Three Native American flute modes
A look at three of
the different
modes, or scales, that can be played on the
NAF
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Native
Amercian Flute Scales and modes Part 1 During
my travels, workshops and performances I'm asked
many times by Native American flute players and
audience members about the scale of the Native
American flute. Surprisingly, even among long time
players and makers, there seems to be some
confusion about the scale and the other modes that
can be played on a NAF. Many people don't know what
the scale is and it is often mislabeled as a
"native "scale which, in it's most common form
today, it is not. History
tells us that at one time the scales of the Native
American flute varied greatly and that there was no
standardized scale system. Today however, the NAF
is most commonly tuned to the minor pentatonic
scale, a western scale which like most, if not all,
"western" scales can trace it's roots back to
ancient Greece. But what
makes a scale minor pentatonic? Or major
pentatonic? Or major, the most common western
scale? Is a scale the same as a key, and if not,
how do they differ? To understand the the scale of
the Native American flute it's best to understand
how scales are constructed. Not only will this give
the player and maker a better understanding of the
Native American flute, it will make them better
musicians. For behind knowing about scales lies the
secrets to what musical keys are all about, which
different keyed flutes sound good together, what
different modes sound good together and what is
meant by terms such as Diatonic, Pentatonic, Major,
Minor and Mode. These terms come up with increasing
frequency during flute circles, online disscusion
groups and between individual players and
makers. In
this series of post we're going to try to answer
these questions in a way that is simple for a
non-musician to understand. Be warned however that
this can not be done without getting into some
theory. You will discover however that you already
know much of this information intuitively.
Personally I have always found theory to be fun.
It's like a puzzle. You start by working with a
couple of pieces, then with whole sections and soon
you have a complete image. Don't
forget, it's just music. It's not brain
surgery... SCALES
AND MODES: WHAT ARE THEY AND HOW DO THEY
WORK? THE
MAJOR SCALE This
is known as the C major scale. If you have a piano
handy trying playing this. The
bottom note, in this example "C" is the root of the
scale.
The
root has a specific function both melodically and
harmonically.
The major diatonic scale is also known as the
Ionian mode. WHAT
MAKES A MAJOR SCALE MAJOR? Here are
some Half and Whole steps. The half steps are shown
in blue, the whole steps in red. Note how there is
a note between each red pair, including the two at
the far right TIP
The Native American flute's basic scale
does not have any half steps! The
pitches that make up the sequence of a scale are
numbered These numbers help identify each pitch in
sequence and give them their intervalic name. (An
interval is the distance between two notes. When
used to describe a scale one of the notes is always
the root or note 1.) Here is
an example of a major diatonic scale based on the
note C Major
scales are made up of a couple factors. Which note
they start on and what the sequence of whole and
half steps is. Most important is where the half
steps occur. The half steps in a major scale occur
between notes 3 & 4 and 7 & 8. The others
are whole steps. These half steps, as they are
found in a C major scales are shown below in
blue. Again
a half step is the distance between two adjacent
notes. On a piano there are two adjacent white keys
that are half steps: E to F and B to C. Luckily for
us they also happen to be the two half steps in the
C major scale or 3 & 4 and 7 & 8 ! All
other white keys are a whole step apart as they
have a black note between them. This is also true
of all adjacent black keys. In fact there are no
half steps between any of the black keys on a
piano, something that will come in handy when we
look at pentatonic scales. So
a major diatonic scale is made up of a series of
whole and half steps starting above it's root note.
This could be shown as W-W-H-W-W-W-H or Notes Type
of step 1
- 2 Whole Let's
look at this again but this time starting the scale
on the key of D. Everything
gets moved up by a whole step (C and D are a whole
step part) and then proceeds as we would expect.
But wait, this version of the scale is playing two
black keys. Why is that? The answer lies in the
sequence of whole and half steps needed to make a
major diatonic scale. The note F is raised to F# as
the distance between notes 2 - 3 needs to be a
whole step. E to F is only a half step so the F
needs to be raised to F#. Once raised the half step
between 3 - 4 falls into place. The same is true
for C (note 7) which has been raised to
C#. Since
the above example has the correct sequence of whole
and half steps for a major diatonic scale and
starts on D it is a D major diatonic scale, or just
D major. A scale that had the same sequence of
whole and half steps but started on G would be a G
major scale and so on... In
the next section we're going to look at the modes
and just like with the major scale we'll find the
sequence of whole and half steps plays a defining
role. You
can find an index of all the articles including
maker and flute
profiles
HERE DO
YOU NEED A FLUTE? You
can also find a list of makers
who's flutes I play on my web site. MORE
INFORMATION ABOUT THE
NATIVE
AMERICAN FLUTE ©
2008 Cedar Mesa Music. All rights reserved.
by Scott August
The most common scale on the Native American flute
is the minor pentatonic. However with a little
change of fingering other scales can be played.
Since these scales will all relate to each other as
they have some common notes they can be considered
as "sub-scales" of a main, or parent scale. These
sub-scales are better know as modes. Modes have
been around for hundreds of years. The two most
common modes are the Ionian, better known as the
Major scale and the Aeolian better known as the
Minor scale. As you can see the words scale and
mode tend to be used to mean the same thing even
though they're not the same. They are related
however. We're not going to go into that here (if
you want to get deep into this spend some time
doing a Google search or poke around Wikipedia,
there's lots of information out there.) but for the
purposes of making this easier to understand let's
try to simplify this down to the basics.
To make this
as simple as possible let's pretend there is only
one type of scale, the major scale. On a piano the
easiest way to play a major scale is to play all
the white notes from one C note up to the next
C.
Major diatonic scales are made up of seven pitches,
plus the octave which can is sometimes referred to
as pitch 8. These pitches are laid out in a
sequence of whole and half steps. A half step is
the distance between any two adjacent notes. On a
piano the most common half steps are found between
any white key and black key that are next to each
other. A whole step is made up of any two notes
that have one note in between them. 
2 - 3
3 - 4
4 - 5
5 - 6
6 - 7
7 - 8
Whole
Half
Whole
Whole
Whole
Half
OTHER
POSTS IN THIS SERIES
How
to Buy a NAF, part
1
How
to Buy a NAF, part
2
How
to care for your
NAF
Playing
your first NAF
scale
Strengthening
your Fingers
Playing
from the Heart
Part-1
Playing
from the Heart
Part-2
NEW
Recording
your NAF, basic, easy Home Studio set
up
NEW
Starting
your Own Music Label part 1
Visit the
Cedar
Mesa Music
Store.
Members of my
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list
get a 10% discount on all flutes we
sell.
NAF
History and Construction
This article and all images and sound files are the
property of Cedar Mesa Music.
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© 2008 Cedar Mesa Music. All rights reserved. |
Recordings
by
Scott
August
