FIRST STEPS for Solo Native American-Style Flute
 
An atmospheric piece for Native American-Style Flute (minor pentatonic scale). Duration approximately 3’20”.
 
My thoughts while writing this piece were about my own journey learning how to play the Native American-style flute, which fed into the tempo markings and how the melody starts off slow and simple before becoming more flowing, ornamented and confident. But the melody also returns to the simplest, slowest phrases because I often find them to be the most expressive and haunting on Native American-style flutes.
 
The flute part is notated in Nakai notation (i.e. F-sharp minor with sharpened 6th + fingering diagrams), so it can be played on 6-hole minor pentatonic flutes in any key. That having been said, it was written with the intention of being played on deeper, bass flutes.
 
N.B. The demo recording on the “Native American-Style Flute” page is recorded on a Bass B Padauk flute (432Hz) crafted by Aris Goddins at Aris Flutes (arisflute.com) . The track also features some accompanying Himalayan bowl, shell chimes and an Audubon bird call. Alternative fingerings may need to be used depending on the maker of your flute.