Review : An indian nose flute by Svaram

Svaram is a community enterprise which produces instruments, is involved in cultural, educational, research and social projects. Svaram was founded in 2003 in Auroville, and is linked to the Auroville experimental and spiritual community.

« The SVARAM team (...) may possibly be one of the few places on the Indian subcontinent experimenting in the field of creating new musical instruments. Its focus lies on instruments that should be accessible to everybody, independent of talent or predisposition, directly bringing the joy of music into one's hands and heart. »

Among lots of other intruments, Svaram produces wooden nose flutes.
Aurelio, the director, answered very gently my questions.
The company has been making nose flutes for 2 years, helped by a Austrian volunteer student in the work. « Shankar and his young helper Santosh have since made around 100 pieces, using yellow teak wood for it. »

I ordered a Svaram nose flute from the Auroville website for a decent price ($10), and added a few bucks for planting trees.

I think it was the first time I received a parcel from India. The flute was very well-packed in a linen pouch containing a nice cardboard box. I was surprised to find the flute inside a beautiful leather pocket (a bit "goaty" by the smell though :).

The flute itself is rather conventional. The shape is very near the wooden vietnamese flutes that can be found in lots of online shops, made in two parts with the air duct cover in frontal position. But the design is correct and the flute is made in yellow teak.

Well, I could not honestly say the Svaram flute is a hi-end flute... The details are not neat, and the construction is not precise, leading to a rather weak and flat sound. No comparison with a hi-end wooden flute, but not the same price neither. And it is not worse than any Ebay wooden nose flute of the same price.
But it may be of some interest for novices as it is cheap, and includes a very nice leather pouch.
More, prefering an Auroville flute to an Ebay one helps some nice social action done there in India, and for one supplementary buck, a tree will be planted for you.

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Click here to jump to the Svaram website
and here for the Auroville instruments webshop

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Michel A. Paulus : Design for a metal flute

Filed Nov. 1, 1993 and registered Apr. 2, 1996, the patent USD368485 was applied for the design (only) of a nose flute by Michel A. Paulus, belgian citizen of Walcourt.

It is deeply inspired by the shape of the original tin-plate Humanatone by James J. Stivers, but differs from it by its very long and flat mouth cape, and its air duct cover, which is a rounded plate (1 curve), instead of a toric slab (2 curves) ended with a plane.

There is no provision of specifications regarding a supposed production, but I assume the instrument was planned to be built from a metal plate (at least from a folded material), since Fig. 2 and 3 shows two little fixing flaps at the base of the air duct, quite symptomatic of early metal nose flutes.

This patent notably refers to 2 previous nose flute ones : Charles M. Berry [US2197993], and Ernest W. Davis [US3131590].

Videos : Feed the Diva!

Noseflute.org is proud to present the debut of a new Franco-German duo! Feed the Diva! is composed of the Nosy Diva, Miss Birdy K. (at the nose flute, viola, ukulele, accordeon...) and your obedient servant UkeHeidi (at the ukulele, banjolele, nose flute, ud...). Please, don't be discourteous : no, I was not sitting on a stool.

Here are the two very first videos. The first one with the Nosy Diva playing a Bocarina^™, and in the second one, a wooden flute by H. Handler.

Bocarina™ part IV : Chris Schuermans' interview

Here is the fourth and last part of our presentation of the South African nose flute, the Bocarina^™, with an interview of its creator, Mr. Chris Schuermans. Thanks to him for having taken the time to answer our questions with much details.

noseflute.org : Is the nose flute a traditional instrument in South Africa ?

Chris Schuermans : No, I have sold thousands of nose flutes here and have not met anyone in South Africa who knew of the nose flute before they saw mine.

When and how did you begin to produce nose flutes ?

I started making nose flutes about 4 years ago, out of curiosity after I having read about them.

You began with clay nose flutes : how do you proceed to create them ? Do you use a mould, like Mr. Sasaki does in Japan, in order to obtain a first shape, and then work it manually after ? Could you please describe the whole process ?

