Strengthening your fingers

In the last article we looked at playing your first Native American flute scale. It would seem natural that at this point you would ask the question "Now what?". There are a couple things that would be good to consider. Strengthening your fingers is one of them. The other is to begin "Playing from the Heart" which is the NAF word for improvisation, or just "noodling" around on your NAF and playing whatever pops into your head. We'll look at "Playing from the Heart" later, for now let's look at a couple easy ways to strengthen your fingers.

WHERE WE’RE HEADED
The point of this article is to start you on the path to freeing your mind from having to think about your fingers. The less you have to concentrate on your fingers the more you can focus on playing your music, and the music's what it's all about. To do that we're going to look at some very basic things you can do to prepare your fingers to move effortlessly, allowing you to play more freely.

A COUPLE THOUGHTS
The Brain Connection
The first thing to keep in mind is that you don't need strong fingers in the sense of muscle strength. You don’t need to do finger pushups. What is meant by strength here is mostly improving your coordination, which is handled by the brain. So what you're really doing is training your brain and it's messages to and from your fingers.

Repetition²
The second thing to consider is that like anything you do, and I mean anything, the more you do it the better you get. Repetition also multiplies on itself non linearly. I like to point out to the people that attend my NAF classes that if you were to tie your shoelaces every day of your life, that by the time you were 35 years old you would have tied them 12,775 times! Odds are you've gotten pretty good at it. The exercises below work the same way.

TIP: Practice makes better

REVIEW
Before we begin let's review the set up of the NAF. Remember that each hole has a number. We will also call the finger that covers any hole by the same number. So hole #1 is covered by finger #1.

Fig. 1 The finger holes of a six holed NAF

SOME SIMPLE EXERCISES
Here are some simple ideas that you can use everyday to warm up and strengthen you brain – finger connection.

READ THE REST IN SCOTT AUGUST'S NEW BOOK The Complete Guide to the Native American Style Flute

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© 2011 Cedar Mesa Music. All rights reserved.

Temple of the Sun: solo intro

Here is a video of the solo intro to Temple of the Sun from New Fire.
To Play, click on the play "button" on the lower left hand side of the image.
This was taken by my friend Keith Stanford last fall.

You can read more about this flute here.

Leave a comment here or email me at
blog@cedarmesa.com

Playing your first scale on a Native American flute

NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE PLAYING BASICS.

In this article we will cover playing your first Native American flute scale and begin to familiarize yourself with the basic fingering and notes of this wonderful instrument.

There are many books and videos about how to get started on the Native American flute. Odds are when you purchased your new NAF you may have got one from the maker. But just in case you don’t have one, you lost it or you need a quick, easy refresher we’ll quickly go over the basics in this article, along with some handy playing tips that you can use all the time.

EASY TO PLAY.
The Native American flute is a fipple flute. There are many fipple flutes around the world. European recorders, tin whistles and penny whistles and ocarinas to name a few. Fipple flutes, unlike silver flutes, pan-pipes and other wind instruments do not require you to produce the sound with the shape of your mouth. This makes playing a musical note very easy. You just put your lips to the mouthpiece and blow. In fact you can do it without covering any of the finger holes.

Go ahead and try it now. Leave open all the holes and just blow into the mouthpiece.

HOW TO HOLD YOUR NAF
Hold your flute with the first three fingers from each hand and both your thumbs. The flute should be at about 45˚ from your body. Stand up straight, hunching your shoulders will hinder your breathing. The holes are covered with the first three fingers from each hand. Most people cover the top three holes with their left hand and the bottom three holes with their right hand. However, you may switch hands if you feel that is more comfortable. Use the fleshy pads of your finger-tips, not the tips themselves. This helps prevent air from leaking past your fingers.

