Outdoor Handflute Experience Day: Making Music in Nature

A Different Experience Outdoors

Playing the handflute outdoors is a different experience.

Indoors, the ceiling and walls help focus the sound. Outdoors, there is none of that -- the sound disperses, and the player has to rely more on their own ears to adjust. This turns the outdoor experience day into a form of ear training as well, and students often report afterwards that when they go back to playing indoors, their awareness of sound control is actually sharper.

Sound Exploration

The other part of the experience day is sound exploration: the instructor guides students in using the handflute to imitate the natural sounds around them -- wind, birds, flowing water. There are no right answers, and no "correct" version of what it should sound like. This segment is usually the most relaxed and most creative part of the entire course.