Native American Flute Basic Ornamentation

Video Transcript

"Now I'd like to just say a few words about ornamentation. And the ornamentation is really, kind of the basis of a lot of the American, Native American style of playing. So that, for instance, when you're hearing a phrase like, with the ornamentation it might be, and, would be. And the ornaments are very, very simple. You want to play a note, you come at it from the note above, or you come at it from the note below. And then there's a little thing that they call the yip. And the yip can have the note above it, two notes above, three notes. So the yip can have all kings of different characteristics, and it can be different volumes, or. Now, the trills, with the yip on the end. So, the basic characteristic of the Native American style is those little ornamentations, and gradually, you'll learn to do the ornamentations, which are really just, again, variations on the scale."