Christine Stevens – Deepen Your Flute Journey

Description Of Deepen Your Flute Journey

Feel the profound effects of flute playing, and the warm connection of a virtual community, as you learn scales, songs, and ornamenting techniques — to find your own personal soul song and create healing experiences for yourself and others.

In Christine’s new 10-part program, you’ll take a deep dive into all the aspects of flute playing that are already in you and ready to be sung… and you’ll emerge with an array of skills and insights.

You’ll learn to integrate the aspects of the flute that create your unique sound and fulfill your soul’s purpose…

You’ll explore a variety of scales, composition, improvisation, music theory, and ornamentation to develop a sound that only you can bring into the world.

And, perhaps one of the most beautiful benefits of this Deepen Your Flute Journey course is the sense of belonging to a global community of spiritual flute healers.

Each week, at the end of class, you’ll have the opportunity, should you so choose, to play something from your heart in small breakout groups with other participants.

Christine holds master’s degrees in social work and music therapy — and inspires people all over the world with her message that music promotes holistic health, spirituality, and emotional wellbeing.

She’s played her flute for healing in war zones and disaster areas, for battered women and witnesses of genocide, for surviviors of fires and hurricanes, and many more.

Now you can spend 10 sessions with Christine, experiencing for yourself how this sacred instrument can help you move stuck emotions, feel uplifted and relaxed, connect with nature and Spirit, and provide healing for yourself and others.

What You’ll Learn In Deepen Your Flute Journey

In this experiential video training, you’re sure to walk away with:

• Use the flute as a holistic tool to help with self-expression and personal transformation
• Confidence in your ability to play your flute as a healing tool — for yourself and others
• Techniques to empower your self-expression
• Techniques to use your breath effectively as you play your flute… to help you pause between “sentences”
• Practice playing different moods… such as contentment, longing, devotion, and gratitude
• An understanding of how to break through the 5-note scale and have, at your fingertips, what’s available when the third hole is open
• Greater potential for emotional release and catharsis
• A basic understanding of music theory
• A shamanic way of playing in concert with the elements
• Many opportunities for practice with other course participants
• Powerful teachings from guest teachers, including Guillermo Martinez
• The option to play in a musical showcase during the final session
• And much more…

What You’ll Discover in Deepen Your Flute Journey

In this Deepen Your Flute Journey, Christine Stevens will guide you through the fundamental body-mind-spirit skills and competencies you’ll need to master the flute, one of the most accessible instruments to play for sound healing, self-expression, connection to Spirit, mindfulness, and more. (It’s highly recommended that you have a flute to receive the most from this transformational course. Suggestions for how to craft an inexpensive flute on your own or what kind of flute to purchase, as well as instructions, will be provided.)

This Deepen Your Flute Journey course will feature teachings, training sessions, and experiential practices with Christine Stevens. Each session will build harmoniously upon the previous ones, so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to access your flute-playing gifts.

Module 1: Expanding Your Flute-Playing Potential With Scales & Higher Octaves

The Native American flute plays a five-note scale, and no note is wrong. What happens when we reach higher — beyond that standard scale? What awaits you in the new sonic territory of higher octaves?

Christine Stevens will help you step further into your playing potential by setting intentions to experiment with higher octaves for spiritual connection, health, and healing.

In this module, you’ll:

• Start to lift your energy higher by playing the 3 high notes above the standard pentatonic scale
• Explore basic music theory of the overtone series and harmonic resonance
• Experience a practice of overtone chanting
• Discover new notes and scales by removing the third hole strap
• Learn the nuts and bolts of flute music notation
• Receive a deepening practice to connect the low and high tonic notes to ground and uplift

Module 2: Musical Development for Soul Expression — With Guest Teacher Guillermo Martinez

In this exciting second session, internationally acclaimed performer and flute maker Guillermo Martinez, owner of Quetzalcoatl Music and member of Bamboo, Cedar, Oak, will join you to share his teachings on musical development in scales, ornamentation, and creating a good sound — all in service of soul expression.