Let’s assign numbers to the finger holes of the NAF, starting from the bottom and working our way up to the top of the flute. The hole closest to the bottom of the flute is Hole #1, the next one up is Hole #2, then hole #3, and so one until the last one hole which is hole #6. This way of numbering conforms to the basic scale of the flute. (fig. 1)

Fig. 1 The finger holes of a six holed NAF

READ THE REST IN SCOTT AUGUST' NEW BOOK:
The Complete Guide to the Native American Style Flute


Get your copy today at Cedar Mesa Music!

© 2011 Cedar Mesa Music. All rights reserved.

How to care for your Native American Flute

So you bought your first flute and have started play it. Congratulations! I’m sure the question “What do I need to do to take care of it?” has crossed your mind. A Native American flute is a musical instrument and like all instruments needs special care. As a woodwind instrument your NAF has some extra needs that don't come with guitars, pianos and other non-woodwinds.

Moisture
The biggest problem that you will encounter is moisture. As a wind instrument every time you play your NAF you force moisture from your breath inside the flute. As this moisture builds up in the space between the block and the flute, called the “flue”, it will eventually prevent the flute from playing and choke off the airflow that produces the sound. This is called “watering out” and is the main problem most NAF players encounter. Watering out is a product of a couple factors: the temperature of your breath and the temperature of your flute.

The temperature of your breath is close to your body temperature or 98.6˚. The flute, however, is close to the ambient temperature of air around it, usually lower than 98˚. This also applies to humidity. The humidity of your breath is usually higher than the humidity of the air around the flute, unless you like to play in the shower.

As you play, you blow hot, moist, humid air into your flute. This moisture is partially absorbed into the wood causing the wood to swell. The remainder is deposited as small beads of moisture in the slow-air-chamber, also called the wind chamber, and the flue.

Under normal circumstances these beads of moisture will clump together becoming larger and larger in the flue until they choke off the flow of air. At first your flute will begin to lose it’s tone and sound breathy and wispy, then it will stop producing a sound altogether.

As for the swelling of the wood, if taken to extreme, will cause the seam to break, usually near the mouthpiece. Although less common, the swelling can cause a split in the wood if there is a defect in the wood itself.

How to Manage Watering Out
READ THE REST IN SCOTT AUGUST'S NEW BOOK The Complete Guide to the Native American Style Flute
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© 2011 Cedar Mesa Music. All rights reserved.

How to buy a Native American flute: Part 2

In Part 1 of How to Buy a Native American flute we looked at several different factors including:

• Quality of Workmanship
• Quality of Sound
• Tuning
• Fingering
• Ease of Playing

If you haven't read Part 1 yet, I strongly suggest that you take a moment to read it before you dive into this article. In Part 2 we will take a much more detailed look some things you can look for when purchasing a NAF, including:

• Finger spacing
• Flute length and bore size
• Types of Wood
• Finishes

Finger Spacing
For beginning flute players the most important thing to consider, other than the sound, is the width of the finger spacing of the holes on the flute. People with smaller hands, or those who have never played a musical instrument before, are not used to the stretch that comes with the bigger, lower pitched flutes. Starting with a smaller, higher pitched flute is like doing warm ups before exercising. It will help a beginner get used to playing a NAF without having to worry about a big stretch right away.

A flute in the key of A is a good way to start for people with smaller hands.

If your hands are bigger or if you've played a musical instrument before, the finger spacing will not be as big a consideration. I've found that people with experience playing other wind instruments like clarinet, recorder or a silver flute have no problem with the finger spacing. Pianists also do well. If you've played other instruments before, or you have large hands, you could easily start with a flute in the key of G or F#.

Of course even if you never played an instrument or your hands are smaller you could still start with a G or F# flute. Just try not to over do it and strain a muscle in your hands. Once you've gotten used to the stretch of these the larger flutes you'll do just fine. Most flutes below F# are harder for all beginners to play and I generally don't recommend them for that reason. But there are exceptions and that lead us to our next subject.

READ THE REST IN SCOTT AUGUST'S NEW BOOK
The Complete Guide to the Native American Style Flute

Learn More

Get Your Copy Today!

© 2011 Cedar Mesa Music. All rights reserved.