Group.
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 201
The graph to the right shows a
plot of power of those frequencies
from a site in Poland. You can
clearly see a spike at the 50 Hz
frequency matching the European
power grid standard. You can also
see the relatively subtle bumps in
the graph at the Schumann
frequencies of 7–8 Hz and 13–15
Hz.26
The Lung Flute
Pitches that are consonant with power-grid
frequencies depend on your location: We can create a resonance in the flute’s
sound chamber using our lungs and vocal
• In the U.S., we can scale 60 Hz up 3 cords to hum into the flute. But is the
octaves to 480 Hz, which corresponds to reverse true? Can a flute set up a resonance
B4 – 49 cents. in our lungs?
• For European locations, we can scale 50
The Lung Flute is a medical device that does
Hz up 3 octaves to 400 Hz, which equates
exactly that. It is designed for patients who
to G4 + 35 cents.
have difficulty clearing mucous from their
On an E minor flute, these two pitches can lungs. The device sets up a low frequency
be produced using very soft breath pressure sound which extends back from the flute-
with the fingering  (U.S.) and very like device, through the mouth cavity, and
high breath pressure with the fingering down into the lungs. The frequency of 16–
 (European). 25 Hz matches the natural oscillation
These two pervasive ELF frequencies are frequency of the cilia in the lungs and
plotted on the Consonant Frequency Map as dramatically assists clearing of mucous.27

and

26
The health effects of the powerful waves we generate at emf/project/mapnatreps/nznrl_emfbooklet2008.pdf on
50 or 60Hz have been extensively researched and February 26, 2018.
debated. For an overview, see: New Zealand National 27
Nicolaas Smit, Physics and Physiology of the Lung
Radiation Laboratory, Electric and Magnetic Fields and Flute, retrieved on February 25, 2018 from
Your Health, 2008, 36 pages, retrieved from http://www.lungflute.com/PDF/lungflute-physics-
http://www.who.int/peh- physiology.pdf. \
202 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Sound in Space
One of the acoustically fascinating projects
Since space is not a true vacuum,
to come out of NASA are the Voyager
radiation from various sources does
recordings. These are composed from the
interact with charged particles. The
electromagnetic radiation heard by the
density of particles is extremely low,
Voyager antenna when pointed at each of
typically a few to a few hundred particles
the planets. They are highly complex and
per cubic centimeter. Since most of the
not ideal as pure drones or for creating
particles are charged, they interact at a
resonant situations, but we have used them
distance via electric and magnetic fields.
extensively as background tracks in
Mix in rotating planetary and solar
workshops and to set a mood in
magnetic fields, sources and sinks of
performances.
particles, ionizing radiation and other
Here is a description of these recordings, sources of energy, and an orchestra of
courtesy of Moe Incanto of NASA: wave modes arise.

Many of these plasma waves occur

naturally at audible frequencies, although
a human would not be able to hear them
in space because the pressure is far too
low. They are associated with moving
particles, so, theoretically, an ultra-
sensitive microphone might be able to
record some plasma waves. In practice,
the oscillating electric and magnetic field
components are very easy to detect with
antennas, so that is what we do. These
waveforms can simply be played back as
audio through a speaker without any
modification. In other cases, for example
auroral kilometric radiation, radio waves
which propagate above the frequencies of
plasma waves are recorded and played
back more slowly, shifting their high
frequencies down into the range of
human hearing.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 203

Harmony of the Spheres
Medieval philosophers had put forth the
general concept that the motions of the
planets were mathematically related to
musical harmonies. However, it was the
work of Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) that
grounded the concept in precise
measurements and geometric analysis.

In his massive Harmonices Mundi (“The

Harmony of the World”), published in 1619,
Kepler laid out a system of relationships
based on the angular velocity of the known
planets. He found that these ratios very
closely approximated the perfect ratios of
the musical intervals we use today.

The Consonant Frequency Map plots some of

the ratios observed by Kepler: namely the
ratio between the maximum and minimum
angular velocity of the six innermost
planets, using present-day observations.
They are shown as, for example,

Orbital Periods A page from Keppler’s

Another approach to planetary harmonics is Harmonices Mundi, 1619
to use the orbital period – the length of year
– for the planets. The Ur-Töne (“archaic
tone”) frequency of 136.101 Hz was 544.4 Hz, which equates to a C#5 – 31
developed by Joachim-Ernst Berendt based cents. This can be played on a mid-range F#
on the length of the Earth year. Scaling the minor Native American flute with the
frequency of the Earth’s year up 32 octaves fingering and about half-normal
brings us to the Ur-Töne frequency.28 Scaling

breath pressure.
two more octaves brings us to a frequency of

28
See the OM Frequency web site at
http://resonancelighting.co.uk/om/.
204 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
I have plotted the planets using this method
on the Consonant Frequency Map based on
calculations for the length of the years of all
the planets.29 These are shown in, for
example, the entry for

Conclusions
Depending on your background and
perspective, you may find the various
relationships to musical harmonies in this
article to be magical, whimsical, dubious, or
malarkey. However, we believe that there is
value in at least asking the question: “Is
there value for our music?” We hope that
some of the relationships proposed will lead
you down a path of fruitful exploration.

29
25 Data for the length of each planet’s tropical year is retrieved February 27, 2018 from
from the NASA Planetary Fact Sheets, David R. Williams, https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/ .
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 205
206 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Writing Down Your Melodies
You’re messing around on your flute and … Recordings
BAM … there it is … the most totally
One of the quickest and reliable ways to
awesome melody you’ve ever heard – and
capture a melody is to record it. Mobile
you played it!
devices are ubiquitous, and virtually all of
Then, panic sets in. How do I preserve it? them can record sound. The recording
Can I even play it again? quality might not be great, and the memory
might be limited, but that rarely matters.
You rewind and access your finger memory
The idea is to capture and preserve your
and – sure enough – there it is. Maybe it’s a
song-fragment so it can be developed and
full melody, a phrase, or even just a
recorded “for real” down the line.
collection of a few finger positions, but you
know immediately that this will grow into a Here are some suggestions
full-fledged song …
• Get your mobile device set up to record
… if only you can capture it. before you need it.

My first impulse has been “Oh, there’s no • Practice recording at least three times, so
way I’ll ever forget this melody!” Then the you know exactly how to start a recording.
phone rings, I chat for a few minutes, and • Announce your name, the date, the flute
the melody is gone. you are playing, and maybe some context
(location, inspiration, etc) right into the
This article is an antidote to the “lost recording.
melody syndrome” – some techniques that
• Transfer your recordings to your desktop
you can share at your flute circles to help
so you can log them and organize them for
others preserve their melodies so they can
future development.
grow up to be full-fledged songs.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the May 2020 issue
of Overtones!, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY (WFS).

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 207

You might even consider doing a video This is a wonderful system of notation with
recording. They take more space, but avoid a rich history, widespread usage, and
issues of remembering what flute you played tremendous flexibility. It conveys many
or trying to figure out the fingerings you important aspects of a melody: pitches,
used. meter (the “4/4” designation), tempo (“ =
53” to indicate 53 beats-per-minute for each
Audio and video recordings are great for
quarter note), and rhythm (with each of the
capturing and preserving a melody, but do
note symbols being held twice
not lend themselves to song development.
as long as the previous one). Divisions are
They can also be more difficult to share with
shown by vertical bar lines and rests (silent
other flute players, because of their size and
sections) can be represented with special
technology hurdles, and because other
symbols.
players may find it difficult to reproduce
your melody, especially if they are not using However, for Native American flute players,
the same key flute. For continued there are some drawbacks to Classical Staff
development, moving to some form of notation:
written notation is often best.
1. Since the pitches change with every key
of flute, we would need a different
Classical Staff Notation version for every key.
The most prevalent form of written music in
2. Classical staff notation does not tell you
Western musical traditions is Classical Staff
which finger holes to open and close for
Notation. Here is the beginning of one way
each note.
to play Amazing Grace, written in Classical
Staff Notation using the tones (pitches) on a 3. The full “language” of classical staff
mid-range A minor Native American flute: notation is extensive and often cryptic.

208 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

We believe it is crucial with beginning flute
players (or anyone in a flute circle setting)
to emphasize that:

You do not need to know how to read

sheet music (classical staff notation, or
any other form of written music) in order
to play Native American flutes!

You might even emphasize that many well-

known performers do not read sheet music.

Nakai “Tablature”
To address problem #1 above and, to some
degree, problem #2, Nakai tablature or
“Nakai Tab” was developed. It looks exactly
like classical staff notation, with a few
restrictions:

A. The key signature always has four sharps,

and
B. The fundamental tone (the pitch you get
with all finger holes closed) on any key
of Native American flute is F#.
These two restrictions make classical staff
notation much more useful to Native However, we are still not sure which finger
American flute players. Restriction B holes to close for each note (problem #2),
addresses problem #1 and handles different and the notation is still daunting for those
key flutes. Here is the opening of Amazing without training or experience …
Grace in Nakai Tab:

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 209

Nakai Tab addresses the issue of which
finger holes to cover by using a standard
The diagram at the right indicates that, with
mapping for each note to finger hole
the mouth end of the flute at the top and the
pattern.
foot end at the bottom, we should keep:
The idea is to learn to place your fingers in a
• the bottom hole open,
given pattern for each note that you read.
This works well for the primary scale on • the next hole up to be very slightly
most flutes: covered (“shaded”),
• the next hole up to be partially


covered (“half-holed”), and
• the top three holes to be
completely closed.

However, flutes from different flute makers

(or even two different flutes from the same On the right is another hypothetical diagram
flute maker) can have different fingerings that shows:
for the other notes. Also, it is sometimes
advantageous to use alternate fingerings for • a note in the second register (the
certain ornaments or fast runs, and Nakai “+” at the top),
Tab has no way to indicate these fingerings. • the top hole to be very slightly
open (“cracked”), and
Finger Diagrams • a trill on the bottom hole
We begin to address problem #2 (where to
put the fingers) with finger diagrams. These
symbols tell us exactly how to open or close
each finger hole for each note.

210 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

There are many sources of finger diagrams. Different fonts are also available with finger
The ones in this Handbook are from the diagrams oriented with the mouth end up,
“NAFTracks” package freely available at down, and to the left (i.e. horizontal, for
http://www.Flutopedia.com/fonts.htm. This finger diagrams that are in-line with text).
package provides TrueType® fonts (.TTF) as
Recent additions available in version 1.23
well as images in .GIF format. As of version
(released November 2018) have provided
1.22 (released in 2016) the package includes
“composite” fonts that allow any possible
fonts for:
fingering combination to be composed, as
• Native American flutes (or other simple well as a series of “lean” fonts that omit the
flutes) with five (
 ), six outline shape of the flute on each diagram
( ), seven, and eight finger holes, to provide a more streamlined look to the
• Flutes with and without a thumb hole, written music.

• Mojave four hole, Hopi five hole, and

Papago three hole and four hole style Different Fingerings
flutes, as well as flutes with “uneven” four You will often see Native American flute
hole spacing, and sheet music that combines Nakai Tab with
• The Xiao (developed with Scott August) finger diagrams. For example, here is the
and the Fujara. Nakai Tab for Amazing Grace with the
standard fingerings:

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 211

However, these fingerings do not work for Less experienced players can benefit by
many contemporary Native American flutes. using alternate fingerings that can make this
For example, a Northern Spirit A minor flute particular melody much easier to play,
would use the (substantially different) shown in the lower transcription:
shown in the upper transcription:

212 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

This disconnect between fingerings and Authoring Classical Staff Notation
notes can cause immense confusion and The complexity and expressiveness of
frustration with novice and intermediate classical staff notation has a cost: producing
players. (“authoring”) it can be a challenge. There
One approach is to restrict yourself to are myriad applications for authoring sheet
playing flutes of only one flute maker (a music (e.g. Finale, Sibelius, MuseScore,
common practice in Japan), but most U.S.- PrintMusic, Scorch, etc.), all which provide
based players experiment with a wide a tradeoff between cost, complexity
variety of flutes that have a huge range of (learning curve), speed, expressive power,
fingerings in the cross-fingered notes. and control over the output formatting.

Another approach is to annotate the Nakai One system I have found to be useful is ABC
Tab for a song with the finger diagrams of notation. It is a text-based notation system
the specific flute you will use for that song, that is ideal for single-line melodies. You
or to produce multiple versions for a wide write your melody in any text editor, then
variety of common fingerings. use one of many free programs to convert
your text file to PDF, JPG, HTML, and many
other formats.

Here is an example of Amazing Grace scored

for a flute in the key of D, courtesy of
ABCNotation.com:

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 213

If classical staff notation is your thing, ABC could even incorporate the type of timing
notation might be your best path. indicators from ABC notation to represent
the rhythm.
Another advantage of ABC notation is that it
is the underlying format for melodies
handled by Robert Gatliff’s on-line system
SNAFT
for displaying Nakai Tab. Robert’s extensive It’s not always easy to incorporate fonts into
collection of melodies on your document. For example, most email
www.FluteTree.com are generated from text recipients are not set up to receive a
authored in ABC-style notation. message in custom fonts, so you often need
to use plain text.
Stand-Alone Finger Diagrams SNAFT – Simplified Native American Flute
What if you know the rhythm and just want Tablature – serves this role. It is a text
to recall the finger positions to use? Typing representation of the finger diagrams,
just the finger diagrams might be the best typically written vertically. The beginning of
thing. Load the TrueType fonts, open a word Amazing Grace might look like this:
processing application such as Microsoft
<xxx|xxo
Word, and type a few digits: 1 3 4 5 7 8.
<xxo|xoo
Then select your text and switch the font to
<ooo|xoo
NAFTracks Six-Hole, increase the point size
<xxo|xoo
to 48 point, and you will get:
<ooo|xoo
…


If you switch to the NAFTracks Five Hole
The full definition of SNAFT can be found at
http://www.Flutopedia.com/snaft.htm.

Naming the Tones

font, you get:
Finally, the most simple approach may be to


simply name the tones. There are many
systems for this, but the most used is
“Number Tab”. Gary Stroutsos introduced it
to me in 2001 when he showed me his
… which makes it a snap to convert between massive, handwritten personal song book,
various styles of flutes. and Scott August has done substantial work
to refine and promote the system.
Once you get set up with the fonts and get a
little practice, you can convert your melody Remember the numbers you typed to get the
into finger diagrams in a few minutes. You finger diagrams using the NAFTracks fonts?

214 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Well, those are the pitches in Number Tab.
The primary scale is 1 3 4 5 7 8. The full
chromatic scale (without half-holes) would
be 1 3 #3 4 #4 5 6 #6 7 #7 8 b9 9 b10.

Another way to name the tones is to use

“Solfege” – a system of syllables to name the
notes. There are many Solfege systems, but
the two most popular are the Western “Do
Re Mi Fa Sol” system and the East Indian
“Sa Re Ga Ma Pa” system. The primary scale
on most contemporary Native American
flutes – 1 3 4 5 7 8 in Number Tab – would
be represented in these two systems as:

Western La Do Re Mi Sol La

East Indian Dah Sa Re Ga Pa Dah

We hope that these ideas and suggestions

will get you started on the road of
preserving your melodies!

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 215

216 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
The Native American Flute and the Future
In 2012, Kathleen Joyce-
Grendahl posed the following
question – this chapter is my
answer to that question:

What do you see in the

future for the Native
American flute? Possible
items to consider are:
trends in recording, solo
and ensemble performance,
flute making, musical and
cultural education,
scholarship, etc.

The Native American flute is

The renaissance of the instrument coincides
a fantastic tool for the re-birth of musicality
with a groundswell of changes in education.
in people whose lives had been closed to
Humanistic education is at the center of a
musical self-expression. Of all the many
shift from traditional, discipline-oriented
roles that the Native American flute has
teaching techniques to more student-
served, this is my personal favorite. We see
centered, experiential approaches that
people who had some distant, dark failure in
incorporate life experience and promote
their musical development suddenly re-
personal expression. And music education
awaken to the possibilities of being a
has been an ideal subject area to pioneer the
creative creature, of being able to “play”.
use of humanistic techniques. The teacher
And the Native American flute is an ideal
as guide rather than performer, the use of
tool for personal self-expression.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. It is part of an article that appeared in the August
2012 issue of Voice of the Wind, published by the INTERNATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE
ASSOCIATION (INAFA).

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 217

motivation and self-directed development, became part of the music – a hundred-
and the emphasis of an education approach student jam session where many had never
that integrates many aspects of a person’s before made collective music. Our
life and experience – these are all interpreter, who was also their regular
cornerstones of the various education professor, was jumping up and down yelling
approaches that are changing the way we “Yes, YES, this is what we need!”
learn.
The ability of the instrument to enchant,
Standing in front of a hundred bright, eager and the fact that it’s so easy to play, make
student-teachers in a college in the Middle the Native American flute a fantastic tool for
East, Vera and I talked about these changes. humanistic approaches to music education.
And then we put them into play. In a society Personally, I hope this role for the
that has no public performance of music, I instrument will grow dramatically in the
pulled out a flute and the students became coming years and provide a much-needed
enchanted. Then we used some basic music shift in the way we approach music-making
facilitation techniques, and everyone across our society.

218 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

 Part 2 –

Flute Circle Facilitation

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 219

 Flute Haven web site: FluteHaven.com

220 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

What Is Our Job Title?
The role we play is often shaped by what we “Lecturer” with a heavy dose of “Performer”
call ourselves: Leader, Teacher, Instructor, to keep students engaged.
or Organizer. We can sidestep the question However, the real goal of humanistic
with humor by labeling ourselves as “Czar” teaching traditions is to move the “center-
or “Chief cook-and-bottle-washer”. Or, we stage” focus, as much as possible, away from
can make a very firm statement, such as us and onto the participants. In education,
“Professor”. and especially in music, we know that
Teaching in Western education traditions is engagement of the participants is what
done primarily through lecturing. Since the creates enjoyment. This approach opens the
lecturing approach carries a large element of door to real learning. It also shifts us from
performance, and musicians are often “Sage-on-the-stage” to “Guide-on-the-side”.
comfortable with performing, many music While Vera and I worked for a coffee
educators naturally take to the role of plantation in Honduras, we were invited to

This chapter was written by Clint Goss and edited by Kathleen Joyce-Grendahl. A similar
article appeared in the May 2013 issue of Overtones, pages 15–17, published by the
WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 221

lead workshops on
improvisation at a local music
school. That was such an
amazing opportunity! We met
with the Dean, who took us to
our first session. A cavernous
performance space was filled
with about 35 students sitting
in a large circle, all of whom
had an instrument. There was
an aura of excitement and
expectation that something
unusual was about to happen.

The situation could not have

been a more perfect … with one exception forgot to work in those typewritten
… introductions!

The school had developed a six-page, In the discussion after our first session, the
typewritten introduction of “Profesores Dean exclaimed in a mix of English and
Doctor Goss y Shanov”, to be read, in its Spanish: “It was all so facil – so easy!” And
entirety, before the start of the session. We there it was – the root of our job title:
had a vision of all that great energy and Facilitators.
excitement being doused by a recitation of
our resumes. From across the circle, Vera
flashed me our secret, one-eyebrow signal
for “this might not go so well”. So, I took a
gamble and suggested to the Dean that I
could lead off with a group music warm-up
to get them “settled”. Before he could
object, we launched into physical, then
vocal, and then instrumental warm-ups

We moved on to call-and-response and

within ten minutes they were deeply
engaged in group call-and-response games –
without any leadership cues from “los
profesores”. By the end of the session we
progressed to ensemble groups improvising
over blues progressions. And somehow, we
222 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
That’s OK, Clint
“That’s OK, Clint … so … Could you sit problem! I had played clarinet in high
under that tree for a few minutes, listen school and generally considered myself a
to the sounds, and try to make your flute “smart guy”.
sound like the birds.” My goal was to play Battle Hymn of the
This suggestion by Malcolm Shute is the Republic on my beautiful new five-hole
reason I’m here now, 12 years later, making instrument. So, I dug out an ancient
music, facilitating workshops, writing this frequency meter from Vera’s father (he was
column. But even more than the suggestion an engineer) and I set about measuring the
to sit under a tree and make bird sounds, it frequency of each of the possible
was the acceptance of where I was at that combinations of open and closed holes on a
point in my music journey … the simple five-hole flute (that’s 25 = 32 possibilities).
statement: “That’s OK, Clint”. Add in a few measurements for half-holed
fingerings and notes in the second register
I was six weeks into my
flute journey at the time.
The first three weeks had
been spent agonizing over
whether to drive four
hours back up to Vermont
to buy my first flute. The
next three weeks were
spent in head-space hell.

Information on how to
play a Native American
flute was not readily
available at the time. No

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the May 2014 issue
of Overtones, pages 25–27, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 223

that seemed to work, add them to a So, I came back from that tree a half hour
spreadsheet with some tables and code to later and Malcolm said, “Play us something,
convert the frequency measurements into Clint … anything”.
musical pitches, and … presto … my first
I don’t know what I played, but the café was
achievement: a fingering chart (shown
briefly silent when I finished. That pause,
below).
that momentary heart-space silence, taught
The next step was to map those fingerings me more about my own playing than any
onto sheet music for Battle Hymn of the “how-to” coaching.
Republic and begin practicing. And
practicing. And more practicing. My fingers Acceptance
were going up and down like pistons and
Putting the lessons of acceptance and no-
everything about my playing was
judgment into action can be challenging. We
mechanical, but this was the way you
live in a judgment-rich culture, complete
learned to play, right?
with performance criteria, judges, ratings,
I would occasionally emerge from practicing and prizes. Actually accepting the sounds of
in our basement and Vera would say “Hey, beginning players becomes a game of
you know when you just play the thing, it figuring out what musical activity they can
sounds pretty good. But I don’t know about handle and what exercise will benefit their
that Battle Hymn song …” But what did she music the most.
know? She’s not Paul Simon, right?

Then I came across an announcement for a

meeting of the Connecticut Flute Circle,
hosted by Malcolm Shute. I showed up at a
café in West Hartford with my flute, my
spreadsheets, and my long-winded
explanation and analysis. I’m guessing that,
in any other endeavor or avocation, I would
have been ridiculed into embarrassment,
resulting in a swift retreat from ever
wanting to play music ever again. But that’s
not the culture of community music and of
this instrument. “Support your fellow
traveler, wherever they are in their journey”
seems to be the best encapsulation of what
happened that day.

224 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Converting an impulse of “that sounds
awful” into “hey, try this” requires of
facilitators that we have a lot of “this”s to
put into practice. One of the goals of the
latter half of this handbook is to provide
activities and exercises that you can call
upon in a wide array of situations.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 225

226 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Room Setup
Creating a “safe space” is
critical for any music
gathering. As facilitators, we
are responsible for everything
related to the environment
where we will be making
music: temperature control,
lighting, air quality, sonic
isolation, emergency exits,
restrooms, refreshments,
handicapped access, and
(unless it is a performance)
screening from outside
observation.

Once these issues are

addressed, there is the issue
of how we set up the room. If
chairs will feel extremely cramped to
we are lucky, we have a great deal of
participants.
flexibility and control, and a creative room
setup can enhance how the gathering On occasion, I have had to convey this idea
proceeds. when asking for a room with sufficient space
to fit all the participants in a circle. It can
How Much Space / How Many People help to show a diagram, such as the one
Musicians gobble up a lot of space. The above that we developed for FluteQuest
common theater-style seating with adjacent 2006.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the February 2019
issue of Overtones!, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY (WFS).

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 227

Safety in the circle – not distinguished by a riser or
If your space resembles the activity room to separate from the participants. If I need to
the left, you will have some work to do. A take more control, I can (with increasing
messy room like this is visually unappealing, degrees of presence) stand, step forward,
uncomfortable, and potentially unsafe for and walk in the circle. I can then reduce my
some participants. presence by kneeling, returning to my seat,
or even stepping out of the circle while
an activity is taking place to adjust
something (a backing track, for
example) or set up for the next activity –
and my absence will hardly be missed.

Because of its flexibility and equal access

for all participants, we prefer circles …
even if they do get a bit tight or oblong,
such as the Celtic jam session shown at
the right.
This room could be made safe, but it will
take some serious cleanup and organization. Double Ring
Make sure that any reorganization you do is For some activities, two concentric circles –
cleared with the owners of the space. If you the “double ring” setup – is appropriate. You
need to return a room to its “pre-gathering can facilitate the two rights with different
setup”, consider snapping a few photos for musical roles: flute vs. percussion, melody
reference. vs. harmony, high-pitched vs. low-pitched
flutes, melodic vs. rhythmic flute playing, or
Equal Access simply different parts to a round.
A circular setup empowers all the
If you set up the same number of chairs in
participants. As a facilitator, I have a place
the two rights, you can have the inner
ring turn around and face the outer
ring. This instantly sets the circle up for
an activity with duet pairs.

228 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

More Rings can facilitate from behind the two rows or
If things really get tight, you might consider from one end.
several concentric rings. You might also This setup is ideal for the types of duet
need to modify or change the activities to games described in August 2016 edition of
suit this new setup. this column. It is also a good idea to model
the activity by having a duet partner of your
own – demonstrating the activity before
asking participants to give it a try.

Center Percussion / Circle Jam

In the May 2018 edition of this column,
titled “Larger Groups”, we looked at a setup
that allowed flute players to take short solos
over live percussion. You have several
Vera is shown here leading a poetry-and- participants who want to do percussion in
flute activity with Joe Young modelling the
flute part. The activity proceeds sequentially
through the rights, with participants
alternating Haiku readings with one-breath
solos on their flutes.

Duets
If you have a long, skinny room and a lot of
participants, you could “unfold” the double-
ring concept into two long rows.
Participants can face each other, and you the center. After a groove is established, you
lead solos by flute players who are just
outside the inner percussion circle.

You can keep everyone engaged by having

them join with short, staccato flute notes on
the downbeats, until it is time for them to
solo. This structure works well even if there
are many different keys of flutes. You can
keep things moving by conducting the solo
to move every two or four bars of the
rhythm.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 229

This is an ideal activity to use at the closing • Move off the stage and away from the
of a session. front of the room. Leading from the aisle,
right at the first row, can be effective.
Also, consider moving around and using
the whole center aisle as well as the aisles
on the sides.
• Try to get people to turn their chairs or
ever their bodies toward the center aisle.
• Ask participants to stand for some of the
time.
• Place small shakers or other “percussion
trinkets” under the seats. This lets you add
rhythm to the activity without having
Ensembles large percussion instruments.
You could set the room up so that, when
everyone sits down, they are part of a trio or
quartet. This setup looks almost random
when participants walk into the room …
until they take a seat.

Theater Seating
How do you facilitate a session if you cannot
alter a theater setup? Here are some
suggestions:

Be Creative
Unusual activities call for unusual room
setups. We have found that if flute players
lay down and feel their belly, they learn
diaphragm-based vibrato much faster.

This photo is from one such session in

Wellington. Our workshop space was the
• Ask folks to have the flutes you want to upper floor of a Maori ancestral house –
use for the session with them at their what an experience!
seats. You certainly do not want people
climbing over one another to fetch a flute.
230 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Warming Up
Imagine you are in the middle of facilitating time had expired without anyone breathing
the most perfect flute circle. Close your eyes into their flutes. People smiled politely and
for a moment and picture it, in as much we all ate pizza.
detail as possible. Visualize the setting, with
Thankfully, exactly one week later, I was
its lighting, furnishings, colors, and
treated to a session led by a true master of
acoustics. And see the participants, who are
music facilitation. He morphed a room full
engaged in the most perfect flute circle
of musicians from very disparate
activity, joined in group cohesion,
backgrounds (and lots of chatty energy) into
entrainment, and resonance.
a tight circle entrained to a common rhythm
It’s likely that the flute players in your flute and singing in four-part harmony. In five
circle or workshop arrive from different minutes flat. The unity of the group held for
places, with a wide variety of instruments, the next hour as we toured musical rhythms,
musical experience, expectations, and techniques, and song forms that were all
confidence. Leading such a varied group of new to me, but that somehow seemed
musicians to a place of group cohesion may completely easy and natural.
sound like a big task, but there are some
The magic of that first experience with
simple techniques and activities to channel
cohesive community music-making burned a
the musical energy of almost any group into
special pathway in my brain. I wanted more
alignment.
of it. I needed it. I also wanted to roll back
The first time somebody let me lead a flute the clock to the week before and replace my
circle, I didn’t think about group energy. I monologue with that cool stuff called
didn’t think about much of anything, music facilitation.
actually – I just launched into … a
It was clear that a key component of the
monologue. Clint’s history, what the
session had been the first five minutes of
instrument means to Clint, how Clint likes to
“warming up”. I later learned that effective
play, etc., etc., etc., and before I knew it the
ways to open a music session have been

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article is scheduled to appear in the
August 2014 issue of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 231

studied by music facilitators for decades. You might start with some stretches in a
Here are the basic principles that seem to be free-form way that allows people to stretch
at the core of all the schools of thought and in their own way and to their own physical
research in music facilitation: limits and capabilities. You could show
some stretches that work for you and invite
The Warm-up Outline others to briefly demonstrate their favorite
stretches.
Regardless of what instrument the
participants play, the outline of a warm-up You can take the physical warm-up in many
is the same: Body, then Voice, then directions. Think for a minute about how
Instrument. you might include balance, rhythm,
breathing, dramatic and emotive body
Beginning with the body gets the
movements, echoing, listening, energy build-
participants out of “head-space”, activates
up and release. Here are some things you
muscle groups specific to music making,
might try:
begins to incorporate rhythm, and brings in
the benefits of mild exercise and • “Air flute” – play the virtual flute in front
oxygenation. of you – as fast or as wild as you want;

232 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

• “There’s a new instrument under your the downbeats, or any of the elements
seat” – you have cleverly placed a shaker mentioned above.
or other noisemaker under each seat.
You could also choose to do the entire
• Exaggerated breathing. Rhythmic breaths, warm-up rhythmically using a recorded
accompanied by emphasis on different backing track or a live group that is playing
parts of the breath cycle. a basic repeating rhythm.
• Doing stretches while balancing on one or
the other foot. It is a good idea to make physical motions as
bi-lateral as possible. “Switch Hands” is a
• Engaging in some repetitive motion, like
great directive for any activity that tends to
making circles with your shoulders or
be one-sided, such as using a shaker.
tapping your chest while doing other
stretches. It is also important to emphasize early in the
• Exaggerated facial motions. session that people can participate in the
warm-up any way they like. People can do
• Movements loosely based on some
the entire warm-up seated or even on the
movement practice, such as Tai Chi, Chi
floor, allowing elders and people with
Gong, classical ballet, or ballroom or Latin
physical disabilities to be included.
dance.
• Simple body percussion exercises. You
The Voice
could do a straightforward 4-beat rhythm
alternating foot tapping with hand Incorporating the voice is a key element in
clapping. all musician warm-ups that we do. To avoid
deep-set feeling of “I can’t sing” that some
• Free dance, especially over a repetitive
musicians carry, try to incorporate vocal
backing track, possibly with a participant
exercises that do not require people to
playing a flute playing on top.
match a specific pitch or sing a particular
Another approach is to start from rhythm. melody, especially if they would be exposed
Establish a slow, steady downbeat using a or singing solo.
motion such as tapping the chest, snapping You could shadow any of the body/physical
fingers, or slapping the thighs. Allow time exercises mentioned above, especially those
for everyone to get comfortable with the that involve rhythm. You could move from
motion, adding a low drum, breathing, body breathing in time to a rhythmic activity to
motion, or the voice to reinforce the down “adding any sound on your voice”. You can
beats. You can then incorporate elements then get more specific by introducing
involving other body parts, playing double- articulation (“short, sharp sounds”), pitch
time or half-time, accenting random beats, (“high sounds” or “lowwww sounds”),
changing volume, improvisation between texture (“nasal” or “breathy”), or dynamics
(“soft, like talking to a baby” or “shout
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 233
across to the next mountain”). Here are Instrument
some other vocal warm-up techniques: You might be thinking that all the above
Call and Response: Shout out your best would take a long time before we get to
version of a call such as “Dayyy Ohhh”, playing flute. However, these exercises are
quick, and you might find that you have
“Ding Dah TaKi Tah”, or (my personal
everyone reaching for their flutes after only
favorite) “Wop Bah BaLoo Bop / Ba
a few minutes.
Lam Bam Boom”. These calls beg a
response, and it seems that people from You can transition into instruments by
every culture, whether or not they speak having them echo something that was done
your language, have the impulse to echo on the voice. Vocal articulation (e.g. “Ta Ta
back such a call. TaKa Tah”) can move nicely onto short
notes on the flute. Likewise, with long tones,
Babbling / gibberish: this is a great way to
especially if everyone has the same key
loosen people up with some silliness (of
flute.
course, in a safe space where people won’t
be observed or recorded). It literally Unless it is a very large group, it is often a
involves babbling in any way that suits you good thing to have everyone play something
… nonsense syllables at any volume, speed, solo on their flute. We often ask that each
pitch, or style. You can have everyone participant in the circle play a “one-breath”
babble at once, form impromptu babbling or “two-breath solo”. This activity takes no
groups, conduct the babbling group with explanation and carries an implicit time
simple hand motions for “louder” and limit. To remove as much pressure as
“softer”, or even get participants to briefly possible, reinforce that anything they play is
conduct the group. fine, we’re just putting out our sounds, the
game is not to be fancy, there is nobody to
The Name Game: This is great for a newly
impress, and there is no judgment in the
formed group. The game involves each
room. One note is just perfect.
person calling their own name, in whatever
way or style that suits them. The job of the And, of course, you model the activity
group is to call it back to the person in yourself before asking others to give it a try.
exactly the same way, emulating volume,
texture, and even body motions. Of course, Large Sessions
you model the game first, doing several calls
Bringing a large group into cohesion can be
of your own name (with group responses) in
challenging. People are chatting with
various styles, before asking others to give it
friends, tooting on flutes, sipping coffee, and
a try.
communicating around the globe on all
flavors of devices. The classic “OK
EVERYBODY SHUT UP BECAUSE WE’RE
234 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
STARTING NOW” can really dampen all that Another grounding style of warm-up is to
great energy. It’s much better to channel lead the group in a series of “OM” chants,
that energy into making music. beginning softly and then building the
energy as people get warmed up and gain
You might enlist the help of some
confidence.
participants by stationing them around the
room on some large, low drums. Leading And finally, these beautiful thoughts on
them in a steady, simple beat can gently warming up, from cellist Emily Metcalf
break into people’s consciousness and steer (from Return to Child, by James Oshinsky,
it towards music-making. 2008):

Engaging the hands of participants can Step into the sacred space where you
gently re-direct them from other activities. If make music and listen. Listen to the
you have a bag of small shakers, hand them sounds that enter the space, listen to the
out to participants. Attention across the chatter in your head, listen to your heart
room gradually shifts to the new instrument beating, and breathe. As you breathe,
in their hand, as people start using their become aware of your body and how it
shakers in rhythm. wants to move.

You could also focus people with some Call Move. Begin to vocalize through your
and Response, as described above. There is breath. This is a place to play freely in the
nothing like a loud “Dayyy Ohhh” to moment of yourself. If you have a lot of
capture people’s attention. scattered energy you may need to jump
around and vocalize a lot before you find
Matching the Energy a focused place. If you are feeling
subdued, you may move slowly and sing
Of course, you need to use the warm-up
more quietly until your energy builds and
techniques and energy to suit the situation.
a flow is created.
If the intent of the gathering (flute circle or
otherwise) is to memorialize a person, Your intention here is to feel as fully alive
imagine those elements that can build group and present in the moment as you can
cohesion in an appropriate way for the with the readiness to explore all
situation. You might start with a steady possibilities. You have already taken the
drum beat and ask people to join with open most important step – you are showing
palms on their chest. You could then add up. Release expectation and return to
some deep breathing and move into having child every day. How am I feeling right
people emphasize the texture wind-like now? What do I want to express? You
sounds of their exhales. Then, over the top, may not have answers for these questions,
a flute playing Amazing Grace … but your body and your voice will
connect you.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 235

 Enjoy your capacity to move, the rhythm
and phrasing of engaging with the space
around you. Love your voice and the
humanness that moves through you.
Babble like a baby or in a foreign
language you don’t know. Shout, whisper,
sing about everything.

236 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Deep Listening
Deep Listening is listening in every sense as Yoga or Tai Chi or Zazen.
possible way, to everything that is The environment that many of us inhabit
possible to hear, no matter what you are brings special challenges for the practice of
doing. Such intense listening includes the deep listening. Noise pollution, commercial
sounds of daily life, of nature, or one's advertising, and “LOUD LOUD LOUD”
own thoughts as well as musical sounds. music all conspire to drown out the subtle
Deep Listening represents a heightened sounds, the softer textures, and the mild
state of awareness and connects to all that voices. And when the sound we hear is our
there is. own music-making, listening is often filtered
– Pauline Oliveros, through the past judgments of others –
the Deep Listening Institute

It is often said by
experienced musicians
that the most
important instrument
we have is not made
of wood or leather or
metal – our most
important instrument
is our ears. Listening –
real, deep listening –
is a mindset, an
approach to our
sensory world, a
“practice” in the same

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article is scheduled to appear in the
November 2014 issue of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 237

voices that can easily out-shout the true Periodically using these small, auxiliary
nature of the sounds we make. exercises can carry forward into the daily
lives of your participants.
As facilitators, I believe it is our job to lead
the participants at our gatherings into deep
listening experiences. Listening with open
Ambient Sounds
ears and clear minds, free from judgment, Sit in silence and listen. What do you hear?
and a focus on the “sound of sound”. This Stretch the ears out to the sonic horizon and
chapter describes some of the activities I try to pick out sounds.
have found along the way that connect
What is the building saying? Can you hear
participants with sound and encourage deep
birds? An airplane in the distance? A couple
listening experiences.
arguing?

Focus Close your eyes and deepen the experience.

What is the lowest frequency sound you can
Take a sonic event and repeat it. It could be
hear? Highest? Softest?
a participant’s one-breath solo, a short
reading, a recording you play, or any of the If you are in a classroom setting, with pen
activities in this chapter. On the second and paper handy, have them write down
listening, ask participants to do something every sound they hear.
that causes them to naturally focus their
listening: Readings on Listening
• Ask them to close their eyes and note how You could emphasize the listening
the experience changes. experience with an inspirational reading,
• Ask them to cup their hands behind their such as the quote at the beginning of this
ears, exploring how the sound changes as chapter. Here is another one I like: “The
they change the shape of their hands. Sound Horizon”, from The Listening Book by
W. A. Mathieu:
• Ask them to slowly rotate their head and
be aware of how the stereo nature of the Listening into the distance is like looking
sound changes. This includes rotating into the horizon. When we gaze at the
completely 180° away from the source of horizon, our vision goes beyond our eyes
the sound and comparing it with facing and sees forever. When we are listening
the sound source. into the distance, our ears reach beyond
• Have them move slowly and noiselessly the farthest sounds and the infinite
around the room and explore the room becomes sensible. We get a fix on our
acoustics. position in the boundless world.

The alternative is like being stuck in

traffic and never sensing beyond the
238 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 Your Own Body
Place your fingers (carefully) in
your ears. What do you hear?

The sound of your own muscles

vibrating. Make very small
movements and note the change
in sound. Now stay still, but
tense your hand muscles. Can
you hear them? Can you hear
your heart beat? What is the
sound of your breathing through
your mouth versus your nose?

Silence
One of the casualties of our
contemporary auditory world is
silence. It is often a key
ingredient lacking in music.

Explore bringing silence into

music by demonstrating a
stream of it. We begin to think like cars. It comparison between continuous
is like staying cooped up indoors with no flute playing and the same melody with
windows. We need the big picture and the spaces of silence.
long radius. We need to check out the
In the context of group conducting, include
long-range coordinates.
an occasional “stop / cut” where you silence
Go out of your way, if you have to, to everyone and then bring them back in on
look steady and long at the place where cue.
Earth and Sky meet. Likewise, discover
In a rhythmic activity, you could establish a
places where your ears can soar out to the
continuous percussion rhythm and ask a
edge of audibility. Find a lull in the
flute to play over the top. Then modify the
evening, a valley, a distant remove, a
rhythm by silencing a significant portion of
quiet dawn, and listen into that boundary.
the rhythmic cycle and again ask the flute to
You can disappear beyond it where you
play. What difference do you hear?
really live.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 239

Hearing Your Own Flute Lay down a basic rhythm loop and invite
In a cruel twist of irony, we are often in the people to experiment with adding various
worst position to hear our own playing. Our sounds over the top. Solicit reactions from
instruments project our sound out and away the group, encouraging people to be open
from us, leaving our own ears in an acoustic and non-judgmental. What works? How
dead spot. Here are a few facilitation sparse does a layer have to be? How do the
techniques that can have a dramatic effect pitch ranges of various layers compete or
on how participants hear their own playing. complement each other? How do the
elements of music – melody, harmony,
A simple sound system setup that has good rhythm, texture, and silence – work with
quality headphones can be enlightening for each other to make a complete soundscape?
a person who has never heard their own
playing. It helps to have closed-cell If possible, download the group’s creation
headphones, which block out as much of the and email it to people.
ambient sound as possible. If the system also And, of course, play flute over the top!
has digital effects such as reverb or echo,
your participants are in for a real treat.
Pre-Whistle
There are many types of sound systems, but
one that simply has a microphone, mixer, Using an extremely soft breath pressure, you
and headphones is sufficient for this can coax many flutes to make a soft, high-
exercise. pitched whistle. This “pre-whistle” is the
sound vibration at the sound hole without
However, it does not take a sound system to the entire column of air in the sound
hear yourself better. Simply ask people to chamber vibrating.
play with the foot of their flute up against a
wall. Warn them to be very careful You can position this exercise as a
whenever doing this – if they hit the foot performance technique (“crank up the
of the flute against anything they can amplifier and add echo and fill the room
knock their teeth out (or worse). Open with the sounds of birds”) or as part of a
their ears to the sound reflecting off the wall demonstration of how flute acoustics work.
and they will hear their own flute playing However, since the sound is so quiet and
much more clearly. high-pitched, it quickly becomes a deep
listening exercise.

Loop Pedal
Resonance
If you are savvy with audio gear and have a
loop pedal at your disposal, it can serve as a Enclosed spaces naturally enhance a
great listening tool, especially if it has an vibration – if you find the right frequency
“Undo” function. (or pitch). The effect is stronger in rooms

240 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

 Then, before a break, suggest
that they find an enclosed
space that is likely to be
resonant, and siren their voice
to find the pitch that resonates
in the space.

Sympathetic Vibrations
Sound has power. The flute
translates your breath pressure
into moving waves of air
pressure. The power in those
waves can move objects in the
room, causing them to vibrate
with the sound of the flute.

As with the resonance exercise

above, ask them to try to find
the resonant frequency of a
large drum or the body of a
guitar or cello by sirening.

Pitch Matching
Now move the sirening
experience to the flute. Hold
any long tone and hum into the
flute. Siren the pitch of your
with right angles and hard, smooth surfaces hum from low to high and
such as tile bathrooms and stairwells. listen for the resonance between your
humming and the vibration in the sound
Engage your group in a “sirening” exercise – chamber of the flute. Explore raising your
a vocal emulation of an ambulance or fire- humming pitch very slightly and then
engine. You can easily do this during a vocal bringing it back down into perfect resonance
warm-up. After they experience rapidly with the flute.
sirening up and down, have them slow down
the siren so that the pitch changes very
slowly … maybe covering an octave in 10 or
20 seconds.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 241

Aside from a deep listening exercise, this
approach to matching pitch is one of the
best (and least threatening) ways to
encourage people to vocalize a given pitch.

Found Object Percussion

Lastly, here is an exercise that must be used
with caution. Invite participants to
experiment with objects in the room,
tapping and drumming out various sounds.
Encourage people to tease out ultra-low
vibrations, texture sounds, and sounds
across the range of volumes.

After listening to each of the sounds

individually, you can conduct a “found
object ensemble” and add a flute over the
top for good measure.

242 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Modeling
Call on a student and you put them on the about to forget it and accidentally ask a
spot. Call on a student musician, especially workshop participant to do something that I
one with little experience and loads of self- have not demonstrated, my sidekick in a
doubt, and you have a recipe for a lifelong session, typically Vera, is free to blurt out
vow of “I am never doing this again”. As “… as Clint will now demonstrate first …”
facilitators, we could literally cause a Modeling a technique has huge benefits for
participant to shut the door on their own the participants. It can:
musicality. Forever.
• illustrate what is expected,
Fortunately, we have a lot of tools to avoid
• release tension,
this class of disasters. Following humanistic
tradition of “success for all”, we keep the • entertain,
things we ask of participants small and • demonstrate a wide range of options and
manageable. We repeatedly reinforce that interpretations, and even
there is no judgment and accept what
sounds he or she is able to
produce. We also frequently
have everyone in the group
try his or her hand at each
technique.

But, before we ask anyone

to try an exercise or
technique in front of others,
we model it ourselves. This
principle of modeling is so
important that, if I am ever

This chapter was written by Clint Goss and edited by Kathleen Joyce-Grendahl. A similar
article appeared in the May 2013 issue of Overtones, pages 15–17, published by the
WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 243

• allow them to use another instrument – [OSHINSKY 2008] James Oshinsky. Return
such as their voice or perhaps body to Child – Music for People’s Guide to
percussion – to play their part. Improvising Music and Authentic Group
Leadership, Second Edition, January 2008,
However, one of the most significant 191 pages.
advantages of modeling is that it
demonstrates how little is truly needed.
Modeling is not the time to show off your
exquisite skill on the instrument; rather, it is
an opportunity to demonstrate some very
simple playing technique can be rendered so
musically powerful by these song sticks that
we carry.

