Customizing to Bansuri fingering

[vindy]

Bansuri (Indian bamboo flute) uses half-holing to produce chromatic notes. There are at least three common ways of half-holing with Bansuri

1. Closing or lifting the finger along the (Z) axis of the hole - used when bending the notes from one to another, usually over multiple notes
2. Sliding the finger along the axis of the flute - Usually for legato chromatic notes or bending the note only to the next adjacent note
3. Sliding the finger away from the flute and towards the palm (along the third axis of the hole) - Usually for a brief bend to the next note.

It looks like Slide and Vibrato option on WARBL would let me bend notes as in the method 1 above.

Would half-holing along the axis of the flute (method 2 above) let me play chromatic notes?

I play Bansuri and EWI and I don't have a WARBL yet. I would like to buy one. I would like to know this, so my expectations are set correctly.

thanks

[admin]

Hi Vinay, thanks very much for the interest. I received your email but I'll reply here in case it's useful to others as well.

In theory, WARBL's "slide" feature does let you play chromatics by half-holing, and it shouldn't matter which of the forementioned methods you use because it bends the pitch based on how much of the hole is covered (how much infrared light bounces back to the sensor from your finger). However, I don't want to raise your expectations too high because there are some caveats: First, it's fairly difficult to attain a specific pitch with this method. I find that I can do it with slow tunes but not faster ones. Second, with most or all MIDI apps, there are slight "blip" sounds when you switch from a bent note to an adjacent note. So, for example if you slide slowly from an A up to a B, it's generally not a totally smooth transition-- the MIDI app makes a slight artifact in the sound because it is triggering a new note (albeit at approximately the same pitch). The "legato slide" feature that the WARBL has can eliminate this to some extent by actually bending the same note over a broader range instead of triggering a new one, but at some point a new note still needs to be triggered and there will still be some artifacts.

So, in theory it could work but I do worry somewhat that it wouldn't be as responsive as you'd like. However, if you try it and decide that it's not suitable for this you'd be welcome to return it. I see that you're in the US, so returning it wouldn't be too difficult logistically.

[vindy]

HI Andrew,

Sincere thanks for that comprehensive response. It is very helpful. I would like to give it a try and see how that works. There are many Bansuri flute players and I really hope to find a way to make it work, potentially with some adaptation from the player too.

I will order one soon.

Best regards

Vinay

[admin]

Thanks, I appreciate it! I hope it works out well, and I'll be happy to work with you to try to make that happen .

[vindy]

Excellent!! Thank you.

I have placed my purchase request for WARBL with you. Looking forward to receiving it.