peacefulspiritflutes.com

Native American Flutes

Peaceful Spirit Flutes offers you quality flutes from makers throughout North America. .
We are the largest seller of Native American Flutes in Canada. The flutes are available in a variety of woods and in different keys.
We are proud to carry flutes from the following makers:

Stellar Flutes
High Spirit Flutes
Mountain Flutes – Dennis Lombard
Quiet Bear Flutes
Sun Dog Flutes
Butch Hall Flutes
Mad Max Flutes
Woodland Sound Flutes ( Canadian Flute Maker from Vancouver Island)
Laughing Raven Flutes (Canadian Flute Maker from BC)

We are confident in the quality of the flutes provided by these wonderful makers.
We often hand pick flutes from these makers when we are at flute events.

We currently have over 30 flutes in stock in a variety of woods and keys.

When you purchase a flute from Peaceful Spirit Flutes, you receive:
-a fleece flute bag
-Teaching CD, First Steps with Your Native American Flute
- Phone support as you learn to play your flute

We are in the developmental stages of adding a complimentary online flute lesson with the purchase of any flute, through the amazing technology of web cams.

For information phone: 1-250-740-0473 or email tmack@peacefulspiritflutes.com

PICTURES AND PRICES OF FLUTES WILL BE ADDED SOON!

Visit my estore to find more resources related to the Native American Flute

Danilea Castell, (formerly Deva Guest) hosts Sounds Alive, monthly in Nanaimo. This month on January 15 Terry Mack, Intuitive Player of Native American Flutes, owner of Peaceful Spirit Flutes and part of the duo Wind Weaver ( www.windweaver.ca) is the special guest performer. The theme for the evening is Earth, Harmony, Integrity. Terry will weave the sound of the flute into the mystical sound of the Sounds Alive trio Danilea Castell’s  harmonium. Alannah Dow’s cello, and April Laurie’s percussion  The evening invites you to join  with your voice in creating a community of sound.

For more information check out the link below.

http://www.oneconsciousvoice.com/upload/Sounds%20Alive_jan10.pdf

January 15, 2010
7:00 – 9:30 PM
210 St. George Street
Nanaimo

Thanks to the Northern California Flute Circle for sending this link out.

Gentle Thunder and Will Clipman are offering an early Christmas present for all of their fans. It’s a free download of the song Passionate Mystery from their fully mixed and mastered but as-yet unreleased new CD: Translucent.

The song features Gentle Thunder’s luscious hammered dulcimer playing, backed by Will’s always incredible percussion. And of course, GT on NAF.

Here’s the link: http://gentlethunder.com/MP3%20files/Translucent%2004%20Passionate%20Myster%20New%20Age%20320kbps.mp3

And thanks to Gentle Thunder and Wilf Clipman for sharing the song.

As a person who has been fortunate to have an opportunity to introduce hundreds of people to their first Native American Flute as well as introducing the beautiful sound of the flute to thousands of others, I have had the opportunity to witness how people approach making your own music or sound.

I am saddened by many of the comments I hear from so many of us who have been musically wounded and I am inspired by how easily the flute can help people move beyond a limitation imposed on them and overtime have been ingrained as part of a person.

While I sit at my sales area playing the flute one of the most frequent comments I hear is
“I am not musical”. I used to think that about myself but on this journey I discovered a way into my own song and music. It didn’t start with the flute, but my journey has been largely shaped by the fluid expression that comes when you have a flute in your hand.

Another comment I hear quite frequently is “I’ll never be able to play as well as you can”.  To this I always say, I may play well but that is because the flute has helped to listen and to free my own song. I cannot play your song. Only you can do that and I could not do that nearly as well as you could. People are surprised by that comment and I hope take it to heart. Your song is as important and as valuable as anyone else’s.

Many of us believe that to play an instrument means that we must first learn to play other people’s songs. Our busy western, modern world has turned us into a world of spectators where many of us only listen to music and many more of us sit back wishing we could play or sing or dance.  What saddens me about this is how we have forgotten to listen to and hear our own song.  I believe that the Native American flute offers a wonderful opportunity for people to step out of one’s head and to make that long journey to your heart.

Learning to play an instrument is like learning to walk when you are a baby. You take a few stumbling steps and fall down and get up again and keep going until you can walk, and before you know it you are running. Babies have not yet heard and embraced the many I CANT messages that flood our adult brains. If they did, no one would ever walk.

I will share with you one of the stumbling blocks I had had to honouring my own song.

On my journey I was having much fun learning to listen to my heart and many of the things I play come out as celtic or medieval flavoured songs. I was quite delighted and amazed by this but had a few misgivings about doing the Native American flute an injustice by not playing it the Native way. I even felt guilty about it. Last year I had the opportunity to take a flute lesson from Anthony Natividad  (http://anthonynatividad.com/flutes.html ) I asked him about playing the flute the native way. Anthony said play for me, and so I did.(although I was nervous about this as Anthony is a wonderful flute player). Anthony listened and commented that my flute playing did sound native. More importantly he stressed to me, that with the flute we are co creating the songs in our hearts and from our histories. These too have value, so if you are playing flamenco rhythms or foot stepping marches keep on playing. This is what honouring the flute and yourself as a player means.

