The Flute : A peak into the mesmerising Flute Music

Flute Music – one of the most gentle, calming, and scintillating sound produced by an instrument. In this blog, we are going to read about the types of flutes, a few famous flute players, a few best flutes for beginners, and much more.

Flute – An origin

Musical Instruments have played a great part in the development of music all over the world and all through the ages. They helped in the discovery- of many of the phenomena, principles, laws, and techniques relating to music. In this write-up, I will mainly concentrate on how the most melodic flute instrument played an important role in the development of music worldwide.

The researchers on the flute instrument mention that the base flute sound was from bones and this was about 40000 years ago. During the primitive days, man found that pipes of different sizes and according lengths gave notes of different pitches. This was the base for the development of the flute.

Mirror becomes a razor when it’s broken. A stick becomes a flute when it’s loved. – Yoko Ono

Structure of a Flute

The very first flutes mankind knew were the pipes. During this time man discovered that longer pipes had lower pitches and shorter flutes had higher pitches, accordingly. He also discovered that, additionally if holes were drilled into the walls of the pipe and if these holes were covered with fingers that regulated the airflow and gave different natural sounds which were termed musical notes. This was the starting point of the innovation of the flute instrument.

The holes on the pipes open, covered, half covered by fingers paved the way for inventing harmonics that are musical sounds. The bamboo flute belongs to the category of woodwind instruments and it is present universally. It is the instrument of humanity. When Lord Krishna took the flute and mastered it, the flute became a divine instrument too.

There are three divine musical instruments in India, viz

Flute (Krishna)
Veena (Saraswathy) and
Mridangam/Dholak (Nandi Deva).

The flute is an international instrument and geographical barriers do not apply for the flute. The flute is a delicate instrument, and in the hands of a capable artist, it will produce soul-stirring and ravish music. Flute produces the highest form of music. For its sheer purity of sound and mellow quality of tone, the flute has no equal among the musical instruments.

Human voice and flute – a comparison

The human voice has a range of 2 1/2 octaves. Flute too has 2 1/2 octaves. In vocal music, air from the lungs vibrates the vocal cords and creates Swaras. In the flute, the air from the lungs passes through the blowing holes and creates Swaras. The most natural musical instrument is the human vocal cord and the second natural instrument is the flute. The first instrument to have a solo in a concert is Flute.

Did You Know?

Experts believe that the first flute was created in what is now Europe. Old flutes have been found in caves in Germany and Slovenia that are thought to be about 40,000 years old.

Types of Flutes

There are three types of Flutes. They are,

1. Western Flute
2. Hindustani Flute (Bansuri)
3. Carnatic Flute (Pulankuzhal)

Western Flute

One is the Metal Flute or Western Flute. The western flutes have push buttons for regulating the sound coming from them. As the name goes, Western Mudic uses Western Flutes. A few of the western flutes include Piccolo, Alto, Boehm etc. These flutes have three parts. The first part is the “Head-joint” which includes the flute’s primary hole through which the wind enters. The next part is the “body, where major keys are placed and the “Foot-Joint” part completes the flute.”

Hindustani Flute (Bansuri)

The next category of flute is the Hindustani Flute. Hindustani flute is an Indian bamboo flute with a blow hole and six playing holes. Regulating the holes creates musical notes. We find these flutes in North India. They also go by the name Bansuri. These were originally bamboo flutes, but they are made with fiberglass, ivory, and various other metals in the current age.

Carnatic Flute (Pulankuzhal)

In India, there is another category of flute called Venu or Carnatic Flute. These flutes are from south India and are used in Carnatic music. These flutes are a bit thick when compared to Hindusthani flutes. Thickness helps in playing tunes comfortably. These flutes have one blow hole and 8 play holes. Vedas has mentioned of this flute – the other names given to Venu by the vedas are badi and Tunava. This instrument has a very pivotal role in Natyshastra, a book on music, dance and performing arts.

Of the three types of flutes, we see Carnatic flute and Hindustani flutes mainly in the classical concerts of India, and the Western Flute, mainly in the Indie bands and in Cinema.

Flute Learning – some essentials

1. The learner should develop healthy lungs by doing pranayama daily.
2. He should maintain an erect posture while playing
3. There should be elegance and neatness in blowing
4. The sound produced should be smooth

Health benefits of playing a flute

The flute works on your long-blowing capacity. Long-blowing capacity makes your lungs strong in due course. Your breathing nature changes over time. A person standing very near to you will not be able to hear the sound of your breath. This results in a good respiratory system, circulatory system as oxygen supply is smooth to all parts of the body.

So all the organs start working efficiently and what more would we want? A flautist rarely develops ENT-related problems. He will not get a cold, cough, or other throat infections. So a flautist will be an overall healthy person.

The hardness of learning to play should be overcome by perseverance and sheer practice. You must be lucky enough to have a good guru to teach flute. MUSIC MASTER bridges this gap and you certainly can be sure of becoming a good flautist in about 3 or 4 years.

Prominent Flautist of India

There are many flautists in India. A few famous flute players are

1. Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, topmost Hindustani Flautist
2. Ronu Mazumdhar a famous Hindustani Flautist
3. G S Sachdev a prominent flautist who merged with Lord Krishna in 2018

Carnatic Flautists

Carnatic Music uses the flute extensively as the gamakas are very beautiful to listen to when it is from on the flute. The portion called “thani” in a concert is mainly for percussion instruments. But if a flute is there in a concert, the flute player will get a lot more portions to play only the flute in the overall of the concert. The flute songs in Carnatic also have a separate fan base.

1. Dr. N. Ramani an authority in Flute, developed his style of play and passed on flute playing to the next generation.
2. Vidwan Sashank Subramanian, a famous flute player, is a child prodigy. He created a fusion of Hindustani and Carnatic flutes. At a very young age, he got many awards.
3. Smt Sikkil Mala Chandrasekar a prominent woman flautist from Chennai.
4. Ms Jayapradha Ramamurthy from Hyderabad.

There are quite a few women flautists. But in Hindustani flute, there are negligible woman flautists

As and when you practice flute songs and flute melodies using your instrument, you will find that there is an overall enhancement of your psyche, emotions, and health. This is the most humbling instrument of the lot because training or practicing the flute requires a lot of discipline and persistent effort, and even our own self, will inevitably become humble.

The more humble you actually get, the more of a flautist you actually become. A lot of the famous flute players out there, have a very calm and composed demeanour and this is a common thing that you find among the flute players. Eventually it is overall, a very pious instrument.

Finally, a warm welcome to all those who want to learn flute, to improve their physical and mental health.