Yes, thanks, the Talking Nose Flute Blues:
oogi mklens mggleni–Snort!
Tootle Tootle Tootle–Snort!
mrnklo flopees ihgho–Snort!
Tootle Tootle Tootle–Snort!
iuoot yeoojuj ojqkqeo–Snort!
Tootle Tootle Tootle–Snort!
Apologies for the snorting, but that’s
what inhalations sound like on
the Humanatone. The lyrics are
brilliant, in fact,
but it’s hard to project
them through the plastic (recall that
the nose flute is fixed to
one’s face by a rubber band so
that one can play the guitar
with one’s hands).
Despite the obvious expressive virtues
of this underappreciated
instrument, articulation
is a challenge. For reasons
I will not go into here, tonguing
is out of the question. Ornamentation
is impossible, of course. All one can
do is start a line with a sudden
outblow and end with a snort, which
does add a contrapuntal rhythmic
background reminiscent of a Bach
organ canon.
Above all the arrangement with
the rubberband is excrutiatingly
painful–especially your nose–until
you lose all sensation in
your face at about 2 minutes.
The only remedy is to drink half
a bottle of single malt scotch
before playing, which partly explains
the primitive yet powerful
inarticulateness of the
nose flute talking blues, above.
This also explains why I shifted
to playing the rubber band–but
that’s another story. Best