During this second session, you’ll:

• Discover new notes and scales through the in-between sounds of the pentatonic scale
• Connect with the ancient flute lineage and explore the deeper meaning of the flute for your life journey
• Have the exciting opportunity to learn from a master flute maker and performer
• Receive tips on performing equipment and sound

Module 3: Improvisation — Awakening Your Musical Soul

You have a unique song to play… a scale that resonates with you… and your own style to discover and nurture. It’s time for you to expand and discover ways to awaken your musical soul.

In this session, you’ll learn how scales offer structure so you can more easily improvise melodies through the alchemy between player and prompt.

You’ll:

• Use your voice and flute to access new songlines of your soul
• Discover how to use play-along tracks as creative prompts
• Push your edge by decorating melodies with beauty through ornamentation
• Learn the tools of articulation and tonguing to expand your heart communication through sound
• Receive a deepening practice for improvisation at dawn and dusk — marking the changing tempos of your day

Module 4: Composition — Creating Structured Songs From Improvisational Freedom

Composition literally means “ingredients… the way a whole or mixture is made up.” This can refer to so many aspects of creativity, including a musical work of art.

With that in mind, this class will focus on how improvisation can lead to song. You’ll explore how to balance the freedom of improvisation with song structure. And you’ll look at what happens when we add form and chords… and how they help us play with the changes life gives us.

In this session, you’ll:

• Learn composition techniques based on Indian raga music and Lakota prayer songs
• Learn to notate your musical ideas and incorporate simple two-chord patterns
• Experience the power of listening back to your own playing
• Explore the exquisite balance of how structure provides creative freedom
• Receive a deepening practice to make a composition as a dedication to someone or something — and then play that song for (or as an offering to) the person or thing you’re honoring

Module 5: Expressing Your Emotions — Going Deep Into Your Musical Heart by Adding Complementary Sounds

Imagine living your life as a clear flute, an open channel to flow through your experiences without judgment… looking at pain and challenge as the holes in the flute.

If there are no wrong notes in the flute scale, surely there are no wrong feelings. The Native American flute offers us a tool to acknowledge and allow our emotions to bring healing to challenging experiences.

During this class, you’ll:

• Learn the art of orchestrating feelings — using the flute and adding complementary sounds that amplify and release emotions
• Use the flute to express your feeling tones, and access healing beyond words
• Explore playing with and beyond fear
• Practice playing different moods… such as contentment, longing, devotion, and gratitude

Module 6: Nature’s Inspiration for Sound Healing — Playing With the Earth’s Elements

The collective is grieving as a result of our climate change crisis. To begin to address the healing of our planet through music, you’ll work with the primal elements — air, earth, fire, and especially water. Christine Stevens will also teach you unique ornamentation sounds related to nature… using the flute in creative ways.

During this middle session, you’ll:

• Experience a medicine wheel ceremony by learning to play flute songs for the four elements
• Experience a journey into your personal favorite tree to explore the branches of song — and notice where the branches take you
• Learn how to bring the outdoors inside, using visualization and sound apps to connect with nature’s beauty, harmony, and peace

Module 7: Flute Pranava — Using Mindfulness, Breathwork & the Double Flute

Breath is life.

Pranava is the Sanskrit word for the holy breath that connects with energy. Inhaling fills and sustains us, while breathing out helps us purify and release. Can you think of your breath the same way as you play your flute?

Breathmarks in flute music indicate pauses in phrases. And as we learn to pace our airflow with the flute, we learn to maintain a cadence of breath that anchors peace in the body.

Note: Christine Stevens recommends the Double Nova High Spirits flute in the key of G for this module.