This excerpt from Return to Child,

([OSHINSKY 2008], page 76), describes
some related aspects:

The leader is a model of competence in

musical and non-musical areas. This is
equally true when you are modeling
something on purpose, and when you are
just being yourself, with no intention to
be noticed. A leader is therefore always
“on,” and cannot get away with saying,
“do as I say, not as I do.” The best
preparation for modeling is to live what
you teach. Humanistic skills are more
important than musical skills for fostering
personal growth, so leaders who are less
experienced in music, but more skilled in
group dynamics need not be apologetic
about their backgrounds …

Notice how modeling is carefully woven into

the facilitation form described in the next
chapter, duets and trios that move around a
circle of players.

244 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Rounding the Circle
This is a wonderful facilitation technique for are familiar with the song-form from a
small groups. It goes by many names: previous activity. For this example, let’s
traveling duets, traveling trios, and moving leave the song-form unspecified, or tell
or roving ensembles. folks, if they ask, that these are “free-form
duets”.

Let’s say the flute circle has five

participants and you are facilitating from
A critical point in the whole exercise is how
position A. The idea is to have participants
to convey the idea and the details of the
play in ensembles (duets, in this example) traveling duet to participants in the circle.
that continuously move around the circle. The essential concept is simple, but a verbal
Each neighboring pair of participants gets to description is likely to raise a lot of
play a short duet. questions, confusion, and “head-space
You could suggest a particular song-form for angst”. Instead of a lengthy verbal
the activity, but that assumes that people description, you can model it:

This first portion of this chapter was written by Clint Goss and edited by Kathleen Joyce-
Grendahl. A similar article appeared in the May 2013 issue of Overtones, pages 15–17,
published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY. The second portion of this chapter, Duet Forms, is
from a similar article that appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute Newsletter, February 2014.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 245

• You invite participant E to play “any short musical activities is to minimize verbal
solo”. I often use the phrase “one-breath description and maximize direct experience.
solo” to convey an appropriate length. With a combination of room setup, creative
pantomime, conducting skills, and your own
• You respond to E’s solo with a solo of a
musicality, you can keep people out of
similar length and then pantomime to E to “head-space” and maximize the group’s
play another such solo. enjoyment. Then you can post-process the
• You can go back and forth for several activity with “What we were doing is called
rounds. The result is often that E–A duet …”
becomes an impromptu call-and-response
The facilitation form of going around the
song form.
circle is useful in many contexts. In the
• Then, after one of your responses, you example above, it doubled as a teaching
turn to B and
begin a new call-
and-response
duet in the same
fashion.
• When it is time
for the B–C duet,
B might need
some coaching to
start a new duet
with C. However,
at this point you
can use physical
conducting to
coach them.
• After it gets
exercise for call-and-response. However, if
around to C–D or D–E, participants will
someone does not “get” the call-and-
usually get the idea and be able to carry
response aspect, say a beginner who is
on themselves, with little intervention.
simply struggling to cover some finger holes,
then the form falls back to a “free-form
Notice how much territory is being covered
duet” where any sounds they produce are
here. Not only the idea of a moving duet,
encouraged.
but the concept of the call-and-response
song form – all done with very little verbal In a more structured teaching situation,
description. A major goal when facilitating when you know the capabilities of the
246 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
group, you could use this to teach any duet circle, you might introduce some of the
or trio song form: solo-over-drone, melody- basic duet forms as specific techniques.
and-rhythm, playing over a two-chord
vamp, blues progressions, etc. Call and Response
Another context that many flute players are One flute calls a short melodic phrase. You
working towards is a public performance. If could encourage people to use a shorter
there is interest for this in the group, you version of the One-Breath Solo technique
could illustrate how to use a traveling duet described on page 23. The second flute
format to open their own five-person responds with the same phrase.
concert: house lights down and one player
This form has a whole lot of uses! First of
steps into a spotlight with a short flute solo.
all, in workshops as a listening exercise,
Another player responds from the back of
people begin opening their ears and
the room, walking up the aisle onto the
connecting pitches to finger positions. This
stage as they exchange a few phrases.
has a huge benefit when people attempt to
Maybe the third player begins from a seat in
play a song “by ear”. Second, it gives players
the middle of the audience. Is there a
the practical experience of recalling short
balcony above the stage? Maybe a trap door
melodic phrases and being able to repeat
on the stage? Maybe the last person in the
them – a key building block to improvising
group could play from inside a box on stage
compositions that have some song structure,
that the other musicians have to unwrap. As
such as AABA.
R. Carlos Nakai once advised an eager group
of flute players: “Be the entertainer, be the Call and response can be used between
clown, capture their wonder.” players on the same key flute, the same key
an octave apart, or even flute pairs that are
The goal of all the activities we facilitate is
a musical fifth apart, such as E and B, F♯ and
to leverage the power of simple song forms
C♯, G and D, and A and E.
and ensemble structures to increase the
musical potential of everyone in the group. It's also a cool technique that can be used in
This gives participants simple tools to help performance – imagine the opening of a
integrate their musicality into other aspects concert when flutes call and respond back
of their lives. and forth across the venue and over the top
of the audience …

Duet Forms
Conversations
Introducing flute duets with the concept of This is a great technique for flutes in
“free-form” is a great device for avoiding different (and arbitrary) keys. We introduce
head-space crisis. But once participants are it in workshops by having players start with
comfortable with playing duets around a an English-language conversation, and then
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 247
transitioning that into flute conversations. the flutes on a solo. For example, in the Solo
Flutes take turns “playing sentences” – basic over Drone form, each player can take turns
sentences at first, but adding emotional soloing over the drone note and then
content as the game goes on. holding the drone note for the other player
to solo over.
Solo over Drone
A classic world music song form. A drone is
simply a long-held tone. The job of one flute
is to simply hold a steady tone, typically a
low tone and typically at a softer volume
(for the other flute to play a melody over).

One of the most beautiful examples I know

of Solo over Drone is from the Armenian
duduk tradition … take a quick
search on YouTube for Djivan
Gasparyan playing I Will Not
Be Sad In This World.

Solo over Ostinato

An Ostinato is literally a
repeated pattern.

In The Rhythm Connection on

page 41, we explored playing
over rhythms created on
rhythm instruments – a classic
repeated pattern. However, it's
easy to create simple repeated
patterns on flutes – even a “Ta
Ta Ta …” or chirps will create
a rhythm, or a very simple
melodic repeated pattern.

Alternating Solos
Finally, you can turn any of the
duet forms into a form that
alternately highlights each of
248 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
I hope you can put some of these forms to
use in your next flute circle or performance
… As always, feedback you might have on
these approaches is welcome!

FluteCast Videos
In early 2017, we developed these ideas into
two FluteCast videos. You can visit:

FluteCast.com

for links to all our FluteCast videos.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 249

250 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Teaching Rhythm
Rhythm is a gift we all share. Unfortunately, their movements. It is usually easy to
some of us have been told otherwise. The identify these people and identify some
“You Don’t Have Rhythm” putdown or the activities that might help.
racial “White Guys Can’t Dance” can turn an
innately rhythmic human being into a life- Walking Rhythm
long rhythm spastic. If there is one participant at a group
gathering who balks, or if it is a private
When a non-rhythm believer arrives at our
lesson, I will often lead that person in an
music gathering, we have an opportunity to
activity that is very simple, but very
right that wrong. This article suggests a few
effective. If it looks like more than one
approaches and techniques to make that
person can benefit from this exercise, it can
happen.
be done with the whole group.

Body Warmup The exercise is to simply walk, at your own

We usually start music gatherings with a pace, using relaxed, easy steps. As a
physical warmup. This warmup always facilitator, I walk next to them as a “Guide”.
involve rhythm. The easiest thing is to get (In a group setting, I pair people up so that
participants, standing or sitting, to alternate each person is paired with a Guide.) The
feet left-right-left-right. On top of this basic guide is very important, because the next
beat, you can have them clap hands on the step in the exercise – after the person has
beats, then move to clapping on only the off- established a solid walking pace – is to
beats, then do some simple rhythm patterns simply play your flute while you are
with finger claps or snaps. walking.

This is often the point where rhythmically

averse participants will either balk (“I can’t
do rhythm!”) or just step back and minimize

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the August 2019
issue of Overtones!, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY (WFS).

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 251

 The role of the Guide is to make sure that Drum Circles
the person does not hit the end of their We love to ground participants in a rhythm-
flute against anything as they walk. This centric activity – typically a drum circle. We
could cause significant injury … the often do this early in a multi-day workshop,
Guide must know that this is their role because everyone seems more relaxed in
and be focused on this task! their flute playing after a drum circle.

Our experience is that this single activity – Drum circle facilitation is a topic of its own,
playing flute while walking – can get people but the basics of leading a drum circle are
playing in rhythm. Of course, the rhythm is sufficient to get participants into a group
extremely basic – simply the 1, 2, 1, 2 of groove. If you give everyone a djembe or
your own footsteps. It will take a lot more similar drum, establishing a simple, slow
experience to play with more complex left-right-left-right beat near the edges of the
rhythms. However, this one exercise is often drum head can bring everyone into the basic
enough to dispel the “I don’t have rhythm” beat. Progress to a three-beat which
myth. alternates hands using left-right-center-left-
right-center will change things up.
Walking, Skipping, Clapping, and Snapping
You can then try some call and response
Beyond the basic walking exercise is a world
patterns, where you offer a simple drum
of possibilities for using our natural body-
pattern and people echo it back. The next
rhythm as a tool for music enrichment. No
section suggests an easy way to develop and
one has said it better or more poetically
remember call-and-response patterns.
than W. A. Mathieu in The Listening Book.

Please follow this link (it’s worth it!) for a

full track on Walking from The Listening
Book audio CD:

https://ListeningBookAudio.com/walki
ng.htm

252 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

If You Can Say It, You Can Play It
When it comes to rhythm, having the group
repeat a chant-like phrase will often bring
every participant – even rhythm-doubters –
up to the same level. Try these workshop-
tested phrases:

The basic beat for the “Congo Square”

rhythm:

The basic beat for the Nigerian “Fanga”

rhythm:

The core of Djoli – a rhythm that has

migrated from Nigeria and has infused
Samba and Calypso music. You can start
with the basic one-bar rhythm, then expand
it to a four-bar cycle:

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 253

The Slower You Play, http://www.paleocurrents.com/mymusic
the Faster You Learn friend/docs/tour_rhythm_fruit.html
That basic principle of learning all music We usually think of each fruit as taking up
techniques is especially true for rhythm. two beats. You can think of it as each fruit
name taking up a “bars” in 2/4 time. The
The challenge is that everyone wants to go
rhythm is based on how people typically say
fast – to get “good” – as quickly as possible,
the name of fruit. Here are some basic fruit
and this often counteracts precision and
names and their equivalent in standard
learning. It is far better to do a rhythm
music notation:
slowly and precisely – get grounded,
absorbed, and relish it – for a few minutes
before increasing speed.

Fruit
If you can’t think of a phrase, or you want to To mix quarter and eighth notes in a single
mix things up a bit and create a rhythm on bar, we use:
the spot, try the names of fruit. Fruit names
are incredibly rhythmic, and also fairly
consistent in how they are pronounced.

There is even a web site and an application

for this activity. Here are links and an image
from the site:

254 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Here are some more challenging fruit names
that can help teach triplets or quintuplets.
We use them because each of the syllables
usually get the same duration, so they
suggest an even division of 3 or 5 beats
within the bar. Although the hippo is not a
fruit, it is the best word we have found to
introduce quintuplets.

Rhythmic Chirping
This is a playing / performance technique
involving a periodic, persistent grace note
played with the finger that provides rhythm
to a long-tone melody.

The best way to see Rhythmic Chirping in

action is to watch the FluteCast video. You
can access it on Flutopedia, YouTube, or
Vimeo with these direct links:

• http://www.flutopedia.com/rhythmic_grac
e_notes.htm
• https://youtu.be/OHE7lesgMlg
• https://vimeo.com/clintgoss/chirp
… or access all of the FluteCast videos at
www.FluteCast.com.

Rhythmic Chirping is a great exercise to

lead with a group. You can introduce
everyone to the basic idea of rhythmic
chirping, get them doing it over a single,
long-held drone note, and then invite
solos.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 255

If one or more participants are having
trouble with the rhythm, have them play the
grace notes half as often or one-quarter as
often.

One-Handed Flute
Finally, this is a technique that we believe
can have a dramatic impact on a player’s
rhythmic development. It combines
rhythm on a drum with one hand and flute
playing with the other … to a point where
the player cannot possibly play out of
rhythm. You can facilitate the technique at
flute gatherings, use it in lessons, and
participants can even use it as a
performance technique.

The best description is in this FluteCast,

which has just been published. You can
access it on YouTube or Vimeo by visiting
www.FluteCast.com and finding the One-
Handed Flute button near the top of the
page.

256 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 257
A Bill of Musical Rights

✴ Human beings need to express

themselves daily in a way that
invites physical and emotional
release.
✴ Musical self-expression is a joyful
and healthy means of
communication available to
absolutely everyone.
✴ There are as many different ways
to make music as there are
✴ Your music is more authentically
people.
expressed when your body is
✴ The human voice is the most involved in your musical
natural and powerful vehicle for expression.
musical self-expression.
✴ The European tradition of music
✴ The differences in our voices add is only one sound. All other
richness and depth to music. cultures and traditions deserve
✴ Sincerely expressed emotion is at equal attention.
the root of meaningful musical ✴ Any combination of people and
expression. instruments can make music
together.

This Bill of Musical Rights was developed by the Music for People organization. It from
Return to Child, ([OSHINSKY 2008], page 17). ©2004 Music for People, used by
permission.
258 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
✴ There are no unmusical people,
only those with no musical
experience.
✴ Music improvisation is a unique
and positive way to build skills for
life expression.
✴ In improvisation as in life, we
must be responsible for the
vibrations we send one another.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 259

Success for All
I am standing, flute in hand, frozen in fear. rather, it was simply the lack of any idea
The large third-grade class seated in front of about what I might say or do with a class of
me has just seen
several great
presentations by
flute players,
didgeridoo
players, and
storytellers. And
then: “Clint …
you’re ON!”

This was early

in my flute
journey and my
experience on
the Native
American flute
third-graders.
was very limited. After playing for only a
few months, I had arrived at my first large Suddenly, in a fantastic display of
flute gathering, FLUTE SPRING, organized by facilitation skill, Jesse Redhorse stepped up
Jan Kirlew. When we all headed out to a from behind me and announced to the class,
local school one afternoon, it did not occur “One of the great traditions we have is
to me that everyone would be giving playing these song sticks with a drum.” He
presentations to various classes. The fear of handed me a frame drum and beater and
performing did not cause me to freeze; whispered “just watch my foot, beat the

This chapter was written by Clint Goss and edited by Kathleen Joyce-Grendahl. A similar
article appeared in the August 2013 issue of Overtones, pages 7–8, published by the
WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

260 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

drum, and don’t
stop.” He started
with a slow,
exaggerated foot-
stepping motion
that made it very
easy for me to
follow on the drum.
When he saw that I
was able to keep a
reasonably steady
beat, he gradually
reduced his foot
motions to a toe-
tap and started to play his flute. Over the Over the years, I have made it my personal
course of a few minutes, he had everyone in mission to involve these people. Trying to
the room join in with foot-tapping, rhythmic develop a collection of techniques for these
clapping, and producing wind sounds with situations provides a particular challenge.
their breath. These “non-players” may be resistant to
becoming involved in the music, and
This experience became my first shining probably have built up a self-perception of
example of facilitation. It incorporated musical incompetence.
multiple elements of music, such as melody,
rhythm, and texture, the participation of The following ideas illustrate a few activities
everyone in the room, and group conducting to help get everyone involved in the music:
of an improvised piece. Jesse also Warming Up
“facilitated” me in a way that I could not
At the start of a session, I ask everyone in
fail, thereby setting up a structure that
the room to join the warm-up routine. This
provided “success for all”.
typically involves stretching, rhythmic body
movements, deep breaths, sighing and
The “Non-Player” Brigade vocalizing, mouth articulation, and vocal
You have probably seen them: the folks who long tones. These are the types of activities
show up at flute events in support of their that warm up the muscles and dispel some
spouse / partner / friend, declaring that
they don’t play, aren’t musical, and are
there just to watch. Maybe they knit, record
a video, or text on their phone.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 261

of the anxiety we all have about playing in often build on that jam, add a flute solo over
front of others30. the top. Viola! The “non-players” are part of
the music!
Instruments that Always Work
Having a collection of instruments in the Another technique we use is to place a small
room that are easy to play and produce instrument under everyone’s chair. My
great sounds is one of the hallmarks of experience is that the folks who have been
sitting and watching are the
first to dive under their chairs
when I say, “Everyone has a
new instrument under their
chair”.

Drone Instruments
Sometimes a bit more
encouragement is needed to
get the non-players involved.
Easy-to-play drone
instruments can be great for
this purpose. These
almost every early childhood music instruments play a single,
program. Many instruments with pentatonic long-held note or chord and often work
tuning will work nicely, especially tongue beautifully as an accompaniment to the
drums, resonant metal drums, and flute.
metallophones.31 Of course, many types of
drums, especially those with beaters, can
also spark spontaneous music.

When we facilitate a session, we set the

room up so that the chairs are in a circle,
with instruments in the middle of the circle.
As people arrive, I encourage them to
experiment with the instruments. If I leave
the room for a few minutes, I often find that
there is a spontaneous jam going on when I
return. With a bit of group conducting, I can

Warming Up chapter on page 85.

31
30
See the Any musical instrument that has tuned metal bars that
must be struck to make a sound, usually with a mallet, is
called a metallophone.
262 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
I often use a shruti box, which
is an East Indian instrument
that combines a “squeeze-box”
mechanism with levers that can
be opened to play
combinations of notes. I start
on the shruti box as others play
flute over the top. Next, while
the music is playing, I offer the
shruti box to one of the non-
players. The transition is key
here, and I have practiced a
long time with exactly how to
place the instrument in his or
consonant vibrations, creating the perfect
her hand while at the same time showing
backdrop for a fifteen-minute opening jam.
them the squeeze motion that will keep the
shruti box playing. If I do it successfully, we Duets
are often rewarded with a person who falls In what other ways can a “non-player”
in love with the musical sound that he or participate? A few casual questions might
she is making, maybe for the first time in unlock some new duet possibilities.
their lives.
People who like dance, Tai Chi, storytelling,
Drone instruments can create the or theater improvisation make great duet
opportunity for participants to play
duets with people who have more
musical experience. In a Texas
concert with world flutist Peter
Phippen and Australian didgeridoo
player Ash Dargan, we were joined
by Dr. Stephen Mittelstet, the
president of Richland College. Peter
had the idea to start the concert
with a dark stage, bringing the
lights up underneath a set of
resonant crystal bowls played by
Dr. Mittelstet. The bowls, together
with an experienced sound
engineer, filled the hall with a cascade of partners for flute players. If no obvious duet

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 263

possibilities pop up, you can always pull out “Amazing Grace”, and the ideas start to
a set of poetry32. materialize33.

There are many ways to incorporate poetry As an experiment, try to imagine playing
into a session. For example, set up one or flute at a memorial service to this English
more pairs of chairs in the center of the translation by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki of an
circle for poet-flute duets. Invite non-players ancient Zen poem:
to try a duet with a flute player. That flute
Behold
player could be their partner or another
she was here a while ago
flute player in the circle. It is interesting to
see the differences in the dynamics between
Now she is no more
duet pairs who know each other and those to be seen
that have just met. She flies
over the mountains
Another approach is to have different flute
Her voice echoes
players around the circle respond in
through the valleys
between lines or paragraphs of poetry read
by one non-player. The poetry reader can She has vanished
walk around in the center of the circle, to this land
moving from one player to another. It helps of Nowhere
if the poetry or story being read changes
emotions or character frequently, which will I believe that one of the main goals in
allow for varied musical reactions from the community-based music gatherings is that:
flute players.
Every person at the gathering gets to
These playful workshop constructs can have express his or her sounds in an open and
profound effects on the people who are accepting environment.
exposed to them for the first time, opening
up possibilities to perform together in When we, the facilitators, work to develop
settings that they had not considered. Try techniques to make that happen, then we
some of the readings of the 13th century become practitioners of the “success for all”
Persian poet Rūmī (see Rūmī Poetry Related philosophy.
to Music, Masnavi, and Rūmī 2000 on
pages 439, 443, and 447), song lyrics such
as Dave Carter’s “When I Go” (page 402), or
alternating the words and melody of

32
A list of readings and poems is available on Flutopedia 33
Several poems for memorial services are published on
at http://www.flutopedia.com/literature.htm . Flutopedia at
http://www.Flutopedia.com/lit_memorial.htm
264 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Ensembles
What do participants at a flute circle want for four players, including a stage and
from their gatherings? The answers are microphones. This was an improvement, but
certainly different for each person. But the half the participants just wanted to try
more I do this work, the more I believe that playing with others and were put off by the
many participants have a deep desire to play similarity to a scary music performance
with other musicians. Even for those who scenario!
primarily play Native flutes as a solo
instrument, the thought of jamming
with others, engaging in musical
conversations, and creating songs
with more musical elements can truly
be enticing. And flute circles are a
great place to explore ensemble
playing.

However, I found that learning to

facilitate group ensembles is much
more difficult than actually playing in
them! My early attempts in 2003 used
the all-time worst approach for music
facilitators: verbal explanations of By 2005, Vera and I had progressed to using
how I jammed with percussionists and a structure developed by the MUSIC FOR
keyboard players. That approach failed PEOPLE group that involved four musicians
dismally. (Note to self: demonstrate – don’t sitting in a tight circle. This format seems to
explain). I regrouped and progressed to create focus in the group. Since two pairs of
setting up real-life performance situations participants are sitting directly across from

This chapter was written by Clint Goss and edited by Kathleen Joyce-Grendahl. A similar
article appeared in the November 2013 issue of Overtones, pages 14–16, published by the
WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 265

each other, listening is increased and the that can be used to convey the concept with
players’ awareness of observers outside the few words. Of course, the demonstration
foursome is reduced. None of the provides a far more direct learning
participants were put off by the setup, but experience, and the descriptions are only
the results were not always satisfying or provided within the context of this chapter.
musical. The real problem was that
What is Melody?
everyone was playing a flute.
Description: Melody is defined as a “linear
progression of musical tones that the listener
The Elements of Music
aurally categorizes as a single entity.” The
If you ask a room full of flute players to play definition does not include a qualitative
something, each person will probably all concept. What one hears as a pleasant
pick up his or her flute. However, from a melody may not be heard as such by
music-making perspective, a contrast of someone else. Therefore, a melody is simply
different components of music often more a series of musical notes rhythmically
satisfying to the ear. So, we convert the organized into a sequence or idea that is
ensemble exercise into an exploration of the
elements of music.

What exactly are the

elements of music?
The answer, at least
for promoting musical
ensembles, is simple:
melody, harmony,
rhythm, and texture.
And remembering my
“note-to-self”
reminder, I help the
participants explore
these four music
elements with
recognized by the listener as being logical
demonstrations.
important, and memorable. Melody is an
In each of the sections below, there is a aspect of music that is usually most
description of the element34 and a appealing and what listeners most
corresponding demonstration technique remember about a musical composition.

34
The descriptions of each musical element were
provided courtesy of Kathleen Joyce-Grendahl.
266 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Demonstration: I often simply ask: “Could TaKaDiMi Gun - - -
someone please play a short flute solo?” - - - - - - - -
What is Harmony? When the group joins, I invite people to play
Description: Where melody is the short solos over the rhythm.
horizontal aspect of music, harmony is the
What is Texture?
vertical component. Harmony is created
when one player plays the melody, while Description: Texture is the element of
another player executes long tones or music that often imparts the sense of
presents a countermelody underneath. emotion, quality, or location to the music. It
Chords, comprising of three or more notes, is a sound without, or with very little, pitch
can also be played to support a melody. The or rhythm. Examples in nature abound:
chords do not have to be solely long tones; • Waves
rather, multiple moving voices can create
• Wind
harmony, as well.
• Cicadas on a warm night
Demonstration: When addressing the
• Creaking doors
concept of harmony, I hold a long tone on
• An avalanche
the lowest, fundamental note of my flute
while another person plays a short solo over
Demonstration: To introduce texture
the top of my sustained pitch.
sounds, I have participants play shakers
What is Rhythm? non-rhythmically, have them make wind
Description: Rhythm is the heartbeat of sounds by breathing into the finger holes of
music … the movement of time, controlled their flute, and sometimes do very short
by the music and the musician. It is the chirps on their flutes.
element of music that is most closely allied
to body movement, to physical action. Setting Things Up
Rhythm springs from the need for order Getting participants from a circle into
inherent in the human mind. For example, ensemble quartets takes a bit of engineering.
we organize our perception of time by You could set up four chairs in the center of
means of rhythm – the tick-tock of a clock. the circle and ask for volunteers. Or, you
Ancients discerned in rhythm the creative could have them take a break and move all
principles of the universe in the regular of the chairs into quartets, so participants
movement of the planets, the cycles of the return to take a seat in a random quartet.
seasons, the tides, night and day, and life
and death.

Demonstration: When discussing rhythm, I

used a rhythmic mnemonic such as:
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 267
 before the actual ensemble
playing begins, is to have
everyone in the room play
together. There is a bit of
cacophony, but this process
gives players a chance to try
out their instrument without
“exposure”.

In the context of ensembles, I

have all the rhythm players
jam for a minute. Then the
melody players join in. Next,
the harmony players merge in
To reinforce the elements of music, I usually the musical fray, followed by
make sure each person in each ensemble those players in charge of texture. You could
sticks to exactly one of the elements: even conduct the final texture sounds down
Melody, Harmony, Rhythm, or Texture. to a soft level and invite the first ensemble
In the picture above, I have placed a piece to play. Then, between ensemble groups, I
of paper under each seat with “M”, “H”, will often conduct the transition from group
“R”, or “T”. So, each person has an to the next by having everyone stretch and
“assignment” for that ensemble. A gentler breathe. This releases tension and introduces
approach for a less experienced group is to the music from the next ensemble out of
let each person pick a role, as long as all silence.
four music
elements are
covered in each
ensemble. I gently
suggest that the
rhythm players
might want to
grab a drum, but
little “how to”
information is
provided.

One way to build

confidence in
participants,
268 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
What If It Does Not Work? nobody thinks that he or she has been
Sometimes an ensemble works well assigned the role of “silence” in the
musically. And sometimes … “not so much”. ensemble, as it actually happened once!
It’s important to emphasize that we are all One way to demonstrate silence
in a safe space, with no audience, and with (remembering my “note-to-self”) is to start a
no downside for a “crash-and-burn.” You very busy vocal groove such as:
could encourage participants to talk about
each ensemble after they play, or after all TaKaDiMi TaKaDiMi
the ensembles play. How did you feel about TaKaDiMi Gun-Gun-
what you played? What did you like? What
Then have a flutist play a melody over the
would you try differently next time?
top of the verbal rhythm.
Out of this, it usually emerges that groups
Contrast the busy rhythm with a sparse
who begin with rhythm often get more
vocal groove such as:
pleasing musical results. Ensembles where
the harmony is played on a flute an octave TaKaDiMi Gun---
lower than the melody seem to sound better. ---- ----
Ensembles that develop a mental / verbal
“plan” are often disappointed. “And I love … and have the same player solo over the
the sound of that gong at the end …” and so top.
on. None of these conclusions are brought What is the difference? The greater silence
about by the facilitator; rather, the
in the second rhythm allows space for the
realizations really grow out of group
flute solo to be heard and gives the
experimentation and collective listening.
opportunity for a conversation between two
elements of music: melody and rhythm.
Silence
One challenge in ensemble situations if Second Chances
maximization of listening. Nothing gets in
Going around the ring of ensemble groups a
the way of listening more than everyone in
second time is usually where things come
each ensemble playing all the time. There
together. I try to keep people in the same
are many ways to approach this issue. My
roles, and it usually results in more
favorite is to introduce one additional, fifth
satisfying results. If you have the time,
element of music called “silence”.
several rounds of group ensemble playing
I often place an “S” in the center of each can make for a great event.
ensemble to reinforce this concept. You can But what if there’s a particular issue or
see it in my hand in the picture on the problem that you see that does not come up
previous page. However, make certain that during the discussion? If you are facilitating

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 269

in a community music setting such as a • problems hearing others in your group
community drum circle, there is little in the playing
way of instruction and everything that • dealing with a sound system
comes up musically is acceptable. However,
• sometimes having blinding stage lighting.
in a workshop or class setting, you might
actually want to stress a particular teaching However, I’ve found that most participants
point. Take, for example, an ensemble that just want to jam, and are not thinking about
plays timidly. Simply telling them to play performing. Creating cool music and having
more boldly could possibly put them in stimulating musical conversations holds
crisis. Positive results are not likely to endless fascination for many, and that is
manifest using this approach. often far more interesting than trying to
A different approach to the situation is to “take it on the road”.
offer an exercise of extremes: “Could I ask
you, just as an exercise, to play another Note-to-Self
ensemble, and play extremely, ridiculously One interesting paradox is that this chapter
timidly?” After they play, follow up by – this entire book, in fact – runs against my
saying, “Could I ask you now, as another “demonstrate – don’t explain” maxim. If you
exercise, to play massively, ludicrously are excited about the possibility of
boldly?” Simply the tactile and sonic facilitating flute circles, I encourage you to
experience of playing at the two levels of seek out some of the experienced facilitators
extremes will create a broader conception of of community music and really get inside of
how music can be played. It expands the what it is that they are doing.
musical playing palette of the flutist.
How do they handle participants with
different amounts of musical experience?
Beyond Ensembles
How do they keep everyone relaxed? How
Facilitated ensemble playing is a great do they keep the playing musical? What are
transition to performing as a group. If that is their structures? What lessons are beneath
the direction of folks in your group, you the implementation of their various
could set up a series of experiences to exercises?
introduce them to some of the realities of
performing, such as: In that context, I hope that this chapter and
the other material in this handbook can
• playing in a line facing an audience, rather provide some structures that may be useful
than having direct eye contact in a tight in your own flute facilitation.
circle;
• difficulty hearing yourself play

270 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Facilitating with Rhythm
Human beings rarely get new and correct the
complex learning immediately. The brain misconception
makes a ‘rough draft’ of incoming that we don’t
information, which gives the learner have rhythm.
something to refer to, like a place mark. This chapter
Once the brain has designed a rough offers some
draft, it now can use this information to simple
make a ‘prediction’ about what may techniques and
happen next. The brain seeks safety and activities you
familiarity to enter into new learning and can use to
complexity and challenge to grow new, incorporate
larger and more extensive dendritic rhythm into
branching. group music-
making. These activities use the “building
― Eric Jensen, Teaching with block” method – scaffolding later activities
the Brain in Mind, 1998 on top of what has become ingrained by
Rhythm inhabits a special corner of our earlier activities. They also provide as much
musical world. We are intrinsically rhythmic expressive and improvisational freedom as
beings – walking, skipping, and running possible, offering a structure that encourages
through life – but many of us have been creative music-making rather than a strict
duped into believing that we somehow “lack formula for producing music.
rhythm”.
The Big Beat
As a music facilitator or leader of a flute
Participants at community music gatherings
circle, you have a unique opportunity to
and flute circles find safety in simple and

This chapter was written by Clint Goss and Mary Knysh. A similar article appeared in the
February 2015 issue of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY. Portions of this
chapter are based on Mary’s book: Innovative Drum Circles – Beyond Beat into Harmony,
Rhythmic Connections, Millville, PA, 2013, available from RhythmicConnections.com

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 271

predictable rhythmic structures. The Big Once the group is entrained in the Big Beat
Beat method grew out of this realization and rhythm, you can keep the two initial beats
has proved to be a valuable resource at our going but replace the 2, 3, and 4 beats with
community music gatherings. You can build silence.
this activity on free improvisation, or on the
Then you have an area of silence to fill.
names of the people in the group, which
Here are some ideas:
makes it more personal. Once participants
grasp the Big Beat, they are able to add their • Develop some call and response –
own creative ideas more easily. alternating between bars of your calls and
the group’s responses
You can begin by leading this rhythmic
pattern: • Move around the room, inviting each
person to issue one or more calls and
BIG Beat 2 - 3 - 4 - | having the group provide the responses
BIG Beat 2 - 3 - 4 - | • Ask people to fit their own names into the
When you lead a pattern like this, it helps to rhythm in a musical way
engage as many senses as possible. You can • Have all the participants improvise
reinforce the rhythm by saying the words simultaneously in the silent spaces by
loudly and clearly, tapping physically on the whispering on their voices
body or playing an “air drum”, and
dramatically
reducing the
volume of “2 -
3 - 4 -” to a
whisper. You
Once people gain confidence, you could
can also ask people to walk, dance, or move
move back to silence or whispering the
to the rhythm to help internalize it.
numbers and demonstrate a 2-bar or four-
To make a stronger connection with the bar improvised solo over the rhythm. It
body, you can change to the words “Heart often works better to have people do this on
Beat” for the two initial beats. If things their voices first, and then move to flutes.
become a bit “loose” rhythmically, you can
If you are facilitating solos by each person
reinforce the first two beats with a large,
in the space of a single bar, it would look
low drum. However, even if the rhythm is
like this:
solid, it will help for later activities to have
a low drum on
those first two
beats.

272 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

 … but it is often easier to let each person Other Meters
improvise over two or four bars. One variation you might consider is moving
Ideally, the solos will involve playing in the from a four-beat bar to another meter. The
spaces. However, in a humanistic tradition most common meter after four beats to the
of music facilitation, we will accept bar is three beats. The rhythm would be:

Seed Rhythms
The Big Beat concept that we’ve
developed so far is an example of the
whatever people can offer when it is their “seed rhythm” technique for developing
turn to solo. rhythm-based improvisation within a group.
The general idea is to use a very simple
If someone has a particular problem with
rhythm with lots of space for improvisation
playing in the spaces or over the rhythm,
between the rhythmic elements.
you can help them with enhanced body
movement. We have found that As a facilitator, you get to explore what
demonstrably moving in front of them and works in your situation. For Native
encouraging them to move with you helps American flute circles, you might explore a
entrain the rhythm during singing and flute seed rhythm with a bit more “meat” and
playing. correspondingly more space between the
rhythmic seeds. Here is an example of a seed
Introducing Silence rhythm that is a (very) simplified version of
a well-known Middle Eastern rhythm. It uses
One of the key elements to creating music
two different tones, a feature that can be
that engages the listener is the use of
obtained on many hand drums:
silence. Adding silence creates a sense of
expectation
and draws the
listener in.

Rhythmic As with the Big Beat rhythm, you begin with

exercises provide an ideal opportunity to silence in the rest bars, and then move to
introduce structured silence. You could ask having everyone improvise on their voices
people to play in the spaces of every other during those rests, and finally have people
bar, alternating with silence. You can do this take turns around the room improvising
as a listening exercise and ask people what solos in the silent spaces. Of course, the
their reaction is to the introduction of improvisations could be on percussion, their
silence. voice, or the flute.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 273

Rhythm in the Center pick up the four- or eight-bar cycle and
Once a circle of players is entrained to a intrinsically know when to pass the solo.
simple rhythm and has explored playing in As the facilitator, you’ll need to be aware of
the spaces, it is easy to transition to a more dynamics. Percussionists can easily drown
“jam session” type of structure. An easy way out a flute solo – especially a low flute – so
to do this is to morph the single-circle you may need to conduct the percussionists
structure into a double circle that we call to play more softly for low or quiet flute and
“Rhythm in the Center”. This is one of the bring their volume up for high flutes.
most fun and satisfying activities at flute
circles, and we often use it to close out a
Success for All
workshop or flute circle because people are
free to go wild and stretch themselves. The “Rhythm in the Center” activity can be
challenging for some flute players,
Ask for some volunteers who would like to especially those with little rhythm
play percussion to take from three to five experience or with an “I don’t have rhythm”
seats in the center of the circle. It helps to mindset. As a facilitator, keeping it in the
enlist the percussion player who has been realm of an experience rather than a test is
holding the “Big Beat” or another seed central to the humanistic approach to flute
rhythm on the low drum to keep that circles. In this context, anything that the
rhythm going. Now you have a solid, sparse flute players put out is “OK” … if folks just
rhythm and you can invite the other noodle around for a while and pass the solo
percussion players to select rhythm – that’s perfectly fine.
instruments of different types. Invite each
percussionist, one at a time, to add to the You just may find that those who had the
rhythm, leaving some space for the most trouble with playing “in rhythm” or
remaining percussionists. This typically “with rhythm” are exactly those folks who
results in a complex, textured rhythm that get the biggest psychological lift out of a
has a firm grounding in the “Big Beat” that “jam circle”, encouraging them to keep at it
the group has become entrained into the until they are truly one with the rhythm.
group.

You can get the flute players to bring their

flute and form a circle around the
percussionists. Then model playing flute
over the rhythm for four or eight bars, and
pass the flute solo around the circle. You
will likely have to conduct (with visual
signals) when to move from one flute player
to the next, but most groups will quickly
274 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Keyboards in the Circle
Why are people so afraid of the piano? That’s Just a Trick
You just lay your hands on it, and it
I was at my aunt’s elder care facility and
produces the most beautiful sounds …
found a room with a beautiful grand piano. I
― David Darling sat down and used one of the
“straightforward techniques” that I’ll talk
Beautiful sounds of a piano combined with
about later in this chapter. People started to
beautiful sounds of a Native American flute.
filter in when they heard the music, and I
Why are they so rarely heard at flute
had a small group of listeners after a few
circles? Maybe this magic combination is so
minutes.
rare for exactly the reason it is so intriguing:
a combination of two very different cultures. When my aunt came in, she was amazed
Many of us in the Native American flute that I could play the piano. She was an
community were turned off by early experienced piano accompanist and well
experiences with piano lessons or the into her 90s at the time. When she saw what
seeming mountain of complexity I was doing on the keys, she blurted out
surrounding music theory. “That’s just a trick … you’re using a TRICK!”
Thankfully, I kept my cool, kept playing,
This chapter sidesteps the issues
and called back “You bet, Aunt Grace … I
surrounding formal piano training and
use every trick I can to make beautiful
music theory and approaches the keyboard
music”.
using straightforward techniques that
connect us more directly with some of the For people who have spent years or decades
gorgeous sounds the instrument can developing their piano skills, a “trick” used
produce. by a keyboard novice – especially one that
produces pleasing music – can be

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar two-part article appeared in the May
2015 and August 2015 issues of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY. Many
of the techniques are based on exercises from Return to Child, by James Oshinsky, 2008
(ReturnToChild.com). James reviewed this article and provided valuable suggestions.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 275

frustrating. Put-downs like “That’s
just a trick” can easily result. But,
there really is no competition here.
The “tricks” I talk about in this
chapter won’t lead you to playing
Chopin preludes or the Moonlight
Sonata. However, they can help
develop our musical breadth and
provide a fantastic opportunity for
enhancing Native American flute
players in your circle.
gracefully, and with purpose, sweep your
Return to Child hand to the side (just enough to clear the
There’s a philosophy that is shared by jazz keyboard), then down toward the floor. As
musicians and Zen practitioners: the ideal of your hand passes the keyboard, let your eyes
“beginner’s mind” or “return to child”. focus on any one of the black or white
Approach these techniques with the wonder mallets in front of you. Let your arm swing
and sense of discovery that a newborn has back behind you, arch up over your head,
when they first hear music – it can open and then come down, letting your finger
paths to deep listening. land on the mallet that your eyes are
focused on. Open your ears as the bell rings
Tai Chi Piano out.

You are sitting in front of 88 beautiful bells. Now slide your gaze left and pick any other
You have 88 mallets, one for each bell. mallet with your eyes. Repeat the same Tai
Some mallets are black and some white. The Chi arc with your left hand – pointed finger,
possibilities are endless. arm sweeping behind you and up over your
head – and try to land your finger on the
To allow the bells to ring fully, look below
new mallet you are looking at. Return and
the piano or keyboard. If you see one pedal,
repeat with the right hand, then the left, and
press it down with your right foot and keep
keep going. You can repeat striking some
it down. If there are multiple pedals, keep
bells or choose entirely new bells.
the rightmost one depressed.

Lift your right hand in front of you and

point one finger upward.35 Slowly,

35
Some of the specific elements of this practice have been Application of Chinese Science”, World Applied Sciences
researched in: Loo Fung Ying and Loo Fung Chiat, “Taichi Journal, Volume 21, Number 1, (2013), pages 98–104,
Qi Flow in the Kinematic Process of Piano Playing: An ISSN 1818-4952, doi:10.5829/idosi.wasj.2013.21.1.1578
276 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 together and very far apart.
What is the musical effect of
bells that are right next to
each other? What about two
white mallets that have a
black mallet between them,
and two other mallets with no
black mallet?

Stop for a moment and do

some of your favorite
stretches. You might flex your
fingers and wrists, rotate your
shoulders in circles, or rotate
Pacing and Spacing your whole torso. Return to Tai Chi piano
and note any differences after stretching.
Try playing Tai Chi piano at an even pace.
Experiment with stopping for a moment and
then resuming. Explore the effects of Performance Tai Chi Piano
completely random timing. You can get fancy with the Tai Chi piano
form and even turn it into performance art.
Become conscious of your breathing as you
Try standing up and engaging the entire
continue playing Tai Chi piano. Use your
body during Tai Chi piano (you’ll need to
arm motions to help expand your chest and
find a way to keep the pedal depressed). Can
allow you to breathe more deeply.
you do Tai Chi piano with two people?
Experiment with striking the bells with a
strong, definite mallet strike. Then shift to a David Darling Audio Commentary
very soft touch. How soft can you go? Can David Darling’s thoughts on Tai Chi piano
you smoothly strike the bell with a touch so are available as an MP3 download. It is nine
soft that it is barely audible? minutes long and I think provides some
Move very close to the mallets and examine interesting perspectives. Go to:
each finger as it strikes the mallet. Then DarlingConversations.com/tracks.htm
lean back and take in the whole picture: the
descending hands, extended fingers, On Disc 3, the Tai Chi Piano track is a link
breathing, and sound. to the MP3 file. You can click and listen to
the track. You can also right-click (on
Explore what happens when you strike Windows) or control-click (for Macs) and
mallets at the far left and right ends of the download the MP3 to your computer for
keyboard. Explore playing bells very close listening later.
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 277
White Key Tai Chi others to play A minor flutes. However, be
What happens if we only play some of the aware that some flute players may not have
notes? (Now that we have ingrained the experience with bringing their flute up into
concept that we are playing bells with pitch with breath pressure. Be ready to
mallets, I’ll go back to the more coach them to provide more “oomph” (or
conventional piano terms: “notes” and “breath support”). You might even need to
“keys”.) help them adjust their block a bit to get a
consonant sound. Since a mid-range A minor
Keep practicing Tai Chi piano, but limit flute might be quite loud when the needed
yourself to the white keys. What happens? breath pressure is provided, this exercise
Can you describe the difference in sound? often works better with a low A minor flute.

