A week or 2 ago, Doug Tipple sent me a prototype of his new vertical notch-flute (something of the same family as a quena or a shakuhachi, but without the llama-wool cap or the Zen-Buddhism).
As usual for Doug’s flutes, it quickly became one of my favourites. Once you get the hang of how to use your lower lip to seal the flute when you play (it’s like whistling and chewing bubblegum at the same time), vertical flutes are fun to play. They take less space than a transverse flute, and they “bend” notes very well, by changing the flute’s angle.
I don’t know much about shaks, so i can’t compare. Compared to a quena, this doesn’t have the strong low harmonics, but sounds more flute-like. Compared to a low D whistle, the finger stretch is, somehow, more manageable. I find myself reaching for it often, when i feel the urge to play tunes. It can handle fast or slow playing, just like a transverse flute.
This is a bit of a thread hijack, but I got a quena a little while ago and have a devil of a time holding on to it. It is definitely fussy about some aspects of the blowing angle but motion in the right plane yields quite a slide. The hole in the back (like a rec*der) and the lack of mouth grip, however gentle on a whistle, makes it very difficult for me to hold and control accurately. So how is it done with the latest Tipple offering?
Roger
No hole in the back, just 6 holes in front. Fingered exactly like a simple-system flute. Doug says he can play a C# without dropping it, but i asked him to send me some kind of thumbrest, and he obliged. He sent a small piece of larger diameter PVC, and it works fine, but maybe a Susato thumbrest would work even better.
(Quena, btw, has different fingering that allows you to always keep at least one finger down, but i still prefer having a thumbrest.)
g
So it sounds like a Shak but with whistle/simple system fingerings. That is soooo cool I want one.