The first nose flutes I made were completely hand crafted and shaped. I experimented with different shapes and sizes until I was pleased with the result. I made a resin (epoxy putty) original in a similar shape and size from which I then made a press mould. The moulded clay is then worked by hand to make the blowing parts. I soon became aware that it didn’t fit so well on other people’s faces. At that time I was experimenting with a computer aided design/modelling program called Rhinoceros 3.0 so I decided to design the next nose flute on the computer. The original was milled from the computer model. It was a flop because it was too narrow and the nose piece was too small. I modified the milled model by hand and then made a mould from this. The Delft blue ceramic model that you now have is the 3rd generation mould I made. This was made after I had done a lot of designing on Rhinoceros, and after making numerous prototypes (3D printing - fused deposition modelling on Stratasys machines) In the process of making ocarinas, I decided to use an industrial press moulding process whereby the moulded parts are ejected from the mould by means of compressed air and water. These Hydraulic machines are large and very expensive so I modified a hand press (arbour press) to achieve the same result on a smaller scale.

The press, modified by Mr. Schuermans, with the Bocarina^™ mould set up.

When did you think of a plastic production ?

About 4 years ago after I got a large order for nose flutes from a customer. He became impatient with my production time and he urged me to make a plastic model. I was not interested at first because of the initial tooling costs of plastic injection moulding. I referred him to the Trophy Whistle Company. He ordered a few dozen Humanatones and was totally disappointed by the poor quality and performance of these instruments. He urged me to make a plastic version of my clay model and he was even willing to pay for the mould. It turned out however, due to demands he made, that I ended up paying for the mould.

How long did it take you to achieve the final specifications ?

Probably a year. I was new at 3D design on the computer and I was still learning (by myself) to use the Rhinoceros 3D modelling program.

How did you work on that matter ? Tests and rejects, computer assistance, or both ?

It took me about 6 months of working at night and about 12 prototypes to come up with overall shape. It then took me another six months and about 30 prototypes to refine the fipple (blowing parts that produce the sound).

What are the specifities of plastics, regarding nose flutes making, towards clay or other materials ?

Most importantly, ABS plastic (of which my instruments are made) is not easily broken. This is very important when marketing this product. I find that many people choose the plastic nose flute above the ceramic model firstly because it won’t break when it is dropped or carelessly handled, and secondly because it is cheaper. Ceramic nose flutes can be made to the same specifications by means of injection moulding, but the final product is a lot more expensive. Overall, I would say that I can achieve better results in terms of flute performance with injection moulding because of the reliable replication of the product. Producing ceramic nose flutes by means of press moulding does not give you the same degree of precision and reliability because it still involves some degree of manual work, and it is a much slower and laborious process. I don’t have much skill in woodwork, and I know that it is problematic in terms of porosity because it swells when it absorbs water and it can crack when it dries out. Wood on the other hand can be beautiful and warm to the touch….
As far as I know, metal, plastic, wood and clay are the most common materials from which nose flutes are commercially made. Each has shortcomings and advantages. However, as far as mass production and cost effectiveness are concerned then I think plastic is the best suited material.

What is your opinion regarding the importance of the material in the sound production (wood vs plastics...) ?

Good question, I have debated this topic before… Firstly,The nose flute shares acoustic properties with other instruments, such as the ocarina, gems horn and pan flute. In my opinion and in my experience, the material from which a closed vessel flute is made has very little influence on the sound it produces, with the exception of very light weight and porous wood (i.e. reed or balsa wood), which would produce very poor acoustics unless it is sealed with wax or varnish. It is the vibration of the air column in closed vessel flutes that produces the sound. Generally, the body of closed vessel flutes do not resonate the vibrations of the air column. If the vessel (body of the flute) is of the right size, density and shape to resonate in harmony with the vibrations that it sustains, only then would the material have a significant effect on the acoustic properties. In my experience nose flutes do not have the right characteristic to resonate any of the frequencies they generate. The acoustic properties of closed vessel flutes are more dependent on the structure, and the resulting physics of the fipple (mouth piece and blowing parts that produce the sound.)

Don't you think the labium vibrates, and vibrates in a different way depending on the material, fibrous or not, hard or springy ...), thus providing a different color ? In other words : would it be possible to change the timbre, adding harmonics for instance ?

It’s a difficult question and I haven’t done the science. I also don’t want to get drawn into a long debate. I think the surface texture of wood, for example, in the air passage and on the labium would influence the acoustics more than its ability to resonate or vibrate. As you no doubt know, crystalline solids will resonate at specific frequencies and at multiples of those frequencies, but the moment one touches the resonating solid, it would dampen the vibrations. Now, I doubt if a nose flute in contact with one’s face will resonate, or vibrate in any significant way as to effect the harmonics. The player’s face will absorb any energy that may cause vibrations within the structure of the nose flute. Furthermore wood does not carry resonance/ vibrations nearly as well as crystalline or homogeneous solids. It would be interesting to make identical nose flutes from plastic, wood, and metal using a computer model and a CNC milling machine, to test this. The surfaces that make up the fipple or blowing parts will have to be polished to get a uniform finish and in the case of wood it must be sealed with wax and then polished.

