The Magical Flute V: The Key and the Mode By Lew Paxton Price Choosing a key for your Native American flute is simply a matter of preference. Due to previously discussed considerations, you know that the flute should have for its lowest note either F#, G, G#, or A above middle C. From either a well tuned piano, synthesizer, pitchpipe, or other means, listen to the keys from which you have to choose. Your flute will have about one octave for its range. This means that the lowest note will be the same note as the highest only an octave lower. So if you were to choose an F#, the notes of your flute would be between F# and the F# an octave above that. If you were to choose an A, the notes would be between the A above middle C and the A above that. You should listen to the ranges of each of the keys from which you have to choose and then make up your mind. There is one other consideration. If you have very small hands, you might prefer an A to one of the lower keys. Or if your hands are small but not quite as small as very small, you find a G# more comfortable. If your hands are large, this does not mean you must prefer a lower pitch for your flute, it simply means that you have more keys from which to choose. Many people with larger hands still enjoy a G# or an A. Once you have chosen a key, it is time to choose a mode. The mode of a flute is simply the tune that the flute will play if one begins with its lowest note and progresses upward hole by hole. As you look at a keyboard for a piano, accordion, organ, or synthesizer, you will notice that the black notes (which express the tune played in a pentatonic scale) are placed alternately in groups of two and groups of three. Each two adjacent black notes have at least one white note between them. And some have two white notes in between. The number of white notes between any two adjacent black notes is called the interval between them. If there is one white note between, the interval is called a whole interval. If there are two white notes between, the interval is called one and one-half. All adjacent black notes are not separated by the same type of interval, and that is why the tune is different according to which black note you start with as you play an octave of black notes. As you look at a keyboard, find the center of it. Choose a group of two black notes (as opposed to a group of three) that is nearest the center. The black note in this group that is farthest to the right is the first note to be played in what we call mode one of the pentatonic scale. Now play this note and then each one farther to the right, one at a time from left to right, finishing with the right hand note that is in the next group of two. If you did this correctly, you will have played a total of six notes and the first note will sound somewhat like the last note because the last note will have been the note exactly one octave above the first. This succession of six notes will play a tune. Play this tune several times to get used to the way it sounds. This tune is the traditional scale of the Japanese Shakuhachi and the one the Native Americans used most. It is called mode one of the pentatonic scale. Penta means five, which implies that the scale has five notes. But you played six notes. You had an extra note because you played the octave note as well as that first five—the octave note is the same note as the beginning note but an octave higher. So you really played only five different notes. Now go to the second note that you played. Beginning with this note, play each black note farther to the right one at a time in succession until you have played a full octave of black notes (five black notes plus the octave black note). Notice that this tune is different because you started with the second black note. Now get used to this tune. It is called the second mode of the pentatonic scale because you began with the second note. Now play a full octave of the pentatonic scale by beginning with the third black note (the black note that is the first one to the right of the starting black note of the tune you just played). This tune is called mode three of the pentatonic scale because it is played by beginning with the third note of the traditional mode one scale. Play mode three several times to get used to it. Mode four is the tune you hear when you play an octave of the scale beginning with the fourth black note of the traditional mode one scale. Mode five is what you hear when you play an octave of the scale beginning with the fifth note of the traditional mode. The tune of mode six is the same tune as that of mode one because the sixth note is the same note as the first note but an octave higher. So you have only five modes or starting points: one for each note of the five note (pentatonic) scale. Any tune is based upon a pattern of intervals rather than a particular key. This means that a person with a lower voice can sing the same tune as a person with a higher voice. If someone who prefers to sing in the key of F# wishes to sing the same tune as someone who just sang the tune in the key of A, this is all right. Any tune can be sung in any key. So any mode can be used in any key. The tunes you hear when you play the different pentatonic modes can be started with any key including those of the white notes as long as the same interval pattern is used. This is why it is necessary to choose both a key and mode for your flute. When the Native American began to make flutes with six holes for the fingers, he placed his fingers where they felt most comfortable and there was where he placed the holes. Another hole near the foot of the flute was enlarged until the six playing holes sounded right. Sometimes they never did sound right and he started over again and repeated the operation until he had what he wanted. This led to two basic visual configurations for the holes. One of them was six playing holes about the same distance apart. When the first hole (the one closest to the foot of the flute) was the correct distance from the foot and when the tuning hole was right, this configuration was very close to the modern diatonic scale, and it eventually evolved into a standard form where the holes were always right for playing the diatonic scale. Another was six playing holes divided into two groups of three each, separated by a larger interval than the one between the holes within a group. This last type went two different ways in its evolution. When the holes were placed properly, in one case, the mode one pentatonic scale was heard until one got to the hole nearest the head of the flute. The last hole was not placed in such a way as to sound right and was subsequently left off. The result was the mode one pentatonic flute. When the holes were shifted slightly toward the foot of the flute, it was hole nearest the foot that did not sound right/ so it was subsequently left off. The result here was the mode four pentatonic flute. On both the mode one and the mode four flutes, there was a group of two holes and a group of three holes just like the spacing of the black notes on our keyboard today. This left a large gap between the two groups of notes. When the gap was properly filled with a sixth hole, the result was a six hole flute that would play in mode one if the flutist did not remove a particular finger from its hole, and in mode four if it were a different finger that was not removed from its hole. So now there became four traditional tunings: the approximate diatonic, the mode one pentatonic, the mode four pentatonic, and the six hole that combined the mode one and mode four pentatonic. There were doubtless many other traditional tunings, but most of them have not withstood the test of time. In fact, one of them, the whole interval scale, tends to sound a bit obnoxious at times. The Amerind would have come up with more pentatonic modes in his tunings had he been inclined to change the sizes of the playing holes on the same flute. However, the hole size was almost always kept the same on any single flute because it seemed more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. And this limited the number of modes that could be played conveniently with the human hand. Had he (I use he because it was taboo for a woman to make or to play a flute) been willing to use holes of different sizes, he would have come up with five other tunings: modes two, three and five, and combinations of modes two and five and modes one and three. I use these modes today when I make Native American style flutes and find that each has its advantages and suggestions for developing new compositions. Of the tunings from which you have to choose, one of these traditional types should be best for working in the alpha state, plus one more: mode five. Mode five is also a good choice because it allows you to play mode one when it is overblown just one note, and it gives you the option of going down one more note. If you are a beginner, you should choose either mode one or mode four. If you are more advanced, you should choose either the six hole combination of modes one and four, or mode five. These are the tunings that I will cover next. The creation of the mode or tuning and the key will come later. Now it is your task to choose the tuning and the key that you like best for your flute. 1993 by Lew Paxton Price | 
