Customer Reviews

The Native American Flute: Understanding the Gift

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We highly recommend this book for the beginner. This is the best beginning Native American flute book to get you started. It is easy to follow and has you playing quickly, so you do not become discouraged. Then you can graduate up to R. Carlos Naki's The Art of the Native American Flute.

John Vames describes everything in great detail.
the CD that comes with the book lets you know what all the exercises should sound like. it's a very good Starter Book.

Vames has done an exceptional job in creating this beautiful piece of work that really helps individuals who have never touched a flute to be able to find their way into the beauty and sound of the Native American Wood flute. This book is ideal for the beginner as it sets out the basics needed to be able to play and apperciate the beauty and simplicity of one of our own creations as Native North American Indian people.I would recommend this book as a starter and then have the student graduate, if need be to R. Carlos Nakai's book on the Native American Flute. One does not need to know a thing about music or musical theory to be able to pick up the flute and learn to play it and read music written in Nakai tablature. This book is "The Gift".

This is the best book you can buy to learn how to play the Native American Flute period. It Starts out simply and works through everything you need to know to develop your own style and playing ability. The cd that comes with the book is concise as well. This man is not only an excellent flute player, but teacher as well. Everything is spelled out in a concise manor step by step. It covers everything from what is called fingering, Embouchure, Ornaments, and Tabulature, to the reading of music. Even pro's can pick up useful tips from this book. Tonguing and slurring, breath control and care of the flute are other topics covered. If your thinking of buying a N.A. Flute. This book is a must. Buy it, you won't go wrong.

As a wooden flute maker, I am always interested in publications that will help myself and others learn how to play the Native American Flute [NAF]. This book was recommended to me by Scott August a professional NAF player and recording artist. Scott said this was the best book on the market to help someone learn how to play and understand the musicality of the NAF so I followed his suggestion and purchaced this volume. Mr. Vames is a music teacher with many years of teaching experience. He uses the skills and techniques of an educator to transfer his knowledge and experience to the student. This book is excellent in its design: diagrams, readability, progression and recorded songs on an interactive CD that comes with the book. I have other books with CD's that are wonderful but this book is a music text on how to play the NAF and demonstrations on the CD make it a real winner. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in being taught how to play the NAF, not just songs on a CD that provide auditory feedback. Superb!

John Vames' Native American Flute is the most comprehensive, easy to understand, helpful lesson book I have found. The accompanying CD supplements the written explanations nicely, allowing a student to listen to various techniques and their application in particular songs or improvisations. I recommend it enthusiastically.

This book and CD set is fabulous! Native American flute is the first musical instrument I'm attempting to learn in my life and I have no knowledge of sheet music either (which is included in the book). Mr. Vames takes you easily step by step, making the journey a fun process as well. I highly recommend this product.

Okay, this book is a little expensive and yet is worth the money. I wish it had more musical selections and a shorter section on music theory. It introduced the Nakai tab system for flute. Using this really clever tabular notation you can play any of the tunes in the book on a flute of any key. To its credit, the book includes the Native American Pentatonic Scale, Minor Pentatonic Scale, Major Pentatonic Scale, Major Scale, and the Chromatic scale. All of this for the Native American-style flute. Tunes include originals by Vames, traditional American Indian tunes, and several I found useless such as, 'Here Comes the Bride,'and, 'Go Tell Aunt Rhodie.' All-in-all a very good book.

This fantastic book very quickly took me from an absolute beginner to being able to produce beautiful sounds in a very short period of time. Of course I put in daily practice, but I was guided very ably by "Understanding the Gift". It even teaches you how to read music, but don't worry if you find that idea daunting, there is flute tablature as well which very quickly gets you playing authentic Native American tunes. The CD is informative and helpful, giving examples of what the author is teaching in the book, and further clarifying points.

The only very small complaint is the style of book - a spiral bound copy would have been much easier to use! Otherwise, a wonderful resource book for those just starting out playing the Native American flute.

I found this book to be very informative. It was the best one of the three I bought. So I will recommend it to my friends.

Sincerely John