The Flute Harvest Program

The Flute Harvest program features a wide range of topics taught through lecture / demonstration, facilitated group playing, multi-media presentations, individual practice time, partner and small group experiences, peer-to-peer coaching, and community performance/sharing.

The primary goals of Flute Harvest are to:

• Improve the quality and range of your personal flute playing.
• Enable you to play with other instruments, including duets with other flutes, ensembles with all forms of rhythm instruments, and harmonic accompaniment (such as keyboards and guitars).
• Expand the musicianship of all participants.

Elements

In addition to individual sessions (described below), Flute Harvest includes a number of core elements that enhance the program throughout the week:

Special Requests

We are open to specific requests of something you would like to learn or experience. Some examples might be:

• Play music in a therapeutic setting
• Performs songs
• Improvise with others
• Jam with percussion
• Provide music for an even (such as yoga, meditation, etc.)
• Lead a flute circle

... let us know, and we will arrange it!

On-Site Video

We have a professional quality, high-definition video and audio recording capability on-site, available to all participants for an additional fee. You can record a song in a beautiful setting (solo, duet, or small group), and then receive it on a USB flash drive, ready for sharing.

You can post the video on-line, use it as a gift, or dedicate it to a particular event or person. Videos make great birthday and anniversary greetings, wedding presents, or sentiments for a commemorative service. As an option, we have the ability to combine live footage of your playing with your still photographs and/or existing video, use green-screen techniques, add custom titles, and provide extensive audio mixing and editing.

Session Descriptions

Here are detailed descriptions of some of the facilitated sessions throughout the week:

The Healing Flute (Kalani)

Did you know you can use flute play as an effective therapeutic tool for your own self-care? Playing the flute is an enjoyable way to de-stress, reduce worry, oxygenate your blood, revitalize your body, and get better rest. You will learn specific and effective techniques you can put to practice right away.

Breath And Sound (Clint)

This session takes players to (or back to) the very basics of playing wind instruments: How breath pressure affects the sound of the instrument and how the player controls the tuning of the instrument.

The Scale Song (Clint)

This session also introduces players to a very simple technique for improvising melodies. The Scale Song technique, developed by Doc Green Silverhawk, bridges the gap between playing the basic scale and free improvisation. This is a great technique if you are a novice who is looking for a bit more structure than “just play any melody” or you would like to learn a technique for your own classes or lessons that you offer.

Poetry and the Native American Flute (Vera)

The Native American flute and poetry are a natural and powerful combination. This session explores that combination, exploring the use of the flute in setting an emotional background on which words and stories can be presented. You will learn basic approaches to this combination that you can use in performance settings as well as memorial and devotional services.

Plays Well with Others (Kalani)

The NA Flute has all sorts of interesting musical friends. Discover how to integrate flute play with other popular instruments without the need to read music or know music theory. You’ll learn how to use instruments such as the tongue drum, HAPI drum, kalimba, shruti box and others that can compliment and enhance your flute experiences.

Playing Nine Emotions (Vera and Clint)

We use the ancient music practice of playing the nine core emotions to inspire our music. This technique of Hindustani music dates back 1,800 years, and allows us to explore new music techniques, ornaments, effects, and scales in the service of developing a flute song based on an emotion. We tie the emotions to NorthWest Coast imagery, listen to recordings that evoke each emotion, and analyze the particular elements of music that lend themselves to this technique. And, of course, we play the emotions!

Song Forms (Clint)

How do a group of musicians improvise music “in the moment”? From the outside, it might look like magic … but there are some very simple song forms that allow us to create great improvised pieces without written music or rehearsal. We look at song forms for flute duets and trios, as well as ensembles of mixed instruments including percussion and texture sounds.

World Rhythms (Kalani)

Rhythm, more than any other element of music, defines the genre (style) as well as what we often call the “Feel.” How does the music move people? Rhythm decides. This session is all about diving into the world of rhythm, which is the key to playing in different styles and expanding one’s repertoire.

Journeys with Melodies (Clint)

Giving structure to our melodies helps us tell a story and take listeners on an emotional journey. We begin this session with basic one-breath phrases and learn to build them into complete song forms such as A-B-A, A-A-B-A, and Verse-Chorus structures.

Ornamentation and Vibrato (Clint)

Ornaments on melodies are like spices on food. In this session you will learn the key ornaments for Native American style songs as well as Celtic, Jazz, and Classical styles. You will also learn the basic techniques of developing and controlling vibrato through historical recordings and physical exercises that connect you directly with this core flute technique.

Therapeutic Techniques (Kalani)

Music can serve as a bridge to connect one person to another or a person to a group. Music Therapists use specific musical techniques to create and shape musical relationships, which in turn shape interpersonal relationships, feelings, and perceptions. After the workshop demonstrations, you participate in an extended breakout session where you get to practice each ornament and then incorporate it into a song.

Exotic Tunings (Clint)

Playing melodies that evoke different cultures – Western classical, Middle Eastern, Asian – is amazingly easy on Native flutes. With a slight change in the order that we pick up our fingers, a world of melodies opens up. In this gentle introduction to new scales, we add one note to the basic scale to access the “bugle scale” and learn a new song in that scale. We then look at a menu of 14 possible alternate scales on the Native American flute that give a different "feel" to your melodies.

Flute Harvest combines players with varying levels of experience to provide learning and teaching opportunities for all participants. Beginners are able to learn and work at their own pace, while more advanced players have the freedom to meet new challenges.

Tell us about your personal and professional goals. We are happy to accommodate special requests for learning styles, the need for specific types of experiences, and pedagogical and performance goals.

See the Schedule page for an example of daily topics.