Selfie with Uke Master Will Grove-White

NoseFlute.Org was honoured by the visit of Mr. Will Grove-White (and family), respectable member of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (UOGB) and reknowned nose flute enthousiast! Very proud of this unmerited honour, Noseflute.org associated with the incomparable Nosy Diva to take a fluty selfie with Will's pair of young bodyguards, in front of the Neptune fountain (Nancy, France).



Then at the Wallet Instant Wallet Nose Flute, at the Snoot Flute, and at the Numero 9, my koa uke built by master Gérard Guasch:

Some Masked Newcomers on the Scene!

It is not less than 9 videos that the Japanese Youtube duo « Nose flute 鼻笛さん » has published in three months. Generally featuring one ukulele and one nose flute (a ceramics by Sasaki Hiroaki or a Bocarina^®), the videos are performed incognito, the musicians wearing a mask. We wish them a lot of pleasure playing the nose flute!
Here is « 桜坂 » (福山雅治) / « Sakurazaka » (Masaharu Fukuyama):

Nose Flute and Ukette on Radio Caraib Nancy

Yesterday, I was invited as member of the Conseil de Développement durable du Grand-Nancy (C3D) to express my feelings and opinions about this citizen think tank, on RCN radio (Nancy, FR). I was asked to take some music with me, so I brought Low Down Blues, by Lloyd Buford Threlkel (that has been cut in the middle of the nose flute solo, alas...), but also my sopranino ukette and a special color Bocarina^™.

Dominique Valck, President of the C3D, shot a little video of my performance, here it is:
(sorry for the ukette out of tune: thermic shock from the winter chill)

The End (The Doors) by the Nosy Diva at Jim Morrison's grave

Noseflute.org had the opportunity to guide the Nosy Diva in her sightseeing visit in Paris. The Diva wanted to play a little homage to Jim Morrison and we went to the Père Lachaise cemetery, where is buried the Doors' leader. It was a piece of luck to be able to shoot the video in rather quiet conditions, since tourists buses pour out a constant flow of international visitors, greedy to hail the poet's memory.

The Diva played The End (1967) with her mini uke (iuke) and a Handler noseflute.



For sure, it is not the only place that the Diva visited, and here are some pictures of the Noseflute.org tour, among many other places and monuments she went to.

At the Tampographe Sardon's workshop:


At the Chocolate Factory (exhibition by artist Paul McCarthy):
At the Fondation Louis Vuitton by architect Frank Gehry), and in front of the Moulin Rouge:
And in Pigalle! oohlalah!

FIUL 3 !

The Festival International d'Ukulélé de Lerrain took place this year in... Charmois-devant-Bruyères, a welcoming village in the Vosges region, France. Many ukulele playing, for sure, but also some nose flute, thanks to the Nosy Diva and yours truly.

Here is a short footage from Vosges Télévision (some nose flute in the middle)



And here a montage of the Nosy Diva on stage:

Small Fry, by Will Grove-White

Will Grove-White, member of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, has just released his second solo album: Small Fry. The songs are played with a lot of pocket instruments: drums for children, mini-sax, bass Harmonica, piccolo trombone from Danmark, ukulele for sure and nose flute! [remember that Will has made great nose flute videos, see here and here].



Small Fry is a remarkable and funny album, with strange combinations. The idea was to make a "pocket album". And yes, everything is tiny and delicate, but the sound is great and gorgeous. From New Orleans to Blues, with some hint of Country and ballads, every tune sounds aerial, crystal clear, joyful.

Here is an excerpt of an interview given to Julie Kinot, of UOGBfrogsfan.org, and published in French on Paperblog.fr :

JK - I’ve noticed you have a «french» title : La Vie en Nose. You play nose flute on this one and you have recorded some videos of you playing noseflute on Youtube. What do you like in this instrument ?

WGW - Yes, of course I love the daftness of the noseflute, and it’s a deeply unattractive look while playing it. It seems like everything a musical instrument shouldn’t be. I have the Nosy Diva and Antoine at noseflute.org to thank for a lot of my enthusiasm, so any complaints should be addressed to them please. But ‘La Vie en Nose’ obviouly brings to mind Grace Jones, who is herself as mad as a box of frogs, and also prone to using daft plastic technology in her performances : youtu.be/kIicwZrkEhY I’m sure she’d have a go at the noseflute.

