Romance - Romanza Antigua - Ronald Roybal - Classical Guitar

Romance is a song that has a permanent spot on my guitar set list. It's one of the first pieces I ever learned how to play. It's a very recognizable, romantic number. Hope you like it!

Miklós Rózsa El Cid - The Barn / Love Theme (Rerecording)

Miklos Rozsa was one of the finest composers of the 20th Century. Here is a recording of his Love Theme from his classic film score of 'El Cid'. This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard. I have studied it for many years. I perform it every weekend at the Hotel Santa Fe as a Spanish Classical Guitar solo. I hope it gives you as much enjoyment as it has given me!

John Wayne - The Sons of Katie Elder - Music by Elmer Bernstein

Here's another great theme by Elmer Bernstein, 'The Sons of Katie Elder'. I still remember seeing this movie when I was a kid. My parents took us to the drive-in movie theater to see this movie in 1965. They dressed us in our pajamas so we could sleep in the back seat during the second feature. I also remember playing on the playground equipment under the big screen with all the other kids who were in their pajamas, too! Everyone was excited to see John Wayne and I was no exception. I must admit that I have been a life long John Wayne fan. Yeah, I know... I just happen to associate John Wayne movies with good times with the family. I'm funny that way...

The Magnificent Seven - Elmer Bernstein

Elmer Bernstein's birthday was yesterday (April 4, 1922–August 18, 2004). Here's his theme from The Magnificent Seven, one of the most recognizable of all movie themes. It just inspires a person to mount up and ride into their destiny!

Jornada del Muerto - Ronald Roybal - Native American Flute Music

I forgot that I had this performance video so I posted it to my YouTube channel just now! I am playing the flute live against a backing track of my guitar performance. I have to perform this way because I can't find a guitarist who will learn my arrangements. Oh well, at least I don't have to split my fee!

The Strangest Secret in the World

The 'Secret' spoken of in this video is really no secret. The principle has been spoken of by all the great sages, philosophers and prophets. It is a principle that has helped me to be successful. "We become what we think about". It's as simple as that and it is as challenging as that.

My experience is that people give more thought about their vacation plans or their automobile purchases than what they will do with their lives. I was on that track. Sure, the jobs I had were fulfilling in their way. However, I never gave myself the opportunity to really think about what it was that I wanted to spend my life doing. What was the one thing that deep down I really wanted to be? What was it that I really 'needed' to be?

It took an observership in a Trappist monastery where I could unhook from the world and really contemplate my true vocation for me to finally receive a vision of my mission in life. After I received it, I consistently thought about myself realizing that vision. Everyday, I would do something to make that vision into a reality. Practice and study became my discipline. Gradually, my vision has come true. I have become a musician. Not any musician, mind you. I have become a musician that is able to receive songs from the Spirit World and then offer them back to people so that they might be healed in the way that they need to be healed. This was the vision that was given to me. It has sustained me for over 22 years now. A good and powerful vision will do that...

ANDRES SEGOVIA ; Gavotte en Rondeau '67 (2/4)

This Gavotte by J.S. Bach is the first classical guitar piece that I ever learned how to play. I taught myself how to read guitar score learning how to play this one. In my naive fervor, I had reasoned that if I could learn how to play this piece of music, I could learn how to read music and I could learn to play anything. It was harder than I thought but after a couple of months of practice, I could play it! Stubbornness can be a gift!

• The Native American Code of Ethics •

Here is some good Red Road teaching that is applicable to anyone. These are great truths that transcend our differences yet manage to honor them. It's not an easy road unless the heart is open to being pierced by Creator's Love for His Creation. The Good Red Road is such a gift to humanity!

I Am America

For all of her trials and tribulations, I can't think of any other place I would rather live than here in the United States of America. The land is so beautiful. There are beautiful people here, too. The freedoms which we enjoy here are rare and precious in the history of humankind. Throughout its history, there have been dark days and there have been joyous days. People have suffered at the hands of others and peoples have been liberated. Through it all, Liberty has been the elusive ideal that remains at the center of our lives as citizens of this land. The freedom to become who our Creator intended us to be is a sacred birthright won by sacrifice. Is America perfect? No. Are Americans perfect? No. No country is perfect and no people are perfect. However, America has held a promise that freedom, endowed by our Creator, can help us to achieve our individual promise thereby achieving a better union of persons. I am a human being who is an American. I feel no shame in saying it. I am very blessed to be one and to be here.

Flute Medicine

The flute is an amazing instrument. Actually, it is more amazing than most people realize. I have spent my life digging deep into its medicine. I believe it is a force for good in the world. However, I can't help but feel that it is being trivialized and underestimated by many, both NDN and non-NDN, and because of this it is in danger of losing its medicine.

Today, non-NDN flute players and makers vastly outnumber NDN ones mainly because NDN people, for a variety of reasons, have let go of it. Flute playing started its decline during the period of prohibition of traditional music instituted by the Federal Government during the first half of the 20th Century. The instrument of focus, for many good reasons having to do with cultural survival, became the drum. As time went on, many NDN men my age and younger chose not to be involved with the flute because they didn't want to seem like a 'stereotype'. Today, some mock those of us who are trying to keep the instrument alive because they think we are giving the white man what he wants to see. In addition, there are now so few flute players in many NDN communities that good instruction is a rarity. The prohibitions against women playing the flute in many tribes cuts the potential number of NDN players in half. These reasons and more have led to the steady decline of the flute in NDN country.

I believe the flute is more than a simple instrument. The flute, along with the drum, is a gift the Creator has given to NDN people for their survival. I feel that NDN people need to wake up because they are about to lose something very important. There are flute songs that have been created to help us and they are in the Spirit World waiting to live out their destiny in the hearts of NDN people. I have been blessed to hear some of them and I have brought them through. I can attest to their life giving power and their ability to open the human heart to Creator's strong, loving hand. Could the flute be the gift that Creator has given the people to help them to gain the inner strength to overcome drugs, alcohol, hopelessness and suicide? I want to believe this. I do believe this. The flute can be a conduit to the Spirit World where Creator sends songs to heal and strengthen His people. I wish more NDN people would take up the gift that was given to them so long ago and access its gentle power!

The flute's sacredness is to be found in its ability to change lives. Some non-NDN flute players can attest to this and this is in large measure why they have adopted it and adapted it. If flute playing makes them into better human beings, then this is something to be encouraged. If, on the other hand, flute playing makes them into a caricature, a poseur, a wannabe, a disrespecter of NDN people, then one has to question their true motives. The Creator has the job of sorting all of this out in the end. Unfortunately, the living have to deal with the offense. I ask non-NDN people to be sensitive about how they use this instrument and how they represent themselves while doing so. Experience has shown me that honesty and integrity in these matters are what honors NDN people, honors the flute and honors the songs that are patiently waiting in the Spirit World for all of us to bring them through.
~HwAn-Pi-Khaw=Ronald Roybal