Drumming Circle

Part of my journey with the NAFlutes is joining in with a local Drumming Circle. I was able to get to another of the gatherings last night, taking a friend along with me for her 2nd taste of the drumming.

It was another wonderful night. Sharing the drumming is a really deep experience with the songs we share and the story which is told with the combination of drum beat (our hearts) and our voices (our breath). We also had the wonderful gift of Willie Kingi being there with his flutes.

His songs are beautiful. I am so thankful for the gift of his music and being there to experience the depths and heights where this music takes me. It was great to be able to show Willie the 2 new flutes which I have bought from overseas, and which he hasn't seen.

I have a John Vames flute and another which I found in a shop in Glastonbury, UK. That one I don't know who the maker is as the only marking on the flute says Navajo.

My next step on this path is definitely going to be getting out to Market Days to share these beautiful songs with others.

A play with sound recording

I have just uploaded a few sound files to the music player. The way I recorded these was through Audacity, which is very easy to use. I then exported the file as an MP3 (needed a little add-in) and did the upload. I hope you enjoy them. It is so liberating to get past my own judgement of how I think I sound, as to just putting them out there for others to enjoy - or not! I enjoyed the process of putting it together.

Into new ideas

Well, I have now purchased a webcam for the laptop. I'm hoping to be able to record a few more songs on the flutes, to give you an earful of different sounds that the flutes can make. The webcam has an inbuilt microphone. Not sure that I'm ready to go the full monty by doing a video of my playing as yet, but it certainly is something to look forward to as a future challenge. Looking forward to getting a start on it........... in a day or 2

A Yahoo Group

Well, I have just tried to start a New Group in the Yahoo Groups, and I got a bit frustrated with trying to upload a picture of myself, so I have given up for the moment.

Try back here later, and I may have succeeded!

A few discoveries.

Just remembering back to when I was getting waylaid on the internet, looking for anything I could find about the NAFlutes. There really is quite a huge amount of information out there, if only I had all the time in the world to read it all! Is that what it's about, information overload?

I really only wanted to get more info and learning tools, or even lessons. I have already mentioned Odell Borg and his video lessons, with a link below to the YouTube and some others who have also thought to put lessons together for the aspiring NAF player.

It was through this process that I began discovering the Groups. Yahoo has some really good ones. I have signed up for 7 of them relating to the NAF in some way. Even after the year and a bit, I'm still trying to get the hang of the Group posting and replying and suchlike. Takes a bit of time when not up with all of the technological advances of the internet and computers in general. Fun though. And it is really great to see how others are sharing ideas and having questions asked and answered.

http://groups.yahoo.com/

All I did was type in Native American Flute and a few different combinations of that phrase, and discovered a wonderful world of communication. I may even start one myself, for the Flute Circle at Strathalbyn in South Australia.

I think I'll go look for some more.......

Steps and steps

Or should I call it breath and more breath. What fun this journey.

When to breath, and what notes to play. I have become analytical - I'm not liking it much when I start thinking about the notes which come out with my breath. Too much Western thinking, I think!

Much better to just play, and play from the heart.

I'm continuing on my journey with the flute. Playing better each time, and gaining so much within. It is a Divine instrument. All the processes of creation to have it be in the form of this style of flute - how can one person describe the blessing of this creation. It needs to be experienced.

There has been quite a few music pieces which I have now printed out, in anticipation of being able to read the Nakai Tab a bit later. I know how to read sheet music, but not the Nakai Tab yet, at least not to fully understand the connection of the notes on the paper to the notes playable on the NAF.

Oh, a friend told me too by the way that NAF has a meaning in England (or somewhere other than Australia) of something not nice! When I use the NAF it does mean Native American Flute and nothing negative at all!

I'm trying to record my playing as well, and see how it works to upload to a Blog. Have the recording done, but now trying to find out how to do the upload!

Start of a wonderful journey

When I got back home, I began to make friends with my new flute. I was a little fearful of playing it to begin, in case I made it sound lousy - after hearing Willie's songs I knew that wouldn't be hard to do.

I just wasn't prepared to have gone through all that dreadful driving on that yesterday, to get home and not play such a beautiful instrument, because it might sound terrible! Goodness, how could such a thing sound terrible. So I picked it up and played.

Well, it wasn't fantastic as far as technique and smoothness goes, but it was my song.

One of the important things which Willie passed on to me was to play from the heart.
The way the 5 hole NAF is designed and tuned it can't make a note sound bad.
It has a wonderful way of being musical even when all I was doing was going up and down the holes, one at a time and getting to know my flute, getting to know more from my heart.

Then I got into going with the flow - following the few simple 'rules' that Odell Borg has passed along in his learning videos on You Tube.

Oh yes, I was back to the trusty Internet to learn more - and more..............

Blessings to you on your paths.

Introduction

Hi to you all.
My purpose initially for this blog is to share my Native American Flute journey with others.

It has been just over a year now since I purchased my first flute from Willie Kingi. And yet my story begins before that event.

I first heard a NAF when I went to a womens workshop where "Peru - The Singing Woman" was the guest presenter. In amongst the chanting and singing was played this divine instrument.

I knew I had to search out where I could possibly buy one. Trusty Internet. When I did the search the website of James Three Bears listed information on Two Feather Flutes. I noticed it was a local telephone number, so I rang. Found out he was only over the hill! So we organised a day for me to go and have a look at his flutes.
That day came. It was pouring down with rain all the way, and at times in deluge proportions so that I had to drive along at a crawl because a few of the road edges had washed out near the top of the hills. I kept going and finally arrived at Willie's.

What a joy to meet him, and to be able to hear this magic sound again. And WOW, Willie plays beautifully from deep within the heart. I went home with the flute pictured on the home page here. It continued to rain all through my drive back home, but I don't remember being as scared by it on that return trip. I felt that I knew my way back home without seeing, as the sounds of the songs Willie played repeated in my memory.

I got home safely. I also had the deepest feeling of having done the best thing in buying that flute.

So that was the start of my big adventure in NAF. Buying my first flute.