And how do the labium specifications influence the sound ?

From my experience making ocarinas I know that there is an ideal fipple or labium window size for each size ocarina. In other words, there is a direct proportional relationship between the ideal labium window size and the inner volume of closed vessel flutes. When the labium window is too big for a certain inner volume size, the sound will be higher in frequency, loud and harsh and it will have tendency to squawk on the high notes when blown softly. If the labium window is too small the sound produced will be lower, softer and tonally pleasant, but the sound will cut out in the lower register if blown slightly too hard. The same applies to the nose flute, but the mouth cavity has a variable volume size. Therefore, the ideal labium window size is also a variable. Either one has to design a variable labium window or you have to make a sacrifice. I opted for the midrange. If you reduce the labium window size of the Bocarina^™ then it will produce very pleasant high notes but it will cut out in the low registers and it will play softly. Increasing the labium window size will produce loud and very harsh tones in the high register and the low register will move up in frequency, thus losing some of the lowest tones. With the Bocarina^™ as it is now, the tonal quality of the high notes can be improved by leaving a gap between your lips and the body of the instrument, or in hands free playing, by pulling the corners of your lips away from the instrument. This gap has the same effect as opening the tone holes of an ocarina. The gap between your mouth and the Bocarina^™ will produce softer and more pleasing tones in the high register and it will increase the relative volume of your mouth cavity, required to produce those frequencies and hence it will give your more control.

In a first time, how many plastic flutes do you intend to produce ?

Due to financial considerations my first order was for 2000 units only. I will make as many as I can sell to the world.

You made a mould for plastic injection. Are you proceeding to the plastic casting with your own equipment or asked a local industrial partner to do it for you ?

The injection moulding is done by a factory in Johannesburg.

Are you still working on your model and have planned further improvements ?

I have learned a lot from designing the Bocarina^™ and I see it as an evolving process. We learn from experience and mistakes. – in the future I will try to improve the Bocarina^™ in terms of acoustics and ergonomically I already know that it could be improved as to accommodate more facial structures.

Do you play yourself ? What kind of music do you whistle on your nose flutes ?

I do play the nose flute. Not as often as I should and not nearly as well as I wish. I have a very limited repertoire of music I can play. I mostly play traditional songs, like the ones in my book ‘play the ocarina’. I do however enjoy playing along with the music of Secret Garden (album: Songs from a secret garden)

What does represent the little logo/stamp on your clay Bocarinas^™ ? a pomegranat ? a firevase ? What is the meaning ?

My logo, represents earth, water, fire and wind. All the natural elements are brought together in my ceramic music instruments. Just in case you are wondering; air is represented by the circle also symbolising earth. Air surrounds earth, and air is specifically symbolised in the gap at the bottom of the circle which ends in an arrow-like point, showing direction. The gap also symbolises the fipple of whistles where air vibrates to produce sound. (Interestingly, when sound is produced then the 4th dimension of time is introduced). Water also surrounds the earth, but it is specifically symbolised by the wave-like structure at the top of the circle. Fire; I think is obvious.


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On the same topic, you can read :

Bocarina^™ part I : A South African Ferrari
Bocarina^™ part II : The clay original
Bocarina^™ part III : A player's report - by Birdy K.
Bocarina^™ part IV : Chris Schuermans' interview
Bocarina^™ part V : The Ones you'll never have...
Bocarina^™ part VI : The Ancestors
Bocarina^™ part VII : Experiments 1
Bocarina^™ part VII : Experiments 2

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Where to get a Bocarina^™

Brionski Ebay store
Dan Moi online shop
Grothmusic online shop

And for larger quantities, for sure :

Chris Schuermans
95 Farnham Rd. Lynnwood Manor
Pretoria, 0081 RSA (South Africa)

Cell phone no. +27 83 954 3224
Telephone no. +27 12 361 4659,

email : chris[at]schuermans[dot]org

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Bocarina™ part III : a player's report - by Birdy K.

Noseflute.org is proud to welcome the Nosy Diva as an author of this blog, for her Bocarina^™ player's report. Thanks a lot to her for such a great and interesting work :

Just a week ago I received a Bocarina^™ nose flute. I was curious about it and full of expectations and, well, they were more than fulfilled.

