The Flute as Sound Medicine – Christine Stevens

A 35,000-year-old flute — one of the world’s oldest known musical instruments — made from a vulture bone, was found in a cave in Germany. Nearby, archaeologists have found flutes dating to 43,000 years old.

The Kokopelli figure has been found in ruins dating to the year 200 CE. And from the Hindu deity Krishna to the mystical poetry of Rumi and Kabir, the flute holds an ancient sacred lineage of connection with the Divine.

In this opening class, Christine will explain how the space between the holes in ancient flutes matches the same scale we use today.

Christine will be joined by Martin Espino, whose native heritage is Yaqui (Sonora, Mexico) and Tepehuano (Durango, Mexico).

A performer, soundworker, meditation leader, and traditional flute maker from the Mexika tradition, Martin specializes in crafting traditional flutes, rattles, and drums.

In this first module, you’ll:

• Be welcomed with a flute meditation played by Christine
• Learn about the Native history of the flute with Martin — he’ll share flutes made of clay, bamboo, and cedar, as well as rattles and drums
• Bless your flute, honoring its culture, spiritual lineage, and intention
• Learn basic techniques including holding position, air flow, finger placement, and note playing
• Discover the difference between smooth and tongued sounds, creating rhythm with a single note
• Practice a mindfulness meditation through sound

Can you imagine living your life as though there were no wrong notes? What kind of music would you feel free to create?

Many music lovers find freedom in the 5-note pentatonic scale — echoing worldwide in Asian, Pacific-Island, Native American, South American, and African cultures.

You’ll explore the origin story of the cedar flute — how it comes from the branch of the tree, carved by the woodpecker and played by the wind.

As you’ll discover, the powerful combination of the melodic flute and the driving rhythms of the drum is found all over the world. The symbolic roots and branches of this combination create a tree that reaches upward to the light, illuminating the spiritual path.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• How the 5-note pentatonic scale is said to come from the potoo birdsong — according to Bernie Kraus, author of The Great Animal Orchestra
• Ways to craft melodies using leaps and spaces in the river of song
• How to paint brushstrokes of colors with each note’s timbre
• A formula of healing melodies
• How to play your flute to the beat of a drum — a recording is included
• The magic of the 5-note pentatonic scale with no wrong notes

According to Mexican tradition, the voice of creation includes drum, rattle, and flute. But how do you play duets with nature? How do you sound the inspiration of wind, water, and sky?

In this session, you’ll learn to decorate notes using vibrato of the breath and ornamentation inspired by birdsong and the sacred lineage of flute playing.

You’ll explore how long tones are used to quiet the mind, while jumping between wide intervals can create excitement and adventure.

In this class, you’ll:

• Decorate notes inspired by birdsong, trill, toss, flutter-tongue, and vibrato
• Play the music of landscapes — from mountain peaks to river-drone
• Participate in a live improvised call-and-response session
• Learn to travel and visualize nature while playing
• Play a soundscape song of nature sounds
• Learn a daily practice of grounding and uplifting using flute and drum — also known as the Music Tree of Life

Throughout time, major and minor tonalities have been associated with emotions, mood states, and the dynamics of life.

You’ll explore the magic of the pentatonic scale — and how it combines two different energies Christine calls lunar and solar, representing the minor and major modes.

You’ll engage in the brightness of each note as a ray of light from the sun. Christine will guide you to engage in the mystery of each note as a phase of the moon — and discover where feminine and masculine meet, the joining of day and night, sound and silence, spirit and soul…

In this module, you’ll:

• Explore solar and lunar scales as tools of emotional expression
• Discover how different drone notes change the sound of your flute playing
• Learn partner games to practice in class
• Use your voice to connect with the lunar and solar notes of the flute
• Practice call and response in the oral tradition of learning without music

When Christine was working in the war zone of Iraq, she found the flute to be the sound that reached the hearts of survivors in a battered women’s shelter…

Once she played the flute, the women picked up the drums and joined. Within an hour, all the women were dancing together, finding freedom in the music.

She asked them through the translator — when was the last time they danced? One woman held up nine fingers, indicating it had been nine years.

You’ll discover how, in the sound healing tradition, you use intuition to play notes and melodies that are healing to others. You’ll explore how this all applies to yourself too — and you’ll transform the wounds of your life into music, just like the holes in the flute.

In this session you’ll:

• Begin with a flute meditation to set a healing intention
• Learn to use your sonic intuition to play healing sound
• Discover how to turn the intentions of others into music in ceremony and healing
• Integrate breathwork and energy work while playing your flute
• Honor the space between the notes, balancing giving and receiving

Neuroscience has found that improvising music in the moment — without trying to read musical notation — brings many neurological benefits.

A study by Charles Limb, MD showed that improvisation deactivates the areas in the brain involved in self-judgment, criticism, and self-monitoring.

Meanwhile, the medial prefrontal cortex activates the parts of the brain involved in meditation, telling your personal story, and experiencing the moment.

You’ll discover how improvisation helps build your creativity. You’ll explore the many ways it’s a daring practice of self-expression — a tool that changes your brain from the default network to the presence or mindfulness network.

Everyone can be inspired by prompts and partners. playing solo or in duets and ensembles. It’s a powerful way to create poetry as you learn simple structures of beauty that sculpt your songwriting freedom.

In this module, you’ll:

• Learn to play a flute haiku, inspired by Japanese poetry
• Discover the universal keys to improvisation from one quality note to simple repetition
• Discover compelling research on the brain benefits of improvisation and playing from your heart
• Learn how to use play-along tracks and apps for creative prompts and expression
• Experience tools for online jamming with others

Beginning with its origins as a “courting flute” in the Native American tradition, the flute plays the heart of love and longing.

You’ll move through the flute’s connection to love throughout many different traditions and times. You’ll discover how, in Hindu tradition, there’s a shabda, a sonic current of love that encircles the universe forever.

In the Zen temples of Japan, shakuhachi flute players wore barrels over their heads to avoid the ego of being performers, and to allow their playing to be an offering to Buddha.

What music did Krisha play that drew the gopis to follow? What song did Kokopelli play that brought rain to the thirsty earth? What response do you hear when you play your flute as a question to the Divine?

This session will feature Guillermo Martinez demonstrating his heartsong practice — and sharing tools of playing the voice of creation using drum, rattle, and flute.

In this final module, you’ll:

• Experience a flute meditation as you listen to the sacred flute played by Sri Chimnoy, a master guru in the Hindu tradition, and by Nawang Khechog, a celebrated Tibetan flute player and composer
• Discover 3 parameters for finding your own heartsong — and expressing it on the flute
• Be inspired by Guillermo’s teachings on reaching inward to create outward music
• Explore sound and silence in the practice of connecting with the divine current of sound