In this module, you’ll:

• Practice playing for yourself and your personal healing as an act of self-care
• Learn to use yogic breathing to access diaphragm support
• Overcome self-doubt through sonic mirror practice — listening back to your own playing
• Practice using sustained notes to center your mind and improve your lung capacity
• Discover the magic of playing a double flute

Module 8: Flute Savasana — Playing for Sound Baths & Other Healing Practices

Our personal flute playing enables us to be of service in experiences where healing is needed. In this class, you’ll explore playing the flute as a means of self-care and caring for others. Christine Stevens will demonstrate how the way we play for relaxation and healing is different from other kinds of playing — holding different intentions and accessing deeper meaning in the elements of music.

You’ll:

• Learn techniques to overcome fear when playing for others
• Practice incorporating other instruments – chimes, bowls, drones, and drums
• Discover how to create phrases in your music — to begin and end your sound healing offerings
• Explore some other musical elements related to healing sound — silence, rhythm, melody, and harmony
• Practice arpeggios and learn how to use rattles for energy clearing
• Find out how to use reverb, amplification, and microphones when offering healing sounds

Module 9: Power Songs — Finding Your Personal Anthem

Like a power animal, we have a power song, a personal soul song, that supports and empowers our spirit. It may be a song you originate or one you learn to sing or play on the flute. Discover the playlist for your life… and how to embody it more fully.

In this class, you’ll:

• Design and create your personal flute practice as an evolutionary journey for your body, mind, and spirit
• Experience playing an algorithm of notes in the sonic spelling of your name
• Learn how to carry songs that deeply touch your soul — how to notate them or play them by ear
• Compose a personal anthem… a melody that’s your musical fingerprint

Module 10: Beauty Way — Songs in the Key of Love

What is the role of beauty in your life? How can you invite more beauty into your spiritual practice… through sound, scent, taste, and sight? How can you integrate all you’ve learned to create your own unique practice — bringing greater peace, joy, and creativity into your life?

In this final session, you’ll welcome a guest instructor who will offer a Native American perspective on the ancestry of flute playing — in what’s known as the beauty way.

In this class, you’ll:

• Experience how the senses are gateways to embody beauty
• Learn a flute ceremony honoring the lineage… the ancestry of sound healing
• Have the option to participate in a student showcase and play for others in a final class performance
• Design your personal flute practice, integrating all that’s been covered in this course

About Christine Stevens

Christine Stevens is an internationally acclaimed speaker, author, drummer, and music therapist. Holding master’s degrees in both social work and music therapy, Christine Stevens inspires people all over the world with her message that music promotes holistic health, spirituality, and wellness. Christine Stevens taught her Shift Network courses, Awaken Your Rhythm and Awaken your Healing Rhythm, to over 1,000 students from 36 countries last year.

Christine Stevens is the author of Music Medicine, The Healing Drum Kit, and The Art and Heart of Drum Circles book and DVD. She’s recorded three play-along CDs: Reviving Rhythms, Drumming Up Spirit, and Drumming Up Diva. A leader in the music and wellness movement, Christine also serves on the editorial board of Explore: A Journal of Science and Healing.

Christine Stevens is the founder of UpBeat Drum Circles, offering training programs and online courses around the world. She’s trained facilitators and led workshops in more than 20 countries, including Iraq, Hong Kong, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, and Western Europe. Through Remo, the world’s largest drum company, Chrsitine co-created the HealthRHYTHMS evidence-based group drumming protocol, used in schools, medical centers, and veterans hospitals worldwide.

Christine’s work in Iraq was featured in the book and DVD Discover the Gift. Televised media credits include PBS, NBC, KABC-Los Angeles, KTLA – Los Angeles, Tournament of Roses Parade, London Tonight, Living Better TV, Discovery Health, and Hong Kong News. As a contributing writer, Christine’s work has been featured in Fitness magazine, Spirituality & Health, Body & Soul, Fast Company, First for Women magazine, The Oriental News, The Christian Science Monitor, US News & World Report, Yogi Times, and Natural Beauty and Health.

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