What's in the free version of NAF Scale Songs?
The free version gives you a great set of features. With it you can...
Concentrate on the NAF's most popular scale - Pentatonic Minor Scale.
The Pentatonic Minor Scale (mode 1) can be played on 5-hole or 6-hole Native American Flutes. On a 6-hole flute, the 3rd hole from the top is always closed, making the 6-hole flute essentially a 5-hole flute. Some players cover that hole with a leather wrap to make it easier to play. This relieves you from having to ensure proper finger placement over that hole. The free version also includes a scale for Straight-fingered 6 Hole flutes.
Easily create Alphabet Songs.
Play your name, or gift someone special with a unique song made from their name. Just type a name (or another phrase) and NAF Scale Songs will convert it to notes in the Pentatonic Minor scale.
Generate new scale songs that move up and down the scale, using steps and/or leaps.
Scale songs are tunes that are constructed by playing up and down the NAF scale. To add emotion and interest, the player may repete some notes, may skip some adjacent notes (leaping), and vary the note durations and articulation. The resulting songs can be extremely pleasant, stirring, AND fairly simple.
Generate new sequences of notes (motifs) using totally random selection (not just up and down the scale).
In addition to scale songs, you may enjoy generating random sequences of notes. These random tunes have less structure than scale songs, but once you add your own style, timing, and embellishments, they can still be pleasant songs. Adding and altering your rythm and technique to turn motifs into a Heart Song is a great exercise. It's also a great way to discover new note combinations that you might not have thought about. Once you have discovered them, you can weave them into your other playing.
Select starting notes, or let NAF Scale Songs randomly choose it for you.
Many scale songs start with the fundamental. It's common then to end the phrase or song with the same note. If we tend to use the same note as our starting point, our music can tend to sound the same every time we play. NAF Scale Songs lets you specify your starting note, so you can get comfortable with new starting notes. Or you can let NAF Scale Songs randomly select your starting note, to keep you on your toes.
Tweak the generator to either allow or restrict repeting notes.
By simply repeting occasional notes, you can convert a simple scale to a scale song. Brand new beginners may want to prevent repeting notes to stay close to the basic scale. Allowing the generator to use repeting notes adds the first level of complexity (interest) to your scale song. Depending on your mood, you can set the max number of repetes to anywhere between 0 and 3. The default max is 3.
Tweak the generator to control the size of leaps.
Adding leaps to your scale song not only adds more emotional impact to your playing, it also trains your brain and fingers to be comfortable with more complex note sequences. Short leaps are fairly comfortable to play and add some interest to the tune. Larger leaps are harder to get comfortable playing, but add more dramatic tone changes to your song. Getting comfortable with leaps will take you to the next level. You can allow leaps of any size, up to the number of notes in the scale your are playing within. If not specified, NAF Scale Songs will limit leaps to 3 notes away from the current one.
Create scale songs of varying length, up to 10 notes.
The free version of NAF Scale Songs lets you generate note sequences of between 1 and 10 notes.
Customize the display size and perspective.
Choose between large or small output graphics for easy reading on any PC or mobile device. The large display is great for note sequences up to about 16 notes. Use the smaller display for longer sequences.