If people are familiar with the concept of

“Mode 4” (very briefly: keeping the 4th
Sharing the Keyboard finger hole from the head end of the flute
If you are facilitating a flute circle or other closed rather than the traditional 3rd finger
music gathering, you can certainly learn the hole), you can invite an E minor flute to
techniques in this chapter and use them play in Mode 4. Mid-range E minor flutes
while facilitating. However, a powerful are lower in pitch than mid-range A minor
technique is to ask for a volunteer who has flutes and often go very well with White Key
never played the piano. Every time I have Tai Chi Piano.
guided a volunteer through the exercises
described so far, taking them slowly and More Notes
with kindness, the result has been a With the pedal still pressed down, add a
gorgeous and sparse background. thumb to the index finger on the right hand.
You are pressing two keys simultaneously.
If the person playing Tai Chi piano is
Experiment with how far apart the two keys
playing all the white keys, the notes sound
are … with one, two, three, or four un-
consonant with a Native American flute in A
played keys between the thumb and index
minor. At this point, I usually play my low A
finger.
minor flute over the piano background, and
it typically “works” quite well. The While you are still alternating right and left
challenge is that the flute must be brought hands, try adding a thumb on the left hand
into pitch with the keyboard – typically as well. Now you are playing pairs of high
using breath pressure. and low notes. How has the sound changed?
If you are still playing on the white keys,
Once you have established that the
does it still work with an A minor flute?
combination of White Keys Tai Chi Piano
with an A minor flute works, you can invite

278 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Chords this “momentary damping” technique: When
Now play both hands simultaneously – four you are moving from one chord to a new
notes at once. How do they sound? Try a four-note chord, try releasing the sustain
different four notes. How do those notes pedal just before you move to the new
sound? chord, and re-engage it immediately after
you press a new chord. With a bit of
This is where the deep listening really comes experience, you can get your foot to release
into play. If you don’t particularly like a at just the right time, and for just the right
four-note chord, move your fingers amount of time, with no conscious effort.
elsewhere. However, if you like the sound,
play those same four notes again. Play them Explore the difference between full-time
slowly three or four times. sustain and momentary damping. What is
the sonic effect?
Then, rather than moving to four completely
different notes, change just one of the notes. Arpeggios
Do you like it? If so, hang out there for a
A beautiful alternative to playing all four
while.
notes together is to play them one at a time.
Don’t forget to incorporate some of the The music term for breaking up a chord in
earlier techniques: altering the pressure on this way is “arpeggio”. Experiment with
the keys to bring in loud and soft sounds, playing each note separately up and down.
varying the tempo and timing, moving your Start very (very) slowly at first, and keep the
hands very close together or very far apart, speed right there for a long time. Try it a
and playing at the left and right ends of the little faster, but only when you are very
keyboard. comfortable with playing the four notes
separately.
You can also begin interspersing single notes
in with the chords. Try alternating chords While Tai Chi piano most often offers
with single notes, and explore the difference spaciousness, arpeggios provide access to
between making your single notes one of the grooves and rhythmic patterns. These
notes from the chord or a different note. grooves can be a great invitation for a flute
player of any level of experience to begin
Sustain and Momentary Damping playing, and provide a beautiful contrast to
long-tone flute playing.
What happens if you release the foot pedal
(you’ve been holding it down all this time, The practice of alternating four-note chords
right?) with arpeggios and single notes is another of
the tools we can use to create expressive
If you release both the sustain pedal and
improvisations on the piano.
your fingers, the strings should stop
resonating (they will be “damped”). Now try
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 279
Black Key Tai Chi directions. These instruments typically
Move to playing only the black keys. What provide you with a palate of sounds from
has changed? Do you like chords or single many instruments and cultures, and even
notes better? How do arpeggios sound? completely synthetic sounds that do not
correspond to any real-world instrument.
Black keys are often the best place to start
for people with no keyboard experience – If you have access to such a synthesizer, find
there are fewer black keys than white keys a mode where you can step through each of
and they can be easier to press. However, the available sounds. Many synthesizers
the key of Native American flute they are have hundreds or thousands of available
most consonant with is a rather unusual sounds. Try different techniques with each
one: D♯ minor (the same as E♭ minor). If you of the sounds – sparse vs. dense, soft vs.
happen to have that key flute – on hand, loud. Explore the difference between full-
then combination with a black-key time sustain, momentary sustain, and no
improvisation can be magical. sustain. Many synthesizers use the sustain
pedal in very different ways for each of their
Video Example
sounds.
Check out this YouTube video:
Keep a pad of paper handy for the sounds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkpQ
that you think might be useful and jot down
bjkRbzs
the name or settings used to access that
You can find it on YouTube by the title sound. You might get lost in the sounds of
“Pentatonic Improvisation – piano solo” by these sounds for days or weeks … but that’s
7notemode. It is not exactly Tai Chi piano, OK!
but it demonstrates an all-black-key
improvisation. The Claw
Of course, the limit of only five notes per We began by using a single finger on each
octave can seem restrictive. Try this game: hand, and then progressed to two fingers –
add one white key to the mix. Which white the thumb and index fingers. Now add one
keys work the best? more finger, first to the right hand, then left.
I usually like to add the ring finger, but you
can use any set of three fingers that are
A World of Sounds
comfortable. If you are coaching another
The techniques in this chapter can produce budding keyboardist, you can use the phrase
beautiful flute backgrounds on an acoustic “The Claw” to describe what it looks like.
piano, especially an acoustic grand piano.
However, electronic keyboards use Now we have a wealth of notes to work with
synthesized and sampled sounds, and can – a total of six either simultaneously or in
take the music in completely different sequences. With a bit of experience, this can

280 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

easily lead to what I jokingly call the “No Working on the white keys is particularly
Room for Flute” accompaniment. It is a easy. You can locate the G and A keys: First,
problem I’ve commonly encountered with find a group of three black keys; the G and
experienced piano players when I first try to A keys are the two white keys inside that
play duets: they are accompanying (or group (see the diagram at the right).
“comping”) with so much density that there
is hardly any sonic space for a flute to be Locate an A with your right thumb and play
heard. each of the white keys up the scale, naming
their notes: A B C D E F G and A in the next
I’ve found over the years that, regardless of
higher octave. You should have ended in the
how much more experience the piano player
same position
might have compared to me, I may need to
within the
gently educate them about the ways and
group of
modes that Native American flute and piano
three black
duets work best – and that usually involves
keys. Now
nudging them into playing with more space
you know the
and silence in the accompaniment.
names of the
white key
Frequency Collisions notes!
Another key element of beautiful flute-piano
duets involves being conscious of the area Spanning an Octave
on the keyboard where the pitches collide
Play an A with your left thumb. Can you
with the flute. This area is usually near the
reach the next lower A – an octave lower –
center of the piano. It is also relatively
with your pinky? Spanning an octave can
small: a range of little more than one octave.
add power and solidity to your music.
Can you locate the area of the keyboard that
exactly matches a particular flute? Get some experience running up the scale on
the white keys while spanning the octave.
In your duets, explore playing piano right in
Now run back down. Can you play every
the pitch-range of the flute, and then
other note on the way up and down while
separating your hands keeping free of the
spanning an octave? Can you reliably move
flute pitches. What sounds best?
three notes away – for example, from A to D
and back – while spanning an octave?
The Notes
So far, not a single mention has been made
of the notes on the keyboard. That is fine,
but it does become helpful to make some
connection with the names of the notes.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 281

Descending Progressions
Chord progressions give a sense of motion to
music while introducing structure. One of
the most pleasing and simple is a descending
progression. First, find the notes marked “1”
on the keyboard:
Keep playing chords in this pattern, sliding
your right hand one set of keys to the left,
for a total of 8 chords. You will wind up
playing the “8”s below. These are the same
notes as the “1” chord you began with, but
your right hand will be one octave lower:

You are spanning two A notes with the left

hand and using a claw with the right hand
(playing E, A, and C). You can pick any
octave that sounds good – it should produce
a full, rich chord. You can try this as an
accompaniment to an A minor flute, if one is Once you get the basic pattern down, you
available. can play the notes using any of the
Next, move to the notes marked “2”: techniques developed so far: straight chords,
arpeggios, single notes, or any combination
of these. Explore these techniques in a duet
with an A minor flute.

You are also free to play the descending

scale in any meter. The most common meter
is four or eight beats to each step in the
The left hand stays on the same two notes progression, but you can try experimenting
(as it does through the entire progression). with three or six beats. Even more unusual
The three fingers on the right hand each rhythms can be found if you give five or
move one white key to the left. seven beats to each step.

The third chord follows the same pattern:

Patterns
the left hand plays the two A notes and the
right hand slides one set of white keys to the Revisiting the world of arpeggios, and with
left: the two additional fingers we just added, we
can begin to build far more complex

282 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

patterns with our chords. The possibilities Video Example

are almost endless. Here is a great Peter Kater YouTube video

that demonstrates the pattern-style
First, develop some dexterity with straight technique with an A minor Native American
arpeggios up and down using six fingers flute:
(three on your left hand and three on your
right). Try repeated descending runs Youtube.com/watch?v=6WS_eV9bUKI
(“waterfalls”) as well as ascending runs. You can find it on YouTube by the title
Now experiment with more complex “Peter Kater – Live Concert – Improvisation
patterns by changing the order of notes you #2 in A minor”.
hit, hitting pairs of notes at a time, and
using rhythms of different patterns for the Other Techniques
notes. If you play along with a background Take the back of your right thumb and place
track or drumbeats in different meters and it on the highest white key. Then run the
tempos, pleasing patterns will emerge. back of your finger across all the white keys
Video Example to the left end of the keyboard. You can also
Begin viewing this YouTube video at about try this in the other direction – from low to
4:47: high – using the back of your index or
middle finger. Log these sounds in your
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEjE brain for future use … maybe there’s a place
eSvOzag for them somewhere in your music …
You can find it on YouTube by the title Try a “crush chord”: use both your forearms
“Lubomyr Melnyk – Evertina Tour 2014 and palms to press as many piano keys
(Live Trailer)” by Lubomyr Melnyk. It down at the same time. Do it with gusto!
demonstrates this type of thick, pattern- Useful? Maybe sometime …
based improvisation over chords.

Once you develop some patterns, see how Three Notes, Four Chords
they work in duets with flutes. Remember to And finally, I would like to share my
try to avoid frequency collisions with the favorite progression.36 It is a sequence of
pitches of the flute and occasionally change four spacious, descending three-note chords.
one of your notes to establish some changes I learned it years ago from Josée Allard, an
in chords. experienced facilitator who often leads from
her primary instrument, the piano. I have

36
Deep secret: I’ve used this progression on many of the underlying chord progression is basically the same. Please
background tracks of the NAFTracks.com series. I have don’t tell anyone ☺.
used various synthesizer sounds and rhythms, but the
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 283
used it dozens of times in flute workshops Finally, add a third note to each chord.
and it has never failed. Again, you are playing all the notes marked
“1” together, etc. You can play these upper
Begin by playing these notes, one at a time
notes with your right middle or ring finger.
in order, with your left hand. You are
The result should be a pleasing group of
following “1” – “2” – “3” – “4” in a
notes that you can enhance in many ways
descending scale. These notes form the
with chords, arpeggios, and various finger
acoustic anchor for the chord progression:
patterns:

Then add four notes with your right thumb.

In this notation, you are playing the notes Here is the same progression, transposed for
marked “1” together, then “2” together, etc. three other common keys of Native
The right thumb plays only two keys, each American flutes:
of them twice:

284 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

And now, find your own keyboard
techniques – easy-to-play and potentially
useful “tricks” for supporting flutes in
community music gatherings. And when you
do, please (please) take the time to send me
an email (clint@goss.com) and tell me about
it!

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 285

286 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Thriving Flute Circles
What makes a flute circle thrive? This
question was not actually on my mind
as I strolled around the tents at a
recent flute festival. I was crossing
paths with old friends and playing
random flutes. But, for some reason, I
kept having conversations about
thriving flute circles. Again and again,
I chatted with friends who relayed
interesting stories about how their
flute circle had grown, how the
organization of the circle had
evolved, and what activities they had
done recently.
Safety and Exposure
And a pattern began to emerge within these My training as a music facilitator was rooted
stories. I began talking to participants at in a culture of humanistic teaching. We
other festivals, conventions, and at our own create a safe space, free from judgement,
workshops. If their flute circle was thriving, and facilitate an enjoyable experience that
I simply listened to their own description of raises the level of musicality of all the
their flute circle. The pattern seemed to bear participants. Learnings happen almost as a
out: side effect – when people are enjoying and
Thriving flute circles engage in activities expressing themselves. This philosophy
seemed perfectly aligned with the
that allow the participants to play for
predominant philosophy of the Native flute
others, in varying degrees of safety and
community.
exposure.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the November 2015
issue of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 287

Performing for others did not seem aligned different. A young player who had started
with that humanistic philosophy. Judgement playing a few weeks earlier had developed a
seems to be tightly bound with performing. rather unorthodox style of playing: fairly
Judgement from the audience as well as a loud passages with very fast finger
performer’s own “self-judgement” seemed movements and lots of “chirping” with vocal
ever-present in performing situations. For articulation, but no definite notes or melodic
many years, I held a principle during line. He was being encouraged to step up to
workshops of “we don’t need to perform to the microphone, but an experienced flute
enjoy music”. facilitator sat down with him next to the
stage and just asked him to play anything he
But then I began to see situations where
wanted. The young player put out a passage,
Native flute players thoroughly reveled in
and the experienced player echoed his
the “playing for others” experience. This
passage right back. Whatever the young
enjoyment seemed to happen across the full
player did, the experienced player called
range of player experience, even down to
back. After a while the experienced player
players who were just getting started. The
changed his responding call slightly, and the
thriving flute circles seem to have taken it
young player started following the
one step further: situations which allow –
experience player. They started doing call-
even encourage – players to perform seems
and-response, which became call-and-
to be their significant distinction from less
answer, and then a semi-overlapping duet.
thriving flute circles.
While this was going on, the experienced
The Scary Naked Microphone player moved over to the microphone,
unclipped it from the stand, and brought it
One situation that does not seem to foster
over to where they were sitting. He started
growth and positive energy: a flute circle
putting it near the young player whenever
where the main activity is playing at the
he played. Someone brought over the mic
microphone where the performer has little
stand and set it up between them. Then the
support. While folks are socializing, the
experienced player got up and moved a
“good” players take turns at the mic. As the
short distance away, all the time playing in
event progresses, less experienced players
their duet style. The young player was still
are nudged to perform. Although applause
at the microphone, and the experienced
and encouragement are generous, these
player was now across the room, calling
players often get little musical support. They
back responses across most of the other
are told that the quaking knees and sweaty
participants at the gathering. The young
palms are part of the experience.
player was playing his heart out, focused
The first time I saw music facilitation of directly at his duet partner, and having a
flute players was at one of these “naked great time. In the space of a few minutes,
mic” situations, but the results were very the facilitator had introduced a new player
288 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
to performing without any apprehension, envelope of consonant sound, which
simply by supporting him in the style that provides a lot of musical support.
he played.
Events
The Supported Microphone Experience The events that thriving flute circles host all
There are many ways to support less seem to have a component of performing in
experienced players when they first a supported environment. They can build
encounter the microphone. Here are some upon the positive flute circle experience of
ideas: “performing” in a supported way at a
microphone. The rest of this chapter
Introduce a microphone into a playing
describes some of the types of events that
circle. If you are going around playing solos
you might consider for a flute circle that fit
or travelling duets or trios around the circle,
into this model.
the facilitator can simply walk around with
a microphone or wireless mic and amplify All of these events have a common core of
various people who are playing. Folks get creating an event outside of the flute circle
the experience of hearing their amplified setting that folks work towards. Flute circles
sound with effects coming out of speakers, are about fun, but also about ideas that can
but from the comfort of the playing circle be put to use toward the future event.
rather than a stage.
Joint Flute Circle
Provide a back-up band. A few players on An easy way to get started with outside
a mixture of percussion instruments can events is to collaborate with another flute
provide tremendous support. If an circle on a joint flute-circle event. Even if it
experienced guitar or keyboard player is on is nothing more than having both flute
hand, they might be able to fit in and lend circles meet at the same place and time, you
even more support. will share ideas and activities and enrich
both circles.
Play in groups. Have groups go up to the
mic … “everyone with an E flute” or Flutes in Service
“anyone who’s been playing less than a How many senior centers, elder facilities, or
year”. group homes would love to have an eager
Let them play other instruments. If they group of musicians come play for them? A
are not comfortable playing flutes, they few phone calls around town will certainly
might be comfortable with a drone turn up opportunities.
instrument such as a Shruti box or one of Now your flute circles become opportunities
the very resonant pentatonic instruments to try out things for the “flutes in service”
such as the Swiss Hang or its many variants. performance. Poetry and flute? Involving
These allow people to play within an
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 289
 lesson followed by one-on-one lessons
or duet playing. Less experienced
players can be involved in many ways:
running the booth, being part of the
lessons, discussing their experiences
getting started with the flute, and
playing in one-on-one sessions with
first-time players.

If this idea catches on, you could

progress over the years to hosting your
own festival. While this is a substantial
undertaking, you get to design the
event from concept through execution,
the audience in making music? Something
so you can set the scope to suit your size
involving sound and lighting? Expressive
and strengths. You could host an informal
dance?
gathering in a park or on private property
Schools all the way through a full-blown festival
Doing programs in school settings can call with vendors, classes, and performances.
for a bit more story-telling involving the The Flute Circle Album
instruments being played, the flute makers
If you have one or more participants with
who created them, and about the players
recording experience, you could produce an
themselves. How does the flute work? How
album. It could take many directions: a
do we hear the sound? What is sound?
“This is Our Music” album, a set of play-
Different style of playing? Historical songs?
along background tracks, examples of song
You can use the full energies of the flute forms and structures, showcasing different
circle participants to create an educational types of flutes and other instruments, or
presentation that keeps the little ones recordings of a particular genre of songs
entertained and interested. such as hymns or songs of a particular
culture.
Festivals
A booth or tent in the vendor area can As with any endeavor that has a commercial
provide a great event to focus the energies component, it is a good idea to decide on
of the flute circle and to spread the word the business arrangements at the start. Will
about your activities. You could have a little the album be a for-profit venture or offered
sound system in the tent and have various freely? Who will invest in the venture and
members play. You could offer free lessons how will they be compensated? How will
to players, with a small group introductory any profits be used? Who owns the product

290 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

of the venture (the music and the • How long will the event run?
recordings)? • Will you have a fixed order of players and
Live Broadcasts groups who sign up before the broadcast?

We began experimenting with using video • How will you get the word out about the
streaming at our workshops, and it has been live broadcast?
fun for participants. The technology is fairly • Will you have a person to handle the real-
straightforward, and a number of video- time “chat” interface?
streaming services will broadcast live at no
charge. An inexpensive webcam connected The Big Picture
to a laptop and a good Internet connection
Music gatherings are about more than
is all that is needed. We have used Google
music. At their best, they foster social
Hangout, which integrates nicely with
interactions and personal growth. They give
YouTube.
us a voice that can directly express our
If you use it to collaborate with another emotions, and gives brings us to that elusive
flute circle, that other circle can be located pinnacle of Maslow’s Hierarchy: Self-
anywhere. actualization.

If you use it for a broadcast event, you are As facilitators, we are asking participants to
now thinking about both sides of the lens: “perform” all the time. Simply playing solos
the experience that your participants have around a circle involves taking a substantial
during the event, and how your event risk for some players. Performing for an
appears to viewers, both live and those who audience is an extension of that risk. If we,
view later. Here are a few things to as facilitators, provide the opportunities
consider: with graded degrees of support and safety,
participants seem to thrive, and so does our
• Decide if you will have a host who flute circle.
introduces players or whether it will be
“organic” – moving from one group to
another without introduction.
• Will you use the sound from the webcam,
or take the audio feed from a separate
sound system with microphones and
mixers?
• What kind of lighting will you have? This
is a balance between how the event will
look on the broadcast and putting your
participants under the glare of stage
lighting.
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 291
292 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Support and Shift
Every year at Flute Haven, we offer a you are displeased. A music student once
Leadership program designed for people confessed “I am painfully aware of the part
who lead flute circles or other music of me that hurts with every comment my
gatherings. Most of these gatherings are teacher makes”.
centered on Native American flutes, but all A more humanistic approach is to first
incorporate other instruments and involve support whatever is happening, even
general group-music techniques. conducting it to be further from the
The Leadership group is small – limited to direction you would like. And then,
six or twelve participants each year – and organically and musically, shift it to the
begins several days before the main place you would like to be.
weeklong program of workshops. Early in The rest of this chapter describes some
the program, each of the staff sums up their situations – some you might have
own approach to facilitation, in one or two encountered and others that may be in your
sentences. future – and offers a “support and shift”
All of the approaches are fascinating, but a approach to resolution.
common thread begins to develop among
the approaches. I can sum it up in three Too Loud
words: Support and Shift. It would be wonderful if the whole group
was always mindful enough to allow the
Often in musical (and life) situations, we
quietest instrument to be heard. But
want things to be different. As facilitators
sometimes enthusiasm and energy rise to the
we could simply direct a change – “play
point where nothing but thunder can be
this way, drum that way” – but specific
heard.
verbal directions can carry a lot of baggage.
Participants might be discouraged, thinking A Support-and-Shift approach would be to
that they were “wrong” or disruptive or that join that high level of energy, and maybe

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the February 2016
issue of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 293

even conduct it louder. As long as none of noticeably longer. Then he asked them to
the participants are wincing, you can bring play very softly, with one person playing
it to an absurd level – maximizing the boldly as a contrast, passing the “bold solo”
number of participants who recognize that it around the group.
is too loud to be musical. Then bring it
The group really got into it and loved it. It
down … down … down to a very, very quiet
was so popular that Ron took the exercise
level.
around the room to other quartets who were
If you have one particularly quiet set up to play. The effect was magic.
instrument – maybe a low flute or a soft Everyone got to experience the extremes of
percussion instrument – you can showcase bold / timid dynamics in a safe
them, bringing everyone’s volume below environment, without being exposed or
that quiet instrument. singled out.

The loud-soft contrast can be profound – a

real opportunity for all to experience, rather
Too Long
than being told, the value of volume As facilitators, we set the space for
dynamics. participants to express themselves. Ideally,
they are mindful of the length of that
Too Tentative expression, but they can sometimes lose
context and test everyone’s patience.
Did you ever encounter a player whose
sound is so tentative, so timid, so “closed”? We use the concept of “one-breath solos” to
You just want to shout, “play that flute naturally limit the length of a solo. We
louder!” Imagine the reaction of a tentative extend it to two breaths or four breaths as
flute player if you did shout that command appropriate.
…
Regaining control of a situation where a
I once saw a masterful handling of this participant is playing on and on and on
situation by Ron Kravitz, a very experienced takes care. First of all, are they really trying
facilitator. Simply singling out a tentative the patience of the group? I believe that
player could put them into crisis mode, so time appears to go faster when I am
Ron addressed this in the context of a facilitating. What seems interminable to me
quartet. He asked them “just as an exercise, might be just right for the group. I also
could you all play extremely ridiculously might want to move on to another activity,
softly, quietly, like you are timid”. They and that “want” may skew my perception of
responded with a short improvisation. Then the time being taken.
he asked them to play “extremely boldly,
If the person is playing a solo, one option is
loud to a ridiculous degree”. They all
to conduct the group in supporting that solo.
complied, and the improvisation went on
If they are playing rhythmically, even if the
294 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
rhythm is “loose”, having people join in As facilitators, we can become annoyed and
with shakers, soft percussion, or short lose our presence in the moment … making
staccato notes on their flutes is a form of it difficult to support, when all we want
support for the solo. You are then in a them to do is stop.
position to conduct an ending to the piece,
I have talked to several psychologists, who
or even to move to a new activity. If you
have outlined two possible courses of action.
conduct it to an ending, you might even
You can either ignore the interrupter or
conduct an applause so that the person who
showcase them. Showcasing might take the
was playing the long solo does not feel
form of a solo (maybe two or four breaths),
slighted.
or even have them lead the melody in a
group activity. So, if a participant is
The Talker repeatedly interrupting, first I will try
What if the person taking “too long” is ignoring them. Some interrupters are OK
talking? This is a variation of the scenario with that … but if they get annoyed, I move
above. They might be telling the story of a to the “showcasing” strategy. Every
particular flute, talking about their own interrupter we have showcased, and also
flute journey, or even taking the flute acknowledged them for their contribution
gathering in a whole new direction. after they play, seems to be satisfied by this
approach.
Here are some approaches to re-directing
the energy along the lines of supporting the
person’s monologue and shifting it in a more I’m Sorry, So Sorry
positive direction: This is the title of what may be the most
common flute song. A player who is in the
• We would love to hear you play that flute
habit of stopping at every unexpected sound
(that you are talking about).
(aka “wrong note”) that comes out of their
• Would it be possible to put your story into flute, often with a verbal apology.
a flute solo?
We wrestled for many years with how to
• Can you demonstrate what you are saying
help people over the “oops, sorry”
by playing your flute?
syndrome. We could describe the scenario or
point it out when someone does it, but that
The Interrupter does not exactly support the “oops, sorry”
Our most memorable sessions have been player.
when there is lots of activity,
communication, and ideas. However, there In order to demonstrate “oops, sorry”, I had
are situations where an individual keeps on to intentionally make a mistake. However,
interjecting their thoughts without any real this proved challenging to do in an
benefit to the group. authentic way … until I figured out that the

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 295

most common “mistake” is an unintentional • If the person is having a more substantial
overblow (a “squeak”). Simulating an emotional release, they will often step out
overblow on the lowest note is easy – just of the circle. Having a “lieutenant” – a
crack the topmost finger hole. You can person who can work with an individual
easily demonstrate coming down to the end who separates themselves from the group
of the song and then “accidentally” – can be a big asset. However, realize that
overblowing that lowest note and then how if you happen to have a trained
one might incorporate that note into the psychologist in the group, it might be
song. tempting to “press them into service”. You
would need to ask them specifically (and
Once I demonstrate it, participants find it
privately) if they are willing to do this
easy to simulate themselves. And the
before openly asking them for assistance.
experience of simulating a mistake tends to
help them incorporate an actual unexpected • Ask the person “what can we do for you?”
sound into their song. Options can include their stepping outside
(ideally with the lieutenant), staying off to
the side for a while before they rejoin the
Emotional Releases
group, or simply sitting quietly near or in
Perhaps the most unsettling situation can be the circle and absorb the experience.
an emotional release or even a breakdown.
• Another powerful technique, if they are
Emotions are closely tied with music, and
open to it, is to have the group play music
participants can easily get to a point where
for them and to them. Using low drone
those emotions boil over. In the end, this is
instruments with mid-range solos on flutes
often a very powerful and positive
can work well, as well as very soft
experience for all the participants, but, in
heartbeat rhythms on low drums.
the moment, it can be a challenge for the
Lowering the lights and having the person
facilitator.
sit or lay down in the center of the circle
Psychologists have advised us that support is can be a positive experience.
a key element of handling this situation
successfully. Here are some suggestions that
have worked for us:

• If the person is “tearing up” or their voice

is cracking while speaking, ask them if
they can channel that emotion into their
music. This can be a powerful experience,
and helps everyone learn how to access
those emotions and learn how to turn
them into, for example, a powerful solo.

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Tokyo Flute Circle
There is no more perfect expression of
encouragement than the Japanese impulse
to say “はい”.

It is pronounced “Hai” – like a truncated

version of the English “high!” – and you
hear it about one billion times per day. The
typical dictionary translation is “Yes”, but it
seems to mean something closer to “Keep on
going, I am listening, I understand” …
support for the person speaking,
encouragement to continue.

When we applaud in the Western world, it

has a component of approval. In the arsenal
of a critic, that applause wields a power to
grant or deny a seal of approval – and
withholding that approval can mean
anything from personal worthlessness to the
end of a career. Applause becomes a goal,
something sought to which we attach our
self-worth. Early on in my flute playing career, I
In the more Buddhist-oriented Eastern stumbled on that deep disappointment
associated with “no applause”. I had
traditions, “Hai” seems to carry none of
developed a really good song, combined it
that baggage of approval. And since there is
with a story related to the audience,
no approval, there is nothing to be sought.
practiced it about one billion times, and

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, March 2016.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 297

somehow managed to pull it off on stage.
The audience seemed completely engaged,
and I was sure I had them – until the end.
Then … barely a response. A bit of self-
conscious clapping, and I made my
uncomfortable exit. To make things worse,
the next performer had a very simple piece
that received thunderous applause. What
happened?

A very experienced flute player who had

seen both performances immediately
understood my disappointment. He also
pointed out the technique the second
performer had used to elicit applause: He
brought the energy of the music up higher
and higher, involving flute playing, body
motion, foot stomping, and finally his voice
by humming into the flute. Then he cut the
song off sharply and raise his flute in the air.
In the context of a flute circle or any group
The immediate release of energy compelled
community music, my personal goal is to
the audience to applaud wildly.
remove all elements of judgement, even
The experienced flute player also pointed ones that bestow approval. We are a group
out that a more difficult and valuable goal is of human beings, all supporting each other
to elicit a more deep and powerful emotion on our journey. We are all putting out
in your audience. “If you can make the old sounds, and striving for quality, beauty, and
folks cry, you’ve really achieved something”. emotional communication in those sounds.
He set the goal: bring the audience down to There is no place for a critic, no room for
a quiet place … end the song so that judgement, and certainly no need for those
everyone sits there quietly and contently, angry voices of self-doubt to cloud our
with no impulse to do anything but breathe. sounds.
Then wait a while and bring them back with
So, when a circle of Japanese Native
a bow or a “Thank You”. He added with wry
American flute aficionados turned to me in
humor: “And if you can do that with third-
our first Tokyo flute circle, all I had to do
graders, teachers and parents will be in
was look across at Vera and we began to
awe”.
lead a soft and rhythmic “Hai … Hai …
Hai …”

298 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Everything flowed
from there.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 299

300 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Flute Choirs
The role of a music facilitator often boils The goals are exactly the same as with any
down to one goal: How to facilitate a group facilitated group: inclusion of all
of musicians with vastly different levels of participants within the bounds of their
musical experience to produce satisfying and musical background and group cohesion
compelling music and support the musical leading to a positive experience.
development of all participants. The added element of an audience
In previous chapters, we have
visited this core question from
many angles. We’ve touched on
philosophy, facilitation
techniques, and song forms, but
all these have made one basic
assumption: all the participants
are playing music in a closed, safe
space.

Several years ago, I started

challenging that assumption. Is it
possible to take a facilitated
group of flute players onto a stage
and perform? Could it be done while completely changes the energy of the group.
preserving all the characteristics of a As facilitators, we need to focus that energy
satisfying musical experience? in a positive way – reducing the “jitters” just
enough to preserve the focus that it creates
One of the forms we have used is a while keeping the whole experience light
conducted improvisation where all the and enjoyable.
participants form a choir of flute players.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the May 2016 issue
of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 301

This chapter has a few hints on conducting conducting a “stop-cut” – a sudden,
skills, some suggestions on how to pull off a complete silence by the whole group. The
flute choir, and finally a roster of specific best conducting motion conveys your intent
musical elements that have worked in flute and also shows them exactly where you
choirs. want them to go silent. Vocal choir
conductors often use the “Reverse-C” with
Conducting Skills both hands, but I like to use an “X” motion
that cuts sharply down. Immediately after
If you have never tried conducting a group
the stop-cut, you can reinforce the action by
of musicians, you are in for an awesome
putting a finger over your lips in a “Shhh”
experience. With a few simple, clear hand
motions you can convey what you would motion. This confirms your intent, and
like, and it is a wonderful thing to hear the everyone is likely to understand you.
sound that comes back at you. Teach while you conduct. Even if you
One of the most valuable resources for think everyone “should” know what you
conducted improvisations is the set of mean when you conduct, when you use a
techniques developed and used by new motion, it is OK to tell them what it
community drum circle facilitators. The means, even during a live performance. For
techniques include setting a beat and tempo, example, the first time I use my signal for
segmenting the group so you can layer “keep going”, I will actually say to the group
multiple parts, dividing the group by types “this means keep going”.
of instruments, showcasing individual Personally, I think this idea of having them
players, and conducting beginnings and learn while they are experiencing being
endings. conducted is better than a long non-musical
Here are some basic conducting tips, teaching session explaining what each hand
borrowed largely from that community motion means.
drum circle experience: Head off confusion in “exposed”
Use small, clear motions to convey your situations. If everyone or a large sub-group
intent. You already have everyone’s is doing the same thing, it is not a problem
attention, so large arm motions are if one or two participants are confused. They
unnecessary, confusing, and distracting. will quickly see what to do and catch up.
Economy of gestures leads to lucid However, if you are asking one person to do
communication and great music. something, set them up for success. For
example, a classic technique is to stop the
Use “reinforcement” or “confirmation” entire group, except for one soloist.
hand motions. These secondary hand
motions can help in case some folks did not The musical effect can be magic when it
get your intent. A good example is when works, but embarrassing if the soloist does

302 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

not understand the song form. In that Conduct a feeling. You are not just getting
situation, I will get my soloist playing, then musicians to play in a coordinated way, you
give them the “keep going” signal, and then are leading them through an emotional path
lean over to them and whisper “whatever that they will then, through their music,
happens, make sure you keep on playing”. convey to the audience. You set the tone for
Then when I stop the rest of the group, I will that emotional path, and encourage them to
immediately follow it up with a direct signal express that in their playing.
to the soloist to keep playing and nod
To get an introduction to this style of
demonstrably when they play.
conducting, drop in on a community drum
Know your signals. Develop a set of signals circle facilitated by a trained facilitator, or
for each thing you want to ask them, and check out the books Drum Circle Facilitation
refine them so that they are as simple and by Arthur Hull and Return to Child by
clear as possible. Here are a set of basic James Oshinsky.
directives you might want to convey:

• Beginning and stopping;

General Suggestions
Here are some general suggestions about
• Changing volume and tempo;
structuring flute choirs:
• Setting a particular rhythm and
emphasizing a beat within that rhythm; Practice, but don’t rehearse. You would
• Identifying a single player for a directive; typically begin with your regular flute circle
by conducting the entire group in basic
• Segmenting the group. This can be by
group music-making. As the performance
their location in the group or by type or
event approaches, there is a tendency of
key of instrument.
everyone involved to try to script the
• Initiating particular song forms such as performance. I have succumbed to that
call-and-response or call-and-answer impulse, and it seems to invariably lead to
between two players. disappointment. It tends to work out much
Once you have developed these basic better if the performance is based on simple
elements, work on putting them together to techniques that are used in-the-moment to
have a composite musical effect. A good improvise a creation by the whole group.
example is the “Stop/Cut” – stopping the
Use multiple instruments. More variety
whole group sharply, then counting them in
can be had if all the participants have other
to start playing again all together in perfect
tools in addition to their flutes. Shakers are
timing. This can be challenging, but you and
great, but all kinds of hand percussion
your group will get it with a bit of practice,
instruments can be used.
and the musical effect of an intense and
precise stop/cut is powerful. Facilitate complete musicianship. Have
them use everything at their disposal to
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 303
make music. Voice in particular is very else out, and the room filled with echoes of
useful, all the sound that can be made with bird chirping.
the hands and feet and the breath itself. A
Have a strategy for complex requests. If
great way to get flute players do a particular
you ask a group to drone on a long tone,
rhythm or effect on the flute is to have them
most will understand very quickly and those
do it vocally first. If I want them to
who don’t will join in shortly. But for more
articulate sharply and
quickly on the flute, I’ll
have them vocalize “Ta …
Ka … Ta … Ka … Ta Ka
Ta Ka TaKaTaKaTaKa
…” and then move that onto
their flutes.

Know your soloists.

Selecting a novice to play a
solo improvisation in front
of an audience can invite
disaster. Know the
capabilities of your
participants, and ask of
them things that they can
succeed at and shine. complex requests, especially if they are
asked for something short, can cause
Support the less experienced players. It is confusion.
easy to overlook participants who do not
have a lot of musical tools. But think of the If I would like three short notes … dit dit
sense of accomplishment when they can dit … asking the whole group will likely
shine at what they do know how to play. If produce different lengths and speeds of
they are too shy to play flute, have them notes, and sound rather ragged. If I ask just
play a shaker, and see if you can get them to one player to play it – maybe a more
do it solo. I once had a participant who experienced player – I will probably get
could not reliably play a solid note of any something close to what I want. I can then
pitch, but she could make very nice chirping modify it for the second and third repeats, if
sounds. I whispered in her ear to chirp (she needed. Once it is solid, I can then invite the
was blind and could not see hand motions) neighboring players to join in and then
and then used a wireless mic with lots of extend it to the entire group. The first player
reverb and echo and then dropped everyone provides a model for what it should sound
like.
304 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Another approach is to have the group do with their hands on their chests. If you can
the exercise on their voices first. In the arrange it, placing a shaker or other small
example of the three short notes above, you percussion instrument under their chairs can
could begin by having them vocalize “Ta Ta really be pleasing.
Ta”. You can lead that with your voice and
Check out YouTube. There are many
have them join you. Then, when it is solid
videos on conducted improvisations that can
after a few repetitions, move to flutes.
provide you with springboards for your own
Take things to extremes. Once your choir ideas. Start with a search for “conducted
has learned something, taking it to absurd improvisation” and explore from there.
levels can be fun. Once changes in volume
Structure the opening. How will you get
are familiar, try taking them from very very
participants on stage? To avoid the clunky,
loud to very very soft, and do it very
noisy trundle, consider having your
quickly. If you segment the circle, you might
participants spread throughout the audience
start with one half of the circle playing
and simply conduct them from the stage.
something for sixteen beats and then the
They can all get up and move onto stage
other half playing for sixteen beats. After a
while they are playing. But please use
few rounds, try switching twice as fast –
caution here so that nobody gets injured
eight beats for each half of the circle. Then
while walking and playing flute at the same
try four beats, then two beats, then just a
time.
single beat – back and forth as fast as they
can go. Also consider how you will relax all the
participants during the opening. Be aware
Keep it fun. Let them know that we are all
that some people may be very anxious about
in this together, and that you are not an
performing, even in a safe group. You might
expert at conducting. If things fall apart,
start with people stretching, deep breathing,
laugh, have everyone stretch, and resume
chanting an “OM” together, or just making
the improvisation.
any sound they want. You could even
Share the conducting! Don’t keep all the include the audience in this activity.
fun to yourself. Once a group is familiar
Be theatrical. Consider the use of creative
with what you are doing, let others try
lighting, risers, costumes, and props.
conducting during practice sessions. If it
works out well, you could even pass off the Add other creative arts. Does anyone in
conducting during a live performance. the group have particular skills? Dancer?
Flower arranger? Hoop dancer?
Involve the audience. This is a great
Improvisational Haiku? Rap?
technique for maximizing enjoyment. You
could have them snap fingers or clap in Conduct a closing that facilitates
rhythm, or join in with a heartbeat rhythm applause. It is your job as the conductor to
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 305
let the audience know when the music has Specific Forms and Elements
ended. A reliable approach is to bring the Here are a few specific elements to a
energy of the music up very high, hold it conducted flute choir improvisation that
there, and then silence the music sharply. have worked for me in the past:
The resultant energy release tends to cause
spontaneous applause. Forest sounds. Involve sounds and sound
effects – on the flute and otherwise – that
Consider what key flutes to use. You can evoke nature sounds. Participants can
have everyone in the same key, but a range breathe into the finger holes or obliquely
of flutes in consonant keys can add interest. across the foot ends of their flutes to create
A and D, G and C, and A and E (all minor wind sounds. High flutes can be called on
pentatonic) are three good combinations. for chirping sounds, and mid-range flutes
Use different octaves. Having a group of can add to the chorus with “TaKaTah” bird
very low-pitched flutes can provide an calls. Specific flutes may be able make

underpinning to the music, and having a few nature sounds such as Loon calls, growling,
very high-pitched flutes can be useful for or other “animal calls in the distance”. Many
ornaments or for a high-pitched solo that flute players can play a “bark” ornament.
can be heard while everyone else is playing. Some flutes can make Loon calls.

Forest sounds are a great way to begin a

conducted improvisation since they involve
many of the elements of a music warmup

306 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

and allow exploration and creativity by the Amazing Grace provides a good example:
participants. Forest sounds could also be Have half the group vocalize slowly “Grace
used behind a solo flute and, if you use … Grace … Grace …”. Then intersperse
forest sounds for an ending, you have the other half vocalizing “… A-ma-zing …
established “bookends” to your … A-ma-zing … …”. Conduct the
improvisation. alternating choruses till they are solid,
Single Note. If you want to avoid complex control the volume and texture (even having
harmonies coming from different key flutes, them whisper if the group is large), maybe
you can use the fingerings below to get bring down the lights a bit, and then bring
every key flute in the group to play a D. You in the solo flute over the top. You can even
might have a conducting signal to go to this conduct the audience to join the vocalists.
note, and you could use it in different The effect can be magic.
situations: drone notes, short staccato notes, Soloist and conducted responders. Have a
or a rhythm that you set. These fingerings single soloist step forward and begin a free
should all sound roughly the same pitch long-tone improvisation, ideally with clear
(although individual flutes might vary): phrases and some space between the
• D flutes: or phrases. Conduct a group of 5–20 flute

• E flutes:
 “responders”. You can use long tones (often

• F♯ flutes:
 dissonant, since players are not told what
note to play). You can conduct one or a few

• G flutes:
 very short notes. You can bring them in and
out with trills, ornaments, or chirps. You can

•

G♯/A♭ flutes:
even switch soloists.

• A flutes:
 Small group. Conducted improvisations

•

A♯/B♭ flutes:
have the added benefit of exposing all the
participants to improvisation techniques and

• B flutes:
 forms. These same forms can be used by a

Familiar melody. If you would like to
small group without having a conductor. If
you have a sub-group that works towards
incorporate a familiar melody and have one this goal, bring them forward to improvise
or two participants who can play the melody on their own. You could have them stand in
without pressure or stress, you can conduct front or bring out a few chairs in a circle.
a repeated background that leads into the Give them a few minutes to do their thing,
melody. If the melody has lyrics, pick a and then, if the opportunity arises, conduct
word or two and use them to form the core the rest of the group to join them and have
of the background. the soloists re-join the large group.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 307

Special Situations • holding the ball above your head: high
The techniques described so far can be the tones
basis of a conducted improvisation for • holding the ball near the floor: low tones
typical flute circle participants. These Experiment with walking and bouncing
techniques might have to be substantially the ball in rhythm. The group’s
modified for other groups. The Return to attentiveness is increased if the leader’s
Child book provides this example of a movements are not always predictable.
format that can work for young participants: Try a fake catch so the ball passes
through your hands and bounces, or try a
Younger groups may need to be specially
hesitation instead of a step. At any time,
prepared to be able to follow a conductor.
the leader may stop moving and point to
This game involves a leader, a large
a person to become a soloist (a bird), who
group, and an unlimited number of
then keeps a solo going as long as the
soloists. The leader begins with a ball,
leader keeps pointing at them. Other
throwing it in the air, playing catch with
soloists can be given other animals to
him or herself, and bouncing the ball up
imitate (a snake, etc.), which gives the
and down. The leader instructs the group
game an element of musical styles as well.
to make one sound when the ball is
caught, and another contrasting sound This game teaches attentive listening and
when it hits the ground. A third sound is the attunement of the large group to the
taught to accompany the ball’s movement leader. The focal point is the trajectory of
when it is rolled to someone in the group. the object being tracked (the ball, the
Whoever receives the ball becomes the footsteps). The leader can pass the
new conductor. The leader can also teach leadership role to other group members
the group to add sound effects to the by rolling the ball to someone else. The
leader’s steps through the garden. group never knows who will be the next
soloist or who will be the next one to lead
Suggested sounds:
the group. The activity works with
• footsteps: “crunch” – like walking moderate to large size groups (12–60).
through leaves; or (advanced) separate
sounds for heel and toe
• ball caught: “chuk” – (any staccato But above all, have fun with conducted
sound) improvisations, find your own style and
elements, and everyone – the participants,
• ball bounce: any contrasting staccato
the audience, and you – will have a good
sound, such as “boing”
time.
• rolling ball: crescendo or glissando
(“shhhhhhh”)

308 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Duet Games
When we facilitate a flute circle, our
most important goal is that everyone
has a great time. If we can develop a
community music jam, engage
everyone to the level of their musical
experience, and give all participants
a chance to express themselves, then
everyone is likely to enjoy
themselves and want to live in that
space of music again and again.

Everyone also learns a bit about

music. Our level of musicality ticks
up a notch. It’s almost a side-effect –
a byproduct of coming to a facilitated flute substantial resources, and have high
circle. We play better, have new musical expectations.
ideas, and come away with a desire to go In this setting, it is easy to fall back into
deeper into our music. “lecture mode” and talk about how to play
But what if the gathering is explicitly music. Eyes glaze over, attention wanders,
designed with the goal of “learning music”? and real learning takes a nosedive.
Maybe the setting is a flute workshop or a Educators who have studied humanistic
group that has specifically come together for teaching techniques for decades have found
some future performance. The situation may that the deepest learning happens when
even have specific learning goals relating to students have direct experience with the
individual or group playing. Participants subject. Hearing someone lecture about the
may have traveled long distances, invested subject is a poor substitute. If we embrace
the concept of creating direct experience for

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the August 2016
issue of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 309

our participants, then our role changes from staying down in the low range. Encourage
“lecturer” to “facilitator” – from “sage on them to switch back and forth whenever the
the stage” to “guide on the side”. But this impulse strikes, or when they notice that
shift from lecturer to facilitator creates one their partner has move from low to high or
main challenge: high to low. This duet song form is a good
first exercise because it requires little
How do we structure group music
explanation and the music tends to be fun
activities that achieve particular learning
and light.
goals?
After “High-Low”, you can move on to other
I have found that a facilitation structure that
duet song forms. Here are a few duet song
I call “Duet Games” is extremely useful for
forms that have been described in detail in
giving participants direct experience with a
other chapters in this book:
number of central musical education goals.
• Conversations: Begin with a verbal
Setting up Duet Games question and answer conversation (“What
did you have for breakfast?” … “Ham and
The facilitation structure for duet games is
eggs, but they ran out of coffee” … “No
simple: Set the room up so that people can
coffee – How can that be?” …). We kick
play in duets, face to face. Participants can
off a conversations activity with a cute
be paired randomly with respect to musical
video from YOUTUBE showing babies
experience, but specific pairs should have
having a back-and-forth conversation.
the same key flute for most exercises. It is
From verbal conversations we move
also nice if there is a reasonably clear
gradually to playing conversations back
sequence to the pairs so that participants
and forth on flutes.
know which pair is next in the sequence.
• Melody, Hold Your Last Note (or “Solo /
You could set up the pairs in a straight line, Drone”): One person plays a melody and
some staggered sequence of pairs, or (my then holds a long tone drone note for the
favorite) two concentric circles with other person to solo.
participants in the inner circle facing those
• Solo / Ostinato: One person plays a solo
in the outer circle.
and then moves to a repeated pattern (an
“ostinato”). The partner then follows with
Duet Song Forms a solo into their repeated pattern.
The duet games structure is ideal for • Descending Scale: A special case of Solo /
teaching basic duet song forms to Ostinato where the repeated pattern on
participants. A great way to start is to ask one flute is a simple three-note or four-
people to play “High-Low” duets: any duet note descending scale.
melody they want, but when one person is
playing upper notes on the flute, the other is
310 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
• Solo over Rhythm: One person Call and Response
establishes a rhythmic pattern on the flute, After basic duet song forms, we usually
typically using short staccato notes or move on to a sequence of specific duet
articulation such as notes starting with games that work toward particular goals.
“Ta” and “Ka”, double tonguing For this section, I will call the two
(“TaKa”) or triple tonguing (“TaKaRa”). participants in each duet pair “X” and “Y”.

