“What Key am I in?” – There’s MORE than minor?

dellojoio — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:27:00 GMT

So in my last post I talked about how the Native American Flute (NAF) is recognized to be played in a standard minor key. If you stick with a traditional "open" fingering then, yes, then the Native American Flute will play a minor pentatonic (1) scale. This makes a lot of flutes very static in their sounds and playability. For instance, my A NAF can only play in A minor (or C Major), and all included modes (2) therein? That seems very … um … fixed. And it makes the Native American Flute seem uniquely problematic when wanting to play in other keys.

And perhaps the fact that the Native American Flute is so static makes it very easy to play. But it does make a musician need to stick to one particular key in order for a specific flute to sound correct. And it also means that if you want to be extremely flexible with other musicians that you will need a number of flutes at the ready. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending upon your wallet, but it does allow you to not have to think so much about notes in particular. If you are playing in a specific key you just play any tone in the pentatonic scale and it should work for you.

But let's see if we can extend our flute just a little …

I mentioned in my previous post "What Key am I in?" – Beginning Native Flute Concepts that playing the 6 hole flute in "open" fashion will require an anchor finger to be placed on the 4^th hole, or the bottom finger of the top hand. Now by exploring a different approach we can make a slightly different scale appear. Try keeping the anchor finger on the 3^rd hole, or top finger of the bottom hand, and see what type of sound appears:

    x    x    x    x    x    o    o    o
    x    x    x    x    o    o    o    o
    x    x    x    o    o    o    o    x
    --    --    --    --    --    --    --    --
    x    x    x    x    x    x    x    x    ß Notice the anchor finger on the 3^rd hole
    x    x    o    o    o    o    x    o
    x    o    o    o    o    o    x    o
    A    C    D    F    G    A    Bb    C

This scale looks a little different than the previous scale. Let's examine the previous scale and this scale together to see what are the differences:

A C D E G A B C <-- A minor scale.

A C D F G A Bb C <-- new scale

So what did we create? The "new" scale that was created is a variation of a minor pentatonic; however, it isn't a minor like previously played. It is a variation on a D minor scale (D F G A C D) that starts on the A note. Also that Bb (or A# depending on how you want to play it) is a giveaway that something different has been played. And with playing a D minor scale we can also play in the Key of F Major. So now we've created the ability to play in A minor, C Major, D minor and F Major all by just moving one little finger. Our NAF, that originally stuck in one key, can now play in two different keys with very little trouble.

A quick note on this scale: It may sound a little odd to the standard NAF player whose experience is solely that of the minor pentatonic. The tonality shifts just enough to keep another pentatonic flare, but the note voicing is different enough to make it sound different from the familiar minor. This new scale is actually the A Phrygian scale which shares the same notes as the D minor and F Major.

So now that we've extended our vocabulary a tad is there more we can do? Of course, but that conversation is better used for another post. And when we discuss that new ability we can open the flute up to a whole new set of sounds and possibilities.

1 – The term "pentatonic" refers to 5 tones whereas a regular European scale is diatonic meaning seven tones

2 –The term "Modes" refer to the different scales that share similar notes. I will talk about this in future posts.

“What Key am I in?” – Beginning Native Flute Concepts

dellojoio — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:12:00 GMT

I am always intrigues at listening to people talk about "What Key am I in?" when it comes to the Native American Wood Flute. I love to listen to people's answers, because they almost always talk about one aspect of the flute … the minor. I would like to take some time to describe a couple of other aspects of the Native American Wood Flute (or NAF), but before I do I will attempt to describe what most people will describe to you: the minor.

I love writing music for the Native American Wood Flute; especially after understanding some cool truths about the instrument (which I will discuss in more detail in a later topic). The most prominent idea is that unlike other instruments the Native American Wood Flute is a static pitch instrument. There are only a certain amount of tones that you can get from the instrument and with those tones you can only play in certain keys. I will demonstrate a simple scale using the 6-holed variation of the A wood flute (o is open, x is closed):

    x    x    x    x    x    o    o    o
    x    x    x    x    o    o    o    o
    x    x    x    x    x    x    x    x    ß Notice the anchor finger on the 4^th hole
    --    --    --    --    --    --    --    --
    x    x    x    o    o    o    o    x
    x    x    o    o    o    o    x    x
    x    o    o    o    o    o    x    o

A C D E G A B C

When looking at this beginning scale you can see that the notes displayed are notes of the minor pentatonic scale. This is a simple scale that most beginning flute players will recognize. It's simple because of the anchor finger on the 4^th hole allows the musician to focus on lifting any number of other fingers and it will make a sound that is "pleasant" with the other notes played.

Are there other notes that can be played with the Native American Wood Flute? Of course. We've just barely scratched the surface of the instrument, but this simple scale shows the simple key of the instrument: a minor pentatonic. For most musicians who understand musical theory you will note that "a minor" is the same as "C Major." Also, in the scale above, almost the full "C Major" scale is present (missing the F). Also notice that those are the ONLY notes that can be played so far. There are not a lot of accidentals that can be used in the Native American Wood Flute, which means that the only key that can be played in is "a minor" or "C Major." Unlike other instruments which offers a full range of notes the Native American Wood Flute is very particular in the notes it can play.

Does that mean that the key of the A flute is "a minor/C Major?" Well … if this was the only thing that we were going to focus on then I would say yes, but there are other notes that can be played, which means that other keys may be yet revealed. For the time being … we are safe to say that one of the keys you could play in is "a minor/C Major" … but only for the time being.

Native Flute Theory : Scales, Pentatonic

“What Key am I in?” – There’s MORE than minor?

“What Key am I in?” – Beginning Native Flute Concepts