Redbelly Music: BLOG

This is from a 2008 RedbellyNews post:

A different way to play.

I have learned early on in my flute journey that the creation of songs and flutes is a creation of who you are, the energy and tools you use, and what materials being used. This I feel should put to rest the idea of what is a traditional way to make songs and flutes. In other words what is created at the time is the tradition. But what about the creation part itself? I know that I put the best of myself in my flutes and songs but I also put the worst. So, what do I do?

I start by recognizing I can consciously affect the kind of energy that is going into what is being created. In the Lakota story the man courted the woman he fell in love with his flute. His flute was the tool to court her but it was the energy of his love that found its way to her heart, good and bad.

For everything created there has to be a beginning. As humans animals we can consciously create things in our lives but for what reasons? One of the reasons could be to fill a need of some kind. If this was the case, recognizing the need would be followed by an intention and then a decision to create. When the early humans discovered fire, it became something they knew was needed. So, their intention was to survive and their decision was to find the materials and tools that would make fire at their will. These steps then created away to keep fire and later away to make fire. This need could be the starting point of what is to be created and what type of energy to be used. If you could take a workshop on how to play the Native American Flute, most of the information might be about how the flute can be ‘healing’ as well as learning how to play; what do you do? Or, you are in a Native American Flute making class were only European tuning was used, then what? I would guess someone would find away to fill that need. Maybe that’s another way to say it.

So, if your need is to heal with the flute then you will focus the needed energy on that. Or your need may be to network to fulfill finical and social status. Whatever the need is, that focus will be a part of what others will see in you. Always remember, the Native Ways and the ancestors know who has heart. I wonder then if there is an order of creation. One possibility is to first fill a need, and then decide what the intention is, what type of energy to be used and then create what is needed by making a focused decision. If this is true, I have outlined a big part of life and that’s CRAZY.

An offering to the 7 directions was given before and after the writing of this Redbelly News Letter.

Redbelly Lives,

David Martinka