Clear Lake Flutes
Learning to Play Your Native American Flute: Lesson three
Author: John Stillwell
If you have gone through the first two lessons and have
experienced the thrill of hearing real musical sounds come from
your flute you will be more than ready to develop some new
skills. In this lesson I will show you how to add variety and
dynamics to your playing.
First, make the sound tah by touching the tip of your tongue to
the top of the pallet of your mouth and blowing some air
pressure against it as you suddenly let the tongue go slack.
It's a tah like the beginning of the word table. Do you feel the
air blow outward explosively? Try it again - make the sound tah,
tah, tah out loud. Now, do it again silently. Put your flute to
your mouth and with all holes closed. Make a silent tah into the
flute as you sound the fundamental note. Now sound the
fundamental by just blowing into the flute. Do you hear the
difference between these two sounds? The one made with a tah is
sharper and quicker than the plain blowing into the flute. This
is called a different articulation of the note.
You have learned how to go up the scale by blowing into the
flute as you sound each succeeding note. Now, go up the scale
but make a silent tah each time you sound a new note. Remember
the force of the breath comes from the solar plexus. One, two,
three, four, five, six tah notes. Then, go back down the scale
with the same articulation. Let's change it a little by doing a
double tah with each note as you go up and down the scale of
your Native American flute. You sound the note twice - tah, tah
note one, note two, etc. And, back down the scale again.
Try the same double note with the breath only as you did with
the first exercise. Isn't it interesting how a simple change in
the way the note is articulated could make such a difference?
Now, alternate the two different ways of sounding notes as you
go up the scale. Start by sounding the fundamental note with a
tah articulation and then sound the second note with a simple
breath articulation. Continue up and then down the scale using
the two different ways of sounding the note alternatively. Play
with this for a while. Use some tah notes and blowing note in
random combinations and listen to what you are creating. You are
adding variety to the sounds the flute is making.
Remember in lesson two when you held notes for different periods
of time. Some long some short. Now play with elongating and
shortening the length of time a note is held and the way the
note is articulated. Let your fingers and breath play with the
possibilities for a while. Throw in some short intervals of
silence between some of the notes. The silent interval is called
a rest. Hear how the notes start to find relationships between
each other? Your playing is starting to become dynamic.
After this lesson you are equipped to really play with your
flute. If you would like more information about playing and
making flutes you may go to my website at http://atflutes.com/ for more
information. Enjoy!
About the author:
John Stillwell has been playing and making Native American stlye
flutes for more than ten years. With little musical background
but a lot of motivation he taught himself to play the NA flute.
Now he offers his accumulated knowledge to help you learn to
play your Native American flute.
