Flute playing techniques: Fingering, tilt and blow control

[girish_a]

So that's how Shashank produces that piccolo-like sound! I'll try it out...

And here's the first part of a series on tonguing, again by Nina Perlove:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s3l_zBr ... re=channel

She's a great flute teacher Very glad I found her on Youtube.

[ppraghu]

Very informative videos. Thanks a lot Girish and Vasanthakokilam for sharing it.

According to my flute master (Vid. Bangalore M K Pranesh), there is a fundamental difference between "thu-thu-karam" by Carnatic and Hindustani flutists. Hindustani flutists would use their tongue to control (stop/release) air. Whereas according to his school, the Carnatic flutists should use their throat to control the stop/release of air for thuthukaram, and not the tongue. The tongue would typically be folded down to the lower side/bottom of the mouth always so that the air flow is not obstructed by the tongue coming in the way. When the tongue doesn't obstruct the airflow, the clarity of flute sound increases.

Not sure if other Carnatic flautists would agree with this, though.

Regards
Raghu

[girish_a]

Found this website, dedicated entirely to the subject of Carnatic flutes: http://www.vamshidwani.com/

[girish_a]

I have been experimenting with a Bansuri which I purchased recently. I've figured out the fingering but there doesn't seem to be a way to produce the mandra notes from Shuddha Madhyama downwards.

For example, The Abhogi Varna:

R, G, G R S, | S R S S | D M D, ||

I can't reach the Ma in the phrase above. Is this a limitation of the Bansuri?

I watched this Abhogi rendition by Pandit Ronu Majumdar. He doesn't seem to touch the mandra either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEWqNhFS-cw

One more Abhogi, much slower, easier to identify notes lower than dha, but there don't seem to be any.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yJbffC ... FED4071B5F

I will continue to experiment, but in the meanwhile, if anybody has insights, let us hear it.

[jvenumadhav]

Hi,

Yes, if you are using Bansuri it is not possible to produce the note lower than Dha. Even though any raga can be played from any shadja, it is recommended to play carnatic compositions with carnatic Sa, other wise we will face such difficulties. We can tilt downwards but it is challenging, as you might hit the Ma2 note. In general it is very difficult to play any such carnatic composition with the same effect to that of using Carnatic Sa. The usage of non standard carnatic is mostly used during manodharma by expert flautists. In my opinion we do not need to use hindusthani sa except for hindusthani ragas with pratimadhyama like Hamsanandi (esp. for gamaka for ma2). Just my thoughts.

Regards,
Venu

[girish_a]

Thank you, Venu Madhav for confirming this.

[ramanathan flute]

can anyone post me cross fingering chart

[girish_a]

Tonguing...Check out this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdXqU1uj2lM

[Vayoo Flute]

Am relatively new here and just saw this thread.

Tonguing is certainly useful but some of the current flutists seem to overdo it. Tonguing is easier with thin flutes that tend to be more responsive. That is probably why artists such as Shashank prefer thinner flutes despite some of the drawbacks, including a lot of air hiss (some flutists seem to want this). With thicker flutes, there is more resistance that needs to be overcome in order to produce a note clearly, but manageable with a stronger blowing. There are also different types of tonguing - single, double, flutter. Also, depending on how you tongue, you get different sounds. Hitting the tongue against the teeth or lips produces a more airy hissy sequence of sounds. Hitting the tongue against the upper mouth ceiling produces a cleaner sound but the breaks between the notes will not be as pronounced.

[kak]

I am a beginner on carnatic flute and I want to learn to play gamakas on the flute.
How do you connect notes on the carnatic flute to produce gamakas? Are there any exercises that will help in producing more continuous sounding gamakas? How do you do a quick jaaru on the flute?

Thanks in advance!
Krishna

[kak]

Thanks to Vayoo_Flute Sir for his commendable efforts! I found Vidwan Sri TS Sankaran's flute lessons on youtube where he teaches the basics! Exactly what I was looking for. I couldn't wait to share it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrByJfGLn3M

[venusishya]

Dear all,

I have learnt tonguing (which he calls "tuttukAram) from my teacher who noted that it is to be used at all times for kalpana swaras and at other times for noting delineation. This would be utilised, for clarity's sake, by tapping the tongue against the gums above the front two teeth. For example, at points of sahityam when playing a krithi or in neraval, especially. I have not noticed this feature in many other styles. Ramani, for one, seems to elect to simply discretise the blowing instead of using tonguing. I am of the opinion that soft tonguing is superior to discretised blowing because it produces smaller variation in blowing quality.

My teacher also introduced me to a slightly modified version, which I have not used as much, that relies on saying "ta-ka ta-ka" alternately. This, with practise, allegedly allows faster speeds of tuttukAram (because "ta-ka" uses the back and forth motion of the tongue instead of relying on repeated flicks).

By the way, all of the above are in the context of thicker, Carnatic flutes.

Curious to know what other members think of these methods.

[Nick H]

That simple instrument, the western recorder, which sounds horrible played by school groups because they never bother to tune, has tonguing as the basic lesson of how to play.