For our best pleasure, Will gently gave the authorization to publish La Vie en Nose, one of the 13 titles, which contains nose flute riffs. Please enjoy!:



You can get the Small Fry album here.

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Useful Links :

- More about Small Fry
- Will Grove-White website
- Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain website

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Video : Nerd nose flute

A video from Scotland, with ukulele and nose flute. Mr. James Raymond, a left-handed self-called "Creative Nerd" (have a look at his t-shirt), plays a wooden nose flute that I assume made by Martina Sommer (check this post). It's a pity the uke sound is saturated, since the nose flute playing is nice and fresh!

Newcomer on nose flute, not on the uke!

Phil Doleman is a great ukulele player (just check this or that) and he received yesterday a black Bocarina^™ from Brionski. No time lost: he just published his first ukie/snoutie video!
Very promising...!

Brigitte Bardot - Rated nose flute video

Well... some archive images from the FIUL 2012 (Festival International d'Ukulélé de Lerrain), in which you can see Brigitte Bardot herself playing "30 Millions d'Amis" (which was the main music of a French TV program for pet lovers), accompanied by whole a zoo, personified by the Nosy Diva herself. The sound is very bad, but the topic is historic :) Thanks to Stoerungsdienst for having shot with a camcorder and not a gun rifle.

Long live and prosper!

Back to one of the best instruments combination : Ukie & Snoozie! In this video, Will Grove-White, gentle member of the famous Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain plays a black Bocarina^™ to whistle the Star Trek theme. A gorgeous video! You loved his James Bond theme video, you will adore his Star Trek version!

Some Rock'n'Roll

I made this little hectic video with my home made aluminium Nasalette, a vintage plastic Maccaferri ukulele and a banana-shaker. If you are not french, you probably don't know this music, but if you are, you should, since it's been the soundtrack for a TV pet program since 1976! You can check the original version here.
Special dedication to my cat Patafix!

A new video by FloydBlue

FloydBlue is a german ukulele/banjolele player, member of Das Resopal Seminar music band, but is also a secret adorer of the kazoo — he built many of them by himself, including eatable ones — although he gently began to enter the nose side of the flute ...

In his last video, feturing an ukulele with a Bocarina^™, he uses a simple nose flute stand, but very efficient yet! You can also watch some other of his nose flute videos here and here.

Click to enlarge the pictures :
And here is the video :

FloydBlue on YouTube FloydBlue on Facebook Das Resopal Seminar on YouTube Seminar

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.

My new advertisement page

I made it to be inserted in the new french ukulele magazine Pluck (coming issue of september will be also published in English...).

Video : extreme playing!

Extreme ukulele and nasenflöte playing in Austria

Inaugural post

One of the Winds of the Αέρηδες (Tower of the Winds) in Athens, Greece.

Welcome to Noseflute.org! As you can read onto the fronton of this temple dedicated to the nose flute, we won't deal with ethnic instruments here, but mostly with the modern shapes of the nostril whistle.

Why ? First, we are not acknowledged for that. There are so many local forms and names, stories and usages for the original nose flutes that only serious anthropologists or ethnomusicologists could afford filling a blog with. As you'll be invited to read in the future posts, nose flute is just an amusement for us and we won't write a thesis on this delightful topic.

More, we are a ukulele player, and we need both of our hands to play. We sometimes even dream of letting grow another pair of them. Hence are we involved in playing nose flutes which pitch is driven by the bucal cavity. Only the modern form of nose flutes allow this feature, attached to the head by a rubber band, a ribbon, or a dedicated included system.

In these pages, we'll produce reviews, write some elements of history, promote the best videos or dedicated sites, teach the heavy knowledge and the sweet art of playing the nasal flute, enter some fabrication techniques, and more if needed.

As an inaugural show, here is a video I made several months ago. I called it "Humanatone review", but it was not. At this time I only had got in my possession recent Humanatones and some wooden vietnamese ebay items, and was not able to make a specific review. This was mostly a joke. Hope you'll enjoy it anyway.