What are the notes in the key of A minor? this is on a 6 hole indian flute.?

Question

I have a friend with a 6 hole American Indian flute. He wants to learn to read music and needs to transpose some songs into music for this flute. Can anyone help me here?

He gave me a sheet that says it is 'Amazing Grace' in A minor. It shows the fingering patterns instead of notes. I don't know if the dark holes are open or closed, nor if the top hole is the one close to the mouth or reverse. I play some piano & guitar so can read music,, but I don't know much theory.

Ab = A flat? and A" = A# = A sharp?

The step pattern is helpful. Is A minor all white keys?

I found a link to a similar example of 'Amazing Grace' with explanation. I'm trying to convert this into regular notation.
http://www.stellarflutes.com/flutefingerchart.htm

remember that, up until voting time, you can edit your answer to give me further info, as I have added details.

My goal is to be able to get sheet music that is simple in regular notation, with 5 liness - EGBDF, so that he can learn to read that and not depend on the little pictures of flutes. :) That way he can expand his repertoire more. So if I can figure out where middle C is on his flute with diagrams there, then I can do a chart matching the flute diagram with G clef scale. If he learns to play in C major or A minor using the G clef scale, he can play lots of things without special diagrams. Do you want to try to IM me?

Answer 1

There are three versions of the A minor scale

1. natural (all white keys): A B C D E F G A
2. harmonic: A B C D E F G# A
3. melodic: A B C D E F# G# A--A G F E D C B A (turns to natural when descending)

notice that A B C D E are always the same, but F and G differ between versions (whether natural or sharp).

Darkened holes typically mean closed fingering. The top hole should mean the top of the instrument.

Btw, Amazing Grace is typically in a major key (actually it is pentatonic), so I wonder why it says A minor to begin with?
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I transcribed the notes for the first two lines from the site you gave in C major. Can you be more specific about what else you would like to be answered?

G C E C E D C A G
A--------ma------zing---Grace how sweet the sound

G C EC E D E G G
That saved-----a------wretch----like----------meeeeeeee

Answer 2

That's great that you got an in-line G! They're much faster than offset, and you'll be much happier with it in the long run. You should have gotten plugs with the flute. If this is your first time with an open-holed flute, put all the plugs in, and take them out one by one. Start with the Right Hand Index Finger, and go down the hand, then go to the other hand. You should take one plug out per week. That will give you enough time to adjust. You will want to eventually adjust to playing without ALL the plugs, because it can throw off the mechanism to not play in the middle of each key. Your flute will have some tolerance for a couple months, but I wouldn't chance it for very long.

Answer 3

Well first you are going to have to find out what key his instrument is in, especailly if he's playing with someone else but for minor scales you go 1,1/2,1,1,1/2,1,1...so if you start on an A, then you go a 1/2 step up which is an A#, C, D, D#, F, G
at least thats how i think it goes.. hope i helped
oh and by the way if you want to make it major you just use this pattern instead: 1,1,1/2,1,1,1,1/2

Answer 4

Don't know anything about flutes but I play other things and read music. The scale on A minor is A, Ab, F", E, D, C, B, A. The minor is the 'C' instead of .Db'.