Native American flute music is the most popular genre within Native American music primarily because it has become popular with non-Native Americans who are a much larger population.  The Native American flute is a simple instrument, usually with five or six holes.  It was a limited scale and does not play the European system of well-tempered tuning.  Nonetheless, it has the capability of an entrancing and soothing sound that emulates the characteristics of the human voice.  In the early 1980s when the career of R. Carlos Nakai began, there were only two or three other Native American flutists.  Nakai’s music began to crossover into new markets and reach larger audiences.  Additionally, his music and his seminars on flute playing encouraged a new generation of Native Americans to pick up the flute as well as non-Native Americans to play the flute as professional musicians or as devoted amateurs.  Nakai began using the flute in other non-traditional genres like jazz, classical and with other ethnic artists which further encouraged other flutists to play the flute in non-traditional ways.