The Anomaly

it is rather strange…. isn’t it, to be in nature, hundreds or even thousands of years ago, the strange sounds you would hear and the origins of those sounds… it could be animals, or weather, even humans. you would hear coyotes howling, birds chirping and whistling, the rattle of a snake or croak of a frog, rustling of leaves, a slow running stream, breezes through the trees, falling rain, the roar of thunder, grunts and vocalizations from early humans and then… a flute. if you had no prior experience with flutes you would not be able to picture the source of the strange sound, too much intention in the tones to be wind related, more emotive and complex than any bird, a haunting song from the ethers, it would seem to be magic. the strangest mammal, a bipedal primate with some wood or bamboo or even bone that it has worked somehow, putting it up to its mouth and breathing magic, and just like that! acoustic alchemy has a species under its spell. a confounding thing the flute is. with a drum you strike it and get sound, with strings you pluck or strum them and get sound, it is instant, it is easy, it is predictable. not so with a flute, there is nothing to strike and nothing to pluck or strum, there is in fact nothing at all, it is empty. with the ancient flutes of our ancestors all the way forward to the flutes of the ancestral Puebloans and the shakuhachi nothing was ever added, you take your material and you create the instrument only by taking away from it, creation by subtraction, nothing is ever added and nothing is ever needed. you must first learn yourself to learn the flute, breath control! creating and focusing manipulatable airstreams and applying that to this empty instrument. the single chamber end blown flute gives you nothing, you must work for it, you must go after it, from every angle and at every speed, you must find the limits and push them, it is as difficult as it is rewarding, as illusive as it is magical, it is a long time companion for humans and a very anomalous one at that. early humans focused on skills such as shelter building, hunting, making fire, navigation, animal migration patterns, the changing of seasons, crop raising, managing livestock, bartering… all of these things serve the survival of the species. for at least tens of thousands of years the flute was also important… even sacred, early humans spent so much time and resources on it because it is necessary for the survival of the spirit and expressions of the heart, to communicate the things that words can not convey, to communicate with those no longer with us, to offer the frequencies of the soul to the preexisting vibrations of nature, or just to sooth the savage soul. the flute is an empty vessel which contains an infinite supply of spiritual nourishment.. just add air! one of the biggest anomalies in the evolution of early human existence, and is still sacred to this day.