When there is nothing else to do

These days are way too hot for self-bondage or fetish dresses but as I said, I am a musician and quite interested in Indian music. Now, I came accross a website talking about how to make simple bamboo flutes. One great Indian instrument is the Bansuri, exactly the same design.

So I got me a gas torch, sand paper, an old phillips screwdriver shaft and a wooden handle to hold it (must be heated until it glows) and a fiber glass arrow that I glued some sandpaper to, for sanding the inside and started to make my own flute.

As it turns out, the manual part is quite easy. You need to cut a piece of bamboo to the required length, one side right after the section end, so it is closed, and if the length goes over more than one section of the bamboo stick, you have to open the wall between the sections and sand it straight. Then you heat the "drill" (in my case the phillips screwdriver shaft) until it glows and make holes in the right places. Sand, and finish.

A bit harder is the playing, you have to learn how to produce a tone, it is similar to blowing over a bottleneck, but requires more precision. This is a prerequisite for the hardest part.

The hardest part is the intonation, i.e. getting all tones to be in tune. There are lists on the internet for the rough positioning of all holes. But these take into account that once you have made a hole, you can make its tone higher but not lower, so the positions are all flat and the hole sizes have to be tuned to obtain the correct pitches. In the second worst case, this can result in giant holes, in the worst case probably, some holes would even have to overlap which means, that you need a new flute.

I have mastered the easy part, I am getting good enough at the second part and now I am fighting with the last part, the tuning. It will probably require more than one flute to get it right.

Some cool Bansuri improvisation at the beginning and again later in this video:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Ln2Y_fCas


My flute is as large as the one the guy is using after the first few seconds, before, he has a larger one. My plan is to make such a larger one eventually - I like the sound (and my neighbours will like it more than the smaller one too 😁 ). Such a larger flute is used here:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QuDEx3_Ygo


Well, and if you get back to fetish entertainment, you can use the flute as a butt sprinkler or the like 😁

PS: This is pretty nice music too - Chinese, but not the typical sweet boring type:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_soae20uUk
&feature=related

[Like Ra]

These days are way too hot for ...

.... anything .... ... just driven through whole Germany... +38.8 .... gosh ....

[Like Ra]

My first acquaintance with bansuri was when I heard McLaughlin's "Remember Shakti". Since then bansuri has a strong association with Hariprasad Chaurasia.

Too bad I'm a no good musician 😟 I stopped making any attempts to play instruments about 9 years ago after frustrating attempts to improve my "skills". You know, when you spend many hours a day doing something and achieve no result, that's a bad incentive. So, I stopped once and forever...

For improving skills, teachers can be incredibly helpful, if there is any potential at all 😉

Well, if you were a musician by heart (that is potential), you wouldn't have given up, everybody follow his personal calls and you probably found yours elsewhere.

My first prototype is pretty much messed up now, although it actually works. Before making a new one, I have to improve my blowing skills, it is hard to tune a flute when you can't get clean tones out of it. If you see someone making funny noises with a bamboo stick while waiting for public transport, that could be me during the next few weeks 😉

[Like Ra]

I don't think there is any potential for being a musician, but I'm definitely a very good listener instead 😉

BTW, currently listening to Hellborg, Lane, Selvaganesh and Umamahesh 😉

If I had any potential I would become a fretless bass player.

I might revert to your listening abilities eventually 😁

Still busy making flutes. I have made a few so far, but none finished, I always screwed up somwhere eventually, probably a necessary part of the learning process. It is very astonishing to see, how much knowledge fits into a small bamboo stick with a couple of holes.

Eventually, I will have a lot of bamboo left and I wonder if I could use that to build a SB-rack, spreader bars and the like.

By chance I came accross this thread again. In the meantime, I am happy with my first self-made flute. I also discovered the "cow phenomenon" which is pretty cool:

One night, I badly wanted to play flute and drove to the countryside, because near my home there was virtually no place where I could have played without waking up someone. It was very dark and I barely saw what was around me. While playing, I noticed strange sounds near me and then I realised, that all the cows from the field next to me had come close and were listening. You might say, "playing for cows sounds dull", but try it by yourself, it is amazing 😁

PS: You don't need to be a virtuoso flutist in order to attract cows. It is in their nature to follow flute sounds, as I found out a little later.

[Like Ra]

Night... Flute ... Full moon.... Silently listening cows...

Spooky ....

[Like Ra]

Listening to bansouri at the moment.