Posted By on September 24, 2009

Wish I could be there but it is a long way from Nanaimo to attend all of these wonderful flute events all over the US.
Mike Oitzman, host of the Northern California Flute Circle will be doing live blogging from the festival itself.
You can check it out at his site http://naflute.blogspot.com/

I know I will be checking in often to see what Mike has to say about the excitement at the festival.
HMMMM! All those flutes, HUMMM! All those lovely flute people. HMMMMMM! and of the great performances.
It won’t be quite like being there, but it will make you feel a bit more of a connection to the action
at this wonderful flute festival.

And a big thank you to Mike for providing this.

Category: Flute News | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By on September 21, 2009

There are many new and interesting ways to connect with fellow flute enthusiasts and players all over the world through the amazing tools that are available on the Internet.

I love listening to flute players but where I live, there just aren’t that many to be found nor do I live close to places where concerts are held.

Blog TV is making it much easier for people to see and hear good players. Rod Krug aka, didgerod of Colorado has introduced just such a show. It occurs on Monday nights. He regularly has co hosts who share their music.

Here is the links to Didgerods Native American Flute and Didgeridoo blog tv show
http://www.blogtv.com/People/didgerod

Here is a link to Rod’s facebook account page for the show;

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Didgerods-BlogTV-Broadcast-Live-Native-American-Flute-Didgeridoo-Music/131233330923?ref=nf

This is a great resource for anyone who wants to hear and see more flute music. In the chat section, you can meet new people. This is just another grea example of how these amazing instruments are bringing people together to share and learn (even across the airwaves).

Give it a try. I am sure you will find it very interesting.
Thanks Rod for providing this great show!!!!

Sample of the show below:

Terry Mack “Wind Weaver”- Broadcast your self LIVE

Category: Flute News | No Comments »
Tags: blog tv, digerod, native american flute, rod krug

Posted By on September 2, 2009

The whole world is going flute crazy. Even the makers of the Apple I – Phone are picking up on the excitement.
Just when I thought Native American Flutes were one of the few things left in the world free from the technological adaptation of everything, www.appliedvoices.com has come up with a Native American Flute application for your I Phone. It is called uflute. My husband (also an NAF flute player) bought the application for 99 cents US. We now have a five hole NAF flute on his I-phone that lets you blow into the phones microphone and finger the holes of the flute by touching the I-phones screen. Believe it or not, it even offers you a canyon mode for an echo effect while playing. It is pretty amazing what is happening with technology. As amazing as this is, it still won’t replace the fine feeling of a flute in your hands and the true magical sound it can make.

Category: Flute News | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By on September 2, 2009

My journey began when my first flute appeared in my home as a Christmas gift from my husband in December of 2005. This led to so much interest in the flute from people who had heard me playing that my husband ( I call him a serial entrepreneur) suggested we sell the flutes. I thought he was just a little crazy at that time and decided it was time for me to be a little crazy too.

Having fallen in love with these amazing instruments has changed my life. I have spent the past three years talking to thousands of people about their own interest in playing an instrument, followed through on my own dream of making my own music and encouraged thousands of people to make a leap and just pick up a flute and begin their own music making journey.

On this journey I have learned a great deal about many things from history, to playing, to just getting out of my own way and about the power of one small instrument to be a true connector to the global spirit. One of the things I have noticed is that people all over the world are searching for information about these flutes, searching for places to play and people to play with and flocking to flute festivals in droves to learn more and meet more people.

I am now embarking on this new adventure www.gonefluting.com. connected to my love for this instrument and am setting up a resource based website about the Native American Flute. My dream is to make this a central place of information about all aspects of these beautiful instruments and have something there for everyone from beginners to advanced players, makers, people who want to record and promote music and anything else that I can think of you or you as people in this beautiful community can tell me that you need.

It is just in the development stages. To make this a great resource for people, I need your help. Tell me what information you would like to see on this site.
Are you looking for more tablature for playing, interviews with other players, lessons, great places to play your flutes, where to start to record your own music? I will build gonefluting.com with feedback from you.

Nothing would excite me more than to go check my email and find it full of suggestions about how to build www.gonefluting.com. You can email me your suggestions to terry@gonefluting.com
or phone me at 1-250-740-0473.

I am waiting anxiously for your suggestions.

