Subtraction and Addition or Learning the Native American Style Flute

It sometimes seems to me that learning to play the Native American flute is more a matter of subtraction than addition. I don’t seem to be adding knowledge about how to play the flute. What I have been doing is subtracting all the faulty psychological programs that stand between me and freedom from fear. It is the fear of failure, of not doing it right, of what others may think that inhibits my playing. These fears keep me from allowing the flute to express itself in whatever way it chooses.

I intuit that these fears were implanted early in childhood. Unrealistic expectations. Demands to do it the right way. Testing and the fear of failure. These anxieties come between me and the freedom to play with absolute abandon. When due to some combination of intent and divine good fortune I enter the zone, playing becomes a truly creative experience. It is an experience where sounds I have never heard before are manifesting. And feelings that I seldom experience are rising to the surface.

Some of us will take our flute playing to places that others will not. This is natural and perfectly OK. Each of us has their own individual lessons to learn and songs to express. This diversity is what makes life so fascinating. How dull if we were all the same. Or how dull if we were all striving for the same goal. Perhaps there are an unlimited multitude of goals. Each one tailor made to allow the individual – you and me - to reach his fullest potential. If we let go of goals to be reached will we find that there are no goals? Will we find there are only roads to travel on? Are we each a traveler on one of an infinitely varied number of roads? With each road being a unique exploration of the evolving Universe of sound.

Why do we have to measure ourselves by some external standards of achievement? Is it not more enjoyable to simply let go and play with our flute.

432 Hz Tuning for the Native American Style Flute

I have noticed since I became involved in making Native American style flutes that I have a natural affinity with what is called 432 Hz tuning. Even before I became aware that there was such a thing as the lower 432 Hz tuning I felt a natural aversion to bringing my flutes up to the standard 440 Hz when I was tuning them. My ear and heart seemed to intuitively prefer the lower – some would say slightly flat – sound of a flute that was tuned around 432 Hz. When I discovered that others were also more comfortable with this slightly flatter sound I was relieved to know that I was not abnormal.

The tuning of musical instruments in western societies has, like most things in our highly regimented society, become standardize. The standard that has been established is 440 Hz for the note called A above the middle C on a piano. All the other notes are tuned in relationship to this A.

This standard of tuning is rather recent in origin having been established in the late 1800s and then formalized by the American Federation of Musicians in 1917. Around 1940 the United States introduced 440 Hz worldwide, and finally in 1953 it became the ISO 16 - standard.

Before 440Hz became the standard a variety of tunings were used.

A = 432 Hz, known as Verdi’s ‘A’ after the renowned composed Guiseppe Verdi who advocated for is use, is an alternative tuning standard that many propose as mathematically consistent with the natural vibrations of the physical universe. Music based on 432 Hz transmits; it is believed, beneficial healing energy because it is a pure tone of the math fundamental to nature.

According to Brian T Collins, a musician and researcher, the standard pitch (A=440 Hz) does not harmonize on any level that corresponds to cosmic movement, rhythm or natural vibration. The greatest musicians, such as Mozart and Verdi, based their music on the natural vibration of A = 432 Hz. It is believed that earlier composers such as Bach wrote for an even lower tuning.

I have discovered that there is a growing musical and metaphysical movement for recovering optimal integrity in the music industry and in spirituality through changing back to the 432 Hz tuning.

According to Richard Huisken, music tuned to 432 Hz is softer and brighter, giving greater clarity and is easier on the ears. Many people experience more meditative and relaxing states of body and mind when listening to such music. Researchers and musicians, such as Coreen Morsink (pianist and music teacher), report that they feel calmer, happier and more relaxed when playing music at 432 Hz.

It is believed that music based on this natural tone is more transparent, more marked, gives an obvious musical picture and the overtones and undertones moves more freely. Music based on 440 Hz represents stuffed emotions and blocked energy. By lowering the pitch by just 8 Hz, you become more flexible and spontaneous. It is said that the 432 tuning releases your energy and takes you into a beautiful state where relaxation is natural.