Another good meaning soul, told me after listening to me play that “ I was one of those people who liked to make songs” . Now I know he didn’t mean any criticism but still I felt judged for loving to make songs on the flute. This stopped me for awhile as I wondered if I wasn’t honouring the flute. I did a bit  more reading about the flute, talked to some people and came to the realization that if an instrument inspires you to create, that is what is important and not necessarily the style in which you play.

It is so easy to let the words of others stop us from moving in a direction that we would love to go.  Now as I choose to learn more from this instrument and allow the songs and the sounds to flow I truly feel that I am honouring the flute. In fact I have learned that I would be dishonouring the flute and the gifts it brings me if I give up.

Please, play your song and honour yourself, the flute, the maker, the wonder and the joy that it brings to your life.

In harmony,

Terry Mack

I picked up my first flute with great excitement just knowing that there was much beautiful music to be had in playing one. Even though I have no musical training, and can’t read music I was sure I could do this. You might call it one of those intuitive leaps of faith. I just knew I could play it.

Until I blew it the first time. Well the sound wasn’t quite so pleasant as I had intended it to be. I was getting some squealing and some over blowing (the sound comes out an octave higher than the natural sound of the flute). My fingers were objecting to the fingering and needed a little practice to get into a rhythm. The inner critic was having a field day just telling me to stop already… you’ll never get it right and a host of other crazy making statements determined to have me stop playing.

This time, my desire to play the flute was stronger than the usual critical commentary from Negative Nelly (the name I have fondly given my inner critic.) It wasn’t long before I began to get past her noise and my first noisy stumblings in playing the flute and was making beautiful sounds.

What I discovered in learning to make music with my flute is the sheer joy of connecting to the flow of sounds that come from just letting your fingers wander on the flute.

After a few tentative attempts at making my flute sound, ‘negative nelly’ became quieter and the noise of the flute began to breakthrough into melodious musical sounds. I was thrilled. I was playing music.

I share this story with you to encourage you to silence your own inner critic and just play.

If you have not already begun to play your flute, find a peaceful place to sit and take your flute with you.Sometimes it helps to just close your eyes and let your fingers wander. The statement ‘the longest journey begins with the first step ’applies to playing your flute as well. The road to the melody begins with taking those first experimental fingerings.

While my favorite way of playing is to simply let my imagination and my intuition guide my fingers around the flute, I soon discovered ways to embrace the music of others and began to play familiar melodies on my flute. I am stilling making ‘Noise” when I play and now I find it fun to try new things and make new sounds with the flute. In playing through the noise I have discovered an inner musician who is delighted to be set free. In silencing that inner critic, I have found a new way to be in touch with my heart and soul.

Terry Mack, Owner of Peaceful Spirit Flutes
Sound explorer with Native American Flutes

Don’t Die With Your Music Still Inside You By Terry Mack, Flute enthusiast and owner of Peaceful Spirit Flutes

As children we are full-fledged explorers, delighting in the sounds we make and curiously examining anything that comes across our path, blissfully unaware of time. As we grow, people with the best of intentions at guiding our development discourage us from this exploring and the process of silencing the creative voice within has begun. The inner critic has been born.

In my case as in the case of thousands of others, a bad musical education experience as a child, kept me from the joy of exploring the creation of my own melodious sounds. Yet another common experience happens to many children as they are instructed to color within the lines or to make your purple cow a regular cow color. This too keeps us from actively participating in something that feeds your soul and gives you great joy.

Whether it be music, art, movement, building, acting or any other passion that moved you, you may have tucked away a dream so far in the back of your heart and soul that you can’t even find it any more. Yet those dreams whisper to you. The person who loves music and would like to make their own music instead buys lots of music CD’s, goes to concerts enjoying music as a spectator and mutters, ‘the only thing I can play is the radio.’ The person who is pumped by great art goes to galleries or supports the work of artists’ friends and mutters ‘I can’t even draw a straight line.’

I know you are out there muttering.

I have heard you. I have heard hundreds of people muttering those ” I can’t” statements at my tables where I introduce people to the beauty of the Native American Flute or as they stop by to chat with me when I am out playing at the parks or beaches in the Nanaimo area.

In December of 2005 I was still a mutterer myself until I received my first Native American Flute. It has become the key that unlocked the door to that secret corner where I stashed my dream of making music and set that dream free. As a person who secretly wanted to make music, I would sit on the sidelines and quietly mutter to myself ” in my next lifetime, I will come back as a singer songwriter”. This statement has run through my consciousness for over 47 of the 56 years I have lived on this planet.

With this beautiful flute in my hand the awakening had begun. As I tentatively started coaxing sounds out of the flute (some nice and some not so nice) I began to ask myself ‘ who is this critic that for 47 years of my life had stopped me from creating my own music?’ Who says that I have to read music just to play the music I feel inside of me? And I began to wonder how I had let this “you can’t do it’ messages ingrained from years ago have so much power over me.