Until then, I am GoneFluting

Category: Miscellaneous | No Comments »
Tags: resources for native american flute players

Posted By on August 27, 2009

Playing Through The Noise
by Terry Mack on Tue 19 Sep 2006 08:36 PM PDT | Permanent Link | Cosmos
I picked up my first flute with great excitement just knowing that there was much beautiful music to be had in playing one. Even though I have no musical training, and can’t read music I was sure I could do this. You might call it one of those intuitive leaps of faith. I just knew I could play it.

Until I blew it the first time.

Well the sound wasn’t quite as pleasant as I had intended it to be. I was getting some squealing and some over blowing (the sound comes out an octave higher than the natural sound of the flute). My fingers were objecting to the fingering and needed a little practice to get into a rhythm. The inner critic was having a field day just telling me to stop already… you’ll never get it right and a host of other crazy making statements determined to have me stop playing.

This time, my desire to play the flute was stronger than the usual critical commentary from Negative Nelly (the name I have fondly given my inner critic.) It wasn’t long before I began to get past her noise and my first noisy stumblings in playing the flute and was making beautiful sounds.

What I discovered in learning to make music with my flute is the sheer joy of connecting to the flow of sounds that come from just letting your fingers wander on the flute.

After a few tentative attempts at making my flute sound, ‘negative nelly’ became quieter and the noise of the flute began to breakthrough into melodious musical sounds. I was thrilled. I was playing music.

I share this story with you to encourage you to silence your own inner critic and just play.

If you have not already begun to play your flute, find a peaceful place to sit and take your flute with you. Sometimes it helps to just close your eyes and let your fingers wander. The statement ‘the longest journey begins with the first step ’applies to playing your flute as well. The road to the melody begins with taking those first experimental fingerings.

While my favorite way of playing is to simply let my imagination and my intuition guide my fingers around the flute, I soon discovered ways to embrace the music of others and began to play familiar melodies on my flute. I am stilling making ‘Noise” when I play and now I find it fun to try new things and make new sounds with the flute. In playing through the noise I have discovered an inner musician who is delighted to be set free. In silencing that inner critic, I have found a new way to be in touch with my heart and soul.

Category: Terry's Thoughts on playing | No Comments »
Tags: begin to play native american flute, native american flute

Posted By on August 27, 2009

Breath and Inspiration by Terry Mack
by Terry Mack on Mon 02 Apr 2007 10:08 AM PDT | Permanent Link | Cosmos

A Native American flute is but a simple hollowed out wooden tube with a hole to blow into, 6 holes to cover and a little wooden block sitting atop the flute. With your fingers and your breath you can create magical sounds releasing the music that comes from your own soul.

Just the feeling of a beautiful flute in your hand inspires you to want to play wonderful sounds with it. And if you are like me, you want to do that right away. Slow down for a minute. Playing the flute involves connecting with your breath while mastering the art of covering and uncovering the holes producing sound that you find pleasing.

A first time flute player with no other wind instrument playing experience (and even a few who have played other types of wind instruments) pick up the flute and randomly cover and uncover the holes trying to find out how the flute makes sound. This produces wildly random and often dissonant sounds. These are beginner sounds and they are wonderful.

Anytime you pick up a flute, cover holes and blow into it you are playing the flute. The flute is making the sounds you are asking it to make with your finger movements and your breath. They are just not the melodious sounds that you want to hear yet.

Inspiration!
To breathe in.
To animate or take action.
Your breath inspires the flute to sound.
In approaching your flute, remember your breath.

Before playing, breathe in and breathe out a few times, to slow yourself down and release the tension of the moment. Let the breathing open you to your inner spirit.

Move your fingers slowly over the holes, letting the sounds you are producing with your breath catch up to the fingering the holes of the flute so the sound can be heard.

Take your time and get to know how your breath, covering the holes and producing the sounds feels. Let yourself connect to that process and soon your will find your way into your own beautiful sound through the flute.

A hand crafted Native American Flute is a wonderful combination of the spirit of the tree, the spirit of the maker and your spirit as the player. The tree has taken time to grow. The flute maker honors the wood and the tree taking time to carefully construct the flute. And now you as a flute player, can honor the flute with your breath, creating and sending forth a beautifully interconnected exhalation of sounds — the breath of life.

Category: Terry's Thoughts on playing | No Comments »
Tags: begin to play native american flute, native american flute, native american style flute