Here you will find notes taken at meetings spanning from our very first meeting at TOTO's Coffee House through September 2003.

Back to KCNAFC Main!

SEPTEMBER 2003 * OUR NEW LOCATION: After a relatively slow summer (they always are), the Circle was back into the swing of things in September. Despite (or maybe because of -- who knows?) the move to a new meeting location, attendance was back up. The new location is wonderful; sure I saw it when it was (relatively) empty, but Jim's new Shoppe is huge. Having watched the evolution of the Mountain Music Shoppe over the years, it seems each move is into a location twice as large as the last one and each time Jim finds wonderful instruments to fill up the space. If you haven't been in the Shoppe for awhile (shame on you), then by all means make the trip to the new location! It rocks, and if everything stays on schedule it will be opening the first of next month. How cool is that?

And speaking of 'how cool is that,' how cool is this: Bear, one of our longtime members, has truly hit a new plateau in his playing. He played for the group Tuesday and I think (and since I'm the one writing this I get to think it) played with all the polish heard in professional recordings and with the elusive feeling that is sometimes lacking in professional recordings but, when there, makes for a true masterpiece. You go, Bear! 

Welcome to our two-and-a-half new members. I hope to see you all again in October.

WINTER 2003: The February meeting marked our Flute Circle's SECOND Communiversity event. We had eight or 10 people who were new to the circle who came in through Communiversity. (For those who found us through Communiversity and are wondering: the fee you have to pay is one charged by the Communiversity itself and goes to running that organization. The Flute Circle doesn't get any of that money (nor do we want it). If we had the choice, we wouldn't charge anything for the Communiversity attendees; however, they won't list the event without that minimum charge.)

The January 2003 meeting of the Kansas City Native American Flute Circle took place at TOTO's Coffeehouse. This was a last-minute change of location and hopefully everyone who wanted to attend was able to find us. (Myself, I go a phone call from Bear a few hours before the event. However, I was in south Georgia at that time on my way to sunny Florida. Needless to say, I didn't make it to the circle that night. But I was thinking about you guys. Really. I was. 

EARLY WINTER 2002: I know.... It's been more than a year since I updated this page. I feel bad about that. Really. I do. The good news is the Circle is growing. Will it be unbroken? What the heck -- I'm going to go out on a limb and say "yes."

Good news on a personal front -- I now have a much more effective way of updating this page. The sheer logistics and frustration of getting my computer to run long enough to do anything with this website has prevented me from doing many updates. Hopefully now that is a thing of the past. My intentions at this point are to update far more frequently -- hopefully following every meeting. Of course, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Thus, my plan is to avoid mixing my good intentions with asphalt and to not spread that mixture over the road. Maybe that way I can just stick with the good intentions and not have to pave any roads, which would certainly cut down on the amount of time I have to update this site.

Our December 2002 meeting was a small one, what with Christmas and all. A handful of the regulars were there, along with one new fellow. A big chunk of the time was devoted to discussions of flute making. You know, flute making is a topic that interests me and I'd love to spend some time with someone who knows how it is done and is experienced in flute making who could walk me through the process of making a flute. I think that would give me a deeper appreciation of the flute -- and of those who make them -- but I don't think I'll ever really "make" flutes. Just don't have the personality for it, I guess.

The November (2002) meeting was a nice one! The Fretwells (from Fretwell Flutes) were there and demonstrated some of the flutes that they make. My wife fell in love with a purpleheart Bb, which we bought. That was interesting, since we went not knowing that we were in for such a treat that evening. I had earlier that day bought another flute over at the Shoppe. Two in one day. It's a wonder I didn't have some sort of seizure!

MID SUMMER 2001: We're moving our meetings to Tuesday nights (3rd Tuesday of the month) at The Shack. I would like to thank TOTO's Coffee House one more time for being such wonderful hosts for us over the last year. I'll miss their coffee and especially their Steamed Mexican, but our new meeting place is perfect for us.

The next meeting is June 19th. Unfortunately, I won't be there for that meeting as I'll be in Fort White, Florida. (Yes, I'll be working. Yes... I'll be working hard. Some of the time.) Someone take notes so I can mention what was discussed here!

