A friend just gave me a five-holed Bolivian fipple flute. It’s made of wood—possibly bamboo—and plays quite well through two octaves. The sound is a little like that of the pan pipes—I rather like it. The bell note seems to be Db or thereabouts—I haven’t been able to check against a reliably tuned chromatic instrument yet.
Are any of you familiar with these instruments? If so, what is the scale they are intended to play? Yes, I know I could check mine against a piano but I don’t know whether it’s in tune with itself and it seems fairly obvious that it doesn’t play a diatonic European mode.
[ This Message was edited by: Wombat on 2002-12-17 02:23 ]
On 2002-12-17 05:46, Zubivka wrote:
5 holes, eh ?
Could you send a picture, or measurements of the spacing between holes, and their resp. size ?
I’m still considering to get a custom > atonal > whistle, i.e. with scale : C D E Gb Ab Bb C if bell note is C.
That’d be whole-tone rather than atonal wouldn’t it Zub? Plenty of uses in 20th century music for that.
I’ll try to post a picture—have to learn how–and will certainly give dimensions etc. after I get back from holidays in the new year. I’m a bit pressed for time now as I’m trying to buy a new house, prepare for holidays, find all the documents I need for the former task in a sea of boxes and finish off my work for the year all in the next couple of days.
On 2002-12-17 05:46, Zubivka wrote:
5 holes, eh ?
Could you send a picture, or measurements of the spacing between holes, and their resp. size ?
I’m still considering to get a custom > atonal > whistle, i.e. with scale : C D E Gb Ab Bb C if bell note is C.
That’d be whole-tone rather than atonal wouldn’t it Zub? Plenty of uses in 20th century music for that.
I’ll try to post a picture—have to learn how–and will certainly give dimensions etc. after I get back from holidays in the new year. I’m a bit pressed for time now as I’m trying to buy a new house, prepare for holidays, find all the documents I need for the former task in a sea of boxes and finish off my work for the year all in the next couple of days.
I have a shakuhachi that is five hole, four in front and a thumb hole in back for the left hand. I can play a pentatonic scale easily on this, and with much effort half holing I can play an almost diatonic. I wouldn’t want another five holed wind instrument…
Zubivka,
I like the sound of the whole tone scale and I think it would be fun to have a whistle that plays only those notes–there are other scales I would also like a whistle in. I approached a maker not too long ago about the harmonic minor and other related exotic scales, but when I heard one of these whistles and saw the configuration of the tone holes, I changed my mind. But, I think the whole tone scale would make a comfortable tone hole configuration. I was wondering what you planned to do with this custom whistle if you got one… I have a hard time justifying buying a whistle that I won’t be able to play with my group…
Lisa
I refer to the full-tones scale as “atonal” scale because of the French terminology since Claude Debussy.
It’s named atonal, because if you play it, there’s no dominant tone, and no “sensible” one for that matter. if you start in C, the intervals are just the same as starting in D. I maintain atonal, so there
Now the use ? Experimenting… I just have a hunch accidentals of this scale may be easier to play, and the tuning interesting because of the even (should I say progressively even?) spacing of the holes. So, if my hunch about accidentals is even partly right, it may be interesting to play special scales, or just the plain harmonic/melodic minors.
[ This Message was edited by: Zubivka on 2002-12-18 04:30 ]
On 2002-12-18 04:28, Zubivka wrote:
I refer to the full-tones scale as “atonal” scale because of the French terminology since Claude Debussy.
It’s named atonal, because if you play it, there’s no dominant tone, and no “sensible” one for that matter. if you start in C, the intervals are just the same as starting in D. I maintain atonal, so there >
Now the use ? Experimenting… I just have a hunch accidentals of this scale may be easier to play, and the tuning interesting because of the even (should I say progressively even?) spacing of the holes. So, if my hunch about accidentals is even partly right, it may be interesting to play special scales, or just the plain harmonic/melodic minors.
[ This Message was edited by: Zubivka on 2002-12-18 04:30 ]
OK Zub, be French if you must. (Do French theoreticians think the same way about diminished chords?)
Your hunch is interesting. It would be pretty easy to play whole tone (oops, atonal) scales too, eh?.
[Edited to announce that my first attempt at a smiley worked.]
[ This Message was edited by: Wombat on 2002-12-18 04:59 ]
PS : now that you point it out, I gather you never posted emoticons. I guess you never “sounded” dry, so you could get away without. > > > >
Massed winks; I love it. I think a few winks here and there might have prevented the occasional misunderstanding actually.
PPS: BTW, would you like me to host one of your pictures, so we get back to this 5-holed 1-fippled Bolivian thingie ?
[ This Message was edited by: Zubivka on 2002-12-18 17:36 ]
[ This Message was edited by: Zubivka on 2002-12-18 17:41 ]
Shall do Zub, but not until I come back from Melbourne in a few weeks. (I’m going to record as well as enjoy the festive season and I’m flat out just getting ready—which is why I’m currently posting on the board, of course.) I’ll have to get this whole ‘posting pics’ thing sorted out before the cutie pie thread finally goes into retirement.
(Do French theoreticians think the same way about diminished chords?)