You don't really need to know or understand music theory to play the Native American flute, but there are a few terms worth knowing to make playing easier. One of the most common terms you'll run across is pentatonic minor scale, usually used to describe native flutes. A scale is a specific grouping of notes. Most Native American flutes are tuned to the minor scale, with pentatonic being the type of minor scale. Pentatonic means there are five primary notes, but since you can also play the secondary notes, it's not really important. Suffice to say that on a minor scale flute, there are two notes between the notes sounded with all fingers down and one finger lifted. On a diatonic scale flute, there's just one note between the two and on a chromatic scale flute, the note sounded when lifting one finger is the next one from the note sounded with all fingers down.
Another term you'll hear is the key of the flute. A key is a set of tones within a given scale. For example, the most common keys are F sharp (#) minor and G minor. Since most native flutes are in the minor key, the term "minor" is most often not used. Instead, if the flute is diatonic or chromatic, the maker or player will say so.
Another term you'll eventually hear in the Native American flute world is TABlature. As is the case with all all musical instruments, we flute players like to share the music we write, but because the various keys of flutes, the standard form of notating music (sheet music) just doesn't work well. Recognizing this, R. Carlos Nakai developed a notation system, referred to as TABlature, to make things easier. In his system, he uses the common music staff and notes, but the "notes" refer to finger positions rather than tones. So, you can play a song in this TABlature notation on any key flute.
As with most musical instruments, there is a pattern to covering of the holes of a native flutes and these patterns are contained in fingering charts. Although there are some standards in the fingering, some makers do have alternate fingering arrangements so it's always best to use the fingering charts provided by the maker of your flute (and most do). But for those who don't have such charts, I've included the most common here, one for five hole and one for six hole flutes. These fingering charts are meant primarily for those starting out and thus, do not include half-covered holes or second octave notes, although some of the second octave are not difficult. The six primary keys of flutes are featured. My downloads section has printed versions of fingering charts along with some more useful stuff.
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