Lullaby by Kato Hideo

A sweet and nostalgic lullaby by Takeda Shujiro (ひでじろう 竹田) interpretated by Mister Kato Hideo at the nose flute.

Tribute to FloydBlue

« Kenny and Capt. CheezWhiz pay tribute to a noseflute legend », as described on the Youtube page. Indeed, Jas Ingram (AKA Captainukehandles/CheezWhiz holds the nose flute, wearing a mask, while Mister Kenny plays uke and dog. Great video!

Getting serious about nose flute playing - Part II

Noseflute.org is very glad and lucky to welcome Miss Birdy K. as an essayist. This text of thoughts about nose flute playing is the second part of an article initiated here. Thanks to her!



Sequel of the post Getting serious about nose flute playing - Part I

Getting serious about nose flute playing - Part II

Playing the nose-flute hands-free with other instruments

One of the great advantages of the nose flute is that since you do not use your fingers for playing you can play another instrument when you have the nose flute firmly attached with a rubber band or another similar device.


Noseflute - harmony instrument

The most commonly used combination for the noseflute is with a ukulele or guitar.
There are lots of examples on youtube, the attentive reader of this wonderful blog gets links to many great and inspired videos (like by Nosefluter, Master Mosurin, etc.)
Besides adding harmonies and a nice sound to the melodies of the nose flute it also helps, especially in the beginning, to keep trace of the intonation. For any other harmony instrument it works rather similarly, the piano, the accordion, the harpsichord, organ...
When you do a simple accompaniment with chords it is the same thing like singing along with a guitar or ukulele – you just get started. I do not know what else to say about this, it works like most noseflute tasks, mainly by intuition.


Noseflute – melody instrument

However, the nose flute certainly can also be combined with melody instruments, like any string instruments (violin, viola, etc.) or uke, lute or guitar, as well as the piano or keyboard if you play melodies and not harmonies on them.
Since I am a violin and viola player I have spent some time with that and would like to share my experiences with you – personal and individual as usual, just what I have found out works best for my playing.


Playing two parallel melodies independently

Playing two melodies synchronous and independently is a rather special task and may not interest very many of our dear readers, but who knows how many fiddle (piano,whatever) playing nose flutists hang out on this planet??

To get started it is useful to be able to play both instruments fairly well. In fact, the secret of playing two independent melodies at once is to automatize the playing of one instrument.
For a start you can try to play the same melody with both instruments in unison (I do not say this is easy so do not be frustrated if you do not succeed well when beginning :o).
When playing independent melodies I generally start with the violin because there is orientation where to put the fingers and I keep on repeating the melody until not having to think about it any more. If capable of reading music it can be easier to put sheet music and just play until you do not have to think any more.
For playing a canon, it is a bit hard to explain but I think I listen to myself playing the melody and then I imitate it with the noseflute. It requires some mental discipline but surely is a good kind of brainjogging! I practised this already with a canon singing and playing violin before knowing the noseflute, it is the same principle.

In the following video you get a little practical demonstration.



It is probably a bit easier when you play the piano or a keyboard because you do not have to worry about your intonation there.
Then – even if you succeed playing the melodies together the result might not to be as good as two people playing together, so it is more a kind of training your musical abilities and something to impress people :o))
Since we noseflute players are used to being limited in looking good and sounding great who cares?

In the end to show you what is possible with some training (yes, it took a while) we have a recording of the beginning of the 1st movement of the Bach double concerto for two violins. I did this a while ago to practice my independent playing. It is a synchronous recording.



Well, dearest reader, I hope not to have bored you too much with this rather specific task, thanks for your patience!

The incomparable Nosy Diva

The Bear Necessities (Jungle Book)

The incomparable Nosy Diva back on our screens, with a beautiful Maccaferri ukulele!

Les Champs-Elysées, by Mosurin

A great interpretation of the Champs-Elysées (Joe Dassin), by Mosurin, recorded at Monkey Forest, Shibuya, Tokyo.