So far, we have come from making those first notes on the flute to becoming familiar with the minor pentatonic scale. We’ve gone through some ways to start and end notes. There are probably a lot more that I don’t know about. It occurred to me this morning as I was pondering writing this lesson, that besides using “Tah” or “Kah”, one might use “Lah” or “Nah”. We’ve dabbled with a one note idea or “phrase”. One note can be varied in length, it can be with or without vibrato, it can have different start and stop qualities. You can play patterns like Tah Kah followed by a long note. You can play long, Tah and long. Any combination of patterns and note durations can be used.

When you add a second note, you don’t just double the possiblities. There are many, many variations. You can play the higher note and close the lower note hole without interrupting the air flow. This produces a quick transition to the lower note. A guitarist would call it hammering on. You can release the lower note in the same manner producing a quick change that is neither like the Tah, Kah or slow start. You can also slide your finger off the lower note producing a nice glide to the higher note. You can also play the higher note and slowly roll or slide your finger over the lower hole producing a nice glide to the lower note. So, you see, when you add as second note, not only are the possibilities exponential, they are increased by the way you can transition from one note to the next.

When learning to type, I hit a barrier on speed. I found a lesson that said to take words like “the”, “and”, “or”, “to” and other common words and learn them as a single thought. So that means think “the” when you type and not T, H, E. Immediately I broke the 40 WPM barrier. In much the same way you can learn phrases and as you improvise you can call on phrases. Sometimes it will just “fit” where you are in the song. Other times it can be a filler while you think about what you are going to create next. My fervent hope is that we never lose the ability to find those new sounds and new phrases.

As you begin using phrases and even in just these two note ideas. There is a phenomenon (at least I feel there is) that listeners experience. It is akin to memory loss, but the memories aren’t lost they just fade. If you are playing a phrase and for some reason it just doesn’t sound right. All the notes are correct in the scale but it just doesn’t sound right, it can be that the listener (in this case you) can still hear the earlier notes in the phrase. Suppose you broke the phrase into to parts and let a little time pass before playing the second half. I find that what happens is the memory of what I just heard tends to fade and make room for the next phrase and that sound that seemed to be off, just got better. Maybe I’m all wet, but I think it is true.

So without further ramblings, let’s get our feet wet on two note ideas. Let’s just add the second note of the Gm scale, so that would make G and A# as our arsenal of sounds.  You can use any two notes you want, but for now we’ll just use the next in the scale. If you have downloaded the backing track from the last lesson, start it playing. Play one note then the next. Listen to how the notes sound as the chords change. Try creating patterns. Maybe play two medium length notes on the low one followed by a long note on the higher note. Try long, short, long using the higher note in the middle and then use the lower note in the middle. Don’t worry about how it sounds at first, just listen to the way the notes sound against the chord changes. If you are like me, you will probably have some “Ahah!” moments. Add those to your library of phrases or ideas.

For convenience sake, here’s that backing track:

[download id=”235″]

Here’s is an example of me using two note ideas. Listen for the different transitions to the notes. Listen to the patterns. With two notes the “song” start sounding better eh? Doubt this will make a best seller list, but it is starting to resemble a song. I did not worry about timing and such. I just hit record and played what came into my head. Listen again to how the two notes sound against the chords. Notice how some of the patterns tend to lead to the next chord?

So keep on practicing. Don’t worry about impressing anybody. Small steps. All journeys are comprised of small steps. Bigger steps can work, but you can miss some ground (details) by moving too fast. Practice each phase of what you learn until it feels comfortable. Try using vibrato. I didn’t in this last example, but I could have. Don’t be afraid to revisit some of the earlier lessons to refresh. As always let your mind take in all that you hear, how it feels holding the flute as you play a note. When you need it, you’ll find your hands going there and you may not even need to tell them.

Link to next lesson.