Thursday, January 04, 2007

Beginning Native American Flute Class Starting

I will be starting a new round of Beginning Flute Classes, in Palo Alto, starting next week, January 9th.

When: 5:30 -7:00 PM
Where:The Marhatis Enlightenment Center, Home of Rev. Maxi Harper
3433 Aston Ct. Palo Alto, CA
Printable Directions
Cost: $60 for 3 months (6 classes), or $15 drop in fee.

Materials: Optional purchase of "Beginning Native American Flute" book by Mike Oitzman, $20 includes CD

What to bring: Native American Flute and an open mind

If you don't own a flute, there will be excellent quality, entry level instruments available for sale from the instructor for under $100. Please contact Mike Oitzman prior to class to ensure that instruments will be available. After the class there is a Gentle Jam Circle at the Center for soft drums, flutes, didg, shakers and sound instruments. There is even a gong and singing crystal bowls that joins in and is open to voice and chants. A great way to practice what you learned in class. More info: www.marhatis.com/gentlejam.htm.

About the Class
This 3 month class is designed for all levels of Native American flute players. We will experience some traditional music as well as learning free form so you may apply your flute to accompany chants and other instruments in various circles. The sound and music that comes from this instrument and the culture are an intricate part of the energy and community that we so disparately need to recreate in our world right now. To solo to self with the flute is a healing to the soul and a comfort to the earth. It is the prayers of the heartful humanity set forth on winds of change. In this class you will learn the melodies of the heart, techniques of the intellect and the guidance of great spirit.

Please RSVP for the class: mikeoitzman AT naflute DOT com
More information: http://www.naflute.com/MIkeclass2.html

New Drum Circle Forum

A friend sent me info about a new Hand Drum and Drum Circle forum online. Here's the link: www.drumcircleforum.com

It's just getting started, so there isn't a ton of content yet, but you can help by posting your questions or responding to other comments.

Monday, January 01, 2007

INAFA Flute for Raffle

Kathleen from INAFA sent this message:

"This quarter’s raffle flute has been graciously donated by Ed Hrebec of Spirit of the Woods Flutes. The flute is a 2006 Mark Holland Signature Flute. Only 50 flutes were made of this series. It is made of approximately 800-year-old Alaskan yellow cedar. Ed and Mark collaborated with artist Clay Corbisier who masterfully painted Autumn leaves on the flute. The block of the flute is made from Claro walnut. This instrument is made to the tight specifications of renowned Native flute artist Mark Holland of Autumn's Child. It has a wonderful responsive voice and a great range. It is signed by Mark and is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity suitable for framing, and it comes with a Spirit of the Woods flute sleeve. This flute has been personally played by Mark to ensure consistency of tone and tuning. For more information about this flute and its maker, please visit: www.spiritofthewoodsflutes.com or call: 1-800-236-0406.Raffle tickets are $3 each. Purchase as many as you desire. Please send all raffle funds payable to:

INAFA
3351 Mintonville Point Drive

Suffolk, VA 23435

No Flute Class this week

Just a quick note to remind everyone that there is no flute class in Palo Alto this week. I plan to start a new round of class next Tuesday, January 9th. I post more details later this week. Drop me an email to get on the flute class mailing list for quicker notification about upcoming classes.

Happy New Year

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I hope that you and your family have a wonderful new year. It was a busy 2006 here at NCFC Central, but we have a lot of exciting things in the planning stages for 2007, so stay tuned.

I also wanted to give everyone a big THANK YOU for all of your support of this blog. From the beginning this was a big experiment to see if this could work as a method of communication to you and you all have proved that it indeed works well. We passed the 5000 site visit mark this last month!!