In all these duet forms, the roles (melody vs. Ask X to play a short solo – you might limit
drone, melody vs. repeated pattern, etc.) its length by asking for a “One Breath Solo”.
switch back and forth throughout the duet. Then Y tries to echo back exactly what X
played. This is made easier since each player
These exercises teach some valuable skills: can see the other’s fingerings. You might
• the ability to improvise based on another point out that this is not a duel – the job of
person’s playing, each X player is to make their melody easy
and straightforward enough for Y to
• to establish a repeated pattern,
successfully echo the melody.
• to hold a rhythmic structure with and
even tempo and meter, and This exercise goes around the group at least
• to use various articulations in playing. twice, so that the roles can be reversed: Y
playing the solo and X echoing it back.
And all of these music topics are covered
with a minimum of talking and a maximum Blind Call and Response
of experiential learning. After Call and Response duets, we ask the
You can also point out that these structures “X” side or the “Y” side to turn their chairs
can be very useful in a performance around and repeat the entire exercise. Since
situation. The only
preparation that two flute
players need is to choose
one of the song structures,
have flutes in consonant
keys, and decide who will
start first. Any duet pair can
perform for an audience
using these structures with
no rehearsal or elaborate
plan.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 311

they cannot see each other’s fingerings, they repeat “A”. The other duet partner then
are echoing each other’s melodies blind. plays something different – call it “B” – but
If people need assistance, you might ask it to make it “about the same length as
encourage players to stick to the basic A”. Then the first player again repeats their
pentatonic minor notes and play stepwise phrase “A”.
melodies – far easier than taking large leaps.
This moves us into one of the classic song
You might also suggest that all players try
structures used in most verses and choruses
to listen to the melody being played and
attempt to follow along with their fingerings that you hear in modern music: AABA. If
while they are listening. Now everyone is there are enough duet pairs in the circle, we
getting experiential practice, not just the often see participants start to smile as the
duet pair that is playing. familiarity of the AABA song structure
starts to emerge.
This exercise moves participants into a place
of deep listening. We now have to hear the As a final step, we ask each participant to
pitches and link them mentally to the attempt their own “AABA” form as a solo.
fingerings. Audiation – the link between a However, we are always careful to point out
pitch heard only in the mind and physical that nobody is saying that they should use
act of fingering the flute – is a key element AABA structure. Song structure is always
in music training. With practice, it leads an option if it suits you, but it is perfectly
many players to being able to hear melodies alright to play songs without a specific
in their head and play them directly without structure.
thinking.
Leaps and Steps
Song Structure
Another aspect of creating melodies is the
We then ask participants to repeat their own use of steps (moving between neighboring
phrase. This develops a skill that may be pitches) versus leaps (jumping to pitches
new to some of your participants: repetition. that are farther away). Many players who
I have heard many players say that they can start by learning the basic scale up and
“play wandering melodies all day long” but down become accustomed to playing only in
that “they don’t sound like songs”. Being steps. They may learn to change direction,
able to repeat your own phrase is the improvise on one note, and add ornaments,
beginning step in developing song structure. but might never have experienced adding
Once everyone gets the hang of repeating leaps to their melodies.
their own song phrase or one-breath solo, In the Duet Games facilitation structure, we
we move back to duet games by asking one ask one player to play a single leap – two
person to play a phrase (call it “A”), then notes that are fairly far apart. The duet

312 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

partner then fills in the steps between the If the group does not know beforehand
two pitches of the leap with a stepwise which emotion has been assigned or chosen
melody. This exercise mimics how leaps and by each duet pair, people can try to guess
steps often work in song melodies: a leap is the emotion from their playing.
often followed by steps that fill in the
We can then showcase two particular pairs,
intervening notes.
going from the first pair to the second and
then back to the first to demonstrate the A /
Shadowing
B / A song structure.
This duet game asks both partners to play in
synchronization, as closely as possible.
Participants might think this is impossible
Styles
for improvised melodies, but many players In settings with more experienced players,
can shadow each other amazingly well with we sometimes move into specific song
a little experience. styles. Of course, we have to make it clear
that we are not telling them that they
You might ask duet partners to move to should play Native American flutes in this
flutes that are an octave apart, or even (in style, we are just offering it as an experience
more advanced settings) to consonant flutes to expand the tools they have to play in
in different keys. their chosen style.

Contrast Three easily accessible styles are Avant

Garde, Jazz, and Blues with a 12-bar cycle.
One of the most important over-arching
For each of these, we can demonstrate the
song structures is the use of contrast.
style, or play flute recordings that best show
Songwriters often call it “A / B / A” (not to the style of playing. The lesson is that we
be confuses with the AABA structure of a can easily emulate many different styles by
verse or chorus). It appears in almost all adopting the structure or ornamentation
fiction as a “journey structure” where the used in that style.
characters proceed from “safe” to “danger”
to “safe” (maybe on a repeated cycle).

In the Duet Games setting, we often Of course, these facilitation structures and
experience this by using emotions. Each activities are offered as a toolbox that you
duet pair chooses or is assigned an emotion. can have available as a music facilitator.
We then play duets continuously from one Pick the activities that fit best, improvise
duet pair to the next, allowing each pair to based on the needs and reactions of your
start with the emotion/style of the group, and … most of all … have fun with
preceding pair, but then changing the feel of all the activities that you lead.
the improvisation using their own emotion.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 313

314 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Music Theory Questions
One area that I am constantly working on is Moving to the Native American flute, I play
how to answer basic questions about music the major and then minor chord notes up
theory. These questions tend to be the ones and down a few times. Then a bit of
where the first answer – the head-space improvisation on the each of the two sets of
explanation – leads to more questions, notes gives the feeling of these two very
confusion, and feelings of musical different chords. If the group is intermediate
inadequacy. Here are some of my favorite or above, I show them these two chords and
questions and some of the answers that I have them try some “one-breath solos” on
have found seem to work for players across the four-note combinations.
a wide range of experience: How do I play in major?
What is the difference between major and Since most songs in Western music cultures
minor? are in a major mode, the question “How do I
Rather than any verbal explanation using play in major?” is usually related to “How
music theory, I’m hoping to offer an do I play songs that I know?” After trying
experience. If a piano is handy, I’ll play the many ways of introducing people to playing
two chords shown below with a 3-finger in major, my favorite approach is to simply
“claw” configuration on each hand, saying ask people to play a short melody that starts
“Major” and “Minor” as I play them. and ends on  or .

This approach brings in different ideas,

many of which might be new to players:

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article is scheduled to appear in the
May 2014 issue of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 315

• The concept of a root note for a melody.
The root note is the note that the melody
centers on, typically beginning and ending
on that note.
• The exercise opens up the possibility of
creating melodies with a different root
than
 or .
• The idea that, even if your root note is
 , you can still play the
 note. You could demonstrate a
melody that end on
 , but uses
 the note
as a “leading tone”
into the final note.

How can I play

alternate scales?
I struggled with sing it while playing it, try some scale-song
how to approach this for many years. I improvisations, and then play the familiar
would hand out a double-sided chart of melody Taps. Everyone seems to succeed at
fourteen carefully mapped-out scales, this. Then we move into adding and really
including seven “basic” ones on the front of emphasizing the vibrato. Most of these
the sheet and seven “exotic” ones on the sessions close with playing Taps while
back. I’d then ask people to pick a scale visualizing ourselves at a memorial service.
(they’d usually pick a really complex one),
And what about the chart of fourteen scales
practice it for five minutes, demonstrate a
that I used to hand out? It still exists – as a
scale up and down for the group (lots of
handout (provided at the end of this
frustration and failures), and then try
chapter). The message is that all these scales
improvising in it (few people got this far).
can be learned by the same method: slowly
Finally, I realized that it wasn’t the scale learn the notes, practice playing up and
that was important, but the process of how down the scale, practice scale songs,
to learn a new scale. So, I now introduce an introduce leaps between far-away notes, and
extremely simple scale: the four-note bugle then free improvisations.
scale. We learn the notes together one at a
In the end, it seems to be that the biggest
time as a group. Then we play the bugle
challenge is striking a balance between the
scale up and down together many times,
316 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
head-space and the heart-space: playing 1. Motivate why the circle of fifths is useful:
from the heart as much as possible and How do you find two flutes that play well
asking the head for new material when together?
horizons need to be expanded. 2. Provide a listening exercise: I have one
The Circle of Fifths person play the fingering
 or
Finally, the topic of the circle of fifths is  and then have the walk
often brought up by one of the participants. around the room and try to find a person
This can easily become a head-space subject, with another flute that, when they use
with charts and verbal descriptions and the fingering
 or ,
applications on mobile devices popping up plays the same pitch. You could hint that
all over the room. (You could really go on a it will be a smaller / higher flute, but you
tangent and show the first known version of can also let them figure that out.
the circle of fifths, shown above. It is from 3. Have those people try an improvised duet
Идея грамматики музикийской «Idea and see if the process works.
grammatiki musikiyskoy», «An Idea of
Musical Grammar», by Nikolay Diletsky, If participants are still interested in a
1679, currently curated by the Russian State graphic representation, you could point
Library.) them to the Circle of Fifths page on
Flutopedia, at
We’ve tried a lot of angles with this topic,
Flutopedia.com/circle_of_fifths.htm. It
and the best one seems to be:
has several potentially useful charts, two of
which are shown on the next page.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 317

 Also, note that the names I use for the scales
Scales are my own inventions – I know of no
I mentioned a two-page scale summary generally-accepted consensus for the names
earlier. Three versions of that scale of musical scales.
summary mentioned earlier are included on
the following pages. The versions are for While these pages can be daunting if the
three different fingerings: facilitator hands it out during a workshop or
flute circle, this kind of information could
• Fingerings for a “typical” contemporary be ideal for some players if it is made
Native American flute; available during a one-on-one lesson or if
• Fingerings for a Northern Spirit A minor they work on it at home.
flute by Richard Dubé; and
All the scale catalogs are available as PDF
• Fingerings for a High Spirits Mid-Tone A files on Flutopedia, at:
minor flute.
Flutopedia.com/scale_catalog_pdf.htm

318 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 319
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324 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Lessons on Lessons
If you play flutes long
enough, someday you’ll
find yourself giving a
lesson. It might be to help
out a first-time flute player
at a festival, coaching
novice players at a flute
circle, or something more
formal such as a class
presentation. But whatever
the context, there are some
basic guidelines to making
the transition from player
to teacher that we will look
at in this chapter. program of learning, Native American flute
students arrive with vastly different musical
Unlike formal school programs, flute lessons
and life backgrounds. They also have a wide
come in many shapes and sizes. There are
range of goals. Combine that with your own
one-on-one lessons and group classes. These
specific background and approach to the
can be single sessions, multiple sessions over
instrument, and the teaching possibilities
several days, periodically throughout a
are endless.
semester, or done occasionally over a long
timeframe. And unlike formal school
programs that assume all students have a How People Learn
quantifiable background in a lock-step Given all these teaching scenarios, it’s useful
to look at some of the basics of how people

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the May 2012 issue
of Voice of the Wind, published by the INTERNATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE ASSOCIATION
(INAFA).
A version is available on Flutopedia at Flutopedia.com/art_lessons_on_lessons.htm

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 325

learn. The generally accepted model is that Building Blocks
we have a limited “working memory” (or The extreme limitations on working memory
“short-term memory”) in which to take in mean that new information can only be
new information and actively solve absorbed in small chunks. For example, if
problems. Meaningful observations and someone is interested in learning to play a
problem solutions move into our vast store “pop” ornament, typically used at the end of
of long-term memory that grows into our a melodic phrase, you might break it down
mental representation of the world into several components. Since it involves
([ATKINSON 1968]). This world-model, co- breath articulation and finger dexterity
created with our environment, enables us to together, you can work on each skill
recall solutions to real-world problems by separately:
finding matching situations from long-term
memory, without burdening our limited • Have them say “what”. Then transition to
working memory in problem-solving. This is breathing the “what” without vocalizing
seen when chess players recall board it, cutting off the air flow as their tongue
configurations from long-term memory clamps to the roof of their mouth.
rather than puzzling through each move (see • Practice the new skill.
[GROOT 1965], [CHASE 1973], and
• Then get used to the finger motion of
[BURNS 2004]). I believe that we see it
going from  to in one
when a flute riff is called upon as a single
motion, without breath and sound.
learned unit, or when appropriate
ornaments just emerge at appropriate places • Practice this new skill.
in our melodies. • Then combine the two new skills in one
“pop” ornament.
A widely accepted theory of learning says
• Practice the combined skill in isolation.
that learners can only construct a mental
representation of the world through
engaging in active cognitive processing (see
[DANGELO 2009] for an overview of
Constructivism). You can’t open a student’s
brain and pour in the information – they
must process it through an active process
that engages the mind. Or, in the famous
quote from Confucius:

I hear and I forget.

I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.

326 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

• Practice playing short phrases that end in Developing these approaches and outlines
a “pop”. takes time. But as your interest in teaching
grows, you’ll start asking yourself “how
This is the “building block” approach to could I teach that?” Simply developing a
lesson plans, based on the assembly of mental plan for how you might teach
solutions from a solid foundation of learned something will begin to build up a mental
sub-solutions. As knowledge and skills library for teaching the myriad elements of
increase, the base expands, supporting the Native American flute as well as music
further learning. in general.
The goal in teaching the “pop” ornament is
not only to wire the complex finger and Fully-Guided versus Partially-Guided
breath motions into long-term memory, but Instruction
to associate them with the sound and feel of A major debate in education over the last 50
the ornament. I believe that the association years centers on how students learn most
with the sound works in reverse when we efficiently. The approach of fully-guided
are playing, causing us to “hear in our instruction advocates providing the student
mind” the sound that we want and also with full, explicit instructional guidance –
causing the ornament to appear in our providing demonstrations and direct
music, not by conscious thought but by an guidance for the proper or best way to
association between sound and the accomplish a task. The various partially-
finger/breath motions in long-term memory. guided approaches to instruction (including
discovery learning, problem-based learning,
And excellent background in the best-
inquiry learning, experiential learning, and
practices of learning is provided from an
constructivist learning) are designed to
unlikely source: The Federal Aviation
provide partial or minimal instructional
Administration. Their Aviation Instructor’s
guidance and expect students to discover
Handbook ([FAA 2008], available free as a
some or all the concepts and skills on their
PDF) provides a practical roadmap for
own. Partially-guided advocates take the
experts in a field (commercial pilots) who
view that students do best when they
have no background in education. The 1977
construct their mental world model through
version of that handbook was my constant
guided self-discovery.
companion when training to be a flight
instructor, and those same skills transfer Significant effort has been put into
beautifully to teaching music. researching these techniques, and some
educators have recently declared that the
One element emphasized by the Aviation
debate is over: fully-guided instruction is
Instructor’s Handbook is lesson plans. The
more efficient and has the best long-term
outline of teaching a pop ornament is a good
example – an outline for teaching a skill.
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 327
results ([CLARK 2012] and [KIRSCHNER musicality. This often interferes with the
2006]). basic aspects of our music development.
Adults who have been told (and believe)
However, what these studies offer us may be
that they have no rhythm are a good
limited in scope. I believe that fully-guided
example of people who, I have found, do not
instruction is ideal when teaching small,
respond well to direct, fully-guided
well-defined tasks such as the pop
instruction. After years of experimentation
ornament. But when looking at the larger
and coaching in humanistic teaching
context of adults seeking personal
techniques, I’ve found that:
expression and self-actualization, self-
discovery methods might be exactly the best • putting flute players in an environment of
approach. strong, simple rhythms (on a sound system
or with live drummers),
Take, for example, the activity of listening
to music and how it might help a new flute • having them move to the rhythm, then
player. Most of us listen to a lot of music, • join the rhythm with their voices, then
but often in a relatively detached, • reduce their vocalizations to just breathing
entertainment-based fashion. But as and moving along with the rhythm, and
musicians, there is a wealth of things we can then
learn from deep music listening. You might • playing simple long tones along with the
listen to a piece of music with a student, and rhythm (while continuing to move)
then offer the things you heard: what was
the song structure, the use of ornaments, the … can turn the most musically
variations in different repetitions of a verse inexperienced players into playing right
or chorus, the use of rhythm, sound textures, along with the beat. The experience is set up
dynamics, silence, beginning and ending in a fully-guided way, but the learning and
styles, song forms such as solo-drone, feeling of accomplishment are born of self-
echoing, call and response, or shadowing, discovery (“Yes, I do have rhythm!”)
etc. Then ask the student to bring a piece of
music the next time and offer their own self- Lesson Structure
discovered analysis.
Another challenge is how to structure a
The rationale for this approach is the basics lesson, especially if it is a single one-on-one
of the Constructivism: converting an lesson with a new student.
otherwise passive casual listening
After finding out a bit about their
experience into an active cognitive process.
background and intentions, I often ask them
Another aspect of teaching music relates to to “play something”. From a humanistic
the many cultural messages that we receive approach to teaching (see Chapter 17 of
by the time we are adults about our own [ROWAN 2005]), which places the teacher

328 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

in the role of supportive facilitator rather For people who always play in a certain
than judgmental critic, we realize that even way, such as very quietly, it may be simply
a request such as “play a song” can put be a matter of helping them explore other
students into crisis mode, so “play styles. One thing you can do is have them
something” or “play anything you like” can emphasize the trait you would like to
be far more effective. change: “Could you play that extremely
softly” … and then “Could you now play it
Beginning a lesson with unstructured
extremely, ridiculously loudly”. Then you
playing by the student is a great way to
could move on to having them play a phrase
focus and structure the lesson. The focus is
very softly, then very loudly, then back to
off the teacher, giving us freedom to listen,
soft, and so on. This approach avoids the
observe, and diagnose the areas where the
problems of teacher criticism while allowing
student has the most opportunity to
them, in a safe space, to expand their
improve. For me, the game is to come up
musical options.
with two or three things to focus on –
ideally a mix of areas that can be Some things, such as teaching vibrato, are
immediately improved as well as ones that special topics that deserve research to find
can be set as more long-term goals. the best teaching approach. After many
experiments, I’ve found that having students
Maybe the student uses only one attack at
lay down on a fairly hard surface and
the start of each note. Maybe they have not
attempt vibrato breathing with one hand on
yet developed vibrato or are playing at a
their belly can dramatically shorten the time
very quiet volume. Maybe they are
it takes to “get” vibrato. However, they
uncomfortably stiff in their body
should know that, while most techniques on
movements, or have choppy endings to their
the Native American flute can be learned
notes.
with a few minutes practice a day for a
You might pick a few of these and structure week or two, vibrato can take a year or
exercises to overcome them. Of course, more to develop.
simply telling them “you’re too stiff when
And possibly the most valuable thing you
you play” isn’t very helpful. This is where
can offer during a lesson, especially a single
fast thinking and creativity (and practice
one-on-one lesson, is to share music training
structuring lesson plans) comes into play.
and enrichment techniques that a student
How can we get them to loosen up? “Great
can bring forward into their everyday life.
… play the same thing, but walk around the
Simply the act of walking can be a musical
room while you’re playing”. If they’re still
exercise. Windshield wipers slapping,
stiff: “OK now make small circles with your
singing in the shower, meditating on your
shoulders as you walk and play”.
breath on a busy train, deep music listening,
readings from your suggested reading list,

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 329

listening to all the sounds in our various dexterity exercises, and composition
environment … the list is endless. techniques, and explore how they can be
applied in the context of a Native
Moving Forward American flute lesson.
Of course, this chapter just skims the surface • Find how to strike a balance between
of a very, very deep field. If you’re teaching reinforcing a student’s own style of
a class, do you need a textbook, and which playing and sharing your particular style
one will you use? How do you handle and approach to the instrument.
students with a high level of experience on
the flute, or with formal music theory In the end, I’ve found that a focus on
training? teaching brings me a far deeper
understanding of my own musicality and a
Here is some advice from Cornell stronger connection with the instrument.
Kinderknecht, an experienced flute teacher And, as another old saying goes: the best
with extensive formal music training: way to learn something is to teach it!

• After you develop your lesson plan for a

single one-on-one lesson, develop elements
that would apply to on-going lessons.
These can include: learning to know more
about the student personally to bring that
into their music, setting goals that are per-
lesson and longer term, finding how to
measure and instill a sense of achievement
over time, considering how to deal with
set-backs, motivation, etc.
• Explore the different types of learners and
various personality types. Become
comfortable teaching musicians who
follow by example, those who like step-by-
step details, those that like to play solo
versus duets, those that like to improvise
versus compose their melodies versus
those that like to play established
melodies, and those that need more or less
encouragement to flourish.
• Study some classic forms of traditional
music education, such as the master class,

330 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

References [DEGROOT 1965] Adriaan D. de Groot
[ATKINSON-RC 1968] R. C. Atkinson and (1914–2006). Thought and Choice in
R. M. Shiffrin. “Human memory: A Chess, published by Mouton De Gruyter,
proposed system and its control The Hague, Netherlands, 1965, 479
processes.” In Spence, K. W. and Spence, pages, ISBN 90-279-7914-6 (978-90-279-
J. T. (editors), The Psychology of 7914-8). Originally published in 1946.
Learning and Motivation: Advances in [FAA 2008] Federal Aviation
Research and Theory, Volume 2, Administration, U. S. Department of
Academic Press, New York, 1968, pages Transportation. Aviation Instructor’s
89–195. Handbook, published by the U. S.
[BURNS-BD 2004] Bruce D. Burns. “The Department of Transportation, Federal
Effects of Speed on Skilled Chess Aviation Administration, Flight Standards
Performance”, Psychological Science, Service, 2008, 228 pages. Publication
Volume 15, Number 7, 2004, pages 442– FAA-H-8083-9A. Available at in PDF at
447. http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals
/aviation/aviation_instructors_han
[CHASE-WG 1973] William G. Chase and dbook/
Herbert A. Simon. “Perception in Chess”,
Cognitive Psychology, Volume 4, Number [KIRSCHNER 2006] Paul A. Kirschner, John
1, 1973, pages 55–81. Sweller, and Richard E. Clark. “Why
Minimal Guidance During Instruction
[CLARK-RE 2012] Richard E. Clark, Paul A. Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure
Kirschner, and John Sweller. “Putting of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-
Students on the Path to Learning: The Based, Experimental, and Inquiry-Based
Case for Fully Guided Instruction”, Teaching”, Educational Psychologist,
American Educator, Spring 2012, pages Volume 41, Number 2, published by
6–11. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006,
pages 75–86.
[DANGELO 2009] Cynthia D'Angelo,
Stephanie Touchman, Douglas Clark, [ROWAN 2005] John Rowan. A Guide to
Angela O'Donnell, Richard Mayer, David Humanistic Psychology, Third Edition,
Dean, Jr., and Cindy Hmelo-Silver. published by the UK Association for
Constructivism, published by The Gale Humanistic Psychology Practitioners,
Group, 2009. Available on Education.com November 2005.
at
http://www.education.com/reference
/article/constructivism/.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 331

332 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Exploring the Voice
Our stories all began with a first breath – Many people come to the Native American
and then a cry – as we came out of the flute after a long period of lost
womb. The sound of the voice – our own musicianship, often due to those early,
and our parents – was our first connection to stifling judgments and put-downs. Maybe it
the outside
world. And
moving from
crying and
speaking to
singing seems
to be a
universal
human
impulse.
However, as
facilitators of
community
music groups,
we hear many
tales of how people’s singing voice was is because the flute so closely matches the
silenced: “Just move your lips” from the singing voice in timbre and range, because
teacher, “You be a hummer, dear” from the the breath pressures involved in playing
choir director, “My Sally can’t carry a tune mirror breath pressures in speech ([GOSS
in a basket”, and the ultimate put-down: 2013]), or simply because the style of
“Shut Up!” parlando playing so characteristic of the
instrument matches poetic speech ([NAKAI
1996]). The birthright of vocal expression,

This chapter was written by Clint Goss and Lynn Miller. A similar article appeared in the
February 2014 issue of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 333

an alternate channel of creativity, a • Introduce changes in loudness with
connection back to first breath – all of these extremely quiet “OOO” sounds. Access
are native to Native flutes. loud sounds with some call-and-response.
Call out: “Hallelujah!” Draw it out:
As facilitators, we began integrating vocal
elements into Native American flute “Haaal-leee-luuu-jaaah.” Say it twice,
workshops in 2006. Since then, we have fast and quick: “Hal-le-lu-jah! Hal-le-
seen substantial benefits with only a few lu-jah!”
minutes of vocal exploration. Simple • Introduce pitch with “sirening” from
practices such as sliding the voice, humming extremely high pitches down to low
into the flute, and vocal articulation games pitches and back up.
can add dramatically to expression in flute • You can now introduce a drone sound –
playing. In particular, the practice of maybe from a recording, a group of pre-
humming in unison with the pitches of the arranged flutes all holding the same note,
flute seems to create a mental link that or a shruti box or other drone instrument.
makes it possible to play by ear melodies A fairly prominent drone sound makes
that you know – a major goal of many flute people more comfortable with vocalizing.
players. At a deeper level, we have seen
• Ask them to slide their voices to a steady
some flute players have dramatic and
pitch that they like – one that they think
profound openings when they re-connect
“goes nicely” with the surrounding drone
with their voice.
sounds. If they need help hearing their
own voice, they can place one or two
Facilitating Vocal Elements hands in front of their mouths to direct the
Since so many of us have deep-set negative sound to their ears.
feelings about our singing voice, nudging a • Explore sliding up and down to find other
group into singing exercises takes care. We places that they think “go nicely” with the
usually begin by incorporating vocal drone sounds.
elements into a music warm-up. This can be
done during stretching and other movement At this point, you’re likely to find the entire
activities: room toning or humming in glorious
consonance. With some encouragement to
• Focus on the sound of your own deep
the participants to keep toning, you may be
breaths. Then shift attention to body
able to reduce the volume of the drone
sensations during deep breathing.
support so that their voices are the
• Add a humming sound to the breathing. dominant (or only) sound in the room. The
Put your hands over your ears and hum. experience of being part of a consonant
Make the humming the sound of choir, maybe for the first time in their lives,
“MMMM” or “OMMMM”. Feel the can be profound.
vibration, the depth, the infinite.
334 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Exploring Articulation
How we begin each note on the flute – the
“attack” of the note – dramatically affects
the character and emotional feel of our
melodies. Most attacks are controlled by the
breath. They mirror how we vocalize
“plosives” like “T”, “K”, and “P” sounds.
Vocal articulations games can open up
creative possibilities for flute players.

We use several approaches in flute

workshops. One is simply to feel the air
pressure of various vocal sounds on the back
of your hand. Sounds like “Taaa”, “Kaaa”,
“Raaa”, and “Haaa” vary dramatically in
the sharpness of the air. We then move
those vocal sounds onto the flute and
explore the difference in sharpness when we
attack each note with the mouth dynamics
of “Taaa”, “Kaaa”, “Raaa”, and “Haaa”.
Playing entire songs with each of the ba-la-ta-la-ta-ma-ma-ma-ba-ba. Make
sounds, as well as using no articulation and up your own syllables. Whatever comes out
connecting all the notes, gets players to the is perfect. Facilitate babbling
point of being able to control which “conversations” with partners or small
articulation to use. groups. Use your hands as you express to
each other, one at a time.
Another approach is babbling. When we
babbled as babies, we were preparing our Consonants are another way to approach
mouths and muscles for speech. Babies make authentic singing. Ar-ti-cu-la-ting them will
the same sounds no matter what culture or create rhythm. Play with the sound of:
language they originate from. When you
• kuh kuh kuh
babble, it helps you loosen up all the
mechanisms in your mouth to sing. Babbling • puh puh puh
will take you out of your rational mind and • duh duh duh
straight into your body. It is also fun!
• fif fif fif, and
Move your hands in a quick, pulsing • guh guh guh
manner. Imitate this movement with your
voice, mouth, and tongue. For example: Ba-

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 335

Feel how the consonants are made in The ultimate goal is to be able to hum in
different parts of your mouth and throat. unison with your playing. This involves
Now combine consonants such as: “kuh stepwise melodies and, after a while,
duh”, “duh guh”, and “dih kah”. incorporating leaps between far-away notes.

Lead the group in vocalizing “dih kah dih This practice eventually becomes “Sing
kah dih kah …” at various speeds. Now What You Play” – a core practice of many
keep the breath exhaling on this phrase, but jazz musicians. It also seems to be the best
silence the vocal component. You are and easiest entry into the world of playing
exhaling in a repeated, pulsating breath melodies you know on the flute by ear.
pattern. Keep going and bring a flute to your
mouth. Can you play a melody while Your Key of Flute
breathing this way? When you work in the realm of Sing What
You Play, you quickly realize that some keys
Sing What You Play of flutes are better than others. This is
After a warm-up and vocal articulation different for each person, and depends on
workout, people are usually more open to your vocal range. Most novice vocalists sing
using their voice. It’s time for the core easily in a range limited to about one octave
exercise: – the same as most Native American flutes.
That’s why most hymns that are sung by a
Try humming into your flute. Hold any note congregation span no more than one octave.
on the flute and siren your voice up and
down. Can you hear places where the voice There are many approaches to the question:
and flute sound good together? Can you what is the right key flute for me? Some
slide your humming up just a tiny bit and involve the resonant frequency of the Earth,
then back down to the place where they some are based on body measurements (a
sound good? Can you slide down slightly traditional “grandfather tuned” approach),
and back up? and some are based on the span of your
hands. While all of these have merit (and
Now the leap: try changing to the next hand-span is an important consideration for
higher note on the flute, and then sliding getting the holes covered reliably), our
your voice slowly up to that new note. If personal belief is that there is a hugely
that works, you could go back and forth important consideration: the key of flute
between those two notes, sliding your voice that matches your vocal range.
each time. Can you slide more quickly and
then move your humming in unison with the You could explore your most comfortable
flute? When that gets easy, try adding one vocal range by getting the help of an
additional higher note – three notes to play experienced vocalist. However, we think it’s
with and slide between. more fun to experiment with Sing What You

336 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Play in different key flutes and find what
keys work best.

Becoming Adept at Vocal Facilitation

As a facilitator you need to be reasonably
adept at an exercise before leading it. The
structures and forms that have been
described in previous issues of this column
have required little in the way of musical
experience. However, vocal facilitation calls
for a bit more experience.

Working with these exercises, in service of a

group you plan to lead, just might be the
most rewarding experience for you (as well
as your group). And as a side benefit, you’ll
find that you can do vocal exercises almost
anywhere – including the shower!

[GOSS 2013] Clinton F. Goss. “Intraoral

Pressure in Ethnic Wind Instruments”,
August 21, 2013, 16
pages, arXiv:1308.5214.

[NAKAI 1996] R. Carlos Nakai and James

DeMars; David Park McAllister and Ken
Light (additional material). The Art of the
Native American Flute, published by
Canyon Records Productions, Phoenix,
Arizona, 1996, 122 pages, ISBN 0-
9647886-0-8 (978-0-9647886-0-2),
softcover.

Portions of this chapter are excerpted from

Lynn’s Miller’s book: SpiritArts –
Transformation through Creating Art, Music,
and Dance, Expressive Therapy Press, 2013,
ISBN 978-0-615-84150-2.
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 337
338 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Distractions
We humans love to think. We analyze, One of my goals when leading a flute circle
reason, interpret, draw conclusions, debate or workshop is to create an environment
those conclusions with ourselves, and then where these transcending experiences can
start the whole cycle all over again. We’re so take place. And the main roadblock to those
accustomed to this process that we extend it experiences is that part of us that loves to
to every endeavor, including our music. think. We can create a safe space for people
to play, provide the right musical
At the same time as being encouraged to background and support, and set up the
“feel the music”, we are asked to think facilitation structure, but the minute that
about so many specific elements. We can thinking mind surfaces, creativity takes a
feel like a quantum particle in a state of nosedive. But we have one more tool in our
constant, unpredictable flux. I start to think, arsenal to guide players along the path to
then I think about needing to feel, then I directly connecting with the music:
feel, then I think about the next passage, distractions.
then I think I should be doing more feeling
… Pretty tiresome and not a lot of space for The Dancer
“just playing”.
When I was very new to playing music, I
Playing Native American flute asks for a found myself by chance in with a group of
different process. When we “play from the very experienced musicians who were on
heart” we introduce a whole new dimension their way to a gig. And … amazingly … they
that seeks to bypass the thinking mind. This invited me to join them. WOW!
direct connection with sound is so powerful
The day of the gig unfolded in a structure
that, when we get lost in the music, it is
that is common for improvisational concerts:
possible to transcend what we “think” is
the group gets together for a few hours to
possible and create music that takes us to a
jam. Then you break for dinner and
whole new level of play.
someone creates a general outline for the

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the November 2016
issue of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 339

concert based on elements from the jam
session. During dinner, the organizer of the
concert asked me to play one particular flute
that I had played during the jam session and
said, “don’t worry about anything else that
happens, we’ll support you”. My thinking
mind took over and I started planning what
to play – what style to use, what intervals to
play, particular melodies I might use.

The concert was in a beautiful space, and

the music was great. Mid-way through the
event, I got the nod and launched into my
pre-planned flute solo. Then things took a
whole different turn. Out came two modern
dancers who spanned the stage in front of
me and interpreted what I was playing. I
became transfixed on their avant-garde
moves. My thinking mind switched off and
emotion took control. Bass, percussion, and
keyboard joined in one musical unit with The best candles for playing Native flutes
the movement of the dancers, and the are ones that generally have a steady flame,
experience became my life-long lesson of the with an occasional flicker. If your
power of distraction. environment forbids open flame or have
smoke detectors that could be activated,
I promised myself after the concert that if I there are many good battery-powered
ever had the opportunity to facilitate other candles.
flute players, I would try to make that
experience happen for them. This chapter is More Lights
part of the fulfillment of that promise.
Continuing on the theme of lighting,
consider any lighted element that can be
The Candle
used in an improvisational music setting.
One of the easiest facilitation techniques Our workshop gear includes:
you can use is to ask people to play to a
candle. Simply place a candle in front of a • Drum sticks that light when struck against
player (closer is better, maximizing visual a drum or any surface. They are made of
involvement) and ask them to play a Lexan™ and have long-lasting batteries as
number of one-breath solos. Turning down their power source. The shop for the Blue
the lights can increase focus. Man group is a good resource.

340 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

• Gloves with lighted finger tips. They have rhythm, I simply ask them to walk – slowly
a switch to select various patterns of light. and evenly – and then to play anything they
You can actually use these to do some want on their flute while walking.
conducting of a group, then move into
Caution: Walking while playing flute is
leading some distraction-filled
potentially dangerous! The player can easily
improvisations. You can also turn the
trip over something. Also, hitting the foot of
gloves over to participants to experiment
the flute against anything can knock out the
with.
player’s teeth. For these reasons, I always
• A scarf embedded with tiny lights that can walk alongside the player to make sure the
be used in dance movements to create a path in front of them is clear.
feeling and mood.
Of course, as with the moving hand
The Moving Hand technique, walking while playing provides a
great distraction.
I have found that asking a person to play to
some particular place can be helpful. I often
hold my open hand above my head and ask Performance Art
a person to play to it. The initial purpose Combining flute playing alongside a
was to encourage a person to raise their storyteller, a poetry recitation, or a dancer
flute, opening their throat and chest, and can be powerful ideas for performances. In a
play louder, increasing the projection of flute circle setting, these collaborations can
their sound. This also has the side-effect of provide a great distraction, taking the flute
raising the pitch of their flute playing. I player outside of their thinking mind.
began using it in situations where their flute
There are many sources of poetry and stories
playing was flat in comparison to another
that you can collect to spur these activities.
pitched sound, such as a drone or a backing
But in the realm of dance, you may find that
track. Playing louder increased their pitch
participants may be shy about dancing, even
and brought them nicely into tune.
in the safe setting of a flute circle. We often
Then I found that if I moved my hand gently use a few simple props such as colorful
from side to side, players tended to focus on scarves or colored yarn and encourage
my hand. This provided a great distraction. I people to “conduct the group” using these
have even used this technique in recording devices.
sessions for players who have been trying to
“get it right” in take after take. Video
Finally, a great distraction is to use a video –
Walking either silent or with a simple drone or
This technique also started out for another backing track – and have participants play
purpose. If a person has trouble playing in to the video. We have experimented with
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 341
scenes of nature, photo-montage videos on a
particular subject, and even sections of
production films for which the music track
was absent.

The experience of playing to a video is new

to many flute players, so we have found that
if we have them play several times to the
same video footage, they get comfortable
with the scenes in the video and can
anticipate what to play without thinking
about them. But we have learned not to
allow more than a few seconds between
repetitions of the video, or else the
“thinking mind” comes into play, and the
value of the distraction is lost.

Be the Distraction
And finally, my un-planned and slightly
embarrassing distraction.

I’m facilitating a session and it’s going great.

People are jovial, playing freely, and with
expression. And then, near the end of the
session, I realize my pen has been slowly
seeping a spreading spot of sopping, deep
blue ink onto the breast pocket of my bright
white shirt. Maybe everyone was transfixed
into distraction, or maybe it had a more
subconscious effect on the participants – I
will never know. But the music did flow
with an unusual and quirky character.

Whatever works!

342 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Playing Nine Emotions
This chapter grew out of a presentation
given by Raman Kalyan at the WORLD FLUTE
SOCIETY convention in Eau Claire, Wisconsin
on July 28, 2016. The topic was “Creating
Emotions with Indian Ragas” and Raman
demonstrated his approaches to evoking
each of the nine essential emotions used in
the South Indian tradition of Carnatic music.
He evoked an amazing array of emotions
and feelings by using a combination of
scales, ornaments, playing techniques, and
special effects on his set of bansuri flutes.
the mountain of potential scales. At
Could these techniques transfer to Native workshops throughout the fall and winter of
American flutes? Rather than learning a set 2016, we experimented with facilitation
of individual playing techniques, could we techniques that might open doors for others
use emotions as the motivating goal? Could into this approach to making music.
we make this playing approach accessible to
participants at flute circles and workshops
Emotions and Music
without requiring advanced skill levels?
The link between music and emotion has
These questions became the major focus of been studied extensively, but is not yet
our music practice in the months following clearly understood. We know that much of
Raman Kalyan’s presentation. We explored the emotional content in movies is conveyed
playing techniques, researched Carnatic by the music – simply hearing the “danger
music theory (a vast subject, which we theme” from Jaws can elicit a fear response.
could only scratch the surface), and mapped That direct link often happens between flute

This chapter was written by Clint Goss and Vera Shanov. A pair of articles with similar
content appeared in the February 2017 and May 2017 issues of Overtones, published by
the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 343

player and listener – a direct emotional link goal to learn a new scale, and really get
is created that transcends language and comfortable with it.
defies analysis. Many theories have been • Providing the participants with a written
proposed, but none are universally accepted. worksheet that listed some of the
However, we do know that listeners absorb techniques used in each emotion in the
the intended emotional content of recorded samples and live playing gave
performed or recorded music even if they them a take-away that really helped
are not familiar with the instruments, players.
culture, or scale of the music ([BALKWILL • Simply moving the focus away from a
1999]). If you ever get the opportunity to technique onto a goal (playing one
turn off the music track on a movie (a few particular emotion, for example) enabled
DVD or Blu-ray editions of movies allow you players to play from the heart, rather than
to do this), watch some portion of the movie the anxious concentration associated with
with the dialog and environmental sounds playing a particular technique.
turned on, but without the music. It
immediately becomes obvious how the We believe that it is also a valuable
music cues the emotional reaction of the experience – for a time, at least – to make
viewer. conscious choices about the playing
techniques we will use. It is wonderful to
While this music-emotion link is powerful play from the heart. However, in the context
for listeners and viewers, we began to find of a playing exercise, we think there is a
that the value of our “Playing Nine benefit to saying, “I will incorporate some
Emotions” sessions was quite different. In short staccato notes into my playing” or “I
session after session, flute players gave us will play powerfully and use a lot of leaps in
valuable feedback on the exercises: my melody”.
• Exploring emotions that participants may This chapter describes the approach that we
not have played before opens a gateway to now use for this topic at Native flute
new techniques that had never been tried workshops. We hope that it might be useful
before. for facilitators in creating exercises and fun
• Watching how others played each of the activities for flute circles, classes, and
emotions – both live and on recordings – individual students.
gave participants valuable ideas and
inspiration. Caveats
• One way to approach many of the The goal of this chapter is to expand the
emotions is to use an alternate scale. This palate of music techniques for Native
gave participants a particular reason and American flute players by focusing on
emotions. This approach draws on the

344 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Carnatic and Hindustani musical and
cultural traditions of India as well as some
The Nine Emotions
historical narratives of Pacific Northwest The Carnatic Indian music tradition has
Coast and other North American cultures. made use of a set of emotions since about
While we do borrow elements from the the second century CE, beginning with eight
cultures and music traditions, this chapter is emotions and adding the ninth emotion
not an authoritative source of information (Peace) one or two centuries later
on those very rich cultures. ([KARUNA 2013], page 23). The emotions
are integrated with and related to the use of
We have picked what we believe are the Carnatic raga scales and composed ragas,
best elements from the sources that are and do not line up exactly with the various
listed at the end of this chapter. We have systems of emotions generally studied in
also developed new techniques and elements Psychology.
specific to playing the Native American flute
that we believe serve the goal of developing For each of the emotions, we have also
a focus on emotions. found corresponding graphics from Haida
and other Northwest Coast traditions that
represent the animals most closely

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 345

associated with each of the emotions. These With rhythm or without rhythm. One of
animal images seem to be a valuable the basic decisions is whether we play in a
addition to the session, helping participants free-flowing way, using phrases and pauses,
get into the spirit of the emotions before or whether we play in some repeating
playing them. rhythm.

From these basic elements, we created the Tempo and meter. If we are playing in a
“Wheel of Nine Emotions”, shown above. rhythm, what is the meter (a duple meter
such as or , or a treble meter such as or
In the Carnatic music tradition, the sequence
time) and what is the speed (tempo) of the
of emotions begins with Love and works its
rhythm.
way clockwise ending with Peace. For each
emotion, we provide: Key of flute. Do we want a high-pitched
flute, mid-range, or low-pitched flute? Is
• Some of the alternate English-language
there a particular key that works best?
names for the emotion. It is good to point
out that any particular emotion can span a Specific flute. Is there a specific flute you
wide range. Love, for example, have that conjures up the emotion? Maybe
encompasses parental love, erotic love, the timbre of the flute is particularly breathy
devotion to a practice or a philosophy, or or sharp. Maybe there is a specific effect or
the general concept of beauty. ornament you can produce on that flute,
• The original Sanskrit word for the such as the warble.
emotion. This can help if participants go
Articulation. We have the choice of
deeper into this work, since there is often
connecting all our notes (“legato”), or
confusion from different English words
separating them with vocal articulation – an
used by different sources for each
“attack” at the beginning of the note. There
emotion.
are many types of attacks that vary the
• The color associated with the emotion, sharpness of the beginning of the note – try
from Carnatic traditions. beginning the note by saying “Ta”, “Ka”,
• The animal that most closely matches the “Ra”, and “Ha” which (for most players)
emotion, from Haida or Northwest coast produce gradually softer attacks. You can
traditions. also incorporate double tonguing (“TaKa”)
and triple tonguing (“DaKaRa”) on some
Elements of Music notes. What is the emotional effect of each?
What tools can we work with when How can these be used within the wheel of
conjuring up an emotional response? Here nine emotions?
are some of the useful elements of music:
Duration. You can hold a note for its full
duration (up until it is time for the next

346 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

note) or you can shorten it, adding silence to • Provide a short phrase that provides a
the music. A note can be shortened all the mental image for the emotion. For
way down until it is just a “Dit” – a example:
“staccato” note.
Disgust – A cockroach in your soup
Ornaments. Do the various ornaments and
effects we can play on our instrument
The phrases we use are shown just
support a given emotion? Grace notes, turns,
beneath each of the emotions in the
mordants, trills, runs, and flourishes are
section below.
examples of ornaments.
• Provide an initial looped video (as
Vibrato. One of the classic ways of evoking participants are arriving) that shows each
an emotion on Native American flutes is the of the emotions for 15–30 seconds each,
use of vibrato – varying breath pressure to with the recorded music we have selected
alter both pitch and volume. The speed and corresponding to each emotion.
depth of the vibrato can be controlled, as • Hand out a printout of the emotions
well as the ability to bring in vibrato after shown above, and a worksheet that
holding a steady long tone. minimizes the need to take notes during
Accompaniment. Should the emotion be the session.
played solo, or with an accompaniment. The • Go into each emotion in depth, showing
accompaniment could be simply a drone all the elements related to that emotion.
note, a drum beat, a repeating pattern on a • Let them hear the recorded music
guitar or keyboard, or a full-blown selection for each emotion as part of a
background track. video that conjures up that emotion.
Dynamics. How can volume be used in the • Discuss the specific musical techniques
service of the emotion? that might support playing that emotion.
• Demonstrate using those techniques live.
Specific scales. Finally, which particular
scale evokes the emotion? • Lead a few short group exercises
throughout on a few of the techniques that
might not be familiar to all the
Facilitation Techniques
participants, such as a new scale, or an
This chapter is structured in the way that we articulation such as double tonguing.
facilitate sessions on Playing Nine Emotions
• After demonstrating all nine emotions, we
at flute workshops. However, you will
ask them to go off and prepare a short
certainly want to vary your approach for
“four-breath solo” centered on one of the
your own setting.
emotions. We randomly assign the
Our general outline is to: emotions, so that we get a good mix.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 347

• After 10 or 20 minutes, we all rejoin the flute scale – pentatonic minor – works well
circle, with each participant first playing for us and we play legato style most of the
their solo, and then saying which emotion time.
they were assigned.
One thing that does improve the
Participants seem to really enjoy hearing demonstration is the use of a drone
selections of recorded music (mostly from accompaniment – we often use a shruti box
production albums) that we think really tuned to the notes on the flute that match
capture that emotion. In the descriptions these two flute fingerings:
below, we list the titles that we think  (the root and the
demonstrate each emotion. However, if you fifth, in Western Classical music tradition).
have a large music library, you might search We also find that it is helpful for the flute
though it for selections that you think work player to imagine a scene. The imagery we
best. suggest is:

Love Imagine the face of a person you adore.

You meet the love of your life

Joy
The recorded music example we use for You dance with
Love is the Omaha Song by R. Carlos Nakai wild abandon
and Udi Bar-David on the Voyagers album,
2007. The recorded
music example
In our search of Haida and Northwest coast we use for Joy is
traditional narratives, the Hummingbird is the Roundabout
the animal most often associated with Love. track by Cornell
Joe Wilson created the graphic of the Kinderknecht on
Hummingbird we use with this the album Returning Home, 2005. Joe
emotion. Wilson created the graphic of the Sun that
We demonstrate Love we use with this emotion.
with a parlando style, on a We demonstrate Joy on a mid-range or
flute with a relatively slightly higher-pitched flute (such as G, A,
“clean” voice (not “breathy” or B♭), with a light, rhythmic melody in a
or “raspy” or “harsh”). The duple or treble meter ( or time). The
flute is typically low-pitched – a scale is pentatonic major – very similar to
low A minor flute works well for pentatonic minor, but rooting the melody by
us – and we use large leaps in the beginning and ending on . We get
melody. The primary Native American

a lighter feel on the melody by mixing

348 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

articulations and using some short staccato Imagine the face of someone you adore,
notes, and various light ornaments. who is no longer with us.

