Rafffle Tickets on sale for INAFA Raffle

INAFA has announced a special raffle for the upcoming INAFA Convention. For $5 per raffle ticket you have the opportunity to win some greate flutes and flute gear from:

• Colyn Petersen of Woodland Voices Flutes
• Michael Graham Allen (Coyote Oldman) of Coyote Oldman Music and Flutes
• Mac Lopez of Whirlwind Studios
• Charles and Vicky Littleleaf of Happy Valley Flutes
• Butch and Laura Hall of Butch Hall FlutesJ
• eff and JoAnn Calavan of the Oregon Flute Store
• Ed Hrebec of Spirit of the Woods Flutes
• Pat Haran of Pat Haran Flutes (Flute Photos)
• Keith Glowka of Unique Flutes with Native American Tunings (Buffalo Horn Flute)

The drawing will be held at the upcoming INAFA Convention. For more information on how to purchase raffle tickets, check out the INAFA website: http://www.inafa.org/2006convention.htm

Geoffrey Ellis Blog

I just discovered that flutemaker Geoffrey Ellis of Earthtone flutes now has a blog. His most recent post highlights his trip to visit with Mary Youngblood a few weeks ago on the weekend of her recent CD Release Party.
Geoffrey is a local Northern California flutemaker. Although he lives up in the forest near Eureka, we do get to see him occasionally at NCFC flute circles. I know that he is planning to be at the INAFA convention with lot's of flutes for sale, so start saving now..

Hold the date...

We are now targeting Saturday, July 8th as the date for the Spring All NCFC Gathering in Sacramento. More details available as soon as we pull them together but there will be several workshops scheduled, potluck and an evening open mic jam session. Stayed tuned for more information, details will be provided in the upcoming spring Voice of the Circle newsletter.

Doc Payne CD Available

The DCCCD Foundation has established a Dr Richard W Payne Scholarship Fund. The Richard W. Payne Scholarship was created by the Armadillo Flute Society to honor Dr. Payne for five decades of service to preserve and promote the Native American flute. Dr. Payne, a retired Oklahoma physician, is an avid collector, historian and author of papers and books on the Native American flute. He is attributed with saving the Native American flute from extinction by returning flutes from his collection to Native Americans.
This scholarship fund offers an award of up to $1000 per year ($500 per semester, tuition and books only) plus complimentary registration for the Annual Armadillo/Richland College Native American Flute Retreat. The applicants must must have a 3.0 GPA or better and enroll full-time (12 credit hours or more) in music or pre-medicine with a demonstrated interest in playing or studying the Native American flute.

Doc Payne was a wonderful flute maker, flute player and he had the largest collection of Native American Flutes ever assembled prior to his passing. He is featured in the videos: Songkeepers and Toubat. This CD was probably the last time Doc played these flutes in his collection that extensively before his passing.

To order this CD, send a check made out to:

DCCCD Foundation
Total Cost is $15.
On the memo line of the check put Dr Richard W Payne Scholarship Fund
Send the check to
Suzy Hogue c/o
Richland College
Information Services
12800 Abrams Road
Dallas Tx 75243

Be sure to include a note with your address.

Suzies email to me includes the web links which I always type incorrectly so you can get that from me if you contact me off list. I love the parts where Doc talks and explains the flute then plays that very instrument. This was probably the last time Doc played these flutes in his collection that extensively before his passing.

Back to it

I apologize for the sparse posting over the last couple of weeks, I've been busy at work and traveling for business, so I've had little spare time to post. I plan to get back to publishing more now that things have calmed down a bit. Have a great weekend, I hope that you get the chance to play your flute outside this weekend.

NAF Playing Tip #20: Tag

This is the fifth exercise in the series of duet exercises, designed to provide you with some new ideas when playing with another flute player. This is an intermediate exercise, so if you are a beginner, I recommend that you start with the earlier exercises posted on prior weeks playing tips.

This exercise requires that both players use flutes in the same key. Also, this exercise continues the concept of playing a defined set of musical measures or beats, thus the reason that I classify this as an intermediate exercise. If you have never improvized a solo flute along with a drum or metronome, you might find this exercise a little challenging.

Description

This exercise is similar to “Catch-up” except the person who is to take the trade-off jumps in BEFORE the other person ends his/her phrase, so there is an overlapping transition. This exercise requires the leader to improvise a phrase of specific length (i.e. in measures / beats) and the follower has to get to the note being held by the lead within that same specified number of beats and/or measures. For example, each phrase will last 8 counts and each person uses this period to improvise their phase. Similar to "Butterfly", the lead plays a phrase and then holds the last note until the follower catchs up...
If you have a third person who can play the basic beat on a drum, that will be really useful.