Awareness began creeping into my consciousness. I no longer had to listen to this critic. If I wanted to play, I could just sit with the flute and find the beautiful sounds. In fact without the ability to read music and without any formal musical instruction I began to create sounds with my flute that were pleasant to me and felt like my own music. I was empowering myself to overcome the limiting beliefs acquired throughout my lifetime. And all this was happening because of the flute. The flute was becoming my teacher, and mentor, a voice that was silencing the inner critic and inviting me to listen and participate in my life in a new way.

As I go about my day connecting with people through the flute music at various locations, I continually hear those self-limiting comments and reasons about not being able to play music from people. I can feel the longing from some who truly want to play music that comes from themselves. Speaking from my own experience, I know this can happen. I know that if you let yourself embrace that inner longing and listen to the whisper of your soul, you will find a way to listen to your own music, feel your own art and dance like there is no tomorrow.

Noted inspirational speaker Dr. Wayne Dyer has said, “Don’t die with your music still inside you. Listen to your intuitive inner voice and find what passion stirs your soul.” I whole heartedly embrace this concept and encourage you to consider freeing the music/passion (whatever form that takes) in your soul. Let yourself listen to those whispers from your soul and your passion will begin to tickle its way through the maze of self-limiting thoughts and make itself known. If you have one of those ” I have always wanted to do…..statements running through your head, don’t wait. Silence the inner critic and JUST BEGIN.

Those tentative and fragile first moments as you begin to explore your passion are both frightening and beautiful and involve trusting your self and your inner wisdom to nurture your exploration rather than judge it. As I teach people how to connect to a flute, I have witnessed people burst into tears from the shear joy of those first few pretty sounds coming from through their flute. This is a truly moving experience in which I am privileged to share as a person connects to fulfilling a long hidden dream of playing an instrument.

As you take that first step toward the creation of your own music (or art or any other passion) you will find notes that don’t sound right; rhythms that stutter, fingers that just don’t want to move the way you want them to and you may let that stop you from going on. I hope you don’t. Those little experiences are helping you to find your way through to the sound and rhythm that is part of you. They are part of the journey, part of the fun of exploring and an important part of the path to freeing the expression of your soul. And sometimes those little less than perfect blips teach you more than immediate success does. I have learned to welcome the sour notes as I explore my music and my life for it means that I am continuing to embrace my dreams instead of sitting on the sidelines.

LOOKING FOR MORE RESOURCES TO HELP YOU PLAY YOUR FLUTE

As I come across great resources for flute players, I will be adding them to the site on a regular baisis. Have some fun exploring these resources. I am very grateful for finding the websites that are listed below. These people have done a wonderful job of gathering information for the beginning flute player and for more accomplished musicians. Now onto the resources.

Here is a great site that has a wide variety of music that you can download to play. Much of the music is in tablature (pictorial of the flute showing which holes to open and close). There are also songs written in standard notation for those of you who prefer learning music from that method.

While many of us play six hole flutes, there are some pieces that are arranged for five hole flutes as well.

http://www.flutetree.com/songbook/contemporary/index.html

I urge you to spend some time on this website. Robert Gatlifff the owner of this one has put together a great range of information for people wanting to learn more about the flutes.

LOOKING TO WRITE DOWN YOUR OWN SONGS

The link below is to a web page that has the blank tablature for both the six hole and the five hole flute. The page format for this type of tablature is the development of R. Carlos Nakai, one of the leading Native American Flute players.

http://www.flutekey.com/htm/blankstaff.htm

The web site belongs to Clint Goss. I had the wonderful opportunity to take a workshop with him. Clint has great insight into playing the flute and is a wonderful facilitator encouraging a player to explore the flute and your connection to it as one of the ways to expand your playing.

LOOKING FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SCALES FOR THE FLUTE

http://www.flutekey.com/htm/guitar.htm – This page shows the key of the flute along with which guitar chords can accompany it.

http://www.flutekey.com/htm/click.htm – This page offers you click tracks, which are timing for playing the flute. He uses a midi file to give you a tempo that you can play along with.

http://www.flutetree.com/songbook/scales/index.html – This link takes you to Robert Gatliffs’ website and shows you a wide variety of scales that can be played on Native American flutes.

http://www.flutetree.com/playing/harmonyWheel.html – This gives you an idea of which flutes can be played together. It’s a little tricky to look at but once you spend a little time with it, you can get the hang of how to read it.

May all of these resources add to your flute playing pleasure and continue to help you on your journey of exploring your own music.

Terry Mack

Maple Sugar Festival
February 19, 20 and 21st
Beban Park
Nanaimo, BC

For more information about what is happening at the festival, visit  http://www.francophonenanaimo.org/festival/index.html

Welcome to the new look for Peaceful Spirit Flutes.

I am currently rebuilding the site as of Nov 4, 2009.  If you need immediate help with a Native American flute, are interested in flute lessons or just want to chat about anything at all to do with a Native American Flute  call us at 250-740-0473 or email, tmack@peacefulspiritflutes.com  We welcome your calls and emails.

Stay tuned.  There is more to come.