This suggested imagery can potentially bring

Sadness up strong emotional responses in
You lose the one you love participants, so care is needed here. If
people become visibly emotional, we try to
The recorded
get them to channel their feelings into their
music example
music, which can be a powerful experience.
we use for
Sadness is the
track I Will Not Anger
Be Sad in this Someone cuts you off on the highway
World, which is track #4 from the 1983
The recorded music example we use for
album of the same name by Djivan
Anger is Kevin Locke’s I Sing for the
Gasparyan. The Killer Whale is most often
Animals track from the album Earth Gift.
associated with Sadness in the narratives
Richard Shorty created the graphic of the
we surveyed, and Clarence Mills created the
Grizzly Bear – the animal that is most often
Whale graphic that we use.
associated with
We demonstrate Sadness using a parlando Anger in the
style with a very slow tempo on a flute narratives we
pitched several steps below mid-range – a D found.
minor or E minor. We usually do this
We demonstrate
accompanied by a slow, steady rhythm on a
this emotion
tamboura, tuned to g-d-d-D (for a D minor
without specific
flute). The melody is played legato with no
rhythm, but with lots of repetition of heavily
ornaments, and we typically play in a
ornamented phrases on a mid-range flute.
Miyako-Bushi scale, which is fingered on
But beyond specific playing techniques, we
most contemporary Native American flutes
think the key to this emotion is to play
with the fingerings:
powerfully – a style that may be new to flute
players who have played predominantly in


the New Age genre. After observing
participants at six recent workshop sessions,
this emotion seems to be one of the most
Also, as with Love – we suggest using valuable, because of its ability to introduce
imagery when playing Sadness: players to the feel of powerful solos.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 349

Fear Try this sequence of fingerings on a 6-hole
It’s dark. You hear a noise. flute:


The recorded music example we use for
Fear is a recording made by Cornell
Kinderknecht at the
Armadillo Flute Retreat
on November 18, 2004, The first and second fingerings form an
recorded and mastered interval on most flutes called the “tritone”,
by Butch Hall. This often called the “devil’s interval”. It is the
recording is available, first two notes of songs such as Maria from
courtesy of Cornell, at: West Side Story as well as the theme of The
Simpsons. The next two fingerings typically
produce pitches outside the 12-note scale
typically used in Western classical music,
http://www.ClintGoss.com/pne.html
and can evoke an unsettling feeling. The last
John A. Sharkey created the graphic of the fingering generates a pitch on most flutes
Octopus – the animal that we use with this that is a half-step sharp of the octave note,
emotion because of the association in one and can also be unsettling.
Haida legend that we found.
We combine the fingerings above on a mid-
There is not a lot of Carnatic music that range or higher flute. We add trills, deep
focuses exclusively on the emotion of Fear, vibrato, and exaggerated changes in volume.
and we could not identify a scale specifically
oriented to this emotion, but as Native
American flute players we have another
possible direction. We can take the
opportunity to depart from the pitches
typically used in modern music. It is
possible to play 64 pitches if we use all the
possible combinations of open and closed
finger holes on a six-hole flute, but modern
music only uses 12 pitches in an octave. As
flute players, we typically bypass 52 pitch
possibilities. In working with the emotion of
Fear, we have found that some of those un-
played pitches can be valuable.

350 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Courage Disgust
Playing flute at Carnegie Hall A cockroach in your
soup
The recorded music
example we use for The recorded music
Courage is not a example we use for
Native American Disgust is the Wolf
flute, but rather a In Dream track by
simple fife that, for Mark Holland from
us, immediately elicits the album Songs from
the feeling of Courage. Within.
It is a live track by Otha
We looked for a long time for an animal that
Turner called Shimmy She Wobble that is on
embodied Disgust in Haida and other
the album Live: 1989 Memphis Music &
Northwest coast traditional narratives, but
Heritage Festival.
came up empty. Then we found Si Scott’s
The Eagle is the animal that is most often amazing graphic of a Rat that we use with
associated with Courage in the narratives this emotion – perfect!
we surveyed. Clarence Mills created the
We demonstrate Disgust with a non-
Eagle graphic.
rhythmic melody, using out of tune intervals
When playing this emotion, we try to (similar to Fear), adding extreme slide
emulate that feel of that drum-and-fife track techniques, large volume changes, and
using live percussion and an upper mid- allowing the flute to overblow into the
range flute in the key of B or C♯. We play upper register.
rhythmically, in a stately time, at a fairly
loud volume (“forte” in classical music Surprise
terms), and using a particular scale called
You win the
the Mand scale. On most contemporary
lottery!
Native American flutes, these fingerings will
produce the Mand scale: The recorded music
example we use for


Surprise is a
beautiful emulation of a bird singing using a
high-pitched flute: the Bird Song track by
Hawk Henries from his album Keeping the
Fire. Clarence Mills created the graphic of
the Butterfly we use with this emotion – the

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 351

animal we have found that is most often Other Systems of Emotions
associated with Surprise. The Carnatic system is certainly not the only
For us, this is an excellent opportunity to system of organizing emotions. A
demonstrate the use of space and silence. In psychologist in one of our workshops noted
the style of a bird song, we use short phrases that a key emotion important in therapeutic
on a high flute with trills, short staccato settings – Shame – is not represented in the
notes, fast runs and flourishes, and random, Carnatic tradition. Also, the degree of
extended pauses. Adding some Avant Garde intensity of each emotion is not represented.
percussion in occasional bursts adds to this One system that does represent emotional
surprise. intensity is known as the Plutchik’s Wheel
([PLUTCHIK 2001]).
Peace motions on
Sitting in meditation opposite sides of
the circle are
The recorded music example we use for opposites or
Peace is the Returning Home track by counterbalance
Cornell Kinderknecht from the 2005 album each other, and
of the same name. this wheel also has combinations of
The animal we have found in Northwest neighboring emotions. You might
Coast tradition narratives that is most often experiment with this version of the
associated with Peace is called the Spirit landscape of emotions and see if it suits flute
Bear. This animal was thought to exist only players better.
in those traditional narratives until it was
identified in 1905 as an American Black References
Bear subspecies found in remote areas of [BALKWILL 1999] Laura-Lee Balkwill and
British Columbia ([SACHS 2010]). Jon William Forde Thompson, A Cross-
Erickson created the graphic of the Spirit Cultural Investigation of the Perception of
Bear we use with this emotion. Emotion in Music: Psychophysical and
Cultural Cues, Music Perception: An
We like to demonstrate this over the
Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1
background of a flowing, repeated pattern
(Fall, 1999), pages 43–64, published by
on a piano. Peter Kater’s track Grace
the University of California Press, JSTOR
provides an excellent example. We use long
ID: 40285811.
tones on a flute somewhat below a mid-
range, and add occasional percussion on a [PLUTCHIK 2001] Robert Plutchik, The
Ting-Sha to punctuate the music. Nature of Emotions, American Scientist,
July–August 2001, Volume 89, Number 4,
pages 344–350.
352 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
[SACHS 2010] Jessica Snyder Sachs, Icon for
an Endangered Ecosystem, National
Wildlife, February–March 2010, Volume
48, Issue 2, pages 30–35.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 353

354 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Songwriting
One of the common laments of flute players As flute circle facilitators, we can lead a
is “I’m in a rut.” The description often wide range of activities. Some of them are
continues with “I love playing flutes, but my ideal for helping participants to play
melodies just wander all over the place and melodies that “sound more like real songs”.
never seem to go anywhere.” A player might Even if you do not announce that song
confess that people who listen to their composition is a goal of the activity,
playing get bored. Many players wish that participants will often begin to hear when
their music “sounded more like real songs”. their playing sounds more structured and
song-like. This chapter looks at several
There are a lot of resources on how to write activities that seem to work towards the
songs: books, courses, and videos abound. songwriting goals.
Performance-rights organizations such as
ASCAP host weekend and weeklong Play the Clock
workshops in songwriting techniques. In
One of the best techniques we have found
Nashville, the mantra for writing a chart-
for establishing structure with participants is
topping song in the Country music genre is
to have them play one-minute solos. We
“four chords and the truth.” In classical
make it a game by having a human clock in
music circles, conservatory students analyze
front of them – a person (facilitator or
compositions in fine detail, identifying the
participant) who represents the sweeping
interplay of themes and their use throughout
second hand of a clock using an outstretched
the instruments in the orchestra.
arm. (It helps for this “clock-keeper” to have
Unfortunately, many of these approaches do an actual clock or watch in front of them
not suit the Native American flute or the with a second hand). We also ask them to
genre of music that we typically play. try to complete their solo right at 60
Without lyrics, and often staying in one key seconds.
and even one chord, the techniques used by
most songwriters simply do not apply.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the August 2017
issue of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 355

 A/B/A
The suggestion to develop a song with a
beginning, a middle, and an end is a great
introduction to A / B / A song form. Once
people are comfortable with changing their
playing style within a solo and making a
conscious choice to have different parts
within a song, the next logical step is to ask
them to make the beginning and ending
similar.

The general A / B / A song form is very

common in most genres of music. It is often
compared with many of the stories of our
culture, which often take the listener on a
journey. We begin at home – at “A” – a
familiar place, and then journey to “B” –
Once participants get some experience
playing a solo within a given time period, maybe unfamiliar, dangerous, or fearful –
we suggest that they try to have a before returning back to our home “A”.
beginning, a middle, and an end to their When players are starting out, it is a good
solo.
idea for the A and B parts to be noticeably
We initially used this activity just as a fun different. You could even have, as a
game, but then began to realize the listening exercise, the group close their eyes
potential in teaching song composition. and raise their hand briefly when they think
Something about attempting to fit a song a change from A to B or B back to A has
within a given period seems to develop been made. Here are some suggestions about
structure, even after just one or two things that could be altered to create a
attempts. However, it seems to have the noticeable contrast:
most impact when we combine the “play the
clock” game with the request for a Rhythm. A song could begin in parlando
beginning, middle, and end. Doing these style, without a particular rhythm or meter,
components separately – just “play the then become rhythmic, before going back
clock” or an untimed beginning / middle into parlando style.
/end solo – seems to have much less impact. Pitch. A song could begin predominantly on
the lower notes, then move to the upper
notes for the B section before returning to
the lower notes. Mary Youngblood’s song
356 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Yuba is a great example of this technique, For example, a basic rhythmic groove might
beginning with two “A” sections at the low be (in the common language of the African
end of the flute before alternating high (B) djembe):
and low (A) sections for the remainder of Gun- -Do Gun- Do- |
the song. It could be valuable to listen to Gun- -Do Gun- Do- | …
this song and actually write out as a group
the A and B sections as they play. A common mnemonic for this rhythm is:

Tempo. A song could start and end at a Walk- -the Big- Dog- |
slow tempo, using an up-tempo version of Walk- -the Big- Dog- | …
the same melody for the B section. To add some structure onto this groove, you
Accompaniment. The beginning and end might repeat this cycle:

could be solo flute, with the B section Gun- -Do Gun- Do- |
adding some accompaniment. Gun- -Do Gun- Do- |
Gun- -Do Gun- Do- |
Scale. The transition from A to B could be
marked by a change in the scale used.
GunDO -Do Gun- Do- |

Aside from using these basic musical Gun- -Do Gun- Do- |
techniques to create contrast, it is often Gun- -Do Gun- -Do |
better in flute circle activities to suggest a Gun- -Do Gun- Do- |
change in emotion or intent. We often ask GUN- -- -- -- |
people to play two different emotions by
… or …
setting the scene, such as asking a person to
play “the day they got married”, then “the Walk- -the Big- Dog- |
day they had their first fight”, then “the Walk- -the Big- Dog- |
feeling when they made up”. Walk- -the Big- Dog- |
WalkING -the Big- Dog- |
Playing over a Rhythm
Walk- -the Big- Dog- |
One of the most basic (and fun) activities to
facilitate is to set up a basic rhythm and go Walk- -the Big- Dog- |
around the circle with flute solos. It helps Walk- -the Big- Dog- |
participants if you build the rhythm on a Hey! -- -- -- |
simple groove, but if you add some structure
You are likely to find that, with this longer
on top of the groove, you can help flute
cycle, participants begin to learn to pass the
players find a motif on which to build a
solo at the end of a cycle. They also begin to
song.
play phrases that fit nicely in the cycle.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 357

Those phrases can form a motif on which to they can use this in a song form that we call
build a larger song. Journey from a Home Phrase.

The concept is simply to play the motif (the

Song in a New Place “home phrase”) once or twice, then go in a
Another way to approach rhythm is an different melodic direction, but return to the
exercise that is familiar to many jazz home phrase occasionally and end the song
musicians: play a melody you know “in a on that phrase. This is great practice for the
different place”. What this means is to keep next exercise …
the basic rhythm of a song, but alter the
melody. You can preserve the same relative Verse and Chorus Structures
direction of the original melody, or
Once participants have a solid motif that
disregard it entirely and pick your own
they can easily repeat, they can build an
notes.
“A” section by simply playing the motif
Nursery rhymes are a good place to start twice, playing something different, and then
this exercise because they have very repeating the “A” motif one last time. They
straightforward rhythms and melodies. Try then have something that sounds like a
“Jack and Jill went up the hill …” and verse or a chorus of a song.
progress on to songs such as “Jingle Bells”.
With some creativity in the melody, the This verse or chorus can then be built up
listener might not even be able to guess the into a larger A / B / A structure of a
original song that is being used. complete song.

The value of this exercise for songwriting is

that the player inherits the rhythm from the
original melody. However, it is important to
avoid one big trap: participants who try to
play the actual melody of the original song,
and get tied up trying to find the notes. This
is where several demonstrations by the
facilitator can be very valuable.

Journey from a Home Phrase

The value of the Playing over a Rhythm and
Song in a New Place activities is that most
participants will discover a nice motif that
fits within a simple meter and which they
can remember. Once players have a motif,

358 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Flute Psych 101
I started college in the fall of 1974 with a believe that there are a number of key
clear idea of my major subject (Math, later principles that can guide our leadership of
Computer Science), but not a clue for my community music groups and dramatically
minor subject. My advisor suggested improve our music gatherings.
“something in the sciences, but less
technical”, and three days later I am in my Maslow
first Psychology 101 lecture. As much as I What do participants want? What do they
loved Psychology, I was equally sure that I need? These questions are central to
would never use it … Wrong! creating successful music gatherings. The
elegant hierarchy proposed by Abraham
Twenty-six years later, I am in my first
Maslow offers many answers [SIMONS
facilitated community music gathering. I
1987].
relished the group music-making, but on
another level all the Psych theory came The triangle organizes human needs into
flooding back to me. The activities, song five levels.
forms, and everything about the leadership
style of the facilitator seemed to be directly As a hierarchy, Maslow proposes that people
in line with all the principles of Psychology can address a particular level only when
that I had learned. their needs at the levels below it have been
satisfied.
The rebirth of music in my life created a
huge shift for me, including the desire to The two levels at the bottom – Physiological
facilitate flute workshops. I began a training and Safety – take priority over all the other
program in music facilitation, and I also levels. Unless the physiological needs of the
dusted off my old psychology text book participants are met and they also feel safe,
[HILGARD 1975] and began digesting more music-making is stifled.
recent articles and research. While I am not It is the role of the facilitator to choose a
an authority in the field of Psychology, I location with good temperature control,

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the February 2018
issue of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 359

adequate lighting, and with easy access to I was dumbfounded, but Vera – without
restrooms and refreshments. If your the benefit of a single course in
population is older, an un-cluttered Psychology – calmly got up and locked
environment and a choice of suitable both doors to the room, and we all
furniture are important safety exploded in laughter. We then proceeded
considerations, as well as safe access for to climb back up Maslow’s hierarchy!
handicapped participants. It is also our job
to know exactly what action we will take in Maslow’s theory also proposes that each
emergencies, including medical, fire, and level merely needs to be satisfied before a
earthquake. person can pursue their needs on the higher
levels. While participants might love making
You cannot be prepared for every music in a beautiful space, all that is really
situation. At one workshop, we were all required to be able to work on higher-level
instantly jarred down to Maslow Level needs is that the space satisfies their basic
Two (Safety) when a group of physiological and safety needs.
penitentiary inmates, complete with
Moving up the hierarchy beyond
striped uniforms in bold colors, were
physiological and safety needs, the next two
marched through our workshop space.
levels are “Love, Affection, Belonging” and
All music stopped. Time stopped. “Esteem”, which includes respect from
others as well as self-respect. The ordering
of these two levels is significant for
360 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
community music gatherings: participants specifying a very limited set of tasks which
cannot satisfy their needs for self-esteem can be evaluated by a linear scoring system.
and esteem from others unless their needs
In a community music setting, a linear
for belonging within the group have been
evaluation scheme is a particularly poor
satisfied.
system for deriving group esteem and self-
This explains why flute circles that begin respect. Any system that ranks it
with a solo activity are daunting for many participants is destined to relegate all but
participants. Asking musicians in a circle to one “winner” to the status of “failure”. To
begin a session by playing a solo, or asking help the widest range of participants climb
them to step up to the microphone prior to the Maslow hierarchy, another approach is
any group activity can feel hollow to needed.
experienced musicians and
traumatic to novice players. The
rationale that participants need
to be desensitized to
performance anxiety and “get
use to feeling nervous at the
microphone” could potentially
be useful in a music
conservatory setting. However,
participants in community music
gatherings who do not have
goals of public performance are
best served if the session begins
To avoid this roadblock, the facilitator can
with group music-making.
change broaden the skill set to include as
At the fourth level of Maslow’s hierarchy – many modes, styles, and elements of music-
Esteem – participants experience the need making as possible. People with very limited
for respect from the group and the music experienced can be encouraged to
reinforcement of their own self-esteem. explore instruments (in addition to the flute)
From the perspective of musicians who grew that require little experience to make music.
up in Western traditions of education, this There are many percussion instruments that
can be a problem. Respect is often linked to serve this purpose, as well as harmonic
accomplishment at a set of tasks specified by drones such as the Shruti box and tamboura,
the teacher or other external authority. That overtone flutes with no finger holes, and
authority also serves as the judging agency, instruments that create the sounds of nature.
who often simplify their judging process by At one workshop, we had a participant who
was completely blind and had very little

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 361

experience with the flute. However, she was • Organize on-line groups – virtual flute
able to use very soft breath pressure to circles
produce a range of whistling sounds – • Go to drum circles or other community
acoustic edge tones that occur at lower gatherings and add your music to the
breath pressures before the sound chamber group
starts resonating. We had a sound system in
• Play for children’s groups
the room and, with a combination of a
microphone close to the sound hole and • Host sessions for children’s groups where
amble echo effects, were able to showcase they make and play flutes
her playing by filling the room with her bird • Explore the history of the instrument – the
sounds. old flutes, old music, and folklore
• Get into crafting flutes
The pinnacle of Maslow hierarch is Self-
actualization – realization of a person’s full • Offer your services to play with a
potential. I have come to believe that storyteller, a dancer, or other performance
realizing full potential is a lofty goal within genre
the setting of a music gathering. Instead, the • Play for yoga or meditation sessions
goal has become to empower participants to • Transcribe songs of a culture or genre to
take their music out into the world. We use which you have a personal connection
the workshop or flute gathering to expose
• Explore using your music in Playback
participants to the potential directions to
Theater or other therapeutic music
use their music, offer suggestions on
settings
exploring those directions, and provide tools
and experiences to provide to tools to • Play at an elder facility, a house of
achieve those goals. worship, or for memorial services
• Get into recording yourself, others, or
We often suggest these ideas for participants even nature soundscapes
to take their music into the larger
• Provide the music for a movie or video
community. The model that is most
prevalent in our culture is to form a band • Study the physiological effects of playing
and “take it on the road”. However, here are Native American flutes
some valuable alternatives:
In a community music or workshop setting,
• Organize and facilitate your own flute you could introduce people to various
circle; aspects of these goals by engaging in
• Develop a community music performance activities such as recording, flute crafting,
group that incorporates flutes and other demonstrating the use of flute with poetry
instruments; or storytelling, organizing trips to schools,
elder facilities, or flute festivals, doing a live
• Give private lessons
Internet session with another flute circle,
362 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
leading a short drum circle, invite flute and completely absorbed in the activity and
makers or people to give presentations of has a sense of energized focus, full
flute history, demonstrate how to transcribe involvement, and success. Playing music is
a song, or have people play live to a silent often cited in the literature as an ideal
movie and try to produce the music. activity for inducing flow state.

Flow state is accessible to people regardless

Flow State across a wide spectrum of personality traits
Creating a situation that encourages playing and performance on intelligence tests,
“in the zone”, “in the groove”, or “in the although it is more accessible to people who
pocket” can be a profound experience for exhibit more conscientiousness and less
participants. Musicians can become neuroticism [ULLÉN 2012]. It has also been
completely absorbed in their playing, losing found that, in older adults, high quality flow
their sense of self, time, and surroundings. state experiences are associated with
They feel energized and deeply satisfied. happiness and life satisfaction [COLLINS
Playing feels effortless and automatic, 2008].
although there is a sense of a high degree of
control and absorption in their playing. I believe that community music settings are

In a survey of various endeavors that tend

to initiate flow state, one composer
described the experience
[CSÍKSZENTMIHÁLYI 1975]:

You are in an ecstatic state to such a point

that you feel as though you almost don’t
exist. I have experienced this time and
time again. My hand seems devoid of
myself, and I have nothing to do with
what is happening. I just sit there
watching it in a state of awe and
wonderment. And [the music] just flows
out of itself. Fiber tracts of a human brain – diffusion
Psychologists use the term “flow” for a tensor image courtesy of Thomas Schultz,
state of concentration, enjoyment, and low modified by Clint Goss.
self-awareness that typically occurs during ideal for creating flow state experiences.
activities that are challenging but matched Enjoyment and concentration are natural
in difficulty to the person’s skill level outgrowths of in-person settings that involve
[ULLÉN 2012]. The person is fully immersed music-making. The challenges for the

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 363

facilitator are to foster a mental state of low
self-awareness and to appropriately match
the difficulty to the skill level of each
participant.

Self-awareness
When we move participants from group
playing to solos, the focus of the person
playing the solo naturally moves to “me”
and flow state is sidetracked.

One of the best tools we have as facilitators

is the music itself. Having the whole group
continuing to play a supporting musical
role while participants engage in solos of
duets keeps the focus off the people playing
the lead role. Also, the use of dense
supporting music such as rich drones and that has some observers or a small audience.
texture sounds such as rain sticks can We have sometimes created the audience by
provide a bed of sound that help people streaming the flute choir in a live video
become immersed in the music. broadcast. Ideally, the conductor leads a
conducted group improvisation and is
Difficulty and Skill Level familiar with the playing characteristics and
experience level of all the participants –
The second challenge for facilitators is to
familiarity that might come after several
help participants match the complexity of
days of workshop sessions or quite a few
their playing to their level of experience and
regular flute circle meetings.
skill on the instrument. The Flow State chart
depicts the optimal middle ground, where By knowing the participants well, the
participants are sufficiently challenged to conductor can call on them to add their
rise out of boredom into a flow state, sound to the choir by asking them to play
without inducing anxiety. repeated phrases, rhythmic patterns, or
textures that are challenging but achievable
After leading more than 100 flute workshops
for each person. Players with more
with a wide range of participants over the
experience can be called on to solo over the
last 15 years, we have begun to get an idea
bed of music and the conductor can
of the best activities and scenarios that
continuously work to modify the
create flow state. We believe that the best
improvisation to keep it fresh and
facilitation form is a flute choir, ideally one
challenging.
364 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
The continuous play over a period of time, they “play the notes one at a time in order,
combined with an appropriate degree of as slow as you need to go to play smoothly
difficulty and a continuous bed of complex and stay relaxed. See if you can increase
music, can sometime put the majority of the your speed very gradually without getting
flute choir participants into a flow state – tense.”
and from the reactions of the players
Rather than asking that a player “raise their
afterward, there is no doubt when this
pitch”, you might ask them to breathe or
happens!
exhale with more gusto, or just ask them to
stand up when playing, which often
Explanations and Directives produces the same effect.
When we are familiar with the typical
psychological issues that musicians face, it References
may be tempting to try to avert them by
[COLLINS 2008] Amy Love Collins, Natalia
explaining them to participants. “I know you
Sarkisian, and Ellen Winner, Flow and
may feel nervous about playing a solo in
Happiness in Later Life: An Investigation
front of everyone in the room, but there
into the Role of Daily and Weekly Flow
really is no need to be afraid”. However, this
Experiences, Journal of Happiness
immediately shifts attention from the active
Studies, volume 10, number 6, December
task performance (playing) to a negative
2008, pages 703–719.
space of worry and increased self-awareness
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10902-008-
– a guaranteed roadblock to flow state. Far
9116-3
more effective would be to anticipate the
mental state that participants will [CSÍKSZENTMIHÁLYI 1975] Mihály
experience and counteract it with specific Csíkszentmihályi, Beyond Boredom and
techniques. Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and
Play, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1975.
Another consideration is how we phrase
ISBN 0-87589-261-2.
requests to participants and students. Using
unfamiliar terms from music theory (“can [CSÍKSZENTMIHÁLYI 1990] Mihály
you arpeggiate the minor pentatonic Csíkszentmihályi, Flow: The Psychology
scale?”) can instate a feeling of not being of Optimal Experience, Harper and Row,
“worthy” to be in the group, dismantling 1990, 336 pages, ISBN 978-0-06-016253-5.
Maslow level 3 (Belonging).
[HILGARD 1975] Ernest R. Hilgard, Richard
Try providing prescriptive requests that C. Atkinson, and Rita L. Atkinson,
describe your idea in simple terms that all Introduction to Psychology, Sixth Edition,
participants can understand, regardless of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York,
musical experience. Instead of asking them 1975, 658 pages.
to arpeggiate a scale, you could ask that
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 365
[NAKAMURA 2009] Jeanne Nakamura and
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, The Concept of
Flow. In Snyder, C. R., & Lopez, S. J.
(Ed.). Oxford handbook of positive
psychology. Oxford University Press, USA.
89–105.

[SIMONS 1987] Janet A. Simons, Donald B.

Irwin and Beverly A. Drinnien,
Psychology – The Search for
Understanding, West Publishing
Company, New York, 1987.

[ULLÉN 2012] Fredrik Ullén, Örjan de

Manzano, Rita Almeida, Patrik K.E.
Magnusson, Nancy L. Pedersen, Jeanne
Nakamura, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, and
Guy Madison, Proneness for Psychological
Flow in Everyday Life: Associations with
Personality and Intelligence, Personality
and Individual Differences, volume 52,
2012, pages 167–172.

366 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Larger Groups
We recently received a
wonderful email from a past
workshop participant, which
became the genesis of this
chapter:

I help run a flute circle and

we are up to 38 people. We
are struggling with how to
handle so many people. Any
ideas?

Here are some suggestions …

techniques we use with larger groups that do just the finger holes of the upper hand
are drawn from a range of community music with first time players).
facilitation traditions. You could also do a little activity that will
become part of a larger activity during the
Pre-Session for Novice Players main session, such as teaching them a
If your group has some first-time and novice repeated pattern that they can play in
players, you might consider having a “pre- support of solos by more experienced
session” just for them. It might run prior to players, or that will become part of a
the main session for about 30-60 minutes. “conducted improvisation” by the whole
The pre-session could include the very group.
basics of the flute – a little bit of history,
New players will feel safe in a novice-only
exploration of making sounds, and getting
setting, and they will be attracted by a “free
some of the finger holes covered (we often
introductory lesson”. It would help to have
loaner flutes on hand – preferably ones that

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the May 2018 issue
of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 367

are in a higher key (A minor or above) that even switch one segment of the circle to
are within the reach of most people, that “texture” sounds – sounds of the wind by
can be sanitized, and are well-tuned breathing into the finger holes of their
together. flutes, or “sounds of the forest” with bird
chirps.
Round the Circle
There are many
facilitation
structures that
travel around
the circle: one-
breath solos,
traveling duets,
and traveling
trios. These
activities can
become
painfully slow as
the group This also takes the focus off the current
expands. People start checking their soloist, which could reduce anxiety for less
watches, which is never a good thing. Here experienced players.
are some suggestions to avoid this problem:
If the group is very large, you might want to
Keep everyone in the circle engaged by add teaching points as this activity
having them play a supporting role. If the progresses around the circle. Ask a more
activity is rhythmic, simply having them experienced player to incorporate short
play a single, short (staccato) note on the notes as well as long notes, or add
downbeat can work. Even if the participants ornaments, or use slides, or use loud and
have flutes in different keys, these dissonant soft dynamics.
pitches, if they are kept very short, will
primarily be rhythmic and not sound
Setup
dissonant.
We usually prefer to set up the room in a
You can then modify the rhythm by having single circle. However, this may be
some people play a very simple pattern – impractical as the group gets larger or the
two or three short notes with lots of space in space is limited. In narrow rooms, you might
between. You could segment the group and also wind up with an unwieldly oval shape.
have two or three segments playing
different, interlocking patterns. You could
368 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
One alternative is a double-
circle setup, which lets you
facilitate different things for the
inner and outer circles (e.g.
rhythm versus melody). Another
setup is a set of concentric
“crescents” – arcs that are less
than 180° that all focus on a
central point. This focus point is
usually the facilitator, but it
could be players doing a solo or
a small group ensemble.
bulk of the flute players standing around the
percussionists.
Flute Choir
Another compact setup is used when we The facilitator models and begins solos
have a “flute choir” activity. Participants are around the circle in the space of the rhythm.
set up in a multi-row choir arrangement, Initially the facilitator cues each person on a
with the facilitator becoming the leader of a 2-bar or 4-bar cycle, but participants often
conducted improvisation. pick up the pattern and naturally know
when to start their solo. When the group
"gets it", the facilitator can cue people to
Center-Rhythm Jam
play in half the space.
There is also the center-rhythm jam activity,
which works well with larger groups.
Performance Structures
Several volunteers in the center on rhythm
instruments begin a basic rhythm with the Having the group work towards a public
performance can provide focus and cohesion
for larger groups. See the
"Thriving Flute Circles" edition
of this column that appeared in
the November 2015 issue of
Overtones!

Ensembles
Set up the room for groups of
three or four players, facing each
other. The activity is to play an
improvised ensemble, and it

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 369

proceeds by going around each of the So, we recommend that, however you divide
groups in the room. This was explored in the up a group into subgroups, do not make it
Ensembles chapter. based on player “level” or “ability”.

Subgroups and Levels

One way to handle the “getting too big”
situation is to break the group into
subgroups. Having two or three separate
flute circles in different locations at different
times can help.

One impulse is to divide the group by

experience level. It seems like a natural way
to create subgroups, but we have found
many issues with this approach over the
years.

• No matter how you write the description,

participants translate levels into self-
worth. Angst about “am I good enough” or
“will I be embarrassed” abound, and
everyone begins to self-judge their
playing.
• In a multi-level group, learning happens
naturally between players of different
levels. Players with less experience
observe techniques and get inspired.
Mentorship relationships form naturally.
Dividing groups by level blocks impedes
all these group dynamics.
• Many topics can be facilitated in a way
that includes and enriches players of all
levels. For example, exposing people to
alternate scales can include basic scales
with three or four notes, as well as
advanced scales with cross fingerings, or
even very advanced scales that use
different temperaments or quarter-tones.

370 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Ethnographic Recordings
A sound system is a great asset at any music developing presentations and workshop
gathering. Welcome music, play-along activities that involved some of the old
background tracks, and live sound recordings. One presentation, “Traditional
reinforcement for an “open mic” Playing Styles”, was co-developed with Jon
setup – these are all great
reasons to have a sound system.
And with the various suppliers
and technologies that are
available, sound systems are
available across a wide range of
budgets and techno-complexity.

Over the last two years, we have

found another great use for a
sound system at workshops. We
have collected a trove of
recordings that capture the Harry Buffalohead and Eli Warrior at a 1967 Ponca
traditional music styles and pow-wow, from the collection of Jon Norris.
melodies of a wide range of Norris, who was exposed to traditional
indigenous cultures. singing and flute-playing styles as a child at
We began using these recordings to expose pow-wows.
people to the type of music that was Of the 1,700+ recordings we have
traditionally played. However, we started collected, only a small percentage involve
finding that simply listening to these Native American flutes. However, since
ethnographic recordings started to change many flute melodies have a very close
the way participants were playing their relationship with vocal melodies, recordings
flute. This led us down the path of of vocal melodies can be valuable. The

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the August 2018
issue of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 371

recordings can also be a source of new
The last topic in the list above has proven
rhythms and song forms.
particularly useful, because it demonstrates
Here are some of the topics and activities techniques for playing powerful solos.
that we have developed based on these
One of the important aspects of collecting
ethnographic recordings:
these old recordings is that they come with a
• Genres – the distinction between the wide array of legal and ethical restrictions
predominant New Age, the predominant on their use and dissemination. Many are
genre for contemporary Native American restricted from “sharing”, and some of them
flute music, and traditional styles of have far more restrictions.
playing.
For a facilitator or flute circle leader, the
• The connection between vocal melodies
exercise of locating and accessing your own
and songs played on the flute. In
versions of these recordings is extremely
particular, comparing vocal melodies that
valuable. You will find new resources that I
have a wide range of pitches with their
have not located, and you will find new or
corresponding flute melodies demonstrates
additional information on tracks that I have
techniques for “compressing” the range of
previously found.
pitches in a melody to be played on the
flute. This chapter explores the sources of
• The use of spoken word with flute. ethnographic recordings that I have found to
be useful, and provide pointers to how to
• Particular effects and ornaments, such as
build your own collection of audio and
the warble and the bark, that are often
video material. The next chapter, Powerful
heard exclusively in traditional songs.
Solos, looks at how you can use some of the
• West Coast lullabies – a number of recordings from the Central Plains cultures
recordings of West Coast cultures, both in a session that focuses on techniques for
audio and video, show a wide range of playing in a different style than in typically
melodies that I call “lullabies”. We used for the Native American flute.
compare these traditional lullabies to
similar melodies developed by
contemporary performers, listen to the
song structure, and work on emulating
that style. The Haida Love Song referenced
below is a prime example.
• Plains solos – a particular vocal and flute-
playing style that seems to have been
prevalent throughout cultures in Central
North America.

372 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Commercial Recordings are a great source of recordings. The Library
Quite a few ethnographic recordings have of Congress in Washington, D.C.
been issued as commercial releases. Some (www.LoC.gov) is an excellent resource, as
appear in multiple collections, and there are well as the Archives of Traditional Music at
often different mixes, edits or transfers in Indiana University
the various releases. They may currently be (www.Indiana.edu/~libarchm/). An extensive
in-press or out-of-print. list of these institutions worldwide is

Commercial recordings are the easiest to

work with, because the legal rights of use
are relatively well-prescribed. In an
educational setting such as a flute circle or
workshop presentation, their use can often
fall under the doctrines of “fair use” or “fair
dealing” (depending on the country where
they are played). Even if the recording is
out-of-print, you may be able to obtain a
copy on the many Web-based re-sale outlets
such as EBay.com.
A recording in the Folkways collection.

Libraries, Museums, and University available on the Flutopedia Roster of

Collections Museums page at
www.Flutopedia.com/roster_museums.htm.
Educational institutions, especially ones that
archive and curate ethnographic recordings, In addition to providing access to the audio
material, many of these institutions
maintain the details of the recordings as
well as field notes made by the original
collector. The example at the right shows
the field notes of the collector of the
recording of the Wyandotte (Huron) Flute
Song by Catherine Johnson and Mary Kelley,
1911. The material was obtained from the
Canadian Museum of History web site
(HistoryMuseum.ca).

Field notes of Marius Barbeau for the However, if you obtain a recording from
Wyandotte (Huron) Flute song (1911). these sources, realize that many of them are
Curated by the Canadian Museum of unpublished and may be severely right-
History.
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 373
restricted by the organization. You may National Sound Archives
have to sign an agreement that prohibits Many countries maintain an archive of
their use in a flute circle or workshop recorded cultural history. I have found some
setting. who are more than willing to make copies of

Thesis Publications
Some of the Doctoral and Masters
dissertations on the topic of Native
American flutes have associated recordings.
You can often borrow these publications at

Archive of transfers from early cylinder

recordings found on a Web search.

their flute-related material. In additional to

ethnomusicologists in the U.S., German
ethnographers were active in the early part
of the last century collecting and
National institute for the preservation of meticulously cataloging authentic
traditional music in Tunisia. recordings.

little or no charge through the inter-library In Tunisia several years ago, while visiting
loan system. their museum or traditional music, we came

However, realize that the quality of these

recordings varies. They are often dubbed
from original ethnographic sources or
commercial recordings onto cassette tapes,
and may have gone through multiple
generations of analog transfers, further
degrading the quality. However, even a
noisy, scratchy recording, while not pleasant
for casual listening, can inspire participants
at a music gathering.
Music that accompanies Paula Conlon’s
1983 thesis.

374 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

upon the Phonothèque Nationale of the Because of rights restrictions, most of the
Centre des Musiques Arabes et entries on Flutopedia provide only the
Méditerranéennes. This was set up as part of citation and related information, not the
a government program to preserve Tunisia’s actual recording. Some recordings are
traditional music, and they were delighted provided, in cases where I have received
when I told them of our connection to explicit permission to publish them on the
traditional flutes and played a traditional Web – such as the flute recordings of
North American song for them. Thirty Richard Fool Bull made by Bob
minute later, we left with a trove of high DeMersseman in the early 1960s.
quality recordings of traditional Tunisian
flute playing from as early as 1911. Starting Points
Here is a list of selected recordings that I
Private Collections think are most valuable for Native American
Various web sites on the Internet will flute players and which are relatively easy
occasionally publish private collections or to acquire.
copies of selected commercial recordings
This list has a very brief excerpt of the
under various licenses. While few of these
information, sorted by date recorded. For
are flute music, there are some gems to be
the full citation, look up the citation tag (for
found by surfing the Web.
example [COZAD 1941-01]) in the
An excellent source for North American Ethnographic Recordings section of
ethnographic recordings at the time this Flutopedia (Flutopedia.com/ethrec.htm).
chapter was written is DRUMHOP You can then track down the source by
(www.DrumHop.com). Of course, the Web following the reference links that are
is a very fluid medium, so you’ll need to do provided in the full entry. Be sure to check
your own “digital archaeology” to locate the entries that follow each of these
recordings that are currently available. citations, as some of them are the first entry
in a set of related material.
Flutopedia • [YAGALNALA 1893] Yagalnala
I have posted an extensive catalog on the (performer); Franz Boas (collector) (1858–
Ethnographic Recordings section of 1942). The Kwakiutl Indian Yagalnala
Flutopedia singing at a Potlatch, 2:48.
(www.Flutopedia.com/ethrec.htm). Extensive
• [ARAPAHO 1894-06] Unknown performer;
citation information is currently provided on
James Mooney (collector) (1861–1921).
1,736 recordings, listed on 12 web pages Father, Have Pity on Me, Solo flute, 0:59.
that are organized by various criteria
(continent, culture, and chronologically).

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 375

• [TIGER 1900] Jim Tiger (performer);
Frank G. Speck (collector) (1881–1950).
Lonesome Flute, 0:43.
• [BLOWSNAKE 1937-01] Jasper Blowsnake
(born about 1865), Flute Solo, 2:17.
• [COZAD 1941-01] Belo Cozad (1864–
1950), Kiowa Story of the Flute, 3:59.
• [COLOFF 1942-01] John Coloff (1880–
1954) Love Song 1 (Flute), 1:37.
• [HAIDA 1942-01] Laura Boulton
(collector) (1899–1980). Haida Love Song,
1:29.
• [NATAY 1951-09] Edward Lee Natay (d.
1967), Zuni Sunrise, 2:30.
• [HORNCLOUD 1971-11] William
Horncloud (1905–1988), Nióiye Wéksuye
«Lakota Love Song», 3:45.
• [RAINER 1986-01] John Rainer, Jr. (d.
2011). Taos Round Dance, 2:19.
• [BLUDTS 2003-09] Carl Bludts. Crow
Style, 1:30 (recording and transcription).
• [WILLIAMS-DAVIDSON 2009] Terri-Lynn
Williams-Davidson. Skidegate Love Song,
3:04 (video).
• [LOCKE 2015-01] John Coloff (1880–
1954) (composer and performer); Kevin
Locke and Douglas Good Feather
(performers). Hé Miyé Ye, 6:27.

There are also some interesting videos on

YouTube. See Timothy J. Archambault’s
rendition of Belo Cozad’s Memory Song at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo5FcV
mfVb8.

376 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Powerful Solos
One of most valuable things we can do at When Native American flute players get
our flute circles and other music gatherings started, they often play very quietly, even
is to help participants stretch beyond their timidly. If they are never in a situation
customary limits. This includes stretching in where they can safely stretch beyond that
all kinds of musical directions – playing with style of playing, they might never
other instruments they may not have experience playing with confidence and
experienced, exploring new styles and authority. The idea of a session on powerful
genres, trying out different scales, and even solos is to give them such an experience.
physically stretching to reach lower keyed We worked for several years on developing
and higher keyed flutes that they may not flute circle activities with the goal of
have experienced. encouraging powerful solos. However, they
The value of these stretching endeavors can never seemed to be very effective. While
be immense. Players come away with a players had fun during the sessions, the
feeling of accomplishment, and new musical exercises did not seem to have a lasting
experiences can re-invigorate musicians who effect on their playing. Then we began doing
feel they are “in a rut”. New experiences presentations that involved some of the
provide more techniques in a player’s ethnographic recordings of flute players.
toolbox – the kind of techniques that pop up The general topic of these historic
unexpectedly in a person’s playing. It can recordings was explored in last quarter’s
even provide new performance, recording, column titled “Ethnographic Recordings”.
and song composition directions for This month, we will look at how to use some
participants. Players can soar above their of those recordings in a session on Powerful
old habits and get outside the “head-space” Solos.
that sometimes bogs us all down.

One area that is particularly valuable is

what I have been calling “powerful solos”.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in the November 2018
issue of Overtones, published by the WORLD FLUTE SOCIETY.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 377

Genres and Styles The Warble
Many of the old flute recordings begin with
a “warble” – a long, vibrant, pulsating sound
that is rarely heard these days. The old
flutes were often specifically crafted so that
they warble on the lowest note. The
technique does not involve vibrato – the
player provides steady, forceful breath
pressure.

Max Bigman, playing at

radio station WGY, April 1931.

Contemporary Native American flute music

predominantly falls into the New Age genre,
but recordings made prior to 1950 are often
very different from the New Age style. The
old recordings are often loud, bordering on
“raucous”, and can involve very powerful
playing. They also make use of large
melodic leaps and are thick with ornaments. Belo Cozad, Riverside Indian School,
Michael Graham Allen comments that this 1941.
A great example of a warble is at the
was the “Rock and Roll music on the Great
beginning of the flute playing on The Story
Plains in the 40’s and 50’s”.
of the Kiowa Flute. After hearing it, we
As we encouraged participants at these usually see if any of the participants have a
presentations to try to emulate some of the flute that warbles with steady breath
techniques they heard, they began playing pressure on the bottom note. Players must
these powerful solos without hesitation. Just bring their breath pressure steadily up to the
listening to the old flute recordings and point where the flute begins to warble, or it
trying to emulate that powerful playing style breaks into an overblow in the second
had a dramatic effect on many people’s register. Flutes that are likely to warble
playing. usually have a tall chimney and wings on
the portion of the block that extends around
the sound hole. It does help on some flutes

378 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

to slide the block forward toward the sound Most flute players began by playing stepwise
hole very slightly. melodies, and some players never get the
impetus to explore leaps. A leap of a full
If the flute itself does not warble, players
octave may sound extreme, but it makes a
can simulate a warble using vibrato. This is
great introduction to leaps over all the
not the slow, delicate vibrato commonly
possible intervals.
heard in the New Age genre, but a heavy,
rapid vibrato that brings the flute just short
of overblowing. Trying this technique out,
Descending Melodies
even briefly, gives players a feel for Many of the old flute and vocal melodies use
powerful playing. a generally descending melody after a leap

Stance
When I see photos of traditional flute
players – Belo Cozad, Max Bigman, and
Doc Tate Nevaquaya – I am often struck
their stance. The photo of Max Bigman
playing at his weekly radio show in 1931
shows a very erect posture, even before
playing the flute.

When they play, they tend to stand, with

the foot of the flute up high and a gaze
that often looks above the horizon.

