Weekend Events: March 28 - 31

You can alway check out the Northern California Flute Circle Calendar to see what's happening further out, but I encourage you to login every week to review what's coming up for the weekend events!

NOTE: If I missed an event for the weekend, please add a comment with event info so that others can know!

Sunday, Mar 30

• Joaquin Clan Flute Circle2 PM

Monday, Mar 31

• Ann Licater"How to Play the Native American Flute as a Spiritual Practice", 7-10 PM Campell, CA

Workshop in creating musical Soundscapes

I just 'discovered' the ambient music of Steve Roach. Discovered is a relative term, especially for current fans of Steve Roach, since his has nearly 100 albums to his credit during a 30 year recording career. If you listen to any ambient music, you've likely heard his music.
Steve doesn't play the Native American Flute (as far as I can tell) but he certainly uses it (and many other instruments) in his recordings.

What is Ambient Music? Wikipedia defines it as a musical genre in which sound is more important than notes. It is generally identifiable as being broadly atmospheric and environmental in nature.

Steve Roach is offering a weeklong, hands on Masters Class Workshop in the creation and production of electronic soundscape music, at his ranch in Arizona. Open to 8 participants, the Master Class is for musicians and sound artists who already have a basic foundation of musical and technical knowledge. This Workshop will draw from the wide range of experience tempered by Steve's 30 years of living in the soundcurrent. Time will be divided between experiential music making and recording, deep listening lectures, and interactive sessions on creative and compositional strategies along with demonstrations on the myriad tools and options available today. The next open class is September 15 - 21, 2008.

Here's the link: http://steveroach.com/live/workshops/

I know that many who read this blog will find Steve's music interesting and I encourage you to listen

Incredible lineup of performers and presentors at INAFA 2008

If you haven't already heard the news, here's the list of performers and presentators for the 2008 International Native American Flute Association convention to be held at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, July 9-13, 2008.

Convention registration is open to everyone with an interest in the flute. Evening performances are open to the public, as are the vendors (during the day). For more information about the convention, registration, and the performers, please visit: www.inafa.org

• R. Carlos Nakai [performance and presentation]
• Bill Miller [performance]
• Kevin Locke [performance]
• Lean “Sonny” Nevaquaya [performance]
• Joseph FireCrow [performance and presentation]
• Skip Healy (Irish flute and fife) and Mark Bachand (bodhran) [performance and presentation]
• Michael Graham Allen (Coyote Oldman) [performance]
• Autumn's Child [performance]
• Xavier Quijas Yxayotl [performance]
• The Peter Phippen Quartet [performance and presentation]
• Frank Montano (Anakwad) [performance]
• Scott August [performance and presentation]
• N. Scott Robinson (In-house world percussionist) [performance]
• Rafael Bejarano (In-house didgeridooist) [performance and presentation]
• Flute Dreams Duo (Alice Gomez and Angela Malek) [performance]
• William Hoshal [performance and presentation]
• JazZen (Bobb Fantauzzo, Native American and Chinese flutes; Aaron Kerr, acoustic and electric cello) [performance and presentation]
• Ann Licater [performance]
• Randy McGinnis (Master of Ceremonies) [performance]
• Helen Spielman [presentation]
• Clint Goss and Vera Shanov [presentation]
• John De Boer [performance and presentation]
• Jan Seiden [performance]
• Jonny Lipford [performance]
• Robert Willasch [presentation]
• Ken Light [presentation]
• Randy Granger [performance and presentation]
• Duke Addicks [presentation]
• Michael Joseph Ulery (Native American flute) and Derek Mortland (guitars) [performance]
• John Sarantos [presentation]

Weekend Events: March 21 - 24

You can alway check out the Northern California Flute Circle Calendar to see what's happening further out, but I encourage you to login every week to review what's coming up for the weekend events!

NOTE: If I missed an event for the weekend, please add a comment with event info so that others can know!