When asked by our highly estimated webmaster to write a player’s report about the Bocarina^™ I was not sure if I should accept this high honour since I did not have much time yet to really get to know the instrument well. But the little I played was so much fun and so inspiring that I would like to share my experiences with you, dear nose flute community.
So, if any of you are interested in a report of high technical and musical perfection and a "serious" report on playability, sound range etc. with sound samples in perfect pitch and so on please do one yourself or pay me for it so I can quit the many other jobs I have and spent all day practising and writing about nose flutes!

Knowing that there are some Bocarinas^™ around already with good and ambitious players there will be or are already (see yesterday’s blog) very good recordings with this promising new instrument. I am looking forward to more.
The specifications have been shown very well in the last blog post so no need to say much more. Beautiful stuff: nice design, good, solid material and – most important for you, dear nosefluters, the playability.
The Bocarina^™ meets many different requirements. It seems to be extremely easy to learn for any novice nose flutist but it also matches players with a higher demand on musical possibilities. As in most of the tasks I have not much experience with that yet, but as a little example: A surely not very talented friend of mine played it with the weirdest efforts and I am sure no Handler, nor Schwan or any other decent noseflute would have responded to that. But the lady produced sounds, and it was not even that bad....
So, learning on beginner’s level should be rather easy. Something that has fascinated me from the beginning is that this noseflute has very many possibilities for playing:

-Playing badly: certainly it sounds bad if you play badly but still there is sound coming out (important for beginners, even more important for nose flute teachers...).

-A rather constant sound whatever you do – you can even move the mouth completely away and not touch the instrument with the lips at all. The lower part of the Bocarina^™ has such a shape that it builds up a sound very easily, no matter how you hold it.

- Water, cold, heat etc.: to prove the Bocarina^™ is water-proof I made a little recording in the morning shower: (let me assure you that this is absolutely authentic!)



There is a little part where the sound goes away (12’), I held my head under the shower just to see what happens. Very little irritation and the fun continues. You can also wear the Bocarina^™ when washing your hair. Surely in the shower you should use the hand-free technique for effective showering. The acoustics are very supporting!

Now totally convinced about the stability of this little instrument I had some funny ideas about playing possibilities and little promotion videos under extreme circumstances. Skiing, free climbing, canoeing down the niagara falls etc. (looking forward to upcoming videos). I might get some inline skating vids done in spring...Just imagine my surprise when two days ago I got an email by Chris Schuermans, the inventor of the Bocarina^™, writing about his original idea when posting his video on youtube. « Originally I posted my video clip on YouTube not to see how many views I could get nor was it made to market the Bocarina^™ on the internet. It was made because I was looking for a sponsor (large companies and banks)  here in SA to use the Bocarina^™ as a promotional item, especially at sporting events. As you know the vuvuzela was very popular (good or bad) at the Fifa World Cup Soccer. I made the clip so that I could email large corporations and send them a link to the video clip. »
This task leads us to a very important question: what about

Hand-free playing: The Bocarina^™ has no device for hand-free playing. But it is very easy to use an elastic band to fix the instrument in order to have your hands free for taking a shower, cleaning windows etc. or – if you are more ambitious – playing another instrument with it. It works rather well hand-free and you can move the instrument quite a lot without messing up the sound. As you know playing the nose flute always looks stupid so surely you will not care for looking even more stupid, will you? The freedom has its price though. Playing high notes requires a different position than playing low notes. When you hold the instrument with your hand you can easily adjust to that. When your hands play another instrument, well, it is a bit harder. You can hear it here. Since my hands and a little part of my mind are busy with the guitar, well, the intonation goes down quite a bit. Shame on me! (the problem is worst with notes extremely high or low since those are hardest to get without hand-help).



Low notes: The Bocarina^™ has a beautiful bassy sound in the low register. With none of the nose flutes I know I can reach lower notes than with this one! In the last sound sample a is the lowest note. In my recording, well, it does not sound very good, but I assure you it will sound better and you can reach the right tuning when you use the hand for support. Practising surely will help too – I hope ;-)

Medium sound range: In medium range the sound is very good, rich and sweet. I find the sound very inspiring for “singing” the melodies. Discovering more and more possibilities of this instrument is pure joy, I can honestly tell you that!
For getting to know the bocarina well it surely is a good way to stick to the sound register that is enjoyable. Here is a recording in the medium range.



