Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Learning to Play the Carnatic Flute Part II


Recently, I started to get myself much more organized to play the flute, but in vain. I created sheets where I drew this and filled them with black color if it has to be closed and uncolored(white) if the hole has to be open when playing the flute. Unfortunately, I dont know what holes should be closed for which swaram. I have been able to understand that for Sa , the first two holes need to be closed and everything else open. My learning has improved to play any song to a decent extent that the listeners can understand that I am trying to play that song and can play comfortably quite a few songs.

I have also learnt a few things:
1) The eight hole (the right most) is never used .
2) The first three holes are operated with your left hand fingers and your right hand fingers takes care of the remaining 4 holes.
3) If you are in Ga in which you dont close any hole and want to move to a note/swaram above it, close all the holes and over blow. This is something that I have been having trouble with/havent mastered. I get overblown notes when i try to get to the lowest note (closing all the holes), but never when I really want to play the overblown notes:p..
4) Most of my song control comes from my breath, ie., controlling the blowing, rather than by closing/opening the holes. In other words, my playing ability in terms of controlling the opening /closing of the holes need improvement, which I hope will be done as I practice more......
5) I am seriously looking for someone who can give a flute legend mapping for the swarams, like what holes should be open/closed/half closed for which swaram.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hai
I am also having a flute like everyday I am going & practicing in my home
but I want to know what are the same notes in a for western & carnatic if you find it plz send to hshagul64@yahoo.com,
like c in western in carnatic it is sha for everything what the notes in western
Thanks
Shagul

dasarathy said...

namasteji,
i am an online carnatic flute teacher from chennai.i teach thru cds,my lessons in blog,mail attachments,sound files etc to many all over the world.i can make them give atleast 45 minutes performance in flute within a year.to know more about me,please read the following links.
all the best
k.t.dasarathy
9380740336

Anonymous said...

hi im nikhil . iwant to know to how to play the swaras .please send to my mail-p.nikhil91@yahoo.com

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