Customer Reviews

The Art of the Native American Flute

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With The Art Of The Native American Flute, Carlos Nakai draws upon his many years as an educator, performer, and student of the Native American flute to present the reader with a comprehensive and "user friendly" instruction manual for learning to play this core Native American musical instrument. Part one includes discussions on tunings, fingerings, performance technique, tablature, style, history, standard notation, traditional ornaments, and a section on the care and maintenance of the flute. Part Two includes sixteen transcriptions of songs from Naki's recordings. Part Three is an informative analysis of Naki's role in Native American culture as a recording artist and performer by the ethnomusicologist David P. McAllester. The Art Of The Native American Flute is a very highly recommended performance guide and insightful source on the Native American flute, as well as a concise review of the career and artistry of one of the most important ethnic artists in America today.

This book is an amazing collection of knowledge, use, and cultural history of the Native American flute. Its discussion of flute construction, fingering, scales, ornaments, and care and maintenance is excellent. The book expects the reader to have a basic grasp of musical notation and concepts.

An added bonus: eighteen of R. Carlos Nakai's tunes transcribed for flute. These are: December Snow, 12/13/82 song, Wioste Olowan Inkpa taya, Wioste Olowan Tokiya, 11/3/82 song, Death song, 11/11/82 song, Zuni song, 12/20/82 song, 12/13/82 no. 2 song, 11/20/82 song, Whippoorwill, Whirlwinds Dancing, Coventry Carol, Rainy Nights in Taos, Omaha song, The Colours Fall, and Crow Wing.

There is also an excellent chapter at the end of the book regarding R. Carlos Nakai's recordings and his influences. Ken Light, the maker of Amon Olorin flutes (R. Carlos Nakai plays an Amon Olorin Sonoran) also contributes. This is an indispensable guide to the Native American flute and is worth the cost.

As a beginning NAF player, I found this book fascinating. I read it before I bought my first flute, and I found the information on various types of flutes, construction, care and history to be very helpful.

I've used this book as one of my main texts for teaching myself to play this wonderful instrument. I also found the presentation of the TAB system to be useful as I have branched out into writing music of my own.

While this is a great book written by one of the best flute players in the world it is not really a beginners book. It does go into great detail about writing Native American flute music in tabulature form. It also has quite a lot of sheet music and other interesting items and a rather extensive chapter about all of R Carlos Nakai's music releases, which gave me a few ideas for my next few flute music purchases

"The Art of the Native American Flute" is both a comprehensive reference and a fun read. A reader with only passing familiarity with Native American flutes and music (read: has seen a photo or heard one played once) will easily be able to play the role of expert after reading this tome.

The book begins with information on the flute's historical and legendary origins. After this introduction, the reader is invited to look at a deconstructed flute and understand how all the parts fit together to form the whole. The authors discuss the flute's similarities and differences to such instruments as the pipe organ and the European recorder, and they also give a detailed analysis of how each flute's unique sound is produced.

The reader will go on to learn about care, cleaning and maintenance of the flute. Of course, the reader will also be shown how to properly play the flute (including topics such as altering tones and tablature-to-key relationships). After reading these sections, the reader can go on to practice any of a number of included songs.

The book wraps up with extensive lists of bibliographies, discographies and references, and even an essay on the authenticity of both the style of music and the instrument itself.

This book is indispensable for anyone who has the desire to learn more about Native American flutes. Get the book, get a flute, and begin to enjoy unique beauty of this wondrous instrument.

For anyone interested in a generic understanding of the Native American FLute they may find it here. However for those who would like to learn to play and have no prior musical knowledge they will find it a discouraging study...difficult to understand without first mastering musical theory. The most valuable parts of "The Art of The Native American FLute" are the musical transcriptions of Carlos Nakai's songs written in flute tablature. They are though beneficial only for the advanced player that can read.

John Vames, Author,
"The Native American FLute: Understanding the Gift"

if you have a little musical background, this book will get you going in the right direction with your native flute. when i first started playing my cedar flute, everything sounded off-key. after reading carlos nakai's introduction and learning to play his tunes from the scores in the book, i understood the intervals of the native flute and which notes sound good in what patterns. Soon i was able not only to play nakai's beautiful songs but also to improvise on my own. being able to read music is a big help but if you have that skill, this book will give you hours of fun and learning.

This book has it all. While some of the explanatory text may be a bit confusing if you're not familiar with music notation and time signatures, the remainder of the book is excellent. Nakai is up front and honest about what you may need to do to increase your knowledge as a musician and that is a big plus. The music in the book presents wonderful transcriptions of Nakai's memorable Native American Flute melodies. Overall this is a great book for those who have spent some time exploring this instrument and have used books by other authors.

R. Carlos Nakai is probably the most famous and accomplished of the Native American flute players. This book is for serious players interested in investigating the subtleties of the art and for those interested in learning more about Nakai's contribution to it. Amateurs like myself will probably be lost after the first few pages.

This book is very special. It's definitely for more advanced players of the native american flute. But it's very clear and interesting and has some very beautiful and inspiring music to learn.