We began showing these photos as part of Doc Tate Nevaquaya, from the liner notes of
our sessions on powerful solos, and asked Comanche Flute Music, 1979 (reissued
participants to try a similar stance. The 2004).
results were dramatic. Simply raising the to the octave. The melody often continues to
foot of the flute can give players a feeling of use leaps across various intervals and a lot
projection and power. of repetition and ornaments, but the trend is
often in a descending direction ending back
Leaps down on the bottom note (and often with
more warbling).
After an opening warble, it is very common
for the flute player to leap up one octave – When participants try to emulate this style,
from to . This is heard in the opening it takes them very far from the melodies
passage of many traditional songs such as they are used to playing.
Nióiye Wéksuye.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 379

The overall descending melodic arc is used • Vibrato, especially a deep, pulsating tone,
in Belo Cozad’s Memory Song (see Tim can add depth and power to a song.
Archambault’s rendition on YouTube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo5FcV And finally, the pop at the end of the song –
mfVb8). a classic ornament in traditional playing –
brings a powerful song to a finish and
Alternate Scales announces to the audience – time to
applaud!
Many of the traditional songs are not in the
Minor Pentatonic scale that is predominant
Rhythmic Articulation
in contemporary Native American flutes.
Simply using an alternate scale can give a Another powerful style comes from a song of
song power, and that power is amplified if the Crow culture. A famous track, named
you use one with more notes with a major simply Crow Style, uses articulation
tonality rather than a scale that sound more (separating the notes) produced by the
minor. mouth and the fingers to create a
combination of rhythm and melody in a solo
If you are stuck trying to figure out the scale piece.
that is being played in a particular


traditional song, try these notes on your
contemporary flute (this is the scale used by
William Horncloud in Nióiye Wéksuye):


Ornaments and Effects Crow Style was recorded by John Ranier, Jr.
A number of ornaments and playing effects in his 1986 album (the one that includes the
lend themselves to a powerful style of Taos Round Dance, cited below). This style
playing. These are commonly heard in has been emulated in number of recordings
traditional flute playing: over the years, including the Green Lizard
track by Joe Young (a search on YouTube
• Barks call attention to the low note of a
will produce several videos).
melody, grounding it and evoking a nature
sound. In workshop sessions, this style can be
• Fast runs and flourishes that connect long emulated, but it needs to be broken down
tones can be used to punctuate a powerful and played slowly at first. A great resource
long-tone melody. is the book of transcriptions published by

380 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Carl Bludts in 2003, in which he plays the A sudden shift in dynamics – the volume of
Crow Style song and provides a the music – creates focus with the listener.
transcription. When music suddenly gets quiet, everyone
pays attention. It’s like the player is sharing
Another approach to rhythmic articulation is
a secret.
to use grace notes as a steady rhythm while
playing the melody simultaneously on the A great example of this are the early
flute. This can be done using a finger recordings of Zuni Sunrise. This song dates
articulation on one of the upper notes of the back to well before 1904, when it was
flute while playing the melody on the lower transcribed by Carlos Troyer. Zuni Sunrise of

Transcription of the Zuni Sunrise melody by Carlos Troyer, The Wa-wan Press, 1904.

notes. For a short lesson on this technique, was recorded by the Navajo singer Ed Lee
see the FluteCast on Rhythmic Chirping. You Natay in 1951. He collaborated with Mary
can access this video on YouTube or Vimeo and Ray Boley for their first album under
by searching for “rhythmic chirping”, or find the ARIZONA RECORD PRODUCTIONS label (later
a direct link by visiting FluteCast.com. CANYON RECORDS).

This first recording makes wonderful use of

Use of Dynamics dynamics in the first repetition of the
Some songs derive their power from an opening phrase. The sudden reduction in
unusual source: playing softly. More volume, or “echo effect”, is very effective at
specifically, they use the contrast from very drawing listeners in. However, this loud /
loud playing to very quiet playing. soft technique was not Natay’s invention – it
“Fortissimo” ( ) and “pianissimo” ( ) had been carefully notated by Troyer half a
are the terms in Western classical music. century before. Troyer took the unusual step
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 381
of describing in the footer
of the sheet music (see
below) exactly how to
achieve the pianissimo
echo sound he had heard
in in the field.

Recordings
This is a list of recordings
mentioned in this chapter.
It is a subset of the list of
“Starting Points” provided
in the Ethnographic
Recordings chapter.

• [COZAD 1941-01] Belo

Cozad (1864–1950),
Kiowa Story of the
Flute, 3:59.
• [NATAY 1951-09]
Edward Lee Natay (d.
1967), Zuni Sunrise, Ray Boley and Ed Lee Natay reviewing the first edition of
2:30. Zuni Sunrise on the ARP label in 1951.

• [HORNCLOUD 1971-
11] William Horncloud (1905–1988),
Nióiye Wéksuye «Lakota Love Song», 3:45.
• [RAINER 1986-01] John Rainer, Jr. (d.
2011). Taos Round Dance, 2:19.
• [BLUDTS 2003-09] Carl Bludts. Crow
Style, 1:30 (recording and transcription).

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Topic Map
The next two pages contain a copy of the • If the facilitator is ever in need of a topic
“topic map” we developed in 2013 for use in for the next activity, they only need to
workshops. It has a list of various elements look over at the topic map.
that we use in workshops and flute circles:
We are providing a copy of these images,
• Flute playing techniques and effects since so many people have found them
• Song forms useful for their sessions. They are also
available on-line on the Flute Haven web
• Performance structures
site at:
• Ornaments
FluteHaven.com/topic_map.htm
• Scales
• Facilitation techniques and structures, and
• Rhythm techniques

The images are printed on two 36ʺ × 48ʺ

posters and hung up during workshops. It is
useful for several reasons:

• It allows participants to get an overview of

the (potential) topics covered.
• It provides a springboard of ideas for
ensemble playing, performances, and
facilitation.
• It allows participants to ask questions
about items they have not encountered,
and

This chapter was developed by Clint Goss and Vera Shanov. An on-line version of the
topic map images is available at FluteHaven.com/topic_map.htm.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 383

384 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 385
386 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 Part 3 –

Poetry and Readings

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 387

388 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Introduction to Poetry and Readings
“Give your Spirit a Voice”
― Chief Red Hawk, as cited by Erik
Friedling's Siyotanka.de web site.

Combining Native American flute playing

with a poetry reading can produce a rich Also, don’t forget to credit the author! In the
collaboration. case of the fortune cookie on the right, I
This section of the Native Flute Handbook have no idea how to credit the author.
has a wide range of readings, quotations,
and poetry selections. They are divided into Technique
chapters based on the settings that they When playing flute in collaboration with a
might be most useful. Within each chapter, reading, there are a number of approaches
the poems are in no particular order. These you might consider. In one common
readings generally follow the organization of technique, the poetry is read in the cadence
parallel pages on Flutopedia.com. A few of call-and-response with spacing to allow
readings have been very slightly modified to for intervening flute music.
fit the situation.

The later chapters are more specific to Sources

topics related to music: flutes, general The author and source of the text are
music, and silence. They might be useful in provided with each reading. Background
flute circle and music workshop settings. information is also provided in several cases.
However, there are a few readings from the
Many of these readings have been privately
same source that are sprinkled across several
distributed in our monthly newsletters. If
chapters … the background information for
you use them for public performances,
those readings is provided here:
please be careful to observe any intellectual
property rights (copyrights, trademarks,
etc.) of the authors or rights-holders.
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 389
The Radiance Sutras
Several readings in various chapters that
follow are from the Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra
(“The Radiance Sutras”) translated by Lorin
Roche.

From the liner notes of the Elixir album

comes a description of The Radiance Sutras
provided by Denise Kaufman:

The Radiance Sutras is a sensuous, poetic

version of the Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra, a
classic yoga text from around 800 AD in
Kashmir. Unfolding as a conversation
between the cosmic lovers Shakti and
Shiva, the text is full of wonder and
delight.

Listening to music, making love, savoring

food, wandering in nature, gazing at the
sky in astonishment: all are contemplated
as pathways to ecstatic union with the
Divine.

The translations by Lorin Roche are from his

book The Radiance Sutras: 112 Gateways to
the Yoga of Wonder and Delight. The
Radiance Sutras.

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Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 391
Haiku – One Deep Breath Poetry
The poetry in this chapter might be useful Haiku in languages other than English have
for flute circle facilitators. We used it in our the original text, transliteration into Latin
flute school where we often do activities letters (if useful for pronunciation), and a
centered on one-breath flute solos. When I translation into English.
realized that Haiku poetry is intended to be Russian-language haiku by George Filonov.
spoken in a single breath, we envisioned an
activity in the circle that alternated one-
breath Haiku with one-breath flute solos. It
In one breath
evolved into a call-and-response … very
the Native flute
wonderful! I assembled Haiku from many
exhales a butterfly
authors, then ordered and modified it
appropriately. Sun’s red rays
brighten heavy clouds
This poetry is re-composed from English- flute sounds
language and Japanese-language Haiku by
various authors for the purpose of flute-
When I look at her
playing workshops centered on breath and my heart starts to see her in
breathing. The authors of the original Haiku ways my eyes cannot
are: Daver Austin, Matsuo Bashō, Leonard We wake at dawn
Cohen, Gabi Greve, Nizamettin Esen crow calling crow
Haymanali, Kōyō, Rachel Marsh, Ian through the fog
Marshall, Robert D. McManes, Soen
Flute notes breathe
Nakagawa, Yoko Ono, i write passion, Jen
flowing out through fingers
Rosenberry, Wally Swist, S. D. Tiwari, Susan
poured through minds
C. Willett, Richard Wright, Joanna Bolouri,
and Jeff Ketts at Native Rhythms 2015. Sink down deep down
clouds of thought drift
as the breath breathes me

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. A similar article appeared in Clint & Vera’s Flute
Newsletter, May 2015.

392 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Lingering flute Bright autumn day
floats the eagle listening to the silence
over the canyon of stones growing older
Piercing the winter clouds Spring passes
one note of the Native flute and one remembers
resounds endlessly one's innocence
In the boat Summer passes
playing the flute and one remembers
chickadee hovering one's exuberance
A cool evening Autumn passes
the sound of a flute and one remembers
stars over far fields one's reverence
Silence Winter passes
and a deeper silence and one remembers
when the crickets one's perseverance
hesitate Night, and the moon!
Angel's Landing My neighbor, playing on his flute –
I hear the unblown flute out of tune!
in the shade of a tree Unless it's about
Illuminating food, dinnertime, snacks, or treats
the silence between us … cat's not listening
firefly Summer's day
Breathing in welcome a duet of frog
nourishing body, mind, soul and Native flute
breathing out thank you That enchanted flute
Fingers dance over of your bewitching warm breath
six holed hollow wood flute brush my lips and ears
sweetness blends in ears Gone not … but lingers
Soft murmurs in wood in the heart … on the fingers
humming my spectral view listen … out to the horizon
soul of flute
Forgetting to breathe
should set off a wild alarm
but we're used to it

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 393

Spanish-language Haiku
Tus dedos encontrando
aletas para buscar aquí
viento, lleno de palabras
Cómala, la dulce
un regalito del sol
este día complete

Russian-language Haiku
Всмотрись
в пение светлячков –
ты разбираешь слова?
Vsmotris'
v peniye svetlyachkov –
ty razbirayesh' slova?
Look into the singing
of the fireflies -
do you see the words?

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Benedictions, Invocations, and Blessings
Cherokee Blessing
May the warm winds of Heaven
blow softly upon your home
May the Great Spirit
bless all who enter there
May your moccasins
make happy tracks in many snows
And may the rainbow
always touch your shoulder

Apache Blessing
May the sun
bring you new energy every day
May the moon
softly restore you by night
May the rain ― contributed by Larry Hurst at
wash away your worries Flute Haven 2010
May the breeze
blow new strength into your being Troubles
May you walk May the wind
gently through the world and know take your troubles away.
its beauty all the days of your life ― Son Volt,
Song: Windfall, Album Trace

This chapter is composed of poetry collected by Clint Goss from many sources. A similar
collection is maintained on the Flutopedia web page at
Flutopedia.com/lit_benedictions.htm
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 395
 Chief Dan George’s Prayer
O Great Spirit,
Whose voice I hear in the winds,
and whose breath gives life
to all of the Earth,
Hear me.
I am small, I am weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty,
and make my eyes ever behold,
Deep Peace the red and the purple sunset.
Deep Peace of the Make my hands respect
running wave to you those things that you have made,
and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Deep Peace of the
flowing air to you Make me wise,
so that I may understand
Deep Peace of the
the things you have taught my people.
quiet earth to you
Calligraphy by Maureen Carson
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
December 2016
in every leaf and rock.
I seek strength,
Deep Peace of the not to be greater than my brother,
shining stars to you but to fight my greatest enemy –
Deep Peace of the Myself.
gentle night to you, Make me always ready
moon and stars to come to you,
pour their healing light on you with clean hands and straight eyes.
Deep Peace to you So when life fades,
― Traditional Gælic Blessing as the fading sunset,
my spirit may come to you
Your Heart without shame.

May your music take you ― Chief Dan George, O.C. (1899–1981) aka
Geswanouth Slahoot, aka Dan Slaholt.
where your heart wants to go.
There are many versions and variants of
― Anonymous this reading currently in circulation. This
version matches the rendition by Richard
396 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 W. Nash on his Native flute and poetry Blessing of the Four Elements of Music
recording at Flute Haven 2016.
May your body dance
in the rhythm of life.
Wind Woman
May your heart sing
She is Coming.
a melody of love.
SHE is Coming.
Between Two Wings of a Butterfly May your soul harmonize
Wind Woman is Coming. with all of creation.
She is Whistling. May your mind rest
She is Whistling. in the silence of peace.
With Her breath, the Flute of Earth ― Christine Stevens,
She is Whistling. Music Medicine, 2012, page 177
She is Gathering.
She is Gathering.
A Storyteller of Beauty Heart
She is Gathering.
Singing She Comes in the Morning.
Singing She Comes in the Evening.
She Comes with a Healing Gift,
She Comes with the Gift of Herself.
She Comes with Wet Roots,
Ripe Yellow Corn and Old Stones.
She Grinds the Yellow Corn.
She Shines the Old
Stones like New Pebbles …
Tonight When the Moon Rises
And the Fire Friendly …
She Fleshes Earth’s Beauty Heart with
Corn Dust, Tears and Song.
― Betina Lindsey, 2015
Contributed at the
2016 Zion Canyon
Native Flute School

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 397

398 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Poetry and Readings for Memorial Ser vices
Playing Native American flute at a memorial Without
service can be a profound experience for all
The silence of nature within.
involved. Playing Amazing Grace is often
appropriate, but there are also some great The power within.
readings that can be used in combination The power without.
with flute music. The path is whatever passes –
Here are some that I have found: no end in itself.
The end is grace – ease – healing,
not saving.

Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep Singing the proof

The proof of the power within.
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there; I do not sleep. ― Gary Snyder
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow. Zen “No” Poem
I am the sunlight on ripened grain. Behold she was here a while ago.
I am the gentle autumn rain. Now she is no more to be seen.
When you awaken in the She flies over the mountains;
morning's hush Her voice echoes through the valleys;
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight. She has vanished to this land
I am the soft stars that shine at night. of Nowhere.
Do not stand at my grave and cry; ― Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki
I am not there; I did not die. Zen and Japanese Culture
([SUZUKI-DT 1959])
― Mary Elizabeth Frye, 1932

This chapter has poetry collected by Clint Goss from many sources. A similar collection is
maintained on the Flutopedia web page at Flutopedia.com/lit_memorial.htm

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 399

Song for Guy Davenport Rebirth
Within the circles of our lives En nuestras almas todo
we dance the circles of the years, por misteriosa mano se gobierna.
the circles of the seasons Incomprehensibles, mudas,
within the circles of the years, nada sabemos de las almas nuestras.
the cycles of the moon Las más hondas palabrasdel sabio nos
within the circles of the seasons, enseñan,
the circles of our reasons lo que el silbar del viento cuando sopla,
within the cycles of the moon. o el sonar de las aguas cuando ruedan.
Again, again we come and go,
changed, changing. Hands
join, unjoin in love and fear, In our souls everything
grief and joy. The circles turn, moves guided by a mysterious hand.
each giving into each, into all. Incomprehensible, unspeaking,
we know nothing of our own souls.
Only music keeps us here,
each by all the others held. The deepest words
In the hold of hands and eyes of the wise men teach us
we turn in pairs, that joining the same as the whistle of the wind
joining each to all again. when it blows
or the sound of the water
And then we turn aside, alone, when it is flowing.
out of the sunlight gone
― Antonio Machado (1875-1939),
into the darker circles of return. Spanish poet, translated by Robert Bly,
― Wendell Berry, from The Selected Poems from Times Alone: Selected Poems of
of Wendell Berry ([BERRY 1999]), and Antonio Machado ([Machado 1983]).
also Earth Prayers from Around the
Note that I have changed the third and
World by Elizabeth Roberts ([ROBERTS-
E 1991], page 286). fourth lines of Robert Bly's English
translation from the original translation of
“We know nothing of our own souls that are
understandable, and say nothing.”

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My Spirit For Katrina’s Sun Dial
I am in the sunrise Time is too slow for those who wait,
to welcome you to the new day. Too swift for those who fear,
I am in the wind Too long for those who grieve,
to caress you and call your name. Too short for those who rejoice,
But for those who love,
I am in the running, time is Eternity.
babbling brook laughing
― Henry Van Dyke
to bring you joy.
I am in the dancing flames My Spirit
of the fire
This quote is a bit of a mystery. I scribbled it
to warm your heart with memories.
on a piece of paper a few years ago, and
I am in the flowers that bloom came across that paper recently. I have no
to share my smile with you. idea where it come from …
I am in the evergreens
“I walk upon this Earth,
to remind you that my spirit
and am bound by this Earth,
is always with you.
but my spirit is not.”
I am in the sunset ― Unknown source and author
to ease out of the day and relax.
I am in the moon
to watch over you while you sleep.
Wherever you are,
my spirit is with you
loving you always.
― Patricia B. Smith, Ph.D.,
July 30, 2013,
contributed at Flute Haven 2013.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 401

When I Go I will climb the rise at daybreak,
Come, lonely hunter, I will kiss the sky at noon
chieftain and king Raise my yearning voice at midnight
I will fly like the falcon to my mother in the moon
when I go I will make the lay of long defeat
Bear me my brother and draw the chorus slow
under your wing I'll send this message down the wire
I will strike and hope that someone wise
fell like lightning is listening
when I go when I go

I will bellow like the thunder drum, And when the sun comes, trumpets
invoke the storm of war from his red house in the east

A twisting pillar spun He will find a standing stone

of dust and blood where long I chanted my release
up from the prairie floor He will send his morning messenger
I will sweep the foe before me to strike the hammer blow
like a gale out on the snow And I will crumble down uncountable
And the wind will long in showers of crimson rubies
recount the story, when I go
reverence and glory, when I go
Sigh, mournful sister,
Spring, spirit dancer, whisper and turn
nimble and thin I will rattle like dry leaves
I will leap like coyote when I go
when I go Stand in the mist
Tireless entrancer, where my fire used to burn
lend me your skin I will camp on the night breeze
I will run like the gray wolf when I go
when I go

402 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

And should you glimpse A description of this song by Dave Carter's
my wandering form partner, Tracy Grammer, in the liner notes
out on the borderline of ([WHITMAN 2004]):
Between death and resurrection Inspired in part by his extensive shamanic
and the council of the pines studies and by symbols from “the flower
Do not worry for my comfort, ornament scriptures,” a sacred Buddhist
do not sorrow for me so text, Dave wrote this song to give his
mother images and music to journey by as
All your diamond tears will rise up
she made her way through the final stages
and adorn the sky beside me
of Alzheimer’s. The song was written in
when I go
June, 1997; Nadine Carter died on July
― Dave Carter (1952–2002) 10.

Dave and I sang this song at every full-

length concert we gave from 1998 to
2002. The song has always been my
favorite of Dave’s works. On July 19,
2002, Dave Carter left this world at the
age of 49. I did not know how deeply the
song was ingrained in my consciousness
until that final moment, when in a
profound state of shock and grief I uttered
to him the most earnest wish I could think
of from his song:

“Fly like the falcon …”

— Tracy

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 403

Come a Season High Flight
There will come a season Oh! I have slipped the
when I cannot lift my hands surly bonds of Earth
to play. And danced the skies
A time when my legs on laughter-silvered wings.
will no longer be able Sunward I've climbed,
to dance. and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds
A night when my eyes — and done a hundred things
are too dim for the fire You have not dreamed of
and my ears grown deaf — wheeled and soared and swung.
to chanting. High in the sunlit silence,
On that night children, hov'ring there
lay me down at the edge of the circle I've chased the shouting wind along
and let me feel the loving rhythm and flung
through the very ground. My eager craft through
Play joyfully. footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious
Play for the gods to hear, burning blue
and carry my soul out of this world I've topped the wind-swept heights
on the beating of the drums. with easy grace.
― Ed Rooney, Drumfish Drum Circle, Where never lark,
Fairhaven, Massachusetts. or even eagle flew.
From Ed’s eulogy for Cynthia Robinson,
And, while with silent, lifting mind
who discovered drumming at age 80.
I've trod
This version is slightly modified
from the original. The high untrespassed
sanctity of space,
Put out my hand
and touched the face of God.
― John Gillespie Magee, Jr., 1941

404 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Epitaph
When I die
Give what’s left of me away to children
And old men that wait to die.
And if you need to cry,
Cry for your brother
Walking the street beside you.
And when you need me,
Put your arms around anyone
And give to them
What you need to give to me.
I want to leave you something,
Something better than words or sounds.
Look for me in the people I’ve known
Or loved,
And if you cannot give me away,
At least let me live in your eyes
And not on your mind.
You can love me most by letting
Hands touch hands
By letting bodies touch bodies
And by letting go of children
That need to be free.
Love doesn’t die, people do.
So, when all that’s left of me Is love,
Give me away.
I’ll see you at home in the earth.
― Merrit Malloy, My Song for Him
Who Never Sang to Me, 1975.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 405

Death is Nothing At All Life means all that it ever meant.
Death is nothing at all. It is the same as it ever was.
It does not count. There is absolute and
I have only slipped away into unbroken continuity.
the next room. What is this death
Nothing has happened. but a negligible accident?

Everything remains exactly as it was. Why should I be out of mind because

I am I, and you are you, I am out of sight?
and the old life that we lived so fondly I am but waiting for you,
together is untouched, unchanged. for an interval,
somewhere very near,
Whatever we were to each other,
just round the corner.
that we are still.
All is well.
Call me by the old familiar name.
Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.
Speak of me in the easy way
One brief moment and all will be
which you always used.
as it was before.
Put no difference into your tone.
How we shall laugh
Wear no forced air of
at the trouble of parting
solemnity or sorrow.
when we meet again!
Laugh as we always laughed at the ― Harry Scott-Holland
little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever
the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort,
without the ghost of a shadow upon it.

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The Healing Journey Like fragile glass
How dare the sun set. my soul feels shattered.
What right has the dawn? My heart is in pieces,
My world has stopped. my mind is scattered.
My Mother has gone Her voice, her face,
On a spiritual journey, her smell, her touch,
not of this earth plane. These are the things
My body, my being I miss so much.
are feeling the pain. Part of me died with her.
She was my beacon, An extinguished flame.
my compass, my light. Who am I now?
I feel like a child I am not the same.
lost in the night, I’ll have to
Afraid of the dark, rebuild myself again.
of being alone. I’m not sure how,
Where is my haven, and don’t know when.
my center, my home? Yes, I am strong.
My Mother was I learned that from her.
all these things to me, My faith is still there,
Yes, she’s at peace yet shaky, unsure.
and finally free. And still the stars shine.
But here I stand, The moon fills the sky.
feeling left behind, My Mother’s moved on.
Forever changed Someday, so will I.
in heart and mind. ― Kathy Dahill, June 13, 2019

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 407

408 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
General Poetry for Music Performance
Make Me a Wave I Feel the Wind
Make me a wave This quotation is from the America episode
Upon it I'll ride of the PBS series First Peoples, aired June
Show me direction 24, 2015. It is a quote from Bob Stevens,
We'll roll like the tide San Carlos Apache Reservation:

Make me a groove I feel the wind,

And with it I'll play and the wind blows
Rhythm and harmony right through me.
One way to pray All the sounds become a part of me,
― Brian Jeffries, jfleco@aol.com, become a rhythm with my heartbeat.
contributed November 9, 2013
at the Native Rhythms festival. Not only do I become
the world around me,
but the world around me
We Are the Stars
becomes me,
We are the stars that sing. and we become one.
We sing with our light.
We are the birds of fire.
We fly across the heaven.
Our light is a star.
― Passamaquoddy tribal prayer, from
Chants and Prayers by Stan Padilla
([PADILLA 1996]).
See The Song of the Stars below for a
longer version.

This chapter has poetry collected by Clint Goss from many sources. A similar collection is
maintained on the Flutopedia web page at Flutopedia.com/lit_poetry.htm

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 409

Stream Music The Song of the Stars
Stream music is A longer version of We Are the Stars quoted
downhill music above.
with such fluency
We are the stars which sing,
that I stop my
we sing with our light;
walk to listen
on the bridge. We are the birds of fire,
we fly over the sky.
Water races over
rocks, melody Our light is a voice;
changing with We make a road for spirits,
each moment. for the spirits to pass over.
Nature weaves Among us are three hunters
itself into my who chase a bear;
awareness until
There never was a time
I too am humming,
when they were not hunting.
my voice and a
nearby crow’s We look down on the mountains.
mingling so easily. This is the Song of the Stars.
There seems to be ― Algonquin Poem,
no fixed boundaries contributed by John DeBoer
here in the woods,
thrumming with
the earth’s slow
heartbeat.
― Danna Faulds, from
Limitless – New Poems and
Other Writings ([FAULDS 2009])

410 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

The Subject Tonight Is Love —
In a Tree House
Light
Will someday split you open
Even if your life is now a cage.
For the Divine seed,
the crown of destiny
Is hidden and sown on ancient soil,
a fertile plain
You hold the title to.
Love will surely bust you wide open
Into an unfettered,
blooming new galaxy,
Even if your mind is now
A spoiled mule.
A life-giving radiance will come,
The Friend's gratuity will come.
O look again within yourself,
For you were once the elegant host
To all the marvels of creation.
From a sacred place in your body
A bow rises each night
And shoots your soul into God.
Behold the Beautiful Drunk
Singing One
From the lunar vantage point of love.
He is conducting the affairs
Of the whole universe
while throwing wild parties
In a treehouse—on a limb
In your heart.
― Hafiz (Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muhammad
Hāfez-e Shīrāzī), translated by Daniel
Ladinsky, from The Subject Tonight is
Love, ([HAFIZ 2003]).
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 411
The Song of Hiawatha From the hollow reeds he fashioned
By the shores of Gitche Gumee, Flutes so musical and mellow,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water, That the brook, the Sebowisha,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, Ceased to murmur in the woodland,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis. That the wood-birds
Dark behind it rose the forest, ceased from singing,
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees, And the squirrel, Adjidaumo,
Rose the firs with cones upon them; Ceased his chatter in the oak-tree,
Bright before it beat the water, And the rabbit, the Wabasso,
Beat the clear and sunny water, Sat upright to look and listen.
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water. All the many sounds of nature
At the door on summer evenings Borrowed sweetness from his singing;
Sat the little Hiawatha; All the hearts of men were softened
Heard the whispering By the pathos of his music;
of the pine-trees, For he sang of peace and freedom,
Heard the lapping of the waters, Sang of beauty, love, and longing;
Sounds of music, words of wonder; Sang of death, and life undying
“Minne-wawa!” said the Pine-trees, In the Islands of the Blessed,
“Mudway-aushka!” said the water. In the kingdom of Ponemah,
In the Islands of the Blessed, In the land of the Hereafter.
Most beloved by Hiawatha ― Henry W. Longfellow, excerpts from
Was the gentle Chibiabos, sections 3 and 4 from The Song of
Hiawatha ([LONGFELLOW 1855]), in
He the best of all musicians, Kalevala meter.
He the sweetest of all singers.
Beautiful and childlike was he,
Brave as man is, soft as woman,
Pliant as a wand of willow,
Stately as a deer with antlers.
When he sang, the village listened;
All the warriors gathered round him,
All the women came to hear him;
Now he stirred their souls to passion,
Now he melted them to pity.

412 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Mother Earth’s Lesson Creator shall give them to you
I walk upon this land I call my home ~ when you have prepared yourself
to hear.”
The only human sound I hear
is the crackling SH~~~~
of the parched desert floor SH~~~~
beneath my feet ~ SH~~~~ my child
Patience ~~~~~ Listen
I stop to listen to the lessons
― Nakakakena (Boe Harris), 2009
the elders told me I’d hear,
if I walked gently on Earth Mother ~
“Oh Mother Earth … I hear Nothing!”
I placed each foot step gently,
continued my journey
and stopped once again to listen ~
“I Hear Nothing, Nothing!” I shouted
in desperation of the lessons ~
And as hope began to fade,
like the sun setting in the distance,
I began to pray,
“O Creator of all things,
forgive my lack of humbleness.
I come with heart desires
to know the journey that
you have for me
and the lessons my elders
have set before me.
Help me to listen, help me to hear.”
In the fluttering of a bird’s wings
as it flew close to my head,
I heard a sweet voice
whisper to me ~
“Patience, my child.
You Must Have Patience
Open your spirit
so you may hear the messages
that are sent to you.
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 413
Love enables us to experience
Love is … the authentic essence of soul

the glue that holds us together nestled inside a fragile physical body

unfettered and free, Love – God's greatest gift

unconditional and open enabling forgiveness, compassion,
empathy and reaching out
a heart's purest expression
beyond yourself
that can be shared
Love,
the ultimate vulnerability
so simple, so complex, so easy,
and knows no bounds
yet so hard.
eternal beyond the physical It requires us to let go
and intellectual awareness and accept who “we” all are
the essence of who we are and without reservation
what we are meant to be Love is the essence that,
freely given to be embraced, when we die,
nurtured in its infancy releases into the universe
and relished in its maturity and settles like fairy dust
on those we shared it with.
a beacon lighting the way
It stays working its magic forever.
to wholeness
and completion of spirit Love is our final companion
on our journey home.
the undercarriage of faith and hope
Love, pure unadulterated love.
Love …
Love just “IS.”
seals the holes and cracks
It is the essence of “I AM.”
of life and living
― Patricia B. Smith, Ph.D.,
blossoms in all seasons written February 4, 2007,
inflates and grows with no limitations contributed at Flute Haven 2010

enables great feats of courage,

strength, endurance
heals all wounds
enables us to forget and
put away the past
answers the questions that
seem to have no answers
414 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
The Invitation to the tips of your fingers and toes
It doesn’t interest me without cautioning us
what you do for a living. to be careful
I want to know to be realistic
what you ache for to remember the limitations
and if you dare to dream of being human.
of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
how old you are. is true.
I want to know I want to know if you can
if you will risk disappoint another
looking like a fool to be true to yourself.
for love If you can bear
for your dream the accusation of betrayal
for the adventure of being alive. and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
It doesn’t interest me
and therefore trustworthy.
what planets are
squaring your moon … I want to know if you can see Beauty
I want to know even when it is not pretty
if you have touched every day.
the centre of your own sorrow And if you can source your own life
if you have been opened from its presence.
by life’s betrayals I want to know
or have become shrivelled and closed if you can live with failure
from fear of further pain. yours and mine
I want to know and still stand at the edge of the lake
if you can sit with pain and shout to the silver
mine or your own of the full moon,
without moving to hide it “Yes.”
or fade it It doesn’t interest me
or fix it. to know where you live
I want to know or how much money you have.
if you can be with joy I want to know if you can get up
mine or your own after the night of grief and despair
if you can dance with wildness weary and bruised to the bone
and let the ecstasy fill you
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 415
 and do what needs to be done Hummingbirds
to feed the children. Legends say that hummingbirds float free of
It doesn’t interest me time, carrying our hopes for love, joy and
who you know celebration. Hummingbirds open our eyes to
or how you came to be here. the wonder of the world and inspire us to
I want to know if you will stand open our hearts to loved ones and friends.
in the centre of the fire The hummingbird’s delicate grace reminds
with me us that life is rich, beauty is everywhere,
and not shrink back. every personal connection has meaning and
It doesn’t interest me that laughter is life’s sweetest creation.
where or what or with whom
― From Papyrus Online
you have studied. ©Schurman Retail Group
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.
I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.
― Oriah Mountain Dreaming,
from The Invitation, 1999

416 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

An Ancient Song Pale Blue Dot
An ancient song. Look at that dot.
An ancient song, That's here.
pulsing through one’s being, That's home.
beating out the meaning That's us.
of the centuries. On it everyone you love,
Echoing through a chamber everyone you know,
of remembrances everyone you ever heard of,
of a people. every human being who ever was,
lived out their lives.
An ancient song with no words,
for what words can speak The aggregate of our joy
the depth of being, and our suffering,
thousands of confident religions,
And what words can evoke ideologies, and economic doctrines,
the sense of timelessness every hunter and forager,
and antiquity every hero and coward,
that holds us spellbound. every creator and
An ancient song – destroyer of civilization,
a reminder that we are every king and peasant,
part of all that was every young couple in love,
and all that is, every mother and father,
Forgoing our immediate ego hopeful child, inventor and explorer,
for a universal identity … every teacher of morals,
for a fleeting moment … every corrupt politician,
for the length of a song. every “superstar,”
every “supreme leader,”
― Andrea J. Kelsey, Hupa, May 1985
every saint and sinner in the
history of our species
lived there –
on a mote of dust
suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage
in a vast cosmic arena.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 417

Think of the endless cruelties Like it or not, for the moment
visited by the inhabitants the Earth is where
of one corner of this pixel we make our stand.
on the scarcely distinguishable It has been said that astronomy
inhabitants of some other corner, is a humbling and
how frequent their misunderstandings, character-building experience.
how eager they are to There is perhaps
kill one another, no better demonstration of the
how fervent their hatreds. folly of human conceits
Think of the rivers of blood spilled than this distant image
by all those generals and emperors of our tiny world.
so that, in glory and triumph, To me,
they could become the it underscores our responsibility
momentary masters to deal more kindly
of a fraction of a dot. with one another,
Our posturings, and to preserve and cherish
our imagined self-importance, the pale blue dot,
the delusion that we have some the only home we've ever known.
privileged position in the Universe, ― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the
are challenged Human Future in Space, 1997.
by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck
in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity,
in all this vastness,
there is no hint that
help will come from elsewhere
to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world
known so far to harbor life.
There is nowhere else,
at least in the near future,
to which our species could migrate.
Visit, yes.
Settle, not yet.

418 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Pale Blue Dot – Slightly Shorter Version by all those generals and emperors
Look at that dot. so that, in glory and triumph,
That's here. That's home. they could become the
That's us. momentary masters
of a fraction of a dot.
On it everyone you love,
everyone you know, Our posturings,
everyone you ever heard of, our imagined self-importance,
every human being who ever was, the delusion that we have some
lived out their lives. privileged position in the Universe,
are challenged
The aggregate of our joy
by this point of pale light.
and our suffering,
thousands of confident religions, In our obscurity, in all this vastness,
ideologies, and economic doctrines, there is no hint that
every hunter and forager, help will come from elsewhere
every hero and coward, to save us from ourselves.
every creator and The Earth is the only world
destroyer of civilization, known so far to harbor life.
every king and peasant, There is nowhere else,
every young couple in love, at least in the near future,
every mother and father, to which our species could migrate.
hopeful child, inventor and explorer, Visit, yes.
every teacher of morals, Settle, not yet.
every corrupt politician, Like it or not, for the moment
every “superstar,” the Earth is where
every “supreme leader,” we make our stand.
every saint and sinner in the
To me, it underscores our
history of our species responsibility to deal more kindly
lived there –
with one another,
on a mote of dust
and to preserve and cherish
suspended in a sunbeam.
the pale blue dot,
Think of the endless cruelties the only home we've ever known.
visited by the inhabitants ― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the
of one corner of this pixel Human Future in Space, 1997.
on the scarcely distinguishable
inhabitants of some other corner.
Think of the rivers of blood spilled

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 419

Pale Blue Dot – Much Shorter Version Raining Lullaby
Look at that dot. (https://language.cherokee.org/word-
That's here. That's home. That's us. list/)
On it everyone you love, ᏗᏂᏲᎵ (Children)
everyone you know,
everyone you ever heard of, Oo-shuhn-hee a-da-weh-hee
lived out their lives. Ah-gah-sgah
ah-ley oo-woh-do ah-gah-sgah
Every hunter and forager,
every king and peasant, goh-lu-sgah ah-gi-di-ni-yo-tli gah-lv-sgah
every young couple in love, ah-na-ga-li-sgi a-da-weh-hee
every mother and father, Ah-ga-lee-ha shoo-nah-lay-ee-yuhn-dah
inventor and explorer,
Oo-shuhn-hee a-da-weh-hee
every “superstar,”
Ah-gah-sgah
every “supreme leader,”
ah-ley oo-woh-do ah-gah-sgah
every saint and sinner in the
history of our species
lived there – Magical night
on a mote of dust It is raining
suspended in a sunbeam. And the rain is beautiful
The Earth is the only world Make my children sleepy
known so far to harbor life.
Magical Lightning
There is nowhere else,
The Sun will shine tomorrow
at least in the near future,
to which our species could migrate. Magical night
Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. It is raining
Like it or not, for the moment, And the rain is beautiful
the Earth is where ― Ginger Strivelli, “wild Ginger Flower”,
we make our stand. Tseyoucahle Hutsilvha.
It underscores our responsibility
to deal more kindly
with one another,
and to preserve and cherish
the pale blue dot,
the only home we've ever known.
― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the
Human Future in Space, 1997.
420 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Lovesong
After Rilke

How shall I hold my spirit,

that it not touch yours?
How shall I send it
soaring past your height
into the patient waiting there
above you?
Oh, if only I could shut it up,
leave it to gather velvet dust
someplace where it would
echo you no more.
But like two strings vibrating
as the bow ripples them
with a long caressing stroke,
we tremble,
drawn together by one joy.
What instrument is this?
Whose fingers make a chord
beyond our capacity for awe?
How sweet, how: Ah!
― Marilyn Nelson
from The Fields of Praise

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 421

422 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Readings for Flute Circles and Workshops
This is a collection of mid-length readings Anticipation
that are ideal for use in flute circles or music You cannot hold your love hostage to
workshops. They can provide inspiration or what you actually play. You have to love it
focus. They also provide material for poetry- a second before you play it, and that
music duets. creates a sort of vibration of trust that
even reflects in the physiology of how you
Allow drop the finger and how you play a note
There is no controlling life. on a saxophone and how you hit a
Try controlling a lightning bolt, cymbal. When there’s so much
containing a tornado. Dam a anticipation that you’re going to love the
stream and it will create a new next sound, you touch it so much
channel. Resist and the tide differently than if you’re anticipating that
will sweep you off your feet. you’re required to reach a certain level of
Allow and grace will carry beauty. So it’s very much a mindset. I
you to higher ground. The only always say, if you want to love the sounds,
safety lies in letting it all in – love the sounds you play and very shortly
the wild with the weak; fear, after they’ll be followed by a lot of sounds
fantasies and success. that you really do love.
When the loss rips off the doors of ― Kenny Werner,
the heart, or sadness veils your from A Spiritual Journey,
vision with despair, practice Jazz Improv Magazine, Volume 5,
Number 3, Spring 2005
becomes simply bearing the truth.
In the choice to let go of your
known way of being, the whole
world is revealed in your new eyes. This chapter has poetry collected by
― Danna Faulds, from Clint Goss from many sources. A similar
Poems from the Heart of Yoga collection is maintained on the
([FAULDS 1997]) Flutopedia web page at
Flutopedia.com/lit_poetry.htm

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 423

Our Deepest Fear ― Marianne Williamson, from A Return to
Love: Reflections on the Principles of A
Our deepest fear is not
Course in Miracles37
that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that
Flute Addict
we are powerful beyond measure.
Something on the lighter side:
It is our light,
not our darkness, You know you're a flute addict when:
that most frightens us. • Your spreadsheet of flutes reports “Out
We ask ourselves, of Memory”.
Who am I to be brilliant, • You get an email about
gorgeous, talented, fabulous? “exciting new fetishes” and are
Actually, who are you not to be? disappointed when you realize that it’s
You are a child of God. just porn.
Your playing small • Your employer blocks access to
does not serve the world. The Flute Portal.
There is nothing enlightened about
• You start designing an addition to your
shrinking so that other people
house to accommodate your ever-
won't feel insecure around you.
expanding flute collection.
We are all meant to shine,
• You ask the car dealer what the lowest
as children do.
key flute the car can hold.
We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us. • You hear flute music in your head every
day when you first wake up.
It's not just in some of us;
it's in everyone. • Your friends start discussing an
intervention.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people • You swear that your old friends would
permission to do the same. no longer know you – because you
realize that you are happier and feel
As we are liberated from our own fear,
better than you've ever felt.
our presence automatically
liberates others. ― Clint Goss, trapped in an office for an
hour, without access to his flutes

37
The original text is written as prose in paragraph
format. We have re-structured it here for easier reading as
a poem
424 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Advice from a Tree Shorter Version

Dear Friend, Dear Friend,

Stand Tall and Proud Stand Tall and Proud
Sink your roots deeply into the Earth Sink your roots deeply into the Earth
Reflect the light of a greater source Be content with your natural beauty
Think long term Go out on a limb
Go out on a limb Drink plenty of water
Remember your place Remember your roots
among all living beings Enjoy the view!
Embrace with joy ― Ilan Shamir, from Advice from a Tree:
the changing seasons Guided Journal, published by Your True
For each yields its own abundance Nature, ([SHAMIR 1999]).
The Energy and Birth of Spring
The Growth and Contentment You Are Music
of Summer You don't play music,
The Wisdom to let go of leaves You are music.
in the Fall
You don't need rhythm,
The Rest and Quiet Renewal
You are rhythm.
of Winter
You don't have to play
Feel the wind and the sun
the songs of another.
And delight in their presence
Look up at the moon You can breathe a melody
that shines down upon you right here, right now.
And the mystery You can let a groove
of the stars at night. burst out of your being …
Seek nourishment from
Right here, right now …
the good things in life
Breathe. Release. Trust.
Simple pleasures
Earth, fresh air, light ― Clint Goss,
inspired by a poem
Be content with your natural beauty by Anna Taylor
Drink plenty of water
Let your limbs sway
and dance in the breezes
Be flexible
Remember your roots
Enjoy the view!

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 425

The Ocean of Sound
Beloved, listen.
The ocean of sound is inviting you
Into its spacious embrace,
Calling you home.
Find that exuberant vibration
Rising new in every moment,
Humming into your secret places,
Resounding through the channels
of delight.
Know you are flooded by it always.
Connections
Float with the sound,
Melt with it into divine silence. The modern Native American flute is a
domesticated creature. Its refined voice has
The sacred power of space will carry you
saved a family of instruments from obscurity
Into the dancing radiant emptiness
That is the source of all. and has brought it to unimagined
popularity. For this I am thankful, for the
― Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra (“The Radiance
flute has brought much beauty into my life.
Sutras”), Sutras 16 and 60, translated by
And it is my hope and dream that this rich
Lorin Roche.
family of flutes will continue to bring beauty
to generations to come.
The Voice Inside You
Listen to the voice inside you For us who have connections to this family,
She is waiting to be found it is our responsibility to share its beauty,
share our appreciation, and publicly share
Once you’ve heard our thanks so the next generation may carry
that sound inside you our hopes and dreams. And let’s not forget,
You will always stand your ground. we are here because those that came before
― Chloe Goodchild, The Naked Voice: us did not let these less-refined instruments
Transform Your Life through the Power become an obstacle in playing their special
of Sound, North Atlantic Books, 2015, songs and making beautiful music. Instead,
304 pages.
these instruments were a dear companion
that lent their unique voice to these
moments.

― Robert Gatliff, posted on the FluteTree

Foundation group on Facebook, October
31, 2016.

426 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Modoc Cradle Song Born Artists
Here is a great poem for demonstrating We are all born artists;
articulation – especially for leading a flute the trick is remaining one.
circle activity or when demonstrating ― Pablo Picasso
articulation to young musicians.

It is called the Modoc Cradle Song, from Whoever Went In

Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest Whoever went in
– Especially of Washington and Oregon, by naked to the core.
Katharine Berry Judson (editor), published
Whoever cast aside
by A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1910. It is
all the armor,
available for free download on Archive.org at
https://archive.org/details/mythslegend
all the fastenings.
sofpa00juds Who could breathe air thin as flame.
Early in the morning robin will eat ants, Drink water pressed from blossoms,
Early, early will it pick at the cedar tree, rose petals
Early in the morning it chatters, or violets.
“Tchiwip, tchiwip, Whoever stayed in that
Tchitch, tsits, techitch.” darkness so dark
The “Tchiwip, tchiwip, Tchitch, tsits, it became a circle of seeing.
techitch” makes a great introduction to Who could hear
cool articulations when breathed into the the silent flute note
flute! of the stilled wind,
hold rock turning to light.
It is the Child ― Dorothy Walters
It is the child from Marrow of Flame:
that sees the primordial secret Poems of the Spiritual Journey
in Nature.
And it is the child
of ourselves Make Your Music …
we return to.
“Make your music so that there is
The child within us no doubt that it comes from you …”
is simple ― Wise words of a music mentor
and daring enough (to me) quite a while ago …
to live the Secret.
― Laozi (or Lao-Tzu, Chinese: 老子)
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 427
Welcome to the Flute Circle
This poster is based on Beatrice Warde's
famous “This is a printing office” manifesto 1930s and 1940s, and is cast in bronze
that was posted in almost every print room outside the US Government Printing Office
in the English-speaking world during the in Washington, DC.

428 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Six Words Free surrender
Spoken word activities and performances Contentment
have always been popular at our workshops. Non-attachment
At Flute Have 2019, we asked participants Open cello
to create their own short (one-breath)
phrase with the suggestion to: Joyful, serene, faith-full,
secure, loving, enthusiastic
Write six words to
describe your future self. Body Mind, Spirit soul, help others

(As an activity, we go around in a circle and Musical Space. Duet. Humanistic. Egoless.
alternate reading and playing a one-breath
Wisdom.
flute solo. We go around the circle twice to
allow everyone to play and read. You can do Handy with power tools, flute crafting.
this with Haiku or this six-word exercise …
try it at your next flute circle – it’s fun!) Sing, dance, whistle, play … every day.
Here is a list of some of the phrases that this
Me and Mountain.
year's participants provided. All have
Then only Mountain. **
allowed me to anonymously publish them
here.
Law and order and ice cream.
Still Here, Still Aware, Not Still.

Love Laugh Dance. Live to the Max.

In the moment, not my mind.

Radical travel.
Wildly dancing with friends.

Caring, Sidetracked, MacGyver,

Lapdog, Quirky Luck.
** paraphrased from “We sit together, the
Love, Safety, Passion,
mountain and me. Until only the mountain
Authentic, Presence, Mindfulness.
remains.” by Li Po, from Zazen on Ching-
t'ing Mountain, trans. Sam Hamill, Crossing
My Life. Authentic.
the Yellow River: Three Hundred Poems
More Laughter. Smiling.
from the Chinese, BOA Editions, 2000.

