Thing #1: Listen to this track on a system that bumps. The #808 kicks in @ 02:40 :)
The drone background is a composite of five different instruments I created in #bitwig, including a Tanpura, then blended together to create a cohesive atmosphere. The entire flute part (except the outtro solo) was done in one take, playing to the drone. All the rest of the percussion, drums & bass were layered on after the fact.
Gear:
main voice: 31-inch, 7-hole Pratap Gujar bansuri in D#
outtro solo: 17-inch, 7-hole Pratap Gujar bansuri in D#
microphone: Shure SM-57
interface: MOTU 828 mk2
DAW: Bitwig Studio 5.1
Nerdy Notes:
Playing flute to a drone can be a very creative and useful learning tool. It is an interesting way to play music because the relationship between the drone note and each flute note creates a unique chord. Changing the pitch of the drone completely changes the key and feeling of the music that being created. This track was inspired by setting the drone note to the same note produced by my flutes when holes #1 & #2 are both covered, which produces the note F-natural on these flutes.
The two flutes being used in this track are both in the same key, but one is a large bass-flute and the other is tiny, practically a piccolo. They are entirely different beasts to play. The large one has huge, widely spaced finger holes that look too far apart for normal humans to ever reach. The little one has holes so close together my knuckles bump each other.
The natural key of these flutes is D#, though the tonic/root (i.e. all 6 primary holes closed) is A#. Both produce the same notes from the same fingerings, just at different octaves. The bottom 7th hole serves to lower the tonic note by a half step, allowing the player to reach a low A3. On the little 17-inch bansuri, this hole is reached by the bottom-hand pinkie finger. On the big 31-inch bansuri, the hole is not accessibly by regular humans! It's just too far down the end of the flute to ever be reached by someone smaller than Andre the Giant. On such large flutes, particularly those made in the Hindustani tradition (e.g. Pratap Gujar flutes et al), the hole faces downward and is slightly canted toward the player. It is closed by rotating the end of the flute downward to make contact with the outer thigh, which closes the hole (seriously). It takes a while to get good at, and requires a particular seating arrangement to pull off (it's meant for cross-legged sitting).
Additional Credits:
The video thumbnail was sourced from Pixabay, a community of creatives sharing royalty-free images, videos, audio and other media. All content is released by Pixabay under the Content License, which makes it safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for certain commercial purposes. That said, I have made the effort to ensure each content creator is credited here:
* Thumbnail pic: Vined Mind (kalyanayahaluwo)
Music produced and performed by Davrus of Meditative Instruments.
Published by Lakehouse Group, LLC., copyright 2024.
#bansuri #meditation #meditationmusic #flute #瞑想音楽 #bitwig #bitwigstudio #808 #subwoofer