AND DON'T FORGET TO GET YOUR TICKETS FOR THE RAYMOND REDFEATHER CONCERT! The June 5th performance is sold out already. There are still (as of 29 May 2001) a few tickets left for the June 14th performance. Call Jim at The Mountain Music Shoppe (913 962-9711) for your tickets. Read more about this on our Special Events page.

Also, I just saw a new website called the Native American Community of Kansas City (http://www.geocities.com/kcnativecommunity/home.html). They've provided a link to this page for our flute circle. Take a look at what they've got! 

The SEVENTH meeting of the Kansas City Native American Flute Circle has taken place. Well. Sort of. My wife and I were the only people who showed up. Of course, it did happen to fall on St. Patrick's Day (it's big here in Kansas City) so I suspect everyone was in Westport.

Oh well. See you in April.

The FIFTH and SIXTH meetings of the Kansas City Native American Flute Circle have now taken place. While I missed the fifth meeting due to the Annual Winter Meeting of the Stained Glass Association of America, I did take my flute to the board meeting so I could at least be there in spirit.

The sixth meeting took place on 18 February 2001 at TOTO's. Attendance was light, but then the winter has proven difficult. I expect that there will be more people at the March meeting. 

Discussion at the first half of this meeting strayed from the topic of the Native American flute. Well... strayed might not be exactly the word I'm looking for... We discussed vegetarianism, fun things to do in Seattle when there on business, and the danger of Labrador Retriever puppies eating your socks.

However, we were back on topic in the second half of the meeting and discussing our various flutes and what we like or don't like (mostly like) about each particular one. Of special interest in this discussion was the different tonal qualities produced by flutes of different woods (and woods of drastically different densities). 

The seventh meeting will take place on 17 March 2001. Yes, that's St. Patrick's day. While I will most certainly be out playing my tinwhistle that evening, I hope to see everyone at the meeting that afternoon. 

One last thing -- I point this out simply because it struck me as too funny not to pass on: I noticed that TOTO's has a new item on their coffee menu: "Steamed Mexican." I got this vivid image of giving them $2.15 so that Juan Valdez and his donkey would come out of the back room to explain why they're ticked off. Certainly wouldn't be because it's the richest, most aromatic cup of coffee in the world.

You know, now that I've written it down, it sounds like it might be one of those things that is funny only to me. Oh well. That would explain why the folks behind the counter were looking at me the way they were as I was standing there trying to order coffee while laughing like an idiot. 

(Steamed Mexican is actually, I understand, hot chocolate with cloves and cinnamon. Sounds pretty good, no? Add a shot of tequila and I'm in. Anyone who thinks computers will let you make more mistakes faster than any other invention has never tried tequila and a handgun.)

That's all. Really.

The FOURTH meeting of the Kansas City Native American flute circle most likely took place on 16 December 2000 at TOTO's. I say most likely because I wasn't there, and I'm not frankly sure if anyone was. The past week has been a bad one for weather here in the Kansas City area -- I was iced in!

If anyone did make it to the meeting, please send me an e-mail and let me know what was discussed; I'll get the information posted here for everyone else who missed it.

It looks like, though, at this point that meetings have pretty much settled into a routine time: the third Saturday of the month, 1 to 3 pm at TOTO's.

If the good Lord is willing and the creeks don't rise, I'll see everyone at the fifth meeting next month!

The THIRD meeting of the Kansas City Native American Flute Circle took place on 18 November 2000 at TOTO's Coffee House in Mission, Kansas. As always, thank you to the fine people at TOTO's for letting us meet there! Amazingly, after one double tall latte, I was playing everything much faster....

The meeting was great; I find myself coming away from these meetings feeling refreshed. There was some really interesting conversation this time on the differences between five- and six-hole Native American flutes. I seem to be in the minority (a minority of one, no less) with a six-hole flute. Everyone else is playing the five-hole flutes. What can I say -- I try not to stand on tradition. It never stood on me.