Saturday, Mar 22

• Valley Clan Flute Circle, 3 - 5 PM, Napa
• Nonahme Clan, Flute Circle, 1 PM at the Golden Gecko, Georgetown, CA
• Ann Licater Concert, East West Bookstore, Mtn View 7:30PM

Sunday, Mar 23

• Go for a hike and play your flute - surprise someone with music on the trail!

Monday, Mar 24

• Ann Licater "How to Play the Native American Flute as a Spiritual Practice", 7-10 PM, Campell, CA
  

SAVE THE DATE: River School Benefit Concert with Scott August May 10

River School Benefit Concert with Scott August on the calendar for May 10 , 2008 in Napa Valley, CA. More details to follow when they are available.

Join 8,000 drums worldwide on March 21, 2008

I encourage you to be a part of this worldwide drumming event. To help spread peace and heal mother earth.

"According to a Sacred Prophecy revealed at the Otomi Ceremonial Center by the Otomi Elder Sages as a Vision of our Venerable Ancestors, the day when the sounds of 8,000 Sacred Drums join together will be the beginning of the healing of Mother Earth"

WHEN: March 21, 2008

TIME: 10 AM - 12 PM (CST) / 8 AM - 10 AM (PST)

WHAT: Play your drums prayfully. Send your prayers for understanding, tolerance, healing and happiness to those around you.

For more information: http://www.indigenousuniversity.org/sacred_drums.htm

NAF Playing Tip #29: Native American Flute Pairings for 3rd and 5th Harmony

Barry Higgins (White Crow Flutes) has a really nice representation of minor 3rd and 5th harmonies listed on his website.

Here's the link: http://www.whitecrowflutes.com/duets2.htm

The diagram on Barry's website is one more way to look at the pairing of flute keys when preparing play a Native American Flute duet in harmony with another flute player. In musical terms, the the "3rd harmony" and the "5th harmony" are the most pleasing to the ear (at least in western musical theory). A "3rd harmony" is actually 3 half steps/semitones (i.e. adjacent keys on the piano) from the primary note. A "5th harmony" is actually 7 half steps/semitones from the primary note. The 5th harmony is also known as the "perfect fifth".

Related musical theory articles:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_third
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_fifth
  

Related blog posts and duet exercises:

• http://naflute.blogspot.com/2006/04/naf-playing-tip-15-compatible-flute.html
• http://naflute.blogspot.com/2006/06/playing-tip-23-flute-keys.html
• http://naflute.blogspot.com/2006/04/naf-playing-tip-16-echo-canyon.html
• http://naflute.blogspot.com/2006/04/naf-playing-tip-17-follow-leader.html
• http://naflute.blogspot.com/2006/05/naf-playing-tip-18-butterfly-exercise.html
• http://naflute.blogspot.com/2006/05/naf-playing-tip-19-catch-up-exercise.html
• http://naflute.blogspot.com/2006/05/naf-playing-tip-20-tag.html
• http://naflute.blogspot.com/2006/06/playing-tip-21-composition.html
  

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

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Weekend Events: March 14 - 16

You can alway check out the Northern California Flute Circle Calendar to see what's happening further out, but I encourage you to login every week to review what's coming up for the weekend events!

NOTE: If I missed an event for the weekend, please add a comment with event info so that others can know!

Saturday, Mar 15

• Loping Wolf at California River Festival
• Azteca Mexica New Year, San Jose, CA with Guest Flute Player: Xavier Quijas Yxayotl, Noon

Sunday, Mar 16

• Loping Wolf Flute Circle1 - 3 PM
• Azteca Mexica New Year, San Jose, CA continues

Upcoming

• Mar 22 - Ann Licater Concert, East West Bookstore, Mtn View 7:30PM

Ann Licater in concert

Flute for the Soul Concert with Ann Licater


WHEN: Saturday, March 22

WHERE: East West Bookstore

ADDRESS: 324 Castro St. Mt. View CA

TIME: 7:30pm

TICKETS: $12 advance, $18 day of event

To Reserve Tickets,

Please Call 800-909-6161 or http://www.eastwest.com/march_events.html#22b

DETAILS


Ann will perform using more than a dozen indigenous wood and clay flutes from around the globe. Her CD Following the Call reached No. 14 on the Top 100 NAR charts. SPECIAL MUSICAL GUESTS: Destiny, The Harpist from the Hood, Didjeridoo Artist: Paradiso Turturici, and Suellen Primost,cellist-extraordinaire.


