Chords for How to Play Native American Flute | Beginner Lesson

Hey beautiful soul!
In this video I want to give you the basics on how to play the Native American flute.
Some people think it's hard and they have to take lessons with the teacher, and I just want to encourage you to just start playing.
It's really not that hard at all.
In fact, it's one of the easiest instruments to play, and I've played a lot of instruments.
So some people already know how to play the recorder because they learned that in school,
and if you can play recorder, you can just transition to this and just start playing.
So I just want to make this quick video and want to demystify some of the beliefs like I have to take lessons and it's so hard.
_ The good thing about these flutes is you just blow into them.
You don't have to _
force a lot of air into it.
_ It's not like didgeridoo where you just need this capacity and this breathing technique.
It's also not like a classical flute, like a side-blown flute, where you just have to get the angle right with the air,
or shakuhachi, which are really challenging to play.
So you just blow,
_ _ slightly blow into it.
_ Don't have to put a lot of pressure.
A light blow is fine.
The beautiful thing also about this flute is that
you can't play wrong notes.
If you keep this third hole covered,
you will always stay in the minor pentatonic _ _
scale, and then you can just play anything.
It just sounds good. _
_ [Db] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Db] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [N] Whatever you choose within that scale, it all just sounds good, so you don't be afraid of wrong notes.
_ _ You know the fear of, oh my god, I don't know how to breathe.
I don't know how to do this.
You get used to it, and you really don't need a lot of breath with these flutes, especially the smaller ones.
It's really easy, so I really encourage you to try. _
So let's say you have your flute and
_ how do you start?
Well, first of all, make sure that the chimney of the totem aligns with this hole.
So it's like this, and you know,
_ _ you'll get a sound. _
If it's too far _ _ up, _ _
it's gonna sound weird.
If it's too far down covering the hole,
_ _ _ _ _ _ it's gonna sound weird.
So check _ this here. _
_ _ _ _ Make them align, or just have like a one millimeter gap, and _ _
then the next thing is, okay, how do you cover these holes?
Yeah, okay.
So you use your hands, like your left hand at the top, right at the bottom.
Put your fingers on there,
and you don't do it like this.
Like, see, you don't have
space to cover, so use your flat fingers.
It's a lot easier to cover the holes, especially when they're bigger.
So you just cover it, and you can have a slight angle, see?
_ _ Slight angling in, _ and
you start with having all the holes covered, and you have to check that they're really covered.
Like, you think they're covered,
but _ there's like a little
_ opening.
So make sure they're covered, and you feel that by the feeling of the pads of the fingers, and you also hear it.
_ So you start with the lowest, no? _ _
_ _ Sorry, I just have to make sure that you see it and kind of position myself a bit weird. _
_ [Fm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ _ [Db] _ _ [D] _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Fm] _ _ And _ _ _
you just practice that going up and down, and you know, it takes maybe a few hours,
but it's really not that hard, and it's not gonna sound terrible or anything,
so that's really the secret to that.
And then you get comfortable with doing that, _ and you _ _ _
learn
the technique on the way.
Like a lot of it is the breath, like how to use your breath consciously,
but you also figure that out if you listen to a lot of Native American flute music.
You just listen, and you copy what they do, and ah, there's little sound effects.
Ah, cool.
Let's see.
How can I do that?
_ _ [F] _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [Ab] So there's these little trailers where you just move your fingers [B] up and down, [Ab] just like this.
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ [Fm] _ _ [Bb] _ _ [B] _ _ _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ Or
[E] _ _ you can use [Fm] your breath to make this vibrato, and _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ you can like talk into your flute.
_ _ _ And that's just things you just, you know, just make it up as you go.
Listen to a lot of music, listen to a lot of videos, and if you like something, just
_ take that what you like, and just copy it, and make it into your own, and be creative.
You don't have to take lessons.
You don't have to buy books, read sheet music. _
Just go with the flow.
Use it for,
you know, meditation.
Just sit and just play simple things.
You can play melodies.
You can also just play a few notes.
_ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _ _
And if you started with the lowest note, you play a melody, like you scale up, you scale down,
you will also end with the lowest note.
You can also start with different notes,
but you start and end with the same one generally.
It kind of gives this,
gives the music like a sense of, yeah, returning to home, like coming to an end.
So that's really the whole,
the whole secret is just start, _ and the flute will teach you.
You will listen.
How does the sound, how does, you know, how _ _
does the flute change if I change my breath, if I change my posture a little bit, if I
remember not to sit like this, and if I
_ give my, you know, my posture this intention of, I let this
_ flow through me, and then that's really all I need to know.
It's not that hard, really.
It's nice, and when you're done playing, you, _
_ _ _ since the flute gets moist inside, you take this
_ _ this totem off, _ and then, this is what it looks like, and then you blow into it, _ _ _ and
dry this with a cloth, and also dry this surface here, which will have a little moisture, and then you put it back on,
_ put it back into position, align these parts, and you just _ _
tie it back on, just
and then check, yeah, and then there you go, and yeah, _ and
yeah, you let it dry, like you take it off, you let it dry, and then later you take it back on, and
ideally you have more flutes, so if one reaches its limit, like you can't play them like for hours and hours, because they just get wet.
So then you have the next flute.
[C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _ _
_ _ All right, so get your flute, get started, it's really simple, easy, fun,
_ _ not too expensive instruments, you can have a collection of them, and it's nice and portable, and I love going outdoors with the flutes.
So I hope you found this helpful.
If you did, give it a like, and write your comments _ on
like your experience with the flute, encourage other people that it's easy to start, and that you can do it, and
that it's nice, it's a nice way to connect with your heart and everything, so
have a good time with your flute, take care, and see you in the next video.
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