High notes: Well, this is a problem. The price for the terrific bass and medium register is that the sound of the high notes can get quite nasty and I have not yet found a proper solution to that. As far as I know Chris Schuermans knows about this task (there will be an interview with him soon and maybe more to read about it). He wrote me about this task: « You should also try holding the Bocarina slightly away from your mouth when playing the high register, or try pulling the corners of your lips away from the Bocarina body (to form gaps), this will improve the tonal quality of the high notes. »
So, what to do? I do not know yet if practising will help – for now I must admit that for my own and my neighbour’s good I do not play extremely high notes or use my Handler wooden flute for that.

Fast notes: There is a very slight kind of "Massenträgheit" (mass moment of inertia – that is what google tranlator says, hope it means what I mean). The very robust and easy to handle Bocarina^™ fulfills many tasks extraordinarily well. Playing fast and jumping between sound registers is possible with good results but needs quite some adjustment if used to another instrument with different specifications. For very fast playing I personally am very fond of the hand-crafted Handler wooden flute and you can play fast stuff almost by just thinking the music. Like dealing with a racehorse eager to react to the tiniest commands. The Bocarina^™ in this respect I would rather compare to a very patient and jolly, bit older horse that forgives you a lot but if you want to run it surely will run like hell! Don’t forget that we are dealing with the Ferrari amongst nose flutes!

Continuing comparing I would say that playing the Bocarina^™ needs more, bigger movements of the mouth for tonal change than the smaller instruments of good quality you can get. This fact, I think, is what makes playing so easy, even for beginners. So this for sure is not a disadvantage, only if you practice too much because you will have tension in your jaws!
So, fast playing is possible without problems but needs some practice as well as good techniques. I recorded a little Vivaldi with my music room playalong orchestra (the connaisseur may forgive me the tasteless vibrato I use, it is just so much fun...)



Actually I would never have imagined that a noseflute made of plastic would sound and work this well! There are also Bocarinas^™ made of clay with the exact same shape and very similar playability.

Plastic and clay Bocarinas^™: To me the clay sounds a bit "rounder" and warmer.
With the plastic instruments I find it easier to reach low notes, especially when playing hand-free which is also easier with this one because it is much lighter and will not break.
To give you a little impression of the sounds, just listen:



The first one plastic, second clay – do you hear the difference? To be honest, I find it not easy, but playing surely feels different.

Here we have another sound sample, I will not tell you on which instrument...



So what do you think? Plastic or clay?

Haha, sorry, a little joke from my side. Since I do not possess a Schwan nose flute to play the Schwan by Saint-Saëns, I chose another interesting model, the Pfaff Nasenpfeife (bottle opener flute).

Now the real Bocarinas^™:



The differences is not too huge, is it? The first is again plastic, second part (from 22’) the clay. Still, in this one I hear the difference more than in the scales. Each instrument feels a bit different and playing Vivaldi and fast or higher stuff as well as classical repertoire is more fun with the clay instrument. For me personally.
No better or worse. As with any kind of noseflute I find it difficult to say one is better or worse than another. I have found that what works great for me must not necessarily work well for others, depending on different factors such as anatomy, musical taste and many more.
So this review of the Bocarina^™ states my personal rather fresh experience and opinion about it. Concluding I would say that this new star in the noseflute universe is sure to become a star!

Thank you to Chris S. for having developed it so beautifully, and also thanks to Mr. Job te Pas for having discovered the bocarina and having put our webmaster's and thus following my nosy nose to it. And thank you, dear reader, for your patience if you read this little report until the end!

I say goodbye with a little very old German song (playing free-hand Bocarina^™ with my favorite little Brueko ukulele):



« Spiele kleine Flöte spiele
sag den Freunden Gute Nacht
sei willkommen Abendkühle
und du Stern der ersten Nacht »

« Play little flute play
say goodnight to the friends
be welcomed cool evening
and the star of the first night »

Birdy K., the Nosy Diva !

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On the same topic, you can read :

Bocarina^™ part I : A South African Ferrari
Bocarina^™ part II : The clay original
Bocarina^™ part III : A player's report - by Birdy K.
Bocarina^™ part IV : Chris Schuermans' interview
Bocarina^™ part V : The Ones you'll never have...
Bocarina^™ part VI : The Ancestors
Bocarina^™ part VII : Experiments 1
Bocarina^™ part VII : Experiments 2

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Where to get a Bocarina^™

Brionski Ebay store
Dan Moi online shop
Grothmusic online shop

And for larger quantities, for sure :

Chris Schuermans
95 Farnham Rd. Lynnwood Manor
Pretoria, 0081 RSA (South Africa)

Cell phone no. +27 83 954 3224
Telephone no. +27 12 361 4659,

email : chris[at]schuermans[dot]org

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