The 440 Hz tuning is well established and if you are going to be playing with other instrumentalists you should have a flute that is tuned to the 440 standard so that you are in harmony with the other instruments. However when you are playing solo as long as the flute is tuned to itself – that is consistent through the scale – it does not matter to what standard the flute is tuned you will sound fine.

The ultimate truth is in the individual flute players’ ear and heart. I encourage you to do your own research and learn about and listen to music in the 432 Hz tuning. If it appeals to you I can tune one of my Native American style flutes to 432 Hz for you. I think you will be pleased with the result.

Winter in the Desert

Winter time in the desert. The most startling thing about winter is that I don’t hear birds singing. Many species have migrated south. The ones who stay are focused on finding food and staying alive. In winter they don’t feel those rising urges to claim a space and proclaim a territory; a piece of the whole out of which they can derive sustenance for themselves and the family they expect to nurture.

In springtime the competition will begin for the best places - a combat of songs and occasional skirmishes that end in a sort of a truce between rivals. Territoriality, one of the primary laws of nature - the territorial imperative.

But now it is winter in the desert. Winter when the plants draw energy back into their roots. The roots that reach deep into the earth. The roots that search out the nurturing bounty of the earth itself. From the earth, the sun and the atmosphere the plant takes all that it needs to grow and thrive and support the next higher level of life. The plants that support those creatures roam across the ground and fly up over the land. Living, mobile creatures seeking out new sources of information and new experiences to manifest and explore. Free roaming creatures eternally moving outward. Out into the farthest reaches of the known edge of the physical dimension and reaching beyond. Living beings inexorably seeking to push the envelope of life just a little bit further. Seeking to encourage and incorporate into themselves more and more beauty, light, understanding, and love in the ever-ongoing search for perfection.

Perfection, the unachievable goal, the never attained resting place. The place that would mean the end of this outward, expansive breath of creation. Completion, the end of that expulsion out and the beginning of the drawing back in again of all things and all experiences into the One. Who can fathom the depth? Who can fathom the depth?

Time to play my flute.

Song of Life

We measure space by the six directions – North, South, East, West, Up and Down. We measure time in years, days, hours, minutes and seconds. With this mental construct we give order to the space-time continuum. We experience ourselves within space and time as a conscious awareness. I am. I am finds itself emanating form a material form we call the human body. This body, we now know, has taken billions of years to achieve its present configuration. We find ourselves to be a locus of experience within the form of a living, mobile, organic being capable of speculating on the source of its existence.

With our body we move about on the surface of a ball of matter we call a planet. This spinning ball is itself moving through something we call space at an incredible speed. This planet is one of a whole family of spheres of matter rotating around a huge ball of energetic activity we call the Sun. This Sun, a star, is one of an inconceivable number of other stars.

Time, space, matter, awareness. To what end, to what purpose, have these come into existence. I sit at my computer and you sit at yours. We don’t know each other. But we are asking similar questions. What is this experience of Life for? Am I here for a reason? Is there purpose in Life? Toward what end have billions of years of careful, patient evolution been moving? Idle questions – No!

Pick up your flute. Play a tune. Wonder at the perfection of sound filling inner and outer space. Feel the joy of being alive and having the divine opportunity to express your life as music. With your music sing praise to the Power that has brought into being this wonderful world. Give thanks to the Power that sustains you, me and all the wondrous forms and feelings that are the Universe.

Summer Solstice Song

The Love flute song is constantly changing. Discovering new pathways of sound through the confusion of life. Pathways that are clearer by far than anything I have ever experienced. Pathways that light the way to a better tomorrow. If the tone is sharp or flat relative to some artificial standard – what do I care? Do the birds care? How boring to be always the same. Let freedom ring and come out of the Native American style flute. May it reach into every crevice of conventionality. Not measuring or judging anything according to some external yardstick. Knowing, always, that every note is enough in all places and at all times. My song unique. And yours as well. Gently blowing forth creative notes into the unknown. Not expecting to hear that same sound again – perhaps ever. Letting our life unfold and our own music go out into it. Playing our part in the grand symphony of the Universe as it is continuously transforming and discovering itself anew. The music says that in spite of every dark cloud and feeling of pain there is I – the music – I help heal all discomfort.