Peace. Love. Hug a red tree.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 429
430 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Flute-Specific Poetry and Readings
How to Be Alone with a Flute Playing Flute to the Geese
Do not think of your suffering I close my eyes,
hear my song,
Release it
feel its unsung words
through your breath
in the easy rhythm
into the flute.
of my breathing,
Let your fingers lengthen or shorten
of fingers rise
the flow of air,
and
make it live, speak
fall.
something real –
When at last
If only for a moment:
I open them,
that moment when a deer
I see invisible geese –
fades back among the trees
dark birds against
That moment when a flame dark hay bales under
flickers in and out dark, autumn sky.
That moment of a heartbeat, I can feel them;
finite, irretrievable they are still here.
That moment when a pure note ― Carl Bludts,
cuts through silence – from Feathered Pipe Memories
([BLUDTS 2000])
And your pain eases back
into the wilderness,
beats its time, flickers out.
That moment I call joy.
― Will Reger

This chapter is composed of poetry collected by Clint Goss from many sources. A similar
collection is maintained on Flutopedia at Flutopedia.com/lit_poetry.htm

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 431

The Indian Flute into a tapestry of longing
I don’t know when this poem was written, with an old legend of Chippewa lovers.
but I received a copy of this poem in A native lullaby calms a baby,
November 2002 at the Armadillo Flute and an old woman hums
Retreat in Flower Mound, Texas. the fragment of an Indian song
performed sixty years ago
Native flutes create circles,
at a Chatauqua concert.
offering at random
the gift of bonding Sometimes the flutist begins
with those who have not forgotten to improvise,
in this high decibel world and lets go conscious control
how to listen, to allow the dreams
to hear as the ancients did, of the flute maker
voices rooted in nature. to re-enter his instrument,
creating a shimmering mystery
The Indian flute maker
of wordless wonder.
selects a piece of cedar,
its tree rings still alive, Like a pebble tossed into a pond,
and prunes it into a long tube. the haunting music casts
Through its grain a wave of circles
he burns a sequence of holes, and captures the ear
then carves a bird fetish of those on edge,
for its wind-blown nest. each listener tuning the melody
to his own hunger,
The flute player breathes
for a blessing
his own life into the flute,
he did not know he needed.
explores the primitive scale
and coaxes some tone ― Elizabeth Nichols (1922 – 2012)
to unfold, to resonate,
until the spirit of the tree Love to Flute
is awakened love
to its own vibrations. live
The fingers of the player life
caress the holes lite
to release a bird call lute
or a playful pattern flute
that draws children to dance.
― Clint Goss, 2015
Other notes are woven

432 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

The Indian Flute-Song
I do not blame the little birds
For flying down so near;
I do not blame the little brook
For creeping close to hear;
The tiny specks of sunshine too
that flutter from the sky,
And drop in spots of golden light
Down through the leaves
so green and bright,
And on the soft grass lie;
They come in answer to a voice
That seems a brother's call: —
The flute-song that my father plays,
The sweetest song of all;
It brings the summer breezes back Native Flute
Just as they thought to creep
The sound of the flute is
To sunny lands so far away, wind medicine
Where they could take a holiday, sighing down through time
And, drowsy, drop to sleep. to heal pining hearts and spirits
with melodies sublime
Chirping birds respond in their
It sets the little aspen-leaves
musical way
To dancing on the tree;
as lively choruses awaken our bodies
And starts my heart to singing to joyful dancing
To the sweetest melody. and mellow tunes calm our bodies
And even in my dreams at night into peaceful sleep
I hear the flute-song call, A dried stick or branch, hollowed
So sweet and drowsy, low and clear, sings its love songs and lullabies,
in a trio of player, air,
It brings the woodland voices near,
and river cane
And seems to sing them all.
― Judy Curtis
― Grace Purdie Moon,
Contributed at the 2016 Zion Canyon
from [MOON-GP 1917]
Native Flute School
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 433
Anasazi Spirits – A Tribute to Coyote My Flute Sings
Oldman My flute sings songs from my heart.
The ancient spirits gathered Hanging on the wind
as the familiar echoing sounds with joy and love,
of their canyon home drifted Spreading to the world
into the night sky ~ waves of wonder
They had waited ~ Calling to the hearts
Those sounds had stayed silent of those who hear.
for so long ~ My flute song answers questions
The ancient spirits I don’t yet know how to voice
circled themselves in prayer, And tells stories so those who listen
thanking Coyote Oldman ~ can know their own story.
From his sincere, humble My flute sings songs
love and desire, of my journey through pain
a joy was brought back to them ~ Through life, love
and grows wisdom in its notes
They had prayers of concern, My flute song connects me to
that in the hands of those earth, sky and spirit
that carried this ancient song stick, Guiding me on my journey
would be hearts of respect to listen deeply to this world.
and humbleness ~ My flute sings songs from my spirit.
Prayers that the new journey My flute sings
of their ancient voices
― Terry Mack,
be walked
October 15, 2011
with words of remembrance
and songs of honor ~
A gift given to the new earthly ones,
so that their ancient voices
could once again be heard
among the others ~
― Nakakakena (Boe Harris),
July 2008

434 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Elderberry Flute Song
A creation narrative, in which the world is
created by a flute song played by Coyote. I
have changed the first word of the poem
word from “He” to “Coyote” to clarify the
context of the story.

Coyote was sitting on a stone

at world's end,
all was calm and Creation was
very beautiful.
There was a harmony and a wholeness
in dreaming,
and peace was a warming breeze
given by the sun.
The sea rose and fell
in the rhythm of his mind,
and stars were points of thought
which led to reason.
Courtesy of H. Kyoht Luterman – Kyoht.com
The universe turned in the vastness
of space like a dream, and gazed with wonder
a dream given once and carried at its own birth.
forever as a memory. Then note followed note
He raised the flute to lips in a melody which wove
sweetened by springtime the fabric of first life.
and slowly played a note The sun gave warmth
which hung for many seasons to waiting seedlings,
above Creation. and thus were born
And Creation was content the vast multitudes
in the knowledge of music. from the song
of a flute.
The singular note drifted
far and away
― Peter Blue Cloud, from
in the mind of Creation,
Elderberry Flute Song:
to become a tiny roundness.
Contemporary Coyote Tales,
And this roundness stirred Crossing Press, 1982
to open newborn eyes
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 435
The Flute Song of Change
The flute catches the music in the air (or Just Straight-up Weird)
In a dream a spider swallows a snake and
Every note dances ecstatically
smiles
A playful duet that pleases the heart like a
giant yellow sunflower being kissed by
Silence becomes more gorgeous
bees
Listening to the flute is a realization who
dance wildly with the wind as it turns
Entwined in the caress of the pristine air
white
The oneness with it, a revelation with
― Amitav Radiance anticipation. The snake charmer plays
December 2014 his
tune.
The spider dances, rising up, stretching,
Seductive Flute elongating.
rapture Her legs
derived disappear, drawing into her body where
they
in every note
turn
the music into a flickering tongue that protrudes from
of the seductive flute her
beguiling lips.
enchanting She wriggles in her dance; her tongue waves
to love's ear in the
all embracing air to
the beauty the melody, begins to sing a sultry, hissing
song.
is to hear
Then
enfolding the charmer's flute begins to move, undulating
caressing to her
with a chord song's
pleasuring cadence. And the charmer is himself charmed.
dear He
sits
a tone
in a trance as his snake-flute wraps itself around
woven him
so and
near the spider looking like a snake swallows them
― Elizabeth Squires both.
January 2017 ― Mary-Elizabeth Cotton
March 2017

436 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Beautiful Music Traditions of the Ancients
The flute yearns In the traditions of the ancients
for the lips to kiss and the forgotten peoples of our world,
Dancing fingers there has always been a belief:
In rhythm That each time the breath of a human
Nature’s tunes passes through an instrument of the Earth,
Play hide n seek in that moment we re-enact the most
Music of the soul sacred, the most holy act.
Reflects
celestial harmony It is the union between Heaven and Earth,
between spirit and matter,
― Amitav Radiance
between the past and the future,
May 2015
all that has ever been and
that which is yet to be –
My Song to You
all come into the present and our hearts.
My notes to you are words in my heart
I don’t want to finish ― Gregg Braden, Deep Truth:
Maybe it will come to be a song Igniting the Memory of Our
Origin, History, Destiny and Fate
To hold you here
Love not gone anywhere
― derived from My Words to You
by Jean Valentine, b. 1934

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 437

438 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Rūmī Poetry Related to Music
Rūmī was a 13th century Persian poet and Like Birds Sing
musician. His life spanned the years 1207–
I want to sing like birds sing
1273 CE and he is known by various names:
not worrying who hears
Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, Jalalu'ddin Rumi,
Maulana, and simply Rumi. He was the
or what they think.
founder of the Mevlevi order of the Sufi
tradition, often known by the name Be Your Note
“Whirling Dervishes”. Many of his poems of God picks up the flute and breathes.
great beauty and insight work well with the Each note is a need
Native American flute. coming through one of us,
a passion, a longing pain.
This chapter provides a few of Rūmī’s
poems. The translations from Persian, Remember the lips
Turkish, Arabic, and Greek are by Coleman where the wind-breath originated,
Barks, unless otherwise indicated. I have and let your note be clear.
slightly modified the translations in a few Don't try to end it.
cases for clarity, readability, and to BE your note.
highlight the essential ideas.

This chapter contains various short poems Beyond Wanting

by Rūmī’s related to music and flutes. See Beyond wanting, beyond place,
the next chapter for poetry based on Rumi’s inside form, That One
great epic poem, the Masnavi, and see the
following chapter for a completely different
A flute says,
approach to Rūmī’s poetry, Rūmī 2000. “I have no hope for finding that”
But love plays
and is the music played.
Let that musician finish this poem.

This chapter is composed of poetry collected by Clint Goss from many sources. A similar
collection is maintained on Flutopedia at Flutopedia.com/lit_rumi.htm

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 439

 The Reed
Who is luckiest in this whole orchestra?
The reed.
Its mouth touches your lips
to learn music.
All reeds, sugarcane especially,
think only of this chance.
They sway in the canebrakes;
Where Everything is Music free in the many ways they dance.
We have fallen into the place
where everything is music. Fire, Not Wind
The strumming and the flute notes Fire, not wind
rise into the atmosphere, makes this flute sing.
and if the whole world's harp
If you don’t have fire,
should burn up,
don’t play.
there will still be hidden instruments
playing, playing
Breathe into Me
This singing art
You breathe into me.
is sea foam.
I love your breath.
The graceful movements
come from a pearl I am your flute,
somewhere I am your flute,
on the ocean floor. I am your flute.

Poems reach up like spindrift

The Lover’s Heart
and the edge of driftwood
along the beach In the lover’s heart is a flute
wanting, wanting which plays the melody of longing.
They derive from a slow He may appear crazy,
and powerful root but only to those whose
that we cannot see. ears are not tuned
to the music by which he dances.
Stop the words now.
Open the window
in the center of your chest,
and let the spirits fly
in and out!
440 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Without You …
Without you
the instruments would die.
One sits close beside you.
Another takes a long kiss.
The tambourine begs,
“Touch my skin so I can be myself.”

Take Down a Musical Instrument …

Today, like every other day,
we wake up empty and frightened.
Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading.
Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love
be what we do.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 441

442 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
The Masnavi
The Masnavi is a rich source of poetry for Early Translations
use with Native American flutes. It is a six-
Many translations of this poem have been
volume epic poem – Rūmī’s largest work –
made. Here is an early English translation
with over 25,000 lines ([HARMLESS 2008],
by E. H. Whinfield of the opening of the
page 180).
prologue of Book 1 of the Masnavi
The Masnavi (pronounced [mahs-nah-vee], ([WHINFIELD 1898]). It was originally
also spelled Masnawi, Mathnavi, and published as one long poem with about
Mathnawi) is often titled Masnavi of seven words on each line. This version has
Maulana, since Rūmī also known as been re-arranged to read like a book:
“Maulana”.
Hearken to the reed flute, how it
The poem is written in a lyrical, rhythmic, complains, lamenting its banishment from
poetic version of Persian, but the poetic its home: “Ever since they tore me from
style does not translate well into English my osier bed, my plaintive notes have
with the same force and power as the moved men and women to tears. I burst
original manuscript. One of the most cited my breast, striving to give vent to sighs,
original sources for the Masnavi is a and to express the pangs of my yearning
manuscript dated 1278 CE (677 A.H.) for my home. He who abides far away
([NICHOLSON 1930]). See also [PAPAN- from his home is ever longing for the day
MATIN 2003] and [AMJAD 2007]. he shall return. My wailing is heard in
every throng, in concert with them that
The Masnavi uses the image of a flute made
rejoice and them that weep. Each
of reed cut from a river bank as a metaphor
interprets my notes in harmony with his
for the soul, emptied of “self” and filled with
own feelings, but not one fathoms the
divine spirit.
secrets of my heart. My secrets are not
alien from my plaintive notes, yet they
are not manifest to the sensual eye and

This chapter is composed of poetry collected by Clint Goss from many sources. A similar
collection is maintained on Flutopedia at Flutopedia.com/lit_rumi.htm

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 443

 ear. Body is not veiled from soul, neither Anyone pulled from a source
soul from body, yet no man hath ever longs to go back.
seen a soul.” This plaint of the flute is
At any gathering I am there,
fire, not mere air. Let him who lacks this
mingling in the laughing
fire be accounted dead!
and grieving,
'Tis the fire of love that inspires the flute, A friend to each,
'tis the ferment of love that possesses the but few will hear the secrets hidden
wine. The flute is the confidant of all
unhappy lovers; yes, its strains lay bare
within the notes. No ears for that.
my inmost secrets. Who hath seen a Body flowing out of spirit,
poison and an antidote like the flute? spirit up from body: no concealing
Who hath seen a sympathetic consoler that mixing. But it's not given us
like the flute? The flute tells the tale of
to see the soul. The reed flute
love's bloodstained path, it recounts the
is fire, not wind. Be that empty.”
story of Majnun’s love toils. None is privy
to these feelings save one distracted, as Hear the love fire tangled
ear inclines to the whispers of the tongue. in the reed notes, as bewilderment
Through grief my days are as labour and melts into wine. The reed is a friend
sorrow, my days move on, hand in hand to all who want the fabric torn
with anguish. Yet, though my days vanish
and drawn away. The reed is hurt
thus, 'tis no matter, do thou abide, O
and salve combining. Intimacy
incomparable pure one!
and longing for intimacy, one
The Reed Flute's Song song. A disastrous surrender

Here is a version of the same portion of the and a fine love, together. The one
Masnavi, excerpted from a translation by who secretly hears this is senseless.
Coleman Barks and John Moyne in The A tongue has one customer, the ear.
Essential Rumi ([BARKS 2004], pages 17– A sugarcane flute has such effect
20). This poem can also be found in
because it was able to make sugar
[KHAN-HI 1993]:
in the reedbed. The sound it makes
Listen to the story told by the reed, is for everyone. Days full of wanting,
of being separated. let them go by without worrying
“Since I was cut from the reedbed, that they do. Stay where you are
I have made this crying sound. inside sure a pure, hollow note.
Anyone apart from someone he loves Every thirst gets satisfied except
understands what I say. that of these fish, the mystics,
444 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
who swim a vast ocean of grace A Craftsman Pulled a Reed …
still somehow longing for it! A craftsman pulled a reed
No one lives in that without from the reedbed,
being nourished every day. cut holes in it, and called it
a human being.
But if someone doesn't want to hear
the song of the reed flute, Since then, it's been wailing
it's best to cut conversation a tender agony
of parting,
short, say good-bye, and leave.
never mentioning the skill
that gave it life as a flute.
Harken to this Reed
― Rūmī, excerpted from a translation of the
Hearken to this Reed forlorn, Masnavi by Coleman Barks and John
Breathing, even since 'was torn Moyne in The Essential Rumi ([BARKS
From its rushy bed, a strain 2004], page 146). This poem can also be
Of impassioned love and pain. found in [KHAN-HI 1993].
“The secret of my song, though near,
None can see and none can hear.
Oh, for a friend to know the sign
And mingle all his soul with mine!
‘Tis the flame of Love that fired me,
‘Tis the wine of Love inspired me,
Wouldst thou learn how lover bleed,
Hearken, hearken to the Reed!”

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 445

446 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Rūmī 2000
hat would Rūmī, the Persian poet of
W eight centuries ago, have written if he
had lived in contemporary times? That is
the question behind our Rūmī 2000
project.

This concept goes beyond a “Free Verse” or

“Free Translation” of the original text. It
uses the original poem as inspiration, in
service of our art. See the previous chapter
for the other translations of these poems,
which are typically more faithful to the
original text.

Song of the Flute

― By Clint Goss, inspired by the first The Original Masnavi
chapter of Rūmī’s Masnavi.

In every Song,
in every Breath, ‫ﺏﺵﻥﻭ ﺍﻱﻥﻥﻯ چﻭﻥ ﺵﻙﺍﻱﺕ ﻡﻯﻙﻥﺩ ﺍﺯ ﺝﺩﺍ‬
in every Note – ‫ﻙﺍﻱﺕ ﻡﻯﻙﻥﺩ‬‫ﺉ ﻩﺍ ﺡ‬
forever I tell my story.
Of seeking,
‫ﻥﻑﻱﺭ ﻡ ﻡﺭﺩ‬
‫ﺱﺕﺍﻥﺕﺍ ﻡﺭﺍﺏﺏﺭﻱﺩﻩ ﺍﻥﺩ ﺩﺭ‬ ‫ﻙﺯﻥﻱ‬
longing, ‫ﻭ ﺯﻥ ﻥﺍﻝﻱﺩﻩ ﺍﻥﺩ‬
yearning to return
to the home of my birth.

This chapter was written by Clint Goss. Versions of these poems have appeared in Clint &
Vera’s Flute Newsletter, November 2017.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 447

Born by the riverside, ‫ﻱﻥﻩ ﺥﻭﺍ ﻩﻡ ﺵﺭﺡﻩ ﺵﺭﺡﻩ ﺍﺯﻑﺭﺍ ﻕﺕﺍ‬
‫ﺱ‬
cleaved from the Earth, ‫ﺵﺕﻱﺍ ﻕ‬
‫ﺏگﻭﻱﻡﺵﺭﺡ ﺩﺭﺩ ﺍ‬
Shaped,
Crafted, ‫ﻩﺭﻙﺱﻯ ﻙﻩ ﻙﻭ ﺩﻭﺭ ﻡﺍﻥﺩ ﺍﺯ ﺍﺹﻝ ﺥﻭﻱﺵ‬
Fired and Burnished … ‫ﺏﺍﺯ ﺝﻭﻱﺩ ﺭﻭﺯگﺍﺭ ﻭﺹﻝ ﺥﻭﻱﺵ‬
So I may Sing,
in every and each Song, ‫ﻑﺕﺏﺩ ﺡﺍالن‬
‫ﻥ ﺵﺩﻡ ﺝ‬.‫ﻱﻉﺕﻯ ﻥﺍ‬‫ﻡﻥﺏ ﻩﺭ ﺝﻡ‬
My seeking, ‫ﻭ ﺥﻭﺵ ﺡﺍالن ﺵﺩ ﻡ‬
my longing,
my yearning to return. ‫ﻩﺭﻙﺱﻯ ﺍﺯ ﻅﻥ ﺥﻭﺩ ﺵﺩﻱﺍﺭ ﻡﻥ ﺍﺯ ﺩﺭﻭﻥ‬
‫ﻡﻥ ﻥﺝﺱﺕ ﺍﺱﺭﺍﺭ ﻡﻥ‬
A song universal
to every piece of every part ‫ﻱﺱﺕﻝﻱﻙچﺵﻡ ﻭ‬
‫ﺱﺭ ﻡﻥ ﺍﺯ ﻥﺍﻝﻩ ﻡﻥ ﺩﻭﺭ ﻥ‬
of All that we see,
And All that we know.
‫ﻱﺱﺕ‬ ‫گﻭﺵ ﺭﺍﺁ ﻥ ﻥﻭﺭ ﻥ‬
For All ‫ﻱﺱﺕﻝﻱﻙ‬
‫ﺱﺕﻭﺭ ﻥ‬
‫ﺕﻥ ﺯ ﺝﺍﻥ ﻭ ﺝﺍﻥ ﺯﺕﻥ ﻡ‬
has this Yearning, ‫ﻱﺱﺕ‬‫ﺱﺕﻭﺭ ﻥ‬
‫ﻙﺱ ﺭﺍﺩﻱﺩ ﺝﺍﻥ ﺩ‬
this longing,
this pain of separation. ‫ﺁﺕﺵ ﺍﺱﺕ ﺍﻱﻥﺏﺍﻥگﻥﻯ ﻭ‬
‫ﻥﻱﺱﺕﺏﺍﺩ ﻩﺭ‬
Lovers
‫ﻙﻩ ﺍﻱﻥ ﺁﺕﺵ ﻥﺩﺍﺭﺩﻥﻱﺱﺕﺏﺍﺩ‬
parted
sing this Song.
‫ﻑﺕﺍ ﺩ ﺝﻭ ﺵﺵ‬
‫ﻉﺵﻕﺱﺕ ﻙﺍﻥﺩﺭﻥﻯ ﺍ‬ ‫ﺁﺕﺵ‬
Children born
torn away
‫ﻑﺕﺍ ﺩ‬
‫ﻉﺵﻕﺱﺕ ﻙﺍﻥﺩ ﺭ ﻡﻯ ﺍ‬
cry this Song.
Galaxies
flung across time
vibrate this Song.
And I am there,
at every gathering,
party to the laughter
and the grieving.

448 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Breathe into me, ‫ﻥﻯ ﺡﺭﻱﻑ ﻩﺭ ﻙﻩ ﺍ ﺯﻱﺍﺭﻯﺏﺭﻱﺩپ ﺭﺩﻩﺍ ﺵ‬
once again! ‫پﺭﺩ ﻩﺍﻯ ﻡﺍ ﺩﺭﻱﺩ‬
Give me life,
let me sing! ‫ﻩﻡچﻭﻥﻯ ﺯ ﻩﺭﻯ ﻭﺕﺭﻱﺍﻕﻯ ﻙﻯﺩﻱﺩ ﻩﻡچﻭ‬
Turn your Fire into Spirit, ‫ﻥﻯ ﺩﻡﺱﺍﺯ ﻭﻡﺵﺕﺍﻕﻯ ﻙﻯﺩﻱﺩ‬
your Spirit into Breath,
so I may turn your Breath ‫ﻥﻯﺡﺩﻱﺙ ﺭﺍﻩپﺭ ﺥﻭﻥ ﻡﻯﻙﻥﺩﻕﺹﻩﺍﻯ‬
into Song. ‫ﻉﺵﻕ ﻡﺝﻥﻭﻥ ﻡﻯ ﻙﻥﺩ‬
Vibrations from Fire ‫ﻥﻱﺱﺕ ﻡﺭ‬
‫ﻡﺡﺭﻡ ﺍﻱﻥ ﻩﻭﺵ ﺝﺯﺏﻱﻩﻭ ﺵ‬
and Spirit and Breath,
‫ﻱﺱﺕ‬‫ﺵﺕﺭﻯ ﺝﺯگﻭ ﺵ ﻥ‬‫ﺯﺏﺍﻥﺭﺍ ﻡ‬
reaching out,
beyond your soul. ‫ﺏﻱگﺍﻩ ﺵﺩ ﺭﻭﺯﻩﺍﺏﺍ‬
‫ﺩﺭ ﻍﻡ ﻡﺍ ﺭﻭﺯ ﻩﺍ‬
Spirit flowing from body, ‫ﺱﻭﺯﻩﺍ ﻩﻡﺭﺍ ﻩ ﺵﺩ‬
and body feeling spirit.
Beyond the yearning, ‫ﻱﺱﺕﺕﻭﺏﻡﺍﻥ ﺍﻯ‬
‫ﺭﻭﺯﻩﺍگﺭﺭﻑﺕگﻭﺏﺍ ﻙ ﻥ‬
across the parting, ‫ﺁﻥﻙﻩ چﻭﻥﺕﻭپﺍ ﻙ ﻥﻱﺱﺕ‬
bridging the schism.
Wind is not Breath ‫ﻩﺭ ﻙﻩ ﺝﺯ ﻡﺍﻩﻯ ﺯ ﺁﺏﺵﺱﻱﺭ ﺵﺩ ﻩﺭ ﻙﻩ‬
nor Breath wind. ‫ﺏﻯ ﺭﻭﺯﻱﺱﺕ ﺭﻭﺯﺵﺩﻱﺭ ﺵﺩ‬
Breath is Fire,
Fire of Love, ‫ﺩﺭﻥﻱﺍﺏﺩ ﺡﺍﻝپﺥﺕﻩ ﻩﻱچ ﺥﺍ ﻡپﺱ ﺱﺥﻥ‬
Fire of Longing, ‫ﻙﻭﺕﺍﻩﺏﺍﻱﺩ ﻭ ﺱﻝ ﻡ‬
Fire of Parting, ― The Arabic text was provided by Erkan
Fire of Life. Türkmen (erkan@essenceofrumi.com).
Join with me, However, there is no direct
in Breath, correspondence between the original
Arabic text and the English-language
in Fire,
version that it inspired.
In Song.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 449

Song of the Flute Galaxies
A version with all the English-language text flung across time
on a single page – ideal for recitations. vibrate this Song.
– Clint Goss And I am there,
at every gathering,
In every Song,
party to the laughter
in every Breath,
and the grieving.
in every Note –
forever I tell my story. Breathe into me,
once again!
Of seeking, longing,
Give me life,
yearning to return
let me sing!
to the home of my birth.
Turn your Fire into Spirit,
Born by the riverside,
your Spirit into Breath,
cleaved from the Earth,
so I may turn your Breath
Shaped, Crafted,
into Song.
Fired and Burnished …
Vibrations from Fire
So I may Sing,
and Spirit and Breath,
in every and each Song,
reaching out,
My seeking,
beyond your soul.
my longing,
my yearning to return. Spirit flowing from body,
and body feeling spirit.
A song universal
Beyond the yearning,
to every piece of every part
across the parting,
of All that we see,
bridging the schism.
And All that we know.
Wind is not Breath
For All
nor Breath wind.
has this Yearning,
this longing, Breath is Fire,
this pain of separation. Fire of Love,
Fire of Longing,
Lovers
Fire of Parting,
parted
Fire of Life.
sing this Song.
Join with me,
Children born
in Breath,
torn away
in Fire,
cry this Song.
In Song.
450 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Readings and Quotations on Music
Telling What’s in Your Heart
Playing a flute is like writing a book.
You're telling what's in your heart …
It’s easier to play if it’s right from your
heart. You get the tone, and the fingers
will follow.
― Eddie Cahill

Pete Seeger
Once upon a time, wasn’t singing a part of
everyday life, as much as talking, physical
exercise, and religion? Our distant ancestors, feet higher, then they also know there is
wherever they were in the world, sang while hope for the world.
pounding grain and paddling canoes, or ― Pete Seeger – American Masters, PBS –
walking long journeys. broadcast June 13, 2010

Can we begin to make our lives, once more,

all about peace? Finding the right song and As Old as the World
singing it over and over is a great way to There has always been a flute,
start. just as there have
always been young people.
And when one person taps out a beat while
The flute is as old as the world.
another leads into the melody, or when
three people discover a new harmony they ― An “old Indian man”, as told to the
anthropologist Frances Densmore and
never knew existed, or a crowd joins in on a
published in her 1926 book The
chorus as though to raise the ceiling a few
American Indians and Their Music.

This chapter is composed of readings collected by Clint Goss from many sources. A
similar collection is maintained on Flutopedia at Flutopedia.com/lit_music.htm

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 451

 Short Version
Music is a moral law.
It gives soul to the universe,
wings to the mind,
flight to the imagination,
and charm and gaiety
to life and to everything.
A Longer Version
Music is a moral law.
It gives a soul to the universe,
wings to the mind,
flight to the imagination,
a charm to sadness,
and life to everything.
It is the essence of order,
and leads to all that is good,
just and beautiful,
of which it is the invisible,
but nevertheless dazzling,
passionate, and eternal form.
Moral Law ― Wordsworth Dictionary of Musical
Quotations, 1991, page 45, attributed to
There are many, many citations to various
Plato (428–348 BCE)
versions of this wonderful poem that
attribute it to Plato (428–348 BCE).
The Gift
However, while attempting to locate the
primary source, I found myself deep down We all sit in the orchestra of Tao.
the rabbit hole and found no full citation. Some play their fiddles,
Some wield their drum sticks.
I finally found a paper by Australian music Tonight is worthy of music.
therapist Denise Grocke ([GROCKE 2006]
"Music is a Moral Law" — A Quotation from Let us let loose with compassion.
Plato?), who had apparently been diving Let us drown in the
even deeper down the rabbit hole than I delicious ambience of love.
had. ― Hafez, (Khwāja Šamsu d-Dīn Muḥammad
Hāfez-e Šīrāzī, Persian: ‫ﻡﺡﻡﺩﺍﻝﺩﻱﻥﺵﻡﺱ ﺥﻭﺍﺝﻩ‬
Here are two versions, with the attribution ‫ﻑﻅ‬‫)ﺵﻱﺭﺍﺯی ﺡﺍ‬, 1325/6 – 1389/90, Persian
as Denise Grocke suggests: lyric poet and Sufi master
452 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
For Drumming: The Star of Love
A beat is like a footstep. Music, be thy sails unfurled,
It begins a journey. Bear me to thy better world;
Beats are beginnings. O'er a cold and weltering sea,
You don't need an interpreter Blow thy breezes warm and free;
to understand a groove. Take me to that far-off shore,
You don’t need to speak Where lovers meet to part no more;
a people’s language There doubt, and fear and sin are o’er,
to dance to their drum. That star of love shall set no more.
There is a whole world out there ― Margaret Fuller, from Summer on the
making music. Lakes, in 1843 ([FULLER 1843]), excerpt
I listen, my mind open from her poem, page 244. Margaret
and my ears ready. Fuller describes the Winnebago courting
flute earlier in the publication.
They say a drummer is never
without a drum.
Sounds Alive
A percussionist can play on anything.
But like any artist, Stay close to any sounds that
my true instrument is myself. make you glad you are alive.
My song is my soul. ― Haifz, The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, the
Great
Create your own path.
Sufi Master, tr. Daniel Ladinsky, 1999.
Keep on walking and don't look back.
― Bashiri Johnson It Was the Wind
It was the wind that gave them life.
Play Your Own Way
It was the wind that comes
I say, “Play your own way”. out of our mouths now
Don't play what the public wants. that gives us life.
You play what you want and let the public When this ceases to blow, we die.
pick up on what you're doing – even if it In the skin at the tips of our fingers
does take them fifteen, twenty years. we see the trail of the wind;
― Thelonious Monk
It shows us where the wind blew
when our ancestors were created.
― Anonymous Navajo poem,
from [MATTHEWS 1897], page 69.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 453

The Vapor of Art
Music is the vapor of art.
It is to poetry
what reverie is to thought,
what fluid is to solid,
what the ocean of clouds
is to the ocean of waves.
― Victor Hugo, from William Shakespere,
Part 1, Book 2, Chapter 4, 1864.

Tao Te Ching
The space between Heaven and Earth
is like a flute:
Empty, and yet it does not collapse.
When moved,
more and more emerges from it.
But many words
exhaust themselves on it.
It is better to regard the ‘within’.
― Laozi (or Lao-Tzu, Chinese: 老子)
from [TSU 1985], chapter 5
Your Own Experience
Beloved of My Heart Music is your own experience, your
There are few things which grow only in thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it
sharing. Music grows in sharing. If won't come out of your horn.
somebody is there, a sympathetic listener, ― Charlie Parker
then even just his presence helps you go
deep into your effort … then a subtle love
Talking About Music
affair happens. The energy of the player and
the energy of the listener meet and create a Talking about music is like
circle, and that circle is fulfilling. dancing about architecture.
― Martin Mull, 1979
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho), excerpt
from [RAJNEESH 1981] Beloved of My
Heart — Darshan Diary, pages 32–33

454 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

For Carlos Santana Notes
Artists paint with canvas and brush, Notes soar like eagles
Musicians paint with sound. riding the thermals high
With pain and passion above the earth.
Each note to fashion Notes giggle in laughter and joy
To color life, profound. like children at play.
Vibrations flood the conscious Notes cry releasing pain, sorrow,
And elevate the soul. and longing for healing and peace.
Music transcends
All beginnings, all ends, Notes dance in your ears
And makes the Spirit whole. reminding you of the
joy and delight of life.
― Kathleen Dahill,
February 28, 2002 Notes softly caress your being
lulling you gently to sleep.
The Rapture of Music Notes for all moods, emotions,
Immerse yourself in the rapture of music. experiences in life's journey,
You know what you love. Go there. and just for being closer to
Tend to each note, each chord, God and nature.
Rising up from silence and
dissolving again.
Notes sing through the night
Vibrating strings draw us
Into the spacious resonance carrying love, respect,
of the heart. respite, and joy to others.
The body becomes light as the sky Notes transport our souls
And you, one with the Great Musician, to their new home after death.
Who is even now singing us Notes welcome the birth of
Into existence.
new life into a world of
― Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra potential, hope, and growth.
(The Radiance Sutras), Sutra 18,
translated by Lorin Roche Notes reflect our soul's
deepest desires and secrets
that words cannot convey.
Notes are the heart and soul
of our soul's expression to others.
Notes from within,
beyond the mind,

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 455

 beyond the physical The Free Man
into our inner recesses “The body knows what to do,
and back out into the universe. the mind gets in the way”
Notes, notes, notes. ― from the movie "The Free Man".
So much from just six holes.
So beautiful from nature's Good Things
instrument of wood. “Good things come to those who play”
Even in death, ― takeoff on several well-known sayings
nature's trees communicate
to us through notes. Hope
So simple, so beautiful, so heartfelt. Hope is hearing the melody of the future;

Just simply notes from the soul – our soul, Faith is dancing to it today.
nature's soul, and God's soul to us all. ― Ruben Alvez,
― Patricia B. Smith, Ph.D., written 2006, quoted in Molly Fumia, Safe Passage
contributed at Flute Haven 2010.

456 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

The Five Faces of the Flute
Sound Express
I am the First Face of the Flute I Am the Face of Expression,
I am the Face of Sound. the Second Face of the Flute.
Born in a Vibrating Column, Reaching from the Soul of Memories,
Held in the Hands of the Flute Player, the Heart of Feelings,
I Spread on the Wind, Waves upon Waves, The Need to Speak with No Words,
Touching, Moving, Pulsating, To Say “I Am”, “It Is Me”,
Permeating the Body, “This is Who I Am”.
Activating the Mind, I ride on Vibration,
Stirring Emotions, Carving Memories. One Soul to Another Soul,
I am Created from the Breath and One Soul to All Souls.
Received into the Soul. I carry the message –
I am Recorded, Mixed, Mastered, Love, Longing, Injustice, Freedom.
Downloaded, and Or the Rallying Cry.
Reborn to Vibrate Again. Or the Mournful Sorrow.
All Life feels the Face of Sound. I speak through Improvisation,
dress myself in Ornaments,
All that we know to Exist
Carry my Message with Dynamics
has Vibrated with Sound
and Timbre and Texture,
from the Bang of Creation.
And Pace myself with the
I am the Line between Silence of The Inhale.
Movement and Stillness,
Beyond Measurement,
Connection and Isolation,
beyond Analysis,
Warmth and Ultimate Cold.
beyond Comprehension,
For You who beyond Understanding,
Conjure me Up with Your Breath … Only by Direct Experience can the
Rejoice. Face of Expression be Known.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 457

 Connect I was the Voice that
Before Language, Before Symbols, Invited you to Breathe into the Flute
Before Culture or Society, that Very First Time.
I was the Glue that Bound all Humans. To Close the Holes, then Open them.
I am the Face of Connection – To Step, then Leap.
the Third Face of the Flute To Play For Others, then With Others.
that allows us to To Record, to Craft,
Play Together, to Study, to Learn,
the way Children Play Together. to Copy, to Create.

To Communicate, Collaborate, To Find all the New in You

Exchange Emotion Directly. that is Yet to be Played.

To Signal across the Distance, to Jam, To Jam with Wild Abandon.

to Share a Secret, to Give and Take. To Mourn a Friend.

I can lay the Groundwork To Inspire in a House of Worship,

for Another to Soar. to Enrich in an Elder Home,
I Repeat, Reinforce, Enhance, to Facilitate a Flute Circle,
Or Join another’s Voice in Harmony. I am not about Music, I am about Life.
I Echo the Voice of Another – Heal
Support and Enhance, Beyond the limits of what we Experience,
Encourage and Expand. is what we Know.
Words have only a Shadow of my Power. The Practice of the Breath,
Remember Me in all your Music. infused with Vibration
Grow and Wrapped in Sound.

I was Born beneath every The Smile, the Exhale,

Melody and Rhythm, the Release, the Joy.
every Jam, every Gig, I am the intrinsic and unknowable
every Flute Circle, Fifth Face of the Flute.
Every Single Note I am the Face of Healing.
that has Ever been The Bonus, the Dividend,
Played or Thought or Dreamed. that which we can Barely Measure,
I am the Face of Personal Growth – But which we Surely Know,
the Fourth Face of the Flute. inside the Inside of Us,
I Build on what Was Before. The feeling of a Better Day
Reinforcing, Augmenting, When we Play.
Filling new Spaces, Reaching Higher.

458 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

 ― Clint Goss, March 1, 2016,
based on George Schenk, The
Five Faces of Food

Soundlessness
The highest music is where the
sound does not destroy the
soundless moments in between. As
the musician becomes more and
more refined, he can manage to
create sound, and between two
sounds he can give you an
experience of soundlessness. That
soundlessness touches the heart.

― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

(Osho)

Songs are Thoughts

Songs are thoughts, sung out with the breath The African Song of Soul
when people are moved by great forces and
When a woman in a certain African tribe
ordinary speech no longer suffices.
knows she is pregnant, she goes out into the
There are so many occasions in one's life wilderness with a few friends and together
when a joy or a sorrow is felt in such a way they pray and meditate until they hear the
that the desire comes to sing. All my being is song of the child. They recognize that every
songs, and I sing as I draw breath. soul has its own vibration that expresses its
unique flavor and purpose. Then the women
― Orpingalik, an Eskimo poet,
attune to the song, they sing it out loud.
collected and translated by
Then they return to the tribe and teach it to
Knud Rasmussen in 1923.
See: Knud Rasmussen, The Netsilik everyone else.
Eskimos, Report of the Fifth Thule
When the child is born, the community
Expedition, 1921-1924, Volume 8,
gathers and sings the child's song to him or
published by Gyldendalske Boghandel,
Nordisk Forlag, Copenhagen, Denmark, her. Later, when the child enters education,
1931, pages 16 and 321. the village gathers and chants the child's
song. When the child passes through the
initiation to adulthood, the people again

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 459

come together and sing. At the time of the end, we shall all recognize our song and
marriage, the person hears his or her song. sing it well. You may feel a little warbly at
the moment, but so have all the great
Finally, when the soul is about to pass from
singers. Just keep singing and you'll find
this world, the family and friends gather at
your way home.
the person's bed, just as they did at their
birth, and they sing the person to the next ― Alan Cohen, author of
life. The Dragon Doesn’t
Live Here Anymore
In the African tribe there is one other
occasion upon which the villagers sing to
the child. If at any time during his or her
life, the person commits a crime or aberrant
social act, the individual is called to the
center of the village and the people in the
community form a circle around them. Then
they sing their song to them.

The tribe recognizes that the correction for

antisocial behaviour is not punishment; it is
love and the remembrance of identity. When
you recognize your own song, you have no
desire or need to do anything that would
hurt another.

A friend is someone who knows your song

and sings it to you when you have forgotten
it. Those who love you are not fooled by
mistakes you have made or dark images you
hold about yourself. They remember your
beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness
when you are broken; your innocence when
you feel guilty; and your purpose when you
are confused. You may not have grown up in
an African tribe that sings your song to you
at crucial life transitions, but life is always
reminding you when you are in tune with
yourself and when you are not. When you
feel good, what you are doing matches your
song, and when you feel awful, it doesn't. In

460 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

The Iron Flute The Flute of Interior Time
The Buddhist priest Myofu called himself The flute of interior time
Shoku, meaning “nothingness in essence”. is played
He came from Hansen but nobody knows whether we hear it or not.
from which family or class he was born. His ― Kabir (c.1440 – c.1518)
mind had secretly been gifted with divine
signs and he was noble and magnanimous.
Fame and Spirituality
He was so attached to the traditional boat Here are two quotes from the film Twenty
life that when he encountered a beautiful Feet from Stardom. These thoughts really
seashore he built a hut in the field of Blue capture some truths about the musical art
Dragon near there. He had nothing and musical fame:
unnecessary but only played the iron flute
with joy. He also liked reciting poems. Sting: Real musicians – there's a spiritual
component to what they do that's got
One day he took off his clothes, stood up, nothing to do with worldly success. The
and abandoned his body. He was blowing music is much more an inner journey. And
the iron flute as his body followed the ebb any other success is just cream on the cake.
into the water. He approached the final
place playing the flute above the water. There's this idea you can go on American
Idol and suddenly become a star. But you
He disappeared out of sight but still the flute may bypass the spiritual work you have to
was heard sounding over the boundless sea. do to get there. And if you bypass that, your
Far from the shore nothing existed but the success will be … wafer thin.
flute in the air and the body in the sea.
Lisa Fischer: Some people will do anything
Three days later, he was seen on the sand to be famous. And then there are other
shore like a living Buddhist sitting in people who will just … sing. It's not about
meditation with the legs crossed. anything except being in this special space
― From A Biography of Myofu, translated with people. And that is really the higher
by Akitsugu Taki from Biographies of calling.
Highest Buddhist Priests in the Great
Ming Dynasty, Book Seven [大明高僧傳]
(Taisho Tripitaka), edited by Clint Goss

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 461

Short Quotations If only I could so live
This section contains a wide array of short and so serve the world
quotations on music from various sources. that after me there should never again
be a child who considers himself
I never had to learn to play. unmusical.
I just learned I had to play.
― Paraphrase of a quote by Isak Dinesen
― Paraphrase of a quote (pen name of Karen Blixen), author
by Mark Cavendish (1885–1962)

If you are too busy to develop your I would teach children music, physics, and
talents, you are too busy. philosophy; but more importantly music
― Julia Cameron for in the patterns of music and all the arts
are the keys to learning.
Always be a first-rate version of yourself,
― Plato
not a second-rate version of someone else.
― Judy Garland This will be our reply to violence:
To make music more intensely,
The musical notes are only more beautifully, more devotedly than
five in number, ever before.
but their melodies are so numerous
― Leonard Bernstein
that one cannot hear them all.
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Take a music bath once or twice a week
Chapter V Energy, paragraph 8 for a few seasons, and you will find that it
is to the soul what the water-bath is to the
If music be the food of love, play on. body.
― William Shakespeare (1564–1616),
― Oliver Wendell Holmes
Twelfth Night, Act I, Scene I
The advice I am giving always to all my
Your stairway lies on
students is above all to study the music
the whispering wind
profoundly … Music is like the ocean, and
― Robert Page the instruments are little or bigger islands,
A solo is a duet with the universe. very beautiful for the flowers and trees.
― Andrés Segovia
― David Darling

The slower you do it, The piano ain’t got no wrong notes.
the faster you learn it. ― Thelonious Monk
― Arthur Hull, Drum Circle Spirit

462 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

The woods would be silent if no birds sang Amazement
except those that sang best. It is often easy to forget how magical this
― Henry VanDyke instrument is. Especially in a world where
music is so often judged, and musicians are
In the silence between two sounds resides so often put down for expressing themselves.
the depth of the musical content. And especially when we get involved in
― Fabien Maman, some of the head-space aspects of our
The Role of Music in the passions.
Twenty-First Century,
Book 1, page 12. So, I would like to conclude this chapter
with a message recently posted on a flute
Improvisation is not the expression of newsgroup. It is by a flute maker we met a
accident but rather of the accumulated long time ago on our first long-distance
yearnings, dreams, and wisdom of our gathering in Dalla, Texass:
very soul.
The mystery is within you
― Yehudi Menuhin
as you pick up the flute
Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget and breathe into it
to sing in the lifeboats and affirm your connection
― Voltaire
to the universe.
I often say
What if the Hokey-Pokey is really what it's “I play for my own amazement”
all about?
Though it is sometimes said in jest,
― Ange Chianese
it is also the truth.
The theory of relativity … occurred to me ― Robert Brandt
by intuition, and music was the driving
force behind that intuition. … My
discovery was the result of music
perception.
― Albert Einstein, in a conversation with
Shinishi Suzuki, the inventor of the
Suzuki method of music education.
See Shinishi Suzuki; Waltraud Suzuki
(translation), Nurtured by Love: A New
Approach to Education, Exposition Press,
New York, 1969, page 90.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 463

464 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Readings and Quotations on Silence
Quotations Darkened Silence
Silence is your Friend – If you take one silent moment
You are always playing a duet
To remove yourself
with the silence around you.
from all your senses —
― David Darling, You will find within
a mantra of MUSIC FOR PEOPLE that fraction of eternal time
The place where
Silence is the potential
all your answers are found —
from which music can arise.
And where all your fears
― Keith Jarrett, shall never exist.
from the liner notes of the album Spirits
― Marc Duggan,
To hear, you have to make room from PoetryForYou.com
for silence.

