I am kind of new to NAF yet and only just recently heard of flute circles. What exactly are they and how would you get one started? The closest one to me is about 3 1/2 hours away. Any info would be great, thanks, sawdust.

Ron, Welcome to the forum, I am glad you joined us......

A flute circle is nothing but a collection of like minded individuals that like to play the flute. Each circle seems to have thier own evolving personality. Meetings are usually a casual gathering where members share ideas, show off thier flutes, what they have learned and play......

Getting one started takes an individual or two with enough interest and perserverence to get it going. Check out the other Post on Flute Circle ideas, that should help you.
Ed

Sawdust, all you need is 2 or more people who want to visit, share, and enjoy the flute together. Starting a circle is just that simple, until you get too many members for someone's home.

I can share some of the issues with coordinating one, if you would like to know how to get started.

Glory hallelujah! Imagine my surprise and delight when I opened the latest issue of Voice of the Wind and discovered that there's a new flute circle in my area, only about three miles away. Can't believe I didn't hear about it locally, but then again I haven't had any personal contact with other flute players. Hey, knighthawk, you reading this?

YEA!!! Have fun!

Yes Paul I read it.I'll give you a call later.

There ya go.

VOW is a handly little newsrag to have laying around, isnt it

Went to my first flute circle meeting tonight (in Springfield, Illinois). There were eight of us with a wide range of experience and number of flutes. The guy who led the other defunct circle was present as a member of the new circle, so I finally got to meet him after a year of email exchanges. The group was a bit disorganized, more talk than play, but I hope this is because it's just getting off the ground. It was nice to share a love of flutes with others, and I look forward to getting back together next month. Perhaps they'll show up on the portal, since I gave it a rave review.

Hey Paul,

Glad you made it to the circle and that you enjoyed yourself. I'm sorry I couldn't be there to meet you but I was just too busy preparing for my upcoming two week vacation in CO and WY leaving this Saturday morning (Absolutely -Yes- I'm taking flutes to play from the overlooks and in the canyons! ).

The circle really is just "getting off the ground" (that was the third gathering) and I believe the organizer, at least initially, wanted it to be very unstructured and loose in order to promote a very relaxed atmosphere. It sounds like you had a bit of a mixed group last night but the first two were mostly folks new to the NASF and they tend to be very bashful about playing in front of others (as opposed to me, who is also new but not a bit shy about playing in front of folks even if it occasionally ends up sounding like a cat with a sore tail backing into an oscillating fan! ), so we end up with quite a bit of conversation going on. We do try to gently encourage folks to play (or play along) but don't push or judge anyone "hanged or freed" unless they ask to be. I think as we get a bit more time under our belts, some of the bandannas will drop away from faces and the flute voices will sing!

If you have any suggestions or ideas for the circle, please don't hesitate to speak up as I don't think any of us have experience with this. I'm trying to help the organizer out any way I can and although I've only been playing since January this year I'm brought tab handouts along for the basic and extended scale and at the last meeting I brought along my Roland Micro Cube and wireless mike to demonstrate how easy (and relatively inexpensive) it is to have your own echo canyon anywhere you'd like (also ran a backing tracks through it off my mp3 player - they found that pretty impressive also). In the future I'm hoping I can get my brother to come to one of the meetings, as he's been playing the guitar for 35+ years and also blows a fairly mean harmonica (I've often wondered how a mouth harp and NASF will sound together...).

Down the road a bit I'd also like to see us bring in a professional player/s like the Peoria, IL group (Spoon River Flute Circle?) do for a local concert and workshop. I'm pretty sure they have had good success with Mark Holland since he's close by in the St. Louis area.

I'll be looking forward to meeting you next month and if you like, we could do a duet jam and really smoke them stick holes! (hey! who's tuning their flute during the circle?) Ha!

Take Care & Clear Notes,

Watch it, Mister!

...or the cat's owner with a knot in their tail! (in regards to sounds like)

(...dang these former "Lurker", upstart newbie posters... think they can go around floot'in Tootie's cats... I'll give this boy a switch'in he'll never forget... now where'd I put that stick? Oops! can't use that one, sav'in it for a flute! ...I'm gonna let it pass this time Mr. Will... just don't be talking trash about cats and fans in the future Mister, or so help me... - See I know exactly what you were muttering under your breath Tootieflutie! )

Clear Notes! (no screeches),

Watch out, everyone!! There's another comedian in the house!!!