I play for the birds as they wake in the morning. I listen to their reply. The birds are the great, indefatigable singers. My Love flute song joins theirs. Together we sing a song that has been unfolding for as long as there has been the earth under our feet and air for us to breath.

The bright, clear morning of the Summer solstice. The yearly circle has turned and the sun is going to start back south again. May the summer sun bring blessing to all the Brothers and Sisters and the plants and animals of this divine creation. May it bring Peace on Earth and good will towards all men. May our enemies become our friends. And may light and healing flow out through our music to a waiting world.

Let's Play

I was listening to a flute CD that someone had sent me. It was an exuberant, openhearted expression of pure joy. To the discerning – might I say critical – mind it did not conform to the established standards of ‘good music’. But it’s limitations in that respect was more than compensated for by its enthusiasm. The Native American style flute is helping to liberate many of us from our habit of evaluating and criticizing everything. Especially as this behavior applies to self-criticism.

Why can’t we just relax and have fun? Why are we so hard on ourselves? The pervasive culture of correctness and perfection has taken the fun out of life. Playing the flute or expressing our selves in any way must be based on freedom from fear of criticism, especially self-criticism. Otherwise we’re perpetually caught in the spot light. It’s a spotlight where everyone is looking at us. And we feel that if we don’t do it right there will be a price to pay. Holding ourselves up to impossible standards or other people’s standards means that we are always setting ourselves up to fail. We live under a dark cloud of our own creation. Actually, we didn’t create it.

It started when we were children. Constant criticism of our performance. We were always doing it wrong. But who doesn’t? Life is a learning process in which we will inevitably make mistakes. We must have the freedom to make these mistakes without fear of criticism. Nobody gets if right all the time – or even most of the time. Practice, practice, practice - until we end up hating what we are doing. We may become good at it but we’re not having fun anymore. So what’s the point?

In tune? We can become so devoted to being in tune that we are dead to joy. Making a fetish out of playing it right is like wanting the sun to shine the same way every day. ‘That’s the way it should shine’ say the purists. Not too bright. Not too dull. Just this way and this way only. What if I like it a little brighter? What if I don’t care? Who dares set the standards for what is the right amount of sunlight for a sunny day?

When we whole-heartedly grant others the right to play any way they please and any way they are capable of we will be released from our own self-criticism. Life is a Circle of such diversity that there is room for every individual and every song. Let the breath of life go out through your flute into a loving, receptive world. You can change your own life and perhaps the whole world one song at a time.

In an Instant - Eternity

The expansion of consciousness. The expanding of awareness beyond the self-imposed limits of the socially conditioned mind. Expanding consciousness in order to see new things and experience new feelings. Expanding in order to come in contact with the living wisdom of God as it permeates every atom and every vibrating string of creation. To listen as every vibrating string is humming with love, the love that creates and sustains and guides this manifestation we call life. This manifestation we call earth; that we call heaven, Call it by any names you choose. The meaning is in all ways the same.

No words can never come close to describing life in a way that will bring expanded consciousness into being in a person’s life. They can only point the way. The choice to follow and find is up to the individual. Then the new discovery comes into being in a person’s life spontaneously. And then we, in turn, search for words to describe what we have experienced.

A search for words that will describe what cannot be described. Because words are always just words – sounds that point. In the full realization of this situation some lapse into silence and are, perhaps, never seen or heard from again. Others are fascinated by the different paths and the men and the women walking on those paths. They are fascinated by the challenge of finding words to describe the indescribable. They strive to walk the dharma path wherever it may lead. They strive to use that path as a learning tool. To walk the path of meditation and to live the life of activity and engagement as if they were a hand in a glove.

Experiencing the tantra of life at play. Dancing on the edge of the world, looking out into the stars. Into the stars and the breaking dawn. Realizing and being shaken by the transitory nature of it all. Here, in front of my mortal eyes, caught for an instant of time - Eternity.