Lead Role

Before beginning this exercise, establish the number of beats that constitute the time required for the follower to catch up. For example, start with an 8 beat phrase. Start by counting the beat out before launching into the first phase. Optionally hold the last note, but jump into the next phrase before the other person finishes the 8 beat count.

Follower Role

Count the beat with the lead during the first phrase, but jump in with your phrase before the lead finishes. You are now the lead (read the rules for the lead). Repeat.

In this exercise, again it's important for each player to hold the last note of the phrase while the other player plays. This not only builds your lung capacity but continues to reinforce your ability to listen to the other player, keep track of the counted beats and prepare to play your next phrase.

One you have the basic exercise figured out, the leader can make it more challenging by varying the number of beats played in realtime (e.g. in multiples of 4: go from 4 to 8, 12, etc) and the follower has to pay attention and play their improvised phrase in the same number of beats.



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Mary Youngblood CD Release Party

I was unable to attend Mary's CD release party this last weekend, but from the early reports which I received, everyone had a great time (except for me that is). Dan DiCiccio and the Loping Wolf Flute Circle sponsored a flute circle in Sacramento prior to the event. I know that several folks from the NCFC, including Dan Ricketts and Francesca attended.
If you have any stories to share about the evening, please leave a comment...

INAFA Convention registration DUE NOW!!!

Just a quick reminder that registration for the INAFA Convention in Northern California is DUE NOW! Even if you are planning to stay at home or at a local hotel and attend the workshops, you still need to get the $50 fee into INAFA before the end of May. I know that there are still many of you out there who are planning to attend, but haven't sent in your money for one reason or another... Well, now is the time to do it!

NCFC Annual Flute Circle coming...

Stay tuned, we're planning an "all NCFC" gathering in Sacramento for the first or second weekend in June. Details as soon as they are ready.

NAF Playing Tip #19: "Catch Up" Exercise

This is the fourth exercise in the series of duet exercises, designed to provide you with some new ideas when playing with another flute player. This is an intermediate exercise, so if you are a beginner, I recommend that you start with the earlier exercises posted on prior weeks playing tips.

This exercise requires that both players use flutes in the same key. Also, this exercise introduces the concept of playing a defined set of musical measures or beats, thus the reason that I classify this as an intermediate exercise. If you have never improvized a solo flute along with a drum or metronome, you might find this exercise a little challenging.

Description

This exercise is similar to the last duet exercise: “Butterfly”, except that this exercise requires the leader to improvise a phrase of specific length (i.e. in measures / beats) and the follower has to get to the note being held by the lead within that same specified number of beats and/or measures. For example, each phrase will last 8 counts and each person uses this period to improvise their phase. Similar to "Butterfly", the lead plays a phrase and then holds the last note until the follower catchs up...
If you have a third person who can play the basic beat on a drum, that will be really useful.

Lead Role

Before beginning this exercise, establish the number of beats that constitute the time required for the follower to catch up. For example, start with an 8 beat phrase. Start by counting the beat out before launching into the first phase, you have to complete your improvization within the defined interval. Hold the last note while the follower catchs up to you. Once they get to the note, start your next improvization phase on the first beat.

Follower Role

Count the beat with the lead during the first phrase.The transition is much more smooth if the follower can "anticipate" the trade-off.

In this exercise, again it's important for each player to hold the last note of the phrase while the other player plays. This not only builds your lung capacity but continues to reinforce your ability to listen to the other player, keep track of the counted beats and prepare to play your next phrase.

One you have the basic exercise figured out, the leader can make it more challenging by varying the number of beats played in realtime (e.g. in multiples of 4: go from 4 to 8, 12, etc) and the follower has to pay attention and play their improvised phrase in the same number of beats.



This Playing Tip is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Stanford Pow Wow this weekend

Just a reminder that the Stanford Pow Wow is happening this weekend. May 12-14, 2006. Starts at 5 PM on Friday and runs until 6 PM on Sunday. This is the biggest Pow Wow in the bay area. It usually has the biggest and best selection of vendors. The only flutemaker that I know of who has confirmed is Guillarmo Martinez, and he makes wonderful flutes, especially clay instruments. Get there on Friday night or early on Saturday if you want a good choice from his inventory of flutes, the good items will go first. If you're in the market for a new flute, this is a great Pow Wow to attend.

Bill Miller in Concert in Santa Cruz

Grammy award winning Native American flutist Bill Miller will be in concert this coming Sunday May 14 at 07:30 PM. At the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz.
PRESENTED BY Snazzy Productions
TICKETS AND INFORMATION
7:30PM (Doors 1/2 hour before showtime)
$21/Adv $24/Door
Tickets available at Etc. Etc. Etc., 1900 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz CA, 831-462-8282 or at Snazzy Productions 831-479-9421

Directions

Comments welcome...