― Seen on a park bench

This chapter is composed of poetry collected by Clint Goss from many sources. A similar
collection is maintained on Flutopedia at Flutopedia.com/lit_silence.htm

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 465

Silence which is Vibrant The Inner Music
Our opinion concerning the origin of music The inner music has a strange quality. The
depends on our opinion of silence. There is a outer music needs an instrument, it needs a
silence which is vibrant, and there is a duality – the musician and the instrument.
silence which is stagnant — not dormant nor The inner music does not need duality – the
containing latent power, but absolutely musician is the music, the musician is the
lifeless. Through this stagnant silence there instrument, the musician is all. There is no
passes a wave of mental impulse; this is division. The inner music means silence, the
repeated, it constitutes itself a unit, the sound of silence.
silence becomes vibrant, it becomes a
Silence has its own music. It can be heard
medium of communication, and the mental
only by those who have dropped all noise
impulse may, through this vibrant silence,
from the head. It can be heard only from the
be transmitted to minds which are
heart, not by the head. The heady person
sufficiently sensitive to receive it. From this
goes on missing it. Only the person who is
intensity of vibration the song bursts forth,
full of heart, full of love, can hear the music.
like lightning from a cloud. The intensity
This is the music that helps you to go
being reduced, the means of expression is
beyond. It becomes a rainbow bridge. You
changed to words of an extremely limited
cannot grasp it with the mind, you cannot
vocabulary; this is succeeded by an
comprehend it with the mind. The mind has
increased number of words until in
to be put aside, completely put aside and
profuseness of verbiage the more subtle
then suddenly it is there. That is the whole
means of communication are lost. The
art of meditation, putting the mind slowly
human race today is forgetting what silence
aside and getting to the inner music,
is or can be. We are too noisy to know its
becoming attuned to the inner world of
possibilities. We seize the tools nearest at
oneness. You can call it the experience of
hand, and have too long depended upon
god, tao, truth, dharma; it is really nothing
words. The silent figures sitting motionless
but the experience of the ultimate music.
along the Ganges are monuments to the
silence that died centuries ago. ― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho)
― Frances Densmore, excerpt from
[DENSMORE 1909] Scale Formation in
Primitive Music, pages 3–4.

466 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

The Soundless Sound The Hidden Harmony
Music is the art of hearing When for the first time you fall in love, you
the soundless sound, meet the opposite. Immediately, it is as if
the art of hearing you have got wings, you can fly; poetry
the music of silence – arises in your heart. What is happening? The
what the Zen people call opposite has created something in you.
the sound of one hand clapping. Silence alone is not very beautiful, sound
alone is not very beautiful, but the meeting
When you are utterly silent,
of sound and silence is very, very beautiful –
not a single thought
that is music. The meeting of silence and
passes your mind,
sound is music.
there is not even a ripple
of any feeling in your heart. ― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho), excerpt
from [RAJNEESH 1978] The Hidden
Then you start, for the first time, Harmony — Talks on Heraclitus, page
hearing silence … 111.
Music helps you from the outside
to fall in tune with the inner … Silence, Liberty, and Peace
Listening to great music you suddenly The twentieth century is, among other
become silent – things, the Age of Noise. Physical noise,
with no effort. mental noise and noise of desire – we hold
Falling in tune with the music history's record for all of them. And no
you lose your ego with no effort. wonder; for all the resources of our almost
You become relaxed, miraculous technology have been thrown
you fall into a deep rest. into the current assault against silence. That
You are alert, awake, most popular and influential of all recent
and yet in a subtle way drunk. inventions, the radio is nothing but a
conduit through which pre-fabricated din
― Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho), excerpt
can flow into our homes. And this din goes
from [RAJNEESH 1981] Beloved of My
far deeper, of course, than the eardrums. It
Heart — Darshan Diary, First Edition
penetrates the mind, filling it with a babel of
distractions, blasts of corybantic or
sentimental music, continually repeated
doses of drama that bring no catharsis, but
usually create a craving for daily or even
hourly emotional enemas. And where, as in
most countries, the broadcasting stations
support themselves by selling time to

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 467

advertisers, the noise is carried from the ear, progressive system of mass production is
through the realms of phantasy, knowledge universal craving. Advertising is the
and feeling to the ego's core of wish and organized effort to extend and intensify the
desire. Spoken or printed, broadcast over workings of that force, which (as all the
the ether or on wood-pulp, all advertising saints and teachers of all the higher religions
copy has but one purpose – to prevent the have always taught) is the principal cause of
will from ever achieving silence. suffering and wrong-doing and the greatest
Desirelessness is the condition of obstacle between the human soul and its
deliverance and illumination. The condition Divine Ground.
of an expanding and technologically
― Aldous Huxley,
excerpt from [HUXLEY 1946]

Image credit: Aio Sifu, November 15, 2017.

Photograph by Kaylee Dubois.

468 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

 Part 4 –

Rhythms

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 469

470 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
World Rhythms
This chapter describes world rhythms that I Dun for the non-dominant hand. Also
have collected from various sources. They written “B” for bass.
have proved useful in various facilitation
Go / Do – the “tone” sounds on a djembe.
settings.
Hands are open and flat with the base of the
The rhythms and grooves are notated in fingers hitting hear the rim of the drum
either an African drum
language or a Middle
Eastern drum language.

African Drum
Language
This is a variation of
the African drum
language derived from
the Uruba tradition and
introduced in the U.S.
by Baba Olatunji. It is
used for the large
African djembe drum. head. Go is for the dominant hand and Do
for the non-dominant hand. Also written
Gun / Dun – the “bass” notes on a djembe.
“T” for “tone”.
Hit near the middle of the drum head with a
slightly cupped hand and the fingers Pa / Ta – the “slap” or “snap” sounds on a
together. Gun is for the dominant hand and djembe. With loose wrists and open fingers,
slap near the outer rim of the drum head

This chapter is a snapshot of Clint Goss’s working document of collected world rhythms.
Various versions of this document have been distributed at various times. Please note that
some of these rhythms are subject to copyright claims.

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 471

with a whip-like
motion. Pa is for the
dominant hand and
Ta for the non-
dominant hand. Also
written “S” for
“slap”.

Middle Eastern
Drum Language
This is a variation of
the Middle Eastern
drum language
Gun Dun Go Do Pa - Ta -
typically used to describe rhythms for the
smaller doumbek (aka darabouka) drum or 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
frame drums. … is 8 beats on a djembe with the two “-”
Dum – the “bass” note, typically played by beats representing rests (silent beats) on the
hitting the drum head slightly off-center 6th and 8th beats.
with the right thumb (frame drum) or Two equally spaced notes in one beat are
slightly cupped hand (doumbek). written without a space between them:
Tek – the “rim tone” sound, typically Gun Dun GoDo GoDo
played on a frame drum with the third 1 2 3 4
finger of the right hand near the edge of the
drum and on a doumbek with a flat hand Beats 1 and 2 each have one note, and beats
near the edge of the drum head. 3 and 4 each have two equally spaced notes
(typically 8th notes).
Ka – the “offbeat” note, typically played on
a frame drum with the ring finger of the left Some other more advanced notation that
hand near the rim and on a doumbek with occurs occasionally:
the tips of the fingers of the left hand near • Djembe 16th notes and 16th notes with 16th
the rim. rests:
GoDoGoDo GoDo--
Notation
• Pick-up 16th beat: G’Do equivalent to
The rhythms are broken into beats, with “---Go Do”
spaces between the beats. So:

472 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

• Emphasis is represented with capitalized: 3: Go Do Gun - |
PA. Do Go Dun - |
• Triplets are three notes in place of two,
3alt:
written with “:” characters around them:
Pa Ta Gun - |
:TeKaKa: Pa Ta Gun - |
• A full mute is written [Pa], a partial 4: Gun - GoDo GoDo |
mute is written <Pa>, and a flam (two Gun - Pa Ta |
notes in very rapid succession, almost
indistinguishable) is written {PaTa}. 5: Gun Ta Gun Ta |
Gun Ta GoDo - |

Basic Exercises 6: Gun - GoDo GoDo |

Gun Dun GoDo - |
Basic Exercises
― developed by Randy Brody Basic Warmup Exercises
― from Ryan Camara,
1: Gun Dun Go Do | DrumCamp 2006
Gun Dun Go Do | First:

2: Gun Dun GoDo - | GoDoGoDo PaTaPaTa

Gun Dun GoDo - | GoDoGoDo GunDunGunDun |
Second:
3: Gun Dun Go Do | :GunDoGo: :DunPaTa:
Gun Dun Pa Ta | :GunDoGo: :DunPaTa: |
4: Gun Dun Go Do | Second in Bell-Tone-Slap notation:
Pa Ta - - | :BTT: :BSS: :BTT: :BSS: |
Third:
More Exercises All as triplets – always alternating hands.
― developed by Randy Brody These exercises were done with a one-bar
rest between every line:
1: Gun Dun Go Do |
Gun Dun Go Do | :TSS: :TSS: :TSS: :TSS: |
:STS: :STS: :STS: :STS: |
2: Gun - GoDo GoDo | :SST: :SST: :SST: :SST: |
Gun - - - | :STT: :STT: :STT: :STT: |
:TST: :TST: :TST: :TST: |
:TTS: :TTS: :TTS: :TTS: |
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 473
Basic Cultural Rhythms Take 5 Beat
― from Randy Brody,
Weston Drum Circle, January 15, 2001
Congo Square
― from Randy Brody, meter, from the Paul Desmond
Weston Drum Circle, November 2000 composition:

Gun Dun GoDo -Go | DunGo -Go Dun Go Pa |

Dun Gun Do -- | DunGo -Go Dun Go Pa |

I play music with | or

all my friends - |
GunDo -Do Gun Do Pa |
Gun Dun GoDo -Go | GunDo -Do Gun Do Pa |
Dun Gun Do PATA |
Dakkcore
I play music with |
[dah-kohr]
all my friends AndThen |
― from Anthony,
Dance Beat Drum Café, Cape Town, South Africa,
April 9, 2001
― from Randy Brody,
Weston Drum Circle, January 15, 2001 Gun Dun Gun GoDo |
time. Be sure to use alternate hands. Can -Do Go PA - |
be played as pairs of triplets: GoDo -Go Do GoDo |
:GunDoGo: :DunGoDo: | -Go -Do -Go - |
:GunDoGo: :DunGoDo: |
Jara Cedicular
Variation 1:
:GoDoGo: :DoGoDo: | ― from Anthony,
Drum Café, Cape Town, South Africa,
:GoDoGo: :DoGoDo: |
April 9, 2001
Variation 2:
:GunDoGun: :DoGunDo: | GoDo -Do GoDo Go |
:GunDoGun: :DoGunDo: | Gun DUNGo DunGun Do |

Jara -Ce dicu lar |

Ja RA Ce dicu lar |

474 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Moroccan 3–6–9 Folk Rhythm Combo Ah-shay, ah-shay,
for 3 Doumbeks ah-shay ah-shay

― from Randy Brody Fanga alafia,

via John Marshall ah-shay ah-shay
Three:
Fanga alafia =
Tek TeKa Dum :|
“Welcome well-being”
Six:
Tek TeKa Dum | Ah-shay Ah-shay =
Tek Dum Dum :| “may it be so”
Nine:
Tek TeKa Dum | Misc Rhythm
Tek Dum TeKa | from June 19, 2006 Randy Brody drum
Dum Tek Dum :| circle
Djembe:

Fanga GoDo GoDo Go GoDo |

― from Randy Brody Gun Dun Gun GunDo |

Nigerian Welcome Song GoDo GoDo Go GoDo |

Gun Dun Gun GunDo |
Drum part 1:
Gun -Go -Dun Go | JuJu
Gun Dun GoDo - |
Some of the parts from Bashiri Johnson’s
Lets -take -a drive | Supreme Beats JuJu samples:
to Mac Donalds - | Low Congas:
––GoDo |
Drum part 2:
GunDunGoDo --GoDo
Gun DunGun -Dun GoDo |
GunDunGoDo ––GoDo |
Gun Dun Gun PaTa |
Lead Drum:
Voice: Dun—-Go --Gun-
Fanga alafia, Dun—-Go ––Gun– |
ah-shay ah-shay

Fanga alafia,
ah-shay ah-shay

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 475

Djoli Randy Brody Part 4 (Solo):
GunDoGoDo GunDoGoDo |
[joh-lee]
GunDoGoDo GunDoGoDo |
West African → Brazil → Became the Samba Randy Brody Part 5 (Solo):
rhythm. Walk the big dog is the calypso PaTa -Ta PaTa -Ta |
rhythm (Mary Knysh, February 13, 2010).
PaTa -Ta PaTa -Ta |
Randy Brody Part 1:
Gonkogi Bell (caps=high bell, lower case=low bell, 4th
Gun -Do Gun Do | apart):
Gun -Do Gun Do | Pa Ta Gun DunPa |
Gun -Do Gun Do | -Ta -Pa Gun Dun |
GunDO -Do Gun Do |
SCRATCH MY back and I'LL |
Walk -the Big Dog | SCRATCH YOUR shoul der |
Walk -the Fat Dog |
from [DWORSKY 2000]:
Walk -the Big Dog |
WalkING -the Fat Dog | Go DoGo -Do GunDun |
or Go Do GoDo GunDun |
TripON -the Fat Dog | Gun GoDo Gun GoDo |
David Darling counterpoint:
Gun GoDo Gun GoDo |
GunDo GoDo Pa- Do- |
Water melon Ice Cream | Traveling Solo Game based on Djoli
Samba Rhythm
Randy Brody Part 2:
GoDoGoDo Go -Do Go Gun | Great for around-the-room solos, with space
IDonWanNa walk -the dog now | for individuals to solo.

GoDoGoDo Go -Do Go -Gun | GunDO -Do Gun Do |

I don wanna walk - - - - |
-the dog -now | Trip ON the Fat Dog |
Randy Brody Part 3: (each person solos)|
Pa -Ta PaTaGoDo |
Pa -Ta PaTaGoDo | Egyptian / Bedouin Seven
(“Moon Fever”?)
Walk the BigDogOhPlease | Walk ― Egypt, March 2005
the BigDogOhPlease |
Doumbek:
Dum - K’Tek Tek
Dum - K’Tek Dum
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- K’Tek Tek Dum Nigerian Frekoba in Four
- K’Tek | ― from Randy Brody

Dum - K’Tek Tek Part 1:

Dum - K’Tek Dum Gun Dun Go Do

- - (Sqk) - Gun Dun Go Do |
(Sqk) - | Part 2:

Djembe:
Gun Dun GoDo GoDo
Gun - D'Go Do Gun Dun Pa Ta |
Gun - D'Go Gun Part 3:

- D'Go Do Gun Gun Dun GoDo GoDo

- D'Go | Gun PaDo - PaDo |

Gun - D'Go Do
Baladi
Gun - D'Go Gun
[bah-lah-dee]
- - (Squeek) -
(Squeek) - | ― from Randy Brody,
Weston Drum Circle, November 21, 2005
Baya Egyptian rhythm. Minor variations by Clint
[bahy-yah] to make it an eight-bar cycle:
― from Randy Brody and Mary Knysh Dum Dum TeKa Tek |
This is a round in four separate parts. In this Dum TeKa Tek TeKa |
rhythm, “GDGD” = “GoDoGoDo”. The Dum Dum TeKa Tek |
GDGD parts cycles around the four parts: Dum TeKa Tek TEK |
Part 1:
Dum Dum TeKa Tek |
GDGD Gun Gun Gun | Dum TeKa Tek TeKa |
Part 2:
Dum Dum TeKa Tek |
Gun GDGD Gun Gun | Dum TeKa Dum - |
Part 3: Grape fruit cantaloupe |
Gun Gun GDGD Gun | Grape apple grape apple |
Part 4: Grape fruit cantaloupe |
Gun Gun Gun GDGD | Grape apple grape GRAPE |

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 477

Grape fruit cantaloupe | Ayub
Grape apple grape apple | [ah-yoob]

Grape fruit cantaloupe | ― from Randy Brody,

Grape apple grape - | December 9, 2005

Companion rhythm to Baladi (Ayub uses

lower drum, Baladi uses higher)

Dum TeKa Dum Tek |

Dum TeKa Dum Tek |

Gun DoGo Dun Go |

Dun GoDo Gun Do |

Straw berry grape fruit |

straw berry grape fruit |

West African Polyrhythm

― from Randy Brody,
December 4, 2005
West African Three:
Gun GoDo Go |
Gun GoDo Go |
West African Six:
GoDo GoDo GoDo |
Gun Dun Gun |
West African Gankogui (bell or drum):
Gun Do Go |
DoGo -Do -Go |
Dun Go Do |
GoDo -Go -Do |

Please pass the |

tartar -sauce -oh |

Low HI HI |
HI HI HI HI |

478 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Basic Rhythm heard on Masmoudi Kebir ( )
Native Flute track ― from Jeff Senn web site
― December 8, 2005
Masmoudi Kebir (Kebir = “big”) is also
Gun -Do GoDo | known as “Warring Masmoudi” (due to its
Gun -Do GoDo | aggressive cadence), it is a common
masmoudi played for Middle Eastern Dance,
and this eight-beat measure is really the
Cinte
basis for many other rhythms.
[sin-tey]
Dum Dum
― from Randy Brody,
December 9, 2005 TeKaTeKa Tek |
Dum-TeKa TeKaTek-
Go GoDo Gun Do | TeKaTeKa Tek |
Gun Do Gun Do |

Quick take a bite and | Maqsoum ( )

chew and chew and | [mahk-soom]

― From Jeff Senn web site

Dogon
Maqsoum (which means, “cut in half”) is
― from Randy Brody,
December 9, 2005 really a whole class of rhythms that fit in a
four-beat measure. The maqsoum is quite
GoDo GoDo Gun Go | basic to Middle Eastern rhythm; maqsoums,
GunDo Go - DoPa | and eight-beat measures formed by
concatenating a maqsoum with another
Chicken fingers French fries| four-beat measure, form a rhythmic basis for
and a Coke - ItsGood| much Middle Eastern music. This version is
a simple and very basic version.
Hoo Roo Basic:
― from Randy Brody, DumTek -Tek
December 9, 2005 Dum- Tek- |
1: Gun Dun Gun G’Do | Filled in:

2: [PA] GoDo D’Go - | Dum-Tek- TeKaTek–

3: GoDo Gun GoDo Gun | Dum-TeKa Tek-TeKa |
4: GoDo-- GoDo-- GoDo-- Go |
5: Pa Ta {PaTa} Pa |

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 479

Masmoudi Saghir – Beledi ( ) Walking Maqsoum ( )
― from Jeff Senn web site ― from Jeff Senn web site

Beledi is a commonly requested dance Walking Maqsoum is another rhythm

rhythm – just about everyone knows it (and sometimes called Beledi – especially among
many dislike it because it is so common). Middle Eastern Dancers in the Western U.S.
Unfortunately, “Beledi” means different
A “walking” rhythm is one that has an even
rhythms depending on where you are.
or steady (not very syncopated) beat –
“Beledi” really implies a sort of gypsy-ness
presumably reminiscent of a steady walking
or non-urbaness (possibly “hick”, depending
footfall.
on who you ask).
Basic:
This version, more correctly called DumKa TeKa DumKa Tek |
Masmoudi Saghir (“Small” Masmoudi) is
With bridge:
perhaps the most common “Beledi” rhythm.
If you look closely you will see that it is DumKa TeKa DumKa Tek-TeKa |
really a Masmoudi “squeezed” into time.
Ayyub ( )
Basic:
DumDum TeKaTek- ― from Jeff Senn web site
Dum-TeKa Tek | Ayyub is a simple fast rhythm often played
With bridge: for accelerating or energetic sections of
DumDum TeKaTek- Middle Eastern Dance performance. It is a
Dum-TeKa Tek–TeKa| driving rhythm that somehow “wants” to get
faster and faster. Ayyub fits well within
other rhythms and can be generally useful as
an accent – however played too long, it does
get monotonous …
Basic:
Dum K’DumKa |
Filled version:
DumKa TeKa |

480 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Advanced Cultural Rhythms “Cifti” is characterized by strong accents on
1, 3½, 6 and often 5. It has a unique
Here are a few more complicated rhythms, character – the strong beat on 3½ makes it
but ones that are still very commonly used sound like it “turns around” in the middle
as basic rhythms in music and dance in and the rest at the end (if not filled in) is a
various parts of the Middle East. dramatic pause. Here is one basic version:
Basic:

Karsilama ( ) Dum-TeKa TekTek

[kahrsh-lah-mah] TeKaDum- Tek
Dum Dum
― From Jeff Senn web site
Tek - |
Karsilama (Turkish for “face-to-face”) is a Filled:
very common 9 beat rhythm – it is, perhaps, Dum-TeKa TekTek
the most common “odd count” rhythm in TeKaDum- Tek-TeKa
Middle Eastern music. Dum Dum
It is very common in Turkish tunes, and is TeKaTeKa Tek |
probably Turkish in origin. It can be played
… and a more filled-in version. However,
very fast, or very slow, and can be filled in
don't over-do it!
many ways. It is a particularly popular
rhythm among Middle Eastern dancers.
Cifteteli ( )
Basic:
― From Darbuk.Ka.
Dum - Tek
- Dum - The Cifteteli rhythm, originally from
Tek Tek Tek | Turkey, entered the Arabic world with the
expansion of the Ottoman Empire. In fact,
Filled:
Chifteteli is how Belly Dance is named in
Dum KaKa Tek
Turkey and Greece.
KaKa Dum KaKa
Tek Tek Tek | It is also known as “camel rhythm” because
it is very appropriate for this kind of
Ciftetelli ( ) movement of the oriental dance. It is time,
― from Jeff Senn web site very common in popular Turkish music, so it
would be the equivalent to the Egyptian
Ciftetelli is probably Greek or maybe Maksoum.
Turkish in origin. It is usually played slowly
Darabouka:
and with a variety of fills. Remember when Dum -Te-Ka Dum-Dum- Tek |
playing this rhythm that silence is a note!

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 481

Djembe:
Zumbaty ( )
Gun -Go-Do Gun-Dun- Go |
― From Darbuk.Ka.

There is also an Egyptian rhythm, quite

similar to Cifteteli, known as Zumbaty,
coming from Sumbat, a village in the Nile
Delta, home to Gawazy dancers and singers
who travel to Cairo to try their luck and
settle in the mythic Muhammed Ali Street,
the centre of the artistic life in Cairo since
the XVI century.
Darabouka:
Dum -Te-Ka Dum -Tek |
Djembe:
Gun -Go-Do Gun -Go |

Serto ( )
― from Jeff Senn web site

Serto is a Greek rhythm. It alternates accent

on every other measure:

Dum K’Dum -Ka TeKa |

Dum K’Tek -Ka TeKa |

482 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Saidi ( ) Three-Five Rhythm ( )
[sahy-ee-dee] ― from Peter Dubner,
December 23, 2005
― from Jeff Senn web site
Piano / Djembe rhythm. Play as 2 triplets,
Saidi is a rhythm often used for a cane then 3 duplets plus 2 duplets.
dance. The beats at 4 (and sometimes 3½)
can be varied dramatically or replaced with GUNDo GoDUN GoDo GunDo
other percussion (such as hand clapping) to GunDo GunDo PaTa PaTa |
give the rhythm a distinct sound.
Basic: Otha Turner Rhythm from
Dum-KaTe -KaDum- Shimmy She Wobble ( )
Dum Tek | Transcribed by Clint Goss, April 30, 2006
Filled:
GUN D’GoDo -G’Do GunDo |
Dum-KaTe -KaDum-
Dum-TeKa Tek-TeKa |

Rumba and Bolero (both )

― from Jeff Senn web site

Rumba and Bolero are similar rhythms with

different accents. Bolero is often played with
a “triplet” in the second half of the first
beat.

A triplet is three beats fit into a two-beat

space. Both rhythms have made their way
from North Africa through Spain and Cuba
into modern music.
Rumba:
Dum-teka teKA
teKA DumKa |
Bolero:
Dum-:tekaka: Teka
Teka DumKa |

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 483

 Vocal:
Syncopated and Odd Meter
Go - Go - Go - |
Rhythmic Exercises Geh - - Geh - - |
R L R L R L |
These exercises were distilled from sessions
and workshops facilitated by Mary Knysh
R L R L R L |
and David Darling, and hosted by the MUSIC
FOR PEOPLE organization. They are designed Inverted Three Syncopation ( )
for group work in developing and Drum:
improvising grooves, especially syncopated Gun L Gun L Gun L |
rhythms and complex meters. Gun Do R Do R Do |
The notation here is different from the Vocal:
African and Middle Eastern Drum language. Go - Go - Go - |
Go Geh - Geh - Geh |
The Drum version of each uses the Gun and
R L R L R L |
Dun sounds on a djembe, but represents the
R L R L R L |
silent beats with L and R “silent” hits in the
thigh.
Five-Four Grooves ( )
The Vocal version is useful for a group that
Drum:
is vocalizing the rhythm over body
Gun L R Dun R |
percussion. The upper row is the
Dun R L Gun L |
vocalization and the lower row represents
finger snaps or slaps on the thighs or chest Vocal:

with the L and R hands. CHI Ki Da GA Da |

GA Da CHI Ki Da |
Three-Two Clave Syncopation ( ) GA Ma La TA Ki |
TA Ki GA Ma La |
Vocal:
Go - - Do - - Go - | - R L R L R |
- Da - Da - - - | L R L R L |
R L R L R L R L | R
L R L R L R L | Seven Eight Grooves ( )
Drum:

“Go-Geh” – Syncopation Gun L R Dun R Dun R |

Dun R L Gun L Gun L |
Drum:
Gun L Gun L Gun L | Vocal:

Gun L R Dun R L | CHI Ki Da GA Da Ga Da |

GA Da Ga Da CHI Ki Da |
484 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 Beatriz Pinto Rhythm ( )
GA Ma La TA Ki Di Mi | ― from AOI 2006
TA Ki Di Mi GA Ma La |
Gun Go{PaTa} -Go DoGo |
R L R L R L R | Gun GoDo GoDo -Do |
L R L R L R L |
Misc Rhythm ( )
― from AOI 2006

Do GunDo Gun Do |
Gun - - - |

I’m going to the |

store |

Dr Who Theme ( )
― Dr. Who, Season 8, Episode 1, @ 5:00

Gun GoDo Gun GoDo |

-Go Do- Gun - |

Lets take a walk and then |

we can play |

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 485

Rhythms from Drum Camp 2006 Core Rhythm
― from Ryan Camara,
These are rhythms learned from the various DrumCamp 2006
facilitators and instructors at Drum Camp
Part 1:
2006 in Ashland, Oregon.
Pa-Do Pa-- Pa-Do Pa-- |
Part 2:
West African Rhythms Pa-- TaGoDo Pa-- TaGoDo |

Mane ( ) Bell Triplets ( )

[ma-ney] ― from Ryan Camara, DrumCamp 2006

― From Lamine “Dibo” Camara, DrumCamp Three flavors:

2006
:BB-: :BB-: :BB-: :BB-: |
Go-Go Do-Do Go-Go Do-Do | :B-B: :B-B: :B-B: :B-B: |
Go-Go Do-Do GoDoGo DunGoDun | :-BB: :-BB: :-BB: :-BB: |

Casabe ( ) Standard Break in

[kah-sah-bey] ― from Ryan Camara,
DrumCamp 2006
― From Lamine “Dibo” Camara, DrumCamp
2006. {PaTa} GoDo - GoDo |
Composite modern (1950’s) rhythm from Pa PaTa Pa - |
two traditional rhythms from two different
Guinea tribes. Currently a symbol of Standard Break in
liberation. Part 2 is the CaSAH rhythm. ― from Kalani,
Part 1:
DrumCamp 2006
GunDun Go- GunDun Go | Basic:
GunDun GoDo -Do Go | {PaTa} Go Do Go |
Part 2: Do PaTa Pa - |
Go -Do Go GunDun | End/Flam
Go -Do Go GunDun | Standard:
{PaTa} GoDo -Go -Do |
or
Go PaTa Pa - |
Pa -Ta Pa GoDo | End/Flam
Pa -Ta Pa GoDo |

486 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Standard Break in GoDoPaTa PTPT PTPT PTPT |
― from Ryan Camara, GoDoPaTa PTPT {PaTa} - |
DrumCamp 2006
Yankedy
{PaTa}-Go Do-Go Do-Go |
[yan-ke-dee]
DO
― From Kalani, DrumCamp 2006.
Cool Triplet Rhythm
Full-moon socializing dance, Sousou ethnic
― from Ryan Camara,
group – dance of seduction – done with
DrumCamp 2006
scarves – 2 people hold the scarves. Part 1
--Go | and Part 2 are probably doundoun parts.
Dun-Go DunGo- --- --- | Part 1:
Gun -Dun Gun -Dun |
Accompaniment Rhythms in Gun -Dun Gun -Dun |
― from Kalani, DrumCamp 2006 Part 2:
[Gun] - -Dun Gun |
These are very common accompaniments.
[Gun] - -Dun Gun |
They can be used separately or together:
Djembe (Great Rhythm!):
Variation 1:
D’Gun Go D’Gun D’Go |
Pa -Ta Pa GoDo |
D’Gun Go D’Gun D’Go |
Variation 2 – More Rhythmic:
Gun GoDo - Pa | Second part of Yankedy from Mohamed
Camera, Drumcamp 2006, with triplets:
Variation 2 – Faster to Play:
Gun DoGo - Ta | Pa-Ta Go-Do PaTa- --Gun |
Pa-Ta Go-Do PaTa- --Gun |
Echauffement
― from Kalani, DrumCamp 2006.

“Echauffement” is French for “heating up”

… typically used by the lead drummer
before a break to call attention to the
upcoming break.

For this rhythm, PTPT = PaTaPaTa

GoDoPaTa PTPT PTPT PTPT |

GoDoPaTa PTPT PTPT PTPT |
Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 487
Makru Break:
PaTaPa TaPaTa PaTaPa PaTaPa |
[mah-kroo]
PaTaPa TaPaTa PaTaPa PaTaPa |
― From Kalani, DrumCamp 2006 Gun
Seduction dance follows Yankeddy. Part 1 is
on Dodumbah. Part 2 is on Sangban. Clave Rhythms
“Clave” means “key” or “cornerstone” or
Part 1:
“peg”. “Hemeola” is a 3-feel over a 2 pulse,
Gun D’Gun GoDo Go |
or two pulses in different places of the same
Part 2:
rhythm. The “B” is used to indicate a bell
[Gun] -Gun [Gun] -Gun | strike or a “beat”.
Djembe 1:
Gun GunTa GunDo GunTa | Son Clave
Gun GunTa GunDo GunTa | ― from Kalani, DrumCamp 2006
Djembe 2:
AKA 3-2 Clave or “Straight” Clave.
GunDo -Do Go Ta |
Gun Do Gun Do | Beats:
B- -B -- B- | -- B- B- -- |
Cool third part for Makru from Ryan 1 4 7 3 5
Camara:
Spacing:
Djembe 3:
3 3 4 2 4
Gun -Ta -Go Do |
Vocal:
Gun Ta -Go Do |
Takaday Takaday Takadimi
Taka Takadimi
Yolele
[yoh-leh-leh] Gamalah Gamalah Takadimi
Gama Takadimi
― From Mohamed Camera, DrumCamp
2006 Chikida Chikida Gadagada
Part 1 is triplets. Is Part 1 and Part 2 a four- Chiki Gadagada
against-three rhythm? Bell part against Son Clave (H=High bell,
Part 1: L=Low bell):
Pa-Pa TaGoDo PaDunGo DoGoDo |
Bell:
Part 2: H- LL H- LL | H- L- H- -- |
Pa GoTa Gun |
Son Clave:
PaDo GoTa Gun | B- -B -- B- | -- B- B- -- |
488 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
Brazilian Clave – aka Chin Bao Chiki Gadagada Chikida
― from Kalani, DrumCamp 2006 Chikida Gadagada

Son Clave with an eighth delay on the last

Rhumba Rhythm
beat.
― from Kalani, DrumCamp 2006
Beats:
B- -B -- B- | -- B- -B -- | Completely different than Rhumba Clave.
1 4 7 | 3 6 | Beats:

Spacing: B- -B -- -B | -- B- B- -- |
3 3 4 3 3 1 4 8 | 3 5 |
Vocal: Spacing:

Takaday Takaday Takadimi 3 4 3 2 4

Takaday Takaday Vocal:
Takaday Takadimi Takaday
Gamalah Gamalah Takadimi
Taka Takadimi
Gamalah Gamalah
Gamalah Takadimi Gamalah
Chikida Chikida Gadagada
Gama Takadimi
Chikida Chikida
Chikida Gadagada Chikida
Rhumba Clave Chiki Gadagada
― from Kalani, DrumCamp 2006
Afro-Cuban Clave in 6
Son Clave with the bars inverted and
― from Sue Lundquist, DrumCamp 2006
starting in a different place:
Beats:
Beats:
B- B- -- B- | -B -- B- --| B- B- B- | -B -B -- |
1 3 7 | 2 5 | 1 3 5 8 10 |
Spacing:
Spacing:
2 4 3 3 4 2 2 3 2 3
Vocal:
Vocal:
Taka Takadimi Takaday Taka Taka Takaday
Takaday Takadimi Taka Takaday

Gama Takadimi Gamalah Taka Taka Gamala

Gamalah Takadimi Taka Gamala

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 489

 Gada Gada Chikida Tuareg Clave in
Gada Chikida [twah-reg]

― From Abdul and Hassan drummers in

Ouarzazate, Morocco, April 2007

The “B” are the low beats, and the “H” is a

high hit (B=Gun, H=Do on djembe)
Beats:
B- -B -- B- | -- -- B- B- H-|
1 4 7 | 5 7 9 |
Spacing:
3 3 6 2 2 2
Vocal:
Takaday Takaday Takadimidimi
Taka Taka TAKA

Gamalah Gamalah Takadimidimi

Gama Gama TAKA

Chikida Chikida Gadagadagada

Gada Gada GADA

Bob Bloom Clave

― from Bob Bloom’s December 31, 2011
Drum performance in Westport

The “B” are the low beats, and the “H” is a

high hit (B=Gun, H=Do on djembe)
Beats:
B- -B -- -- | B- B- -- -- |
1 4 | 1 3 |
Spacing:
3 5 2 6
Vocal:
Takaday Takadimidi
Taka Takadimidimi
490 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 Gamalah Takadimidi drum that usually plays that part. This plays
Taka Takadimidimi well in counterpoint against the Bell part
shown. This was taught to me by Miguel in
Chikida Gadagadara Kiental, Switzerland at the MUSIC FOR PEOPLE
Chiki Gadagadagada gathering, July 2007.

Brazilian Rhythms Marcha Pattern for Conga – 8-beat

― from Kalani, DrumCamp 2006.
These are typically done on the conga drum,
Slow for ChaCha, Fast for Rhumba or
with the Gun/Dun as “bass” and Go/Do as
Momba
“tone”. Pa/Ta slaps are often closed,
written (for example) [Pa]. Hand Finger Slap Finger
Hand Finger Tone Tone
Bakoso – Brazilian Conga in 6
L L R L
[bah-koh-soh]
L L R R
― From Sue Lundquist, DrumCamp 2006
Mute Mute Mute Mute
Part 1: Mute Mute Open Open
Gun GunDun GoDo |
Gun GunDun GoDo | Marcha Pattern for Conga – 6-beat
Part 2: ― from Kalani, DrumCamp 2006.
Dun GoDun [Pa] |
Dun GoDun [Pa] | For low and high drums:
Low:
Part 3:
Go GunDun [Pa] | Hand Finger Slap Finger Tone
Gun GunDun [Pa] | Tone
L L R L R R
Bell:
Mute Mute Mute Mute Open Open
B B BB | -B -B -B |
High:
Vocal version of Bell Part:
Slap Finger Tone Tone Hand
-Did |
Finger
You see JoJo |
R L R R L L
-Go -Go -Did |
Mute Mute Open Open Mute Mute
Parts 2 and 3 can be done as “say it-play it”
with “Kin KaNee - Kin KaNee -” –
without the [Pa] – as in the name of the

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Rhumba Guaguanco Afro-Cuban Rhythms
[room-bah wa-puh-wahn-coh]

― From Kalani, DrumCamp 2006 Core Afro-Cuban Rhythm

for the Bata Drum
For conga – not a straight rhythm … use a
[buh-tah]
‘rolling egg’ varying rhythm:
― from Sue Lundquist, DrumCamp 2006
Go [Do]Go -[Do] [Go][Do] |
[Go] [Do]Gun -[Do] [Go][Do] | GunDo Gun Do - |
Gun Dun Go - |
R L R L R L
R L R L R L
Bomba
Bell part is rhumba rhythm offset by one ― from Sue Lundquist, DrumCamp 2006
bar:
From Puerto Rico … on a Putamayo CD. See
Bell:
separate Bomba sheet music for melody.
-- B- B- -- | B- -B -- -B |
Basic Rhythm – easier to play straight:

Capawera Gun- -Dun -Go Do- |

Version to use if playing silent taps on all 8th notess:
[ka-puh-wair-uh]
Gun- -Dun -Do Go- |
― From Kalani, DrumCamp 2006

Melody against the Djoli “Walk the Fat Dog” Conga de Comparsa
rhythm. See separate Capawera sheet music. ― from Sue Lundquist, DrumCamp 2006

Comparsa is the group that plays the conga.

Constitution Museum Rhythm
Played with the fat end of a drum stick on
― from Constitution Museum, conga – two tones: “M” muted (with left
Philladelphia, 2006
hand) and “O” ope n.
Beats: BBBB B-B- B-BB BBB- | Basic:
M--- M--- M--O ---- |
Morph Variation 1:
Morph “Walk the Big Dog” into “The Big M-M- M-M- M--O ---- |
Dog Walks” … which is a different rhythm Variation 2:
that I’m familiar with from Randy’s drum M-M- --M- M--O ---- |
circles …
Break – increase volume to crescendo:
D’Gun Dun Gun - | M-M- M-M- M-M- M-M- |
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Variation 3: low and high drum pair, like bongos, with
M--O --M- M--O ---- | the Do being the high-note drum. This is the
M-M- M-M- M--O ---- | version:
Djembe:
Long Bell
GunDun -Gun Do-
― from Pete Barnhart, Drumming class Gun- DunGun Do- |
December 14, 2006.
R L R L
Only a few parts recalled, and this needs to
R L R L
be checked for accuracy!!
… and a version in time, done using all
Note the variation in the bell part from the
triplets:
Bakoso Brazilian bell part. These two
rhythms work together! :GunDun-: :Gun-Do:
Djembe: :Gun-Dun: :GunDo-: |
Gun Go Pa
GunTa -Do -Dun | Ted Natale Simple Rhythm
Djembe: from “Djembi Jam” track 5 of Jeff Ball free
{PaTa} PaTa Pa downloads
PaTa -Ta Pa- | Djembe:

Bell: Gun- -Do Gun- -Do |

-B | Gun- -- Do- -- |
B B B
BB -B -B | Cool Rhythm heard in some song
― February 2007
-Did |
You see Jo Djembe:

JoGo -Go -Did | -- Gun- Gun- GunDun |

-Gun Dun- GunDun Gun- |
Arabic Rhythm
― from the guy in Fes who sold Vera the From “Laila” – Best of Bollywood
really nice leather coat April 11, 2007. ― in iTunes database
Djembe:
Called “Lalam Namah” by the leather store
guy. Gun- -Do Gun- --Do- |
Gun- -Gun DoGoDo- ---- |
Works as a part in time, but also as a
time with triplets. This rhythm is best on a

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From “Migra” – Santana Clave-style rhythm of Jim Oshinsky
― in iTunes database ― October 14, 2007

Cool rhythm – need to transcribe! Djembe:

Gun- GoDo -Go Do- |
Djembe:
Gun- -- -- -Do |

Two Georgian Rhythms

― From the Republic of Georgia Dance
Troupe, October 28, 2007
Djembe:
:Gun-Go: :DoGoDo:
:GoDoGo: :DoGoDo: |
Djembe:
GunDo GoDun GunDo GoDun |
GunDo GoDun Gun “Hey” |

Guiro Rhythm
― from woman in town North of Cusco we
went to for the day March 2008.

Can be played in Three or fast two-beat.

Guiro:
Down DownUp - |
Down DownUp - |

Down-Down Up-- |
Down-Down Up-- |

Flowing
― From Randy Brody, December 1, 2008

Rhythm used in first of the “Five Rhythms”

of Gabrielle Roth.
Djembe:
Gun- Dun- GunDun -Gun |
-Dun -Gun Dun- Dun- |
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 Gun- Dun- GunDun -Gun | Klezmer Rhythm
-Dun -Gun Dun- -- | ― Classical Klezmer group in Krakow,
March 2010
Kung Fu Panda Djembe:
― rhythm used in Kung Fu Panda, Gun- DoGun -Gun Do- |
heard November 29, 2009
Djembe: Rhythm
Gun- -Dun -Gun Dun- | Invented April 2010. Note that this
-- -- GoDo GoDo | interleaves nicely with the Klezmer Rhythm,
described above.
Darling Warmup Djembe:
― David Darling warmup groove, GunPa -Gun
February 12, 2010 Pa- GunPa |
Djembe: -Gun Pa-
--Gun- | [GunPa]- [GunPa]- |
Dun--- Go--Do Go-Do- --Gun- |
Vera Clave
Brazilian Carnival Rhythm Vera played at Zion Flute Concert May 11,
― from Mary Knysh, 2011. Changes meter but is really a long 23
February 13, 2010 cycle. Associated story of complex rhythms
in Aswan, Luxor, and Cairo.
Notice that this is an odd number of drum
beats, so the hands switch every cycle. Djembe:
Gun- -Dun -- GoDo
Djembe:
Gun- -Dun -Go DoGo
Pa- Ta- Gun- Dun- |
Gun- -Dun -Go DoGo DoGo
PaTa -Gun -Dun Gun- |
Gun- -Dun -- GoDo
Eee Zhay Ya Ya | Gun- -Dun -Go DoGo DoGo DoGo|
EeZay -Ya -Ya -Ya |
Rhythm from Angelique Kidjo Improv
Ta- Pa- Dun- Gun- |
TaPa -Dun -Gun Dun- | Heard at Newport Jazz Fest Aug 2011.
Vocal:
Eee Zhay Ya Ya | DiKaDiKa Do-Dah-
EeZay -Ya -Ya -Ya | Do--- ---- |

… into …

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 495

 DiKaDiKa DiKaDiKa References
Do-Dah- Do--- |
[DWORSKY 2000] Alan L. Dworsky and
Twelve Rhythm Betsy Sansby. How to Play Djembe – West
African Rhythms for Beginners, published
Heard in Bern, Switzerland, Summer 2007
by Dancing Hands Music, 2000, 96 pages,
Djembe: ISBN 0-9638801-4-4 (978-0-9638801-4-7).
Go Go Pa GoGo Pa Go
Go Pa Go Pa Go - | Jeff Senn info is from A practical
Introduction to Middle Eastern Drumming
This is actually a melody in minor mode like available at
AADAAEAAFAEA. Recorded as a riff on the www.maya.com/local/senn/handout.html
Zoom H4 as STE-102.mp3 in December
Randy Brody web site is at
2011 on the Wing pentatonic vibes.
SoundDirections.net

MUSIC FOR PEOPLE web site is

Cuban Rhythms MusicForPeople.org

From Cuba trip, December 2017 – January Mary Knysh is found on the Web at
2018. MaryKnysh.com

Drum Camp web site is at DrumCamp.com.

Chan-Chan
[chahn-chahn] Pete Barnhart web site is at www.damusic.biz

Derived from the rhythm / melody of the “Darbik.Ka” is a two CD set with extensive
famous Cuban song, together with a shaker liner notes. With Khamis Khenkesh and
counter-rhythm from Varadero … Mohamed El Sayed.

[TOUSSAINT 2005] Godfried Toussaint.

Gun- DunGo -Dun -Gun |
“The Euclidean Algorithm Generates
-Dun GunDun Go- Dun- |
Traditional Musical Rhythms”,
Gun- DunGo -Dun -Gun | Proceedings of BRIDGES: Mathematical
-Dun GunDun Pa- -- | Connections in Art, Music and Science,
Banff, Alberta, Canada, July 31–August 3,
Shaker:
2005, 2005, pages 47–56. Extended
Gun- GunDun Gun- GunDun |
version of this paper is [TOUSSAINT
Gun- GunDun Gun- GunDun |
2005A].

[TOUSSAINT 2005A] Godfried Toussaint.

The Euclidean Algorithm Generates
Traditional Musical Rhythms, monograph,
496 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020
 2005, 25 pages. Extended version of
[TOUSSAINT 2005]. Available at
http://ehess.modelisationsavoirs.fr/a
tiam/biblio/Toussaint-BRIDGES2005.pdf
.

[PENALOSA 2012] David Peñalosa; Peter

Greenwood (editor and contributor); Joel
Mielke and Rahsan Ekedal (illustrators);
Vanessa Linberg, William P. Gottlieb, and
Kellie Jo Brown (photographers);
Fernando Peñalosa (consultant editor).
The Clave Matrix: Afro-Cuban Rhythm: Its
Principles and African Origins, published
by the CreateSpace Independent
Publishing Platform, 2012, 304 pages,
ISBN 1-4782-9947-9 (978-1-4782-9947-9).

[GUILFOYLE 2006] Conor Guilfoyle. Odd

Meter Clave for Drum Set: Expanding the
Rhythmic Language of Cuba, published by
Advance Music, Rottenburg, Germany,
2006, ISBN 3-89221073-X (978-3-
89221073-3)

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 497

 Part 5 –

Sheet Music

498 Eighth Edition – August 3, 2020

Clint & Vera’s Native Flute Handbook 499
Sheet Music Introduction
The remainder of this handbook has sheet
music transcriptions for a wide range of
songs. All of these transcriptions are posted
on Flutopedia, along with substantially more
information than can be fit into this
handbook:

• Versions with inverted finger diagrams;

• Performance notes;
• Background information on the song; and
• Audio recordings.

While it may be convenient to play off these

printed sheets, please look over the
information on Flutopedia:

Flutopedia.com/song_book.htm

Also, please realize that some of these

songs have associated copyright
restrictions.

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