May the Forth Be With You

I attended my first Flute Circle at Forest Park Nature Center (Peoria, IL)
The group was hosted by Randy Starnes of Thunderbird Flutes.

I was expecting something on par with the drum circles I have attended in the past, a chaotic blending of beats and rhythms with everyone just ripping away on his/her own percussion instrument. Technically, this same scheme would work for these flutes. These are native American style flutes, hence tuned to the pentatonic scale.

The beauty of the pentatonic scale is that all the notes sound nice together, so in theory, Randy could have turned us loose and the result would have been beautiful music. Sadly, where this breaks down is when not everyone has the same key flute. Thus, the way a flute circle is run is much more orderly, we go around the circle taking turns doing solo work.

– Anyway, it’s fun, you meet people, and get to listen to and play a little music. …. It’s all good.

For more information on Flute Circles, visit the International Native American Flute Circle Listserv

How long did it take you?

Great song – It would be a great fit for the Musical Saw.

YOU IS KIND. YOU IS SMART. YOU IS IMPORTANT!

Don’t forget… It’s important to give each other encouragement throughout the day!

A lovely performance by our Greek friends: Nikos [Gioysef] on Musical Saw and the Peace [Tiniakoy] on piano.

Check out the cheat Nikos is using!

Click to watch video

This was performed courtesy of TSIRI MICROFESTIVAL last year

Last weekend I caught a great act performing at the Forst Park Nature Center in Peoria – The Cantrells. A husband and wife duo, he on fiddle, mandolin, and vocals (and the sound engineer). Emily played guitar and did the heavy lifting re. vocals. Both of them are great musicians/songwriters. – My favorites of the evening: Fallin’ Asleep, Quilt, and Half Empty. – Musical style was primarily a mix of Bluegrass and folk.

Their tour schedule is on their website – I would cetainly recommend catching their show if they are in the neighborhood.

This picture is courtesy of Tine Kindermann (From FaceBook) – The picture is from the website “Bell Percussion” although, I am pretty sure I’ve seen the exact same set up in another photo someone had sent me.

This rig takes the place of clamping the saw handle with your legs or feet.

Online Crowd Funding is a concept whereby people can put up small stakes to help fund creative projects. Two of the platforms I’m aware of are:

• KickStarter.com
• RocketHub.com

and there are probably others. It’s a neat idea – you can review the various artistic endeavors soliciting funding and put forth a small amount. If success is important to you, you can parcel out your contributions over a greater population of recipients to maximize chances that one of your fundees will be a success!

The NEA and most Arts’ Councils have scaled back considerably – so if Arts Funding is important to you, you’ll have to step up! – and here is a convenient way to do so.

That being said, here is an Arts project I have helped:

….and in the interest of full disclosure – one of the members of this band is my cousin’s son.