I just wanted to remind folks that this blog is an open forum. I get many interesting private emails from you all, but I also wanted to encourage you to use the comments feature of the blog to add your input to the postings.

Native American Flute compositions

I haven't posted much on the topic of the availability of compositions for the Native American Flute. However, my first experience of actually composing for the Native American Flute and another instrument over the last couple weeks has been an interesting one.

My teaching style and philosophy for the last 6 years has been to enable my students to "play from the heart". I took my requisite piano lessons in my early years and spent many years in choir during my youth. This is where I learned to read music. But the Native American Flute appealed to me for the same reason it appeals to many of you, and that is it's amazing ease for improvization.
I have a tremendous respect for John Vames and his books/coursework on learning to play the Native American Flute from a musical theory perspective. But when it comes down to it, I haven't found much, if any music written for the Native American Flute and other instruments, other than Nakai Tab.

Mary Youngblood is one of my inspirations and one of my favorite flute players. When her album "Beneath the Raven Moon" came out and I played it in my CD player the first time, I was entranced by the melody on the song: "And we can love". This song includes flute and strings. I spent the next couple of hours decomposing and learning the melody for that tune. When Mary published the songbook for this album, I was excited... I wanted the whole song, including the strings so that I might be able to play it with a quartet at some point. But alas, the song book included the melody but no string transcription. I love Mary, I love this song, but I am still looking for the opportunity to play with strings (which I love).

This weekend I am playing a duet during church services. A composition for Native American Flute and piano which I arranged to the melody for "Zuni Sunrise". I've been wanting to play a flute/piano duet for a long time and this was my opportunity to compose. Leveraging the application PrintMusic and my Alesis QS6 keyboard, I sat down one evening a few weeks ago and let my muse take over. It was a wonderful exercise, something which I had never done before. Yesterday, the pianist and I practiced the song for first time together. What an amazing experience to hear your own composition (for more than one instrument) come to life for the first time. I'll post the recording of the song from the service at a later date.

Yesterday, I also received a mailing from JP-Publications. It's a catalog of Native American flute compositions for flute and other instruments. They are all written by James Pellerite. If you'd like to learn more about this catalog of music scores check out his website.

Taiko Drumming and Native American Flute performance for Cinco de Mayo

If you have to live in/near Grass Valley or Nevada City, then here's an event which you can't miss tomorrow night. I am playing with the Grass Valley Taiko Dojo and I am performing some music on the Native American flute. So come on down, enjoy so taco's and support a great cause.
Here's the story from the Union newspaper earlier this week:

"The Lyman Gilmore "Odyssey of the Mind" team is having a Cinco de Mayo taco salad dinner from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday May 5th. The team placed second in the state competition and has earned a trip to the world finals in Ames, Iowa, this month. Entertainment will include the Grass Valley Taiko Drummers, a Native American flutist, the LGMS Jazz Band and the LGMS salsa dancers. This fundraiser will help get them there. Tickets are available at Moule's Paint and Glass, Lyman Gilmore Middle School, Scotten School and Hennessy School, $5 for 12 and over, $3 for under 12.

NAF Playing Tip #18: Butterfly Exercise

This is the third exercise in the series of duet exercises, designed to provide you with some new ideas when playing with another flute player. This is an easy exercise.

Description

Similar to “Follow the leader” (last weeks exercise); this exercise has a different premise in that the lead plays (improvizes) a phrase of any length. The follower then plays (improvizes) a phrase of any length, ending with the same note that the lead finished on. A variation of this is to trade the lead every other phrase.

Lead Role

The lead plays a phrase of any length and holds the last note. When the follower gets to the note that the lead was holding, the lead then plays another phrase, again holding the last note. This is the cue to the follower to play a new phrase but ending again on the same note as the lead. Repeat and breathe as necessary.

Follower Role

The follower takes notice of the final note played by the lead, and then plays a different phrase, but finishes on and holds the same note being held by the lead. When the follower gets to the note that the lead was holding, the lead then plays another phrase, again holding the last note. The follower holds the last note while the lead plays another phrase. Repeat and breathe as necessary.

Note: This exercise is called "Butterfly" because it's designed like two butterlys floating around between a field of flowers, where one butterfly follows another butterfly to a flower, buts takes a different path to get there. This exercise, again it's important for each player to hold the last note of the phrase while the other player plays. This not only builds your lung capacity but is the the next step in learning to do something on the flute (i.e. play a note) while listening and then improvising something which harmonizes with the phrase just played by the leader. Have fun with this one...



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