Deepen Your Flute Journey – Christine Stevens

The Native American flute plays a five-note scale, and no note is wrong. What happens when we reach higher — beyond that standard scale? What awaits you in the new sonic territory of higher octaves?

Christine will help you step further into your playing potential by setting intentions to experiment with higher octaves for spiritual connection, health, and healing.

In this module, you’ll:

• Start to lift your energy higher by playing the 3 high notes above the standard pentatonic scale
• Explore basic music theory of the overtone series and harmonic resonance
• Experience a practice of overtone chanting
• Discover new notes and scales by removing the third hole strap
• Learn the nuts and bolts of flute music notation
• Receive a deepening practice to connect the low and high tonic notes to ground and uplift

In this exciting second session, internationally acclaimed performer and flute maker Guillermo Martinez, owner of Quetzalcoatl Music and member of Bamboo, Cedar, Oak, will join you to share his teachings on musical development in scales, ornamentation, and creating a good sound — all in service of soul expression.

During this second session, you’ll:

• Discover new notes and scales through the in-between sounds of the pentatonic scale
• Connect with the ancient flute lineage and explore the deeper meaning of the flute for your life journey
• Have the exciting opportunity to learn from a master flute maker and performer
• Receive tips on performing equipment and sound

You have a unique song to play… a scale that resonates with you… and your own style to discover and nurture. It’s time for you to expand and discover ways to awaken your musical soul.

In this session, you’ll learn how scales offer structure so you can more easily improvise melodies through the alchemy between player and prompt.

You’ll:

• Use your voice and flute to access new songlines of your soul
• Discover how to use play-along tracks as creative prompts
• Push your edge by decorating melodies with beauty through ornamentation
• Learn the tools of articulation and tonguing to expand your heart communication through sound
• Receive a deepening practice for improvisation at dawn and dusk — marking the changing tempos of your day

Composition literally means “ingredients… the way a whole or mixture is made up.” This can refer to so many aspects of creativity, including a musical work of art.

With that in mind, this class will focus on how improvisation can lead to song. You’ll explore how to balance the freedom of improvisation with song structure. And you’ll look at what happens when we add form and chords… and how they help us play with the changes life gives us.

In this session, you’ll:

• Learn composition techniques based on Indian raga music and Lakota prayer songs
• Learn to notate your musical ideas and incorporate simple two-chord patterns
• Experience the power of listening back to your own playing
• Explore the exquisite balance of how structure provides creative freedom
• Receive a deepening practice to make a composition as a dedication to someone or something — and then play that song for (or as an offering to) the person or thing you’re honoring

Imagine living your life as a clear flute, an open channel to flow through your experiences without judgment… looking at pain and challenge as the holes in the flute.

If there are no wrong notes in the flute scale, surely there are no wrong feelings. The Native American flute offers us a tool to acknowledge and allow our emotions to bring healing to challenging experiences.

During this class, you’ll:

• Learn the art of orchestrating feelings — using the flute and adding complementary sounds that amplify and release emotions
• Use the flute to express your feeling tones, and access healing beyond words
• Explore playing with and beyond fear
• Practice playing different moods… such as contentment, longing, devotion, and gratitude

The collective is grieving as a result of our climate change crisis. To begin to address the healing of our planet through music, you’ll work with the primal elements — air, earth, fire, and especially water. Christine will also teach you unique ornamentation sounds related to nature… using the flute in creative ways.

During this middle session, you’ll:

• Experience a medicine wheel ceremony by learning to play flute songs for the four elements
• Experience a journey into your personal favorite tree to explore the branches of song — and notice where the branches take you
• Learn how to bring the outdoors inside, using visualization and sound apps to connect with nature’s beauty, harmony, and peace

Breath is life.

Pranava is the Sanskrit word for the holy breath that connects with energy. Inhaling fills and sustains us, while breathing out helps us purify and release. Can you think of your breath the same way as you play your flute?

Breathmarks in flute music indicate pauses in phrases. And as we learn to pace our airflow with the flute, we learn to maintain a cadence of breath that anchors peace in the body.

Note: Christine recommends the Double Nova High Spirits flute in the key of G for this module.

In this module, you’ll:

• Practice playing for yourself and your personal healing as an act of self-care
• Learn to use yogic breathing to access diaphragm support
• Overcome self-doubt through sonic mirror practice — listening back to your own playing
• Practice using sustained notes to center your mind and improve your lung capacity
• Discover the magic of playing a double flute

Our personal flute playing enables us to be of service in experiences where healing is needed. In this class, you’ll explore playing the flute as a means of self-care and caring for others. Christine will demonstrate how the way we play for relaxation and healing is different from other kinds of playing — holding different intentions and accessing deeper meaning in the elements of music.

You’ll:

• Learn techniques to overcome fear when playing for others
• Practice incorporating other instruments – chimes, bowls, drones, and drums
• Discover how to create phrases in your music — to begin and end your sound healing offerings
• Explore some other musical elements related to healing sound — silence, rhythm, melody, and harmony
• Practice arpeggios and learn how to use rattles for energy clearing
• Find out how to use reverb, amplification, and microphones when offering healing sounds

Like a power animal, we have a power song, a personal soul song, that supports and empowers our spirit. It may be a song you originate or one you learn to sing or play on the flute. Discover the playlist for your life… and how to embody it more fully.

In this class, you’ll:

• Design and create your personal flute practice as an evolutionary journey for your body, mind, and spirit
• Experience playing an algorithm of notes in the sonic spelling of your name
• Learn how to carry songs that deeply touch your soul — how to notate them or play them by ear
• Compose a personal anthem… a melody that’s your musical fingerprint

What is the role of beauty in your life? How can you invite more beauty into your spiritual practice… through sound, scent, taste, and sight? How can you integrate all you’ve learned to create your own unique practice — bringing greater peace, joy, and creativity into your life?

In this final session, you’ll welcome a guest instructor who will offer a Native American perspective on the ancestry of flute playing — in what’s known as the beauty way.

In this class, you’ll:

• Experience how the senses are gateways to embody beauty
• Learn a flute ceremony honoring the lineage… the ancestry of sound healing
• Have the option to participate in a student showcase and play for others in a final class performance
• Design your personal flute practice, integrating all that’s been covered in this course