Will, sounds like you've got a lot of great ideas. I look forward to seeing you next time. Everyone played their flutes, so I didn't really see much bashfulness, not debilitating anyway. A few were pretty inexperienced--even more than me--so I think it would be a great idea to incorporate some teaching/learning/practicing of technique to keep them coming back. I'm ready to jam, baby!

I am curious as to the differnet places each of you holds your flute circles (houses, chruches, parks etc).
Let me know.

We'll do it Paul!

See you then.

Clear Notes,

Hello SoCal Dan,

Church - for the Abraham Lincoln Flute Circle Group in Springfield Illinois. The "Darwin Room" right off of the sanctuary to be exact (we do go out and play in the sanctuary on occasion too, great acoustics!)

Clear Notes,

Hey Webb,Glad to see you hear.I live close to springfield myself.Paul and I have been trying to get together,but my wife is being a problem.I start a three week vacation soon and had hoped to see Paul.Maybe I could stop by the circle too.

I belong to three different flute circles (we're lucky in this area!)

The Maryland Flute Circle meets in a beautiful circa 1905 stone chapel.

The Windsongs Circle meets in a contempoary church. During the summer, we meet in a pole-barn typle utility/classroom building at the church, and in the winter, as the pole barn is unheated, we meet in a balcony loft above and behind the sanctuary of the church. Nice acoustics there...natural reverb. We've even met in a tent or on the tailgate of my pickup truck when all the buildings were in use for Vacation Bible School.

The Pennsylvania Circle meets in a maintenance building at Indian Echo Caverns in Hummelstown, PA. During the summer months, they meet in a pavilion on the Cavern's grounds.


The point is that you can meet almost anywhere!

SoCal_Dan, my circle meets in a shopping center location, occupied by a local non-profit, and we are sponsored by a board member for the use of the space for our meetings. We take up a collection plate for donations to offset the utilites, and disposables we consume, so that the charity is reimbursed for the expenses we consume.

I walked into our flute circle meeting, in Norman, Oklahoma, last night, and the second face I saw was none other than our own Rick McDaniel. He came up to Oklahoma for the Red Earth Festival and came by.

I'd previously only spoken to Rick a very few minutes at the last Oklahoma Flute Festival, so it was good to see more of him and hear him play a little.

I also had a real thrill of playing a flute made by Doc Tate Nevaqua. Not only did Doc Tate make it but used it on many of his recordings. That really made my day.

Well, the company was enjoyed very much, and it was good to see Bob looking like he was getting back to his old self. The Doc Tate flute was quite interesting, as were some of the other flutes passed around to view.

We did not find flutes needed, at Red Earth, but it was nice to meet and chat with some of the makers in the market, such as Bryan Akipa, and G. Haney, who did some neat carving work. I tried several of his flutes, and really admired his carvings. The gator and eagle flutes were very well carved, indeed.

Did get a Taos drum from Frank Mirabal, elk, double sided. Got a couple of very nice pottery pieces, which are always difficult to afford, one from Maria Adelicia, who is more reasonable, in a Chininaya candle votive, and a nice muti-layered slip etched vase from Keith Yazzie Jay. A nice gourd bowl with antler handle, and deer motif, completed the stuff we brought back, along with a CD from Bryan Akipa, that I didn't have.

Leroy and I still have to connect on a flute, at some point in time, when he isn't sold out.

There is a flute circle here in Arkansas called ' Healing Hearts FLute Circle ' we started with 4 of us and then grew to 8 of us and now theres 10 of us! We all have a hoot of a time playing one anothers flutes, talking about each others flutes, asking how are flutes made and all of the good stuff fluties wonna know
The stories that come from the circle meetings is amazing to share for example, one of the new couples that came along to visit the circle ended up being gifted a bamboo flute by the nights end, well the husband plays his flute each day and without making her sound horrible, a few days later she asked him to quiten down so she could watch tv
well that has all changed becos our last flute circle meeting both of them were playing flutes together
The feeling of belonging to a group that shares the same passion, curiosity and knowledge comes from the members themselves, they make the circle fun and enjoyable to make you look forward to seeing them at the next meeting.

Peace to everyone & thank you Ed for sharing
Kappy