There was also discussion of pentatonic, diatonic, major and minor scales. A major scale is made up of eight notes that compose two tetrachords that are one whole step apart. There are fifteen unique major keys. For every major key, there is a relative natural minor key that is made up of the same eight notes as its corresponding major key, but that begins on what would be the sixth note of that major key.

The harmonic minor scale is similar to the natural minor scale, but it raises the seventh tone by a half step both ascending and descending while the melodic minor scale raises the seventh tone a half step ascending, but descends like the natural minor scale.

A parallel minor scale is a scale that begins on the same keynote as a major scale, but has the half step interval between the second and third tone and the fifth and sixth tone.

The basic pentatonic scale is made up by the first, second, third, fifth and sixth notes of a major scale. 

But, I think I am going into far more detail here than we went into at the meeting, and I certainly don't want to make it sound like the meeting was dull! Everyone who was so inclined also took turns playing a piece for the group. Jim made the comment that if the player will play with eyes closed, he will see an immediate improvement in his playing. I find this an interesting -- and highly probable -- proposition. 

Still, I have to admit that when I tried to play with my eyes closed, I was quick to open them. I guess I just enjoy watching people watch me play. I don't know if that makes me an egomaniac, or simply means that I need to practice playing with my eyes closed, too....

Oh well. 

For anyone who's interested, I've set up an e-mail reminder to help me remember when the meetings are going to take place. Basically, what this does is it sends out an e-mail to my office e-mail account on the Thursday before the meeting reminding me that the meeting is Saturday. If this just sounds too groovy to pass up and you'd like to get a copy of this e-mail reminder, too, just let me know at sgmagaz@kcnet.com and I'll see that it happens.

There were several new faces at the meeting this time; it's always good to see people who really love the flute join in. Thanks to everyone for coming and, yes, thank you even to the woman who complained to the management of TOTO's that she didn't think a bunch of people playing music in a coffeehouse was appropriate. While I do honestly feel bad that Native American flute music so upset her that she could not enjoy her coffee, I think it is important to remember that sometimes seeing an example of how not to behave can be as beneficial -- and in some cases even more so -- than seeing an example of how to behave. For providing that model of how I very much want to never find myself behaving, I do honestly thank her. And that is all I have to say on that topic.

Hope to see you in December.

Wow! The Kansas City Native American Flute Circle's second meeting took place on Saturday, 21 October 2000 at TOTO's Coffee House. This was a great meeting! 

Didjeridu player Carl Fallik joined in for this meeting; if you've never heard a didgeridoo and a Native American flute play a duet before... well, they really are a wonderful combination. I for one would be happy to jam with a didj player anytime!

We also spent a good deal of time discussing technique. One of the hot topics was: is it better to completely improvise based on the moment or is it better to play set music that can be reproduced in a similar fashion later? 

Circle members are -- every one -- respectful of one another's views and opinions. To my mind, the final consensus was that neither one nor the other is out of place in Native American flute playing and both can be used to create wonderful music.

Also discussed was the playing of the Native American flute in natural settings and the use of the flute to approximate the sounds of nature. At one point, everyone at the table was playing a loon call virtually simultaneously. It's a wonder we didn't attract the Audubon Society! 

I have attempted to describe the technique for playing the loon call, which you can find by following this link. I hope to be able to add a page or pages like this one that describe what was discussed at each meeting. Unfortunately, this will no doubt be a poor substitute for actually being at the meetings and seeing this stuff first hand.

I hope to see you at our next meeting. As always, feel free to contact me (dsz-zoo@earthlink.net) with any questions, observations, suggestions for content for this page, or anything else you'd like to chat about. Or, e-mail me if you just want to say "hi!"

The first meeting of the fledgling KCNAFC took place 5 August 2000 at TOTO's Coffee house, 6915 Johnson Drive, Mission,, Kansas. I would like to thank both the management and staff of TOTO's for being our hosts. For me, the meeting was the first time I've been to TOTO's; it certainly won't be the last!

Thanks are also due to Jim Curley, owner of the Mountain Music Shoppe, who is the founding member of the Kansas City Native American Flute Circle.