Dear Recipients,
For those of you, who do not know me yet, allow me to introduce myself. 
My name is Alfredo Castaneda-Garcia, 17 years old, and I am currently 
attending Glencoe HS which is in Hillsboro, Oregon. I have just 
completed my 11th grade, and am on vacation. I am totally blind. I have 
various interests in many fields, particularly in one. My main two 
fields where I have the best of my abilities are music, and technology. 
I participate in some after-school activities; I am on the track team. 
This year I plan to join the band now that I have two instruments, 
including the piano which I can play. I now play, trumpet, piano, and 
flute. The flute is what I will discuss in my letter as follows.
On Friday, April 21st, 2006, a friend I met a few years back came over 
to talk. She gave me a flute for reasons I cannot remember right now, I 
think it was because I showed such interest in the instrument. When I 
asked how to blow into it, she said it would take practice. So, I got 
to practice blowing on it and soon I had the head joint part mastered. 
I began to take a short while of taking flute lessons. I soon realized 
my cousin also showed an interest in the flute as well. Together we 
took different lessons at different times. We both quit for a reason. 
The teacher was not being too clear with the ways the fingerings were 
set up. They tried to teach all fingerings at once, and at that time we 
could not remember them very well. I remember a few times when no 
matter what I did to change my (embouchure) I could not get the note to 
play. I gave up after that, and did not get the flute for four years. I 
got it once because a friend wanted to try it. There would be some 
times when I felt like, if I could play this thing I would play very 
nice music. Of course, I had no way of knowing that I would soon be 
able to accomplish my dreams. I had no way of knowing that there was 
nothing wrong with my blowing. There was something wrong with the flute 
itself.
Last summer of 2010, I bought a trumpet because the one I had as a 
Christmas present, broke three years ago. I began to play it once again 
after being idle for a long time. It took me a few weeks to get back 
where I was three years ago, and that will be the instrument I will 
play in band this year because I have not yet fully mastered the flute, 
even if I know all of the concepts. Since I have fully mastered the 
trumpet, I had nothing else to do except to practice playing songs 
along with my computer or just playing songs out of memory.
So how did I get reminded of the flute? How did I come up with the idea 
of making a solution that would allow blind users who learn 
independently to be able to play the flute? It started at the beginning 
of the school year. I and someone I met were having a conversation 
about things in general, not too specific. A few weeks after that, I 
got to think about that conversation. It made me think about my 
memories of 2006. Then I remembered that I have not heard anything 
about my cousin playing the flute, so I called him up and asked him the 
question. He said the answer which I stated earlier. The teacher did 
not have the ability to describe fingerings to him. That is why he 
quit, plus it was a rented flute, it was not his own. Right after that 
call, I began to think, there should be a way a blind person can learn 
how to play it independently. I spent two months researching online for 
any possible solutions. At the same time, I used the flute I have to 
test out what they were describing on YouTube videos and articles. I 
could not find any solutions, so I asked one of my older cousins who 
could help me in this research. We found one solution, but the problem 
was that it was completely inaccessible. The solution was to make a 
fingering chart. It already seems to be the fact that many fingering 
charts exist. The problem with these charts is that they have lots of 
images and graphics that interfere with the tables. So, I decided, why 
not just create one that would be accessible to a blind independent 
learner that is image free? I had to think of how I can make it 
accessible. Should I use just numbers, should I use braille labels on 
the flute, or should I apply my technology background to make an html 
document that will have a real chart that has numbers? The second 
choice I knew would not work since it would not make sense, and it 
would not be practical for any flute that a blind person would have 
braille labels. So, on October 23rd I composed the outline plans for 
the start of the project. It started out in a plain simple text format. 
Then I began to ask around for anyone who knew how to play the flute. I 
found no luck, and since I really wanted to get started, I decided to 
bypass the students who were in band altogether and see the band 
teacher instead. This is where I got to learn about the flute. I was 
able to play the first note he showed me how to play, but when I came 
to the second note, I could not hear a sound. All I heard was rushing 
air. I was sure it was me and not the flute, but the teacher had a 
different thought. He said, "Here, let me try." He started to play some 
notes, but he too, had problems with the same note I tried to play. 
When we both saw that we both could not do it, I realized that it was 
not me, it was the flute. There was something wrong with it. I found 
out what it was, thanks to the help of the band teacher. He showed me 
where there was a leaky pad. He suggested that I borrow a flute for me 
to play. I mainly kept that at school. I found a way to fix the leaking 
pad, and was surprised that I could play the notes I wanted to play. I 
began to practice playing the flute, and at the same time, complete the 
rest of the chart and revise things around. This whole process started 
on November, and ended in late December, just about a month. I have 
gotten myself in a position where I can play the flute in an Ok manner, 
not too perfectly professional, but if I try, I can get it to play good 
tones.
So now, I would like to bestow you a document in the HTML format. This 
was originally given out on New Year’s Day, at 12:00 AM on January 
first. I would like to introduce you to my new chart and set of 
instructions that I have been working on, where I have put a lot of 
effort to complete and have it ready for the New Year. Below will be a 
link you can access to read the chart. It is in great detail and has 
been made very accessible for a blind user to navigate and understand. 
I would like to give my thanks to the teacher who provided me with the 
fingerings, and to help me find the problem with my flute. I would like 
to give thanks to a friend I met for reminding me that I have a flute, 
for, had I not been reminded, I would have not have ever remembered 
about the flute. It so happens that a few weeks before school started 
in September of 2010, I had some ideas about other instruments, how to 
make them easier to play using braille labels. I asked some users about 
that, but they said it would take up much space and it would only help 
one person, not the community. So I gave up that idea. I would like to 
list some sources of where I FOUND SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE 
FLUTE.
The first three URLS are YouTube videos on how the flute is played. 
This was one I found helpful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1cmUaaU6tg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rWod9erODY
And: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G9zWV55grQ
All of these helped me, even if they were not clear with the 
fingerings; they gave me some good information. I did not know you 
could keep the fingering the same and be able to play notes on 
different octaves, as well as playing harmonics.
Here is the link to my fingering chart. It describes how to start out 
for beginners, the chart itself, all of that good stuff. 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5550379/Alfredo_site/How_to_play_the_flute_documentation.htm
I hope you enjoy reading it, and I wish you all success playing! Note: 
before providing feedback, it is recommended that you read through the 
chart thoroughly so as to avoid negative feedbacks. So far, I have 
received none, though as a result of not reading enough, I got one, but 
was quickly replaced.
Alfredo C


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