Tapping fingers on chanter or flute

[john]

Has anyone noticed you can hear the notes on a flute or chanter when there's no air being blown through just by tapping on the holes?

[Peter Duggan]

Yes. It's been a standard technique in avant-garde woodwind music for c.50 years.

[Nanohedron]

Here's Joannie Madden doing it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEnlxquwPEQ

[lucky141]

Has this technique a name?

I knew the tune by Joanie Madden but I always tought that she blew a little in the flute...

[tommykleen]

An onomatopoetic word came into my head: klugging. I thought I had made it up. Turns out, it's already in use

[Nanohedron]

I knew the tune by Joanie Madden but I always tought that she blew a little in the flute...

Sure, it starts out with that melodic hissing, and then comes the flute-tapping, and then on top of that the whistle, and then on top of that the flute voice. It's all her, but obviously you can't whistle/flute/tap/hiss all at once - unless you're Cthulhu, maybe - so it takes multi-track magic to pull that off. IIRC, the liner notes say that she was blowing into a bottle for the hissing part, while at the same time her free hand was jingling coins and scuffing her jeans for percussion. Gritty.

The point is, she's tapping. It doesn't matter if she's hissing at the same time or not, even if she was. And BTW, I don't think I've ever used the word "hiss" so many times before all in one clump.

Until that very recording, I'd never heard audible tapping like that before. I thought it was an amusing device, but of course the applications are pretty limited.

[Pipewort]

Forgive me if I'm thought pedantic

I don't think I've ever used the word "hiss" so many times before all in one clump.

But would not an alternative term be better used, in particular for a respected artist as Ms Madden, and the recording itself.

Just a thought

Pwt

[Nanohedron]

Forgive me if I'm thought pedantic

I don't think I've ever used the word "hiss" so many times before all in one clump.

But would not an alternative term be better used, in particular for a respected artist as Ms Madden, and the recording itself.

Just a thought

Pwt

A couple of things: First, it is I, not tommykleen, whom you are quoting (how's that for pedantry? You even get a pedant's grammar over it. ). Secondly, "hiss" in this case is just a way to describe a sound; the word itself carries no inherently negative meaning, so I think that we may relax any worries over breaches of due respect to Ms. Madden. Thirdly, if you've ever met her you'll know that she'd bust a gut over the suggestion that she should be handled with reverence, especially from afar. She's a really cool, friendly, down-to-earth person known for her candid and often "woolly" speech. Fourthly, I have consulted the thesaurus for a fitting contextual alternative to "hiss", and I'm afraid the choices are almost zero if we want to remain not ludicrous. I just can't bring myself to use "sibilation". So I dare to think we'll be just fine, here.

I guess that's a few things, not just a couple.