Ann's website: http://www.fluteforthesoul.com/

Wanna promote your event? check out upcoming.com

I just stumbled into a cool new online site dedicated to promoting events. It's called "Upcoming.com" (http://upcoming.yahoo.com/). I haven't used it yet, but it looks like a great place to look for events as well as promote events online. The best part is that it's free.

Play around with it. Try entering some different searches into the "find events" search box. I could find any "Native American Flute" events, but hopefully (with a little word of mouth marketing like this) more things will appear. I am going to submit some of the NCFC events and see how it works. If you have a local flute circle, are a recording artist or are organizing any event, be sure to post it there.

Post a comment of what you think about this (or other similar) event marketing resource.

Flute Racks by Old Turtle Flutes

I discovered another source for nice looking flute racks. Check out these beauties from Mike Knight / Old Turtle Flutes: http://oldturtleflutes.com/Racks%20and%20Stands.html

With prices between $41 - $60, they are definitely reasonable.

Meadowlark Ceramic Flutes by Jon Kulias

WOW. Check out these flutes by Jon Kulias of Meadowlark flutes. I have not played or held one in my hands, but I sure want to. Jon exhibited his flutes at the Potomic Flute festival. Check out all of the amazing works of ark on his website. He also includes a set of pictures highlighting how the flutes are made: http://meadowlarkflutes.com/process.php

Design of the Week Award:

Also, I have to give kudos to the design of the "Fluton" a bean-bag cusion for your flute.

Here's a pic:

Loping Wolf "Barn Raising" this weekend

Sheree and Dan DiCicco are getting ready to sell their home. As many of you know, they put a tremendous amount of their personal energy and resources into scheduling and delivering all of the great flute circle events for the central and northern Sacramento area.
They need some help this weekend (Saturday, March 8) to help tidy up and prepare their (empty) Lake of the Pines home to get ready to put it on the market.
If you can help between the hours of 9 AM - 2 PM, it will be a great way to say "thank you" to Dan and Sheree for all of their time which they dedicate to helping make the Loping Wolf Clan such a success.

Afterwords, everyone is invited to their new ranch for a potluck and flute/drum circle.

For more info, check out the Loping Wolf Clan website: http://www.lopingwolf.com/
To get access through the Lake of the Pines gate for this event, contact Dan DiCicco at:
flutecircle@lopingwolf.com

New Flutes from Earthtone Flutes

Geoffrey Ellis has some beautiful new flutes which are looking for homes. As you can see from the image above, Geoffrey has been perfecting his craft of inlay the last year and he's doing some amazing things with it now. Take a look at his latest inventory here: http://www.earthtoneflutes.com/

Also, check out the Flute Portal: http://www.fluteportal.com/

YouTube video from Xavier Quijas Yzayotl

Here's a nice video of Xavier Quijas Yzayotl:

Great Resource for Guitar Songs/Chords

I just stumbled upon an excellent online resource of songs with lyrics and guitar chords. I've picked up my guitar again recently and I've been playing alot, so I was looking for some good songs to practice. Here's the link: http://www.heartwoodguitar.com/chords.htm

Rob also has an excellent tutorial for his text-based song notation: http://www.heartwoodguitar.com/chordguide.htm

World Wide Telescope coming this Spring

If you are like me, and love to look at the stars, you'll be amazed by a new project coming this spring from Microsoft Reseach. It's called the World Wide Telescope and it promises to do for the universe, what Google Earth did for navigating the planet. It stitches together the greatest images from all of the telescopes of all of the viewed universe. It provides tours of beautiful images, all in correct orientation. It will be a free download.

Here's a couple links:

• http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/


• http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/224 (download the High Def version of the video...)