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While Carnatic flute has its advantages, it has also its fair share of disadvantages. Among the most arduous of them all is the mastery of the fingering techniques. For senior students of flute, the technical knowledge of vocal music is very important to make progress in expressing the composition with high quality. Issues ranging from shruthi to layam will also be discussed.
Sruthi - Physical Design
Unlike any other string instrument, the pitch or the sruthi of a Carnatic flute is fixed during the manufacturing process. As such, over time, it is important to check that the shruthi remains the same as it was intended.
A slight wear in the finger holes or the mouth hole is good enough to minutely alter the pitch. As such tuning the flute in the long run is a tedious and time-consuming process. Care must be taken to ensure that any wear and tear of the hole size is immediately noticed and rectified.
Cracks and fractures are also feared. While wood adhesives and cellulose tape can address this issue, the slightest repair will affect the pitch. There is a popular incident decades ago when Flute Mali encountered a crack in his flute in a US concert, and he is said to have immediately rectified it with a cellulose tape for his performance. As an exception, this is more to do with luck. Respected flautists today do not even think about playing with a damaged flute, and the cost of manufacturing a concert worthy flute is also expensive. The most competent and serious flautists would harp on the quality of shruthi wherever they perform.
Raga - Swaras, Swarasthanas & Fingering Challenges
Playing ragas in the Carnatic flute is a very challenging process. The reason being, the fingering techniques need to mastered over time to get the right gamakas in the swarasthanas. Some gamakas applied for the flute are not theoretically or vocally "correct" for the raga, but have to be applied to produce the required swarasthanas. Only competent flautists with good swara nyana (ability to grasp musical notes by listening) can impart this special gamakas to their students. Excellent grasp of the the basic exercises in three speeds must be mastered with clarity before learning this gamakas.
The idea of swarasthanas is also very disputed in most publicly discussed definitions. While a swara means a pure note, a swarasthana actually mean the note with respect to a raga that which can only be shown with the gamakas or in some cases without gamakas. While not all swaras of a raga may require gamakas, some ragas may require for every other note except Shadjam and Panchamam. Both Sa and Pa are Prakruthi or the tonic notes which are played without gamakas.
In order to have a full practical understanding of the 72 melakartha scheme of Carnatic music, a high level of swara nyana is very important, only which the swarasthanas of the notes can be conceived on the instrument. Secondly, a sound understanding of the 16 notes of Carnatic music is also important including the 4 dissonant notes (Shatshruthi Rishabam, Suddha Ghandaram, Shatshruthi Dhaivatham & Suddha Nishadam). The same set of skills applies for all other musical instruments.
Last but not least, fingering techniques need to be very subtle when playing ragas. A slight nudge or a nick exposed in a hole supposed to be partially closed at the right angle, can abruptly mar the sound of the raga. Generally everything is played on how the notes are heard with the respect to the ragas, while some notes may require 50% closing of holes, some may require up to 90%. It is theoretically very intricate to describe. Depending on the design of the flute, the placement of the fingers on the holes are never the same in total for any two flautists.
Rhythm - Breath Control & Concentration
Keeping the rhythm while playing the flute is very challenging. Unlike string instruments where the instrumentalist work with the fingers more than the mind, it is easier to multitask keeping the tala in the feet or by some other convenient means. But this is very different for the flautist and even more so for the Nadeswaram artistes.
Flautists, like vocalists, use the vocal chords to resonate the sound. Above all, the continual blowing in a multi-hour classical concert puts tremendous pressure on the brain, especially with heavy bass flutes as those used by Dr. N. Ramani. It takes a great deal of training to condition the mind to handle the stress before even thinking about multi-hour classical concerts. This is important as the oxygen intake to the mind diminishes gradually when the blowing is sustained which is often the case in playing most Carnatic compositions.
If the flautist is not alert, he would be out of breath even before he realizes and there will be a sudden drop in the volume of blowing. This does not mean that he can lapse in his tala and he has to take exercise the same focus like the vocalist to keep his tala in check using his feet or by some other means. On this note, the level of multi-tasking is much higher as the air flow to the mind diminishes gradually without giving time for the body to adapt or realize and if not trained to draw air into the lungs at sporadic intervals, the flautist will be lost or even dazzled by a lost of breath. In such a dilemma, the chances of him missing the next beat is higher. As such, an unprepared flautist can easily lapse in his tala.
As such even seasoned top-notched artistes take a brief break for about a few seconds just to catch their breath and get back to focus before continuing. For Nadeswaram artistes, the breaks can last for nearly half a minute or even up to a minute because of the immense energy required to blow the instrument.
This culminates to the issue of concentration which can only be perfected through training and practice. Ability to engage in kalpanaswara and raga on the fly is itself a great testament to the high level of concentration and breath control achieved by the flautist.
This is one of the main reasons why aerophonic instruments are preferably used for light music concerts especially the flute because it would be easier to handle the blowing as compared to a full-fledged Indian classical music concert.
Playing Posture
The most important challenge for the flautist is to know his playing posture, a straight upright body is more adept in producing quality sound than a convex body. The diaphragm when straightened expands the lungs allowing more air into be drawn to the body.
Positioning of the flute should also be fixed and cannot be changed as it will or may affect the uniformity of shruthi throughout a performance. Again this posture does not come easily consciously but only via training and practice.
The whole idea of a good posture ultimately comes from consistent practice and training. The fingering, the positioning of the blowing hole on the lip and sitting posture all constitute in defining the dedication of the flautist towards his art.
Conclusion
While it may seem that the practical insight into flute playing appears predominantly challenging, it will be an ambiguous conclusion. There is no cut and go rule to learning this divine instrument. Being adept in handling classical music up to the manodharma (creative & improvised music) level on the flute, will go a long away to progress one's musical acumen. In this regard, classically competent flautists are revered all over the world.
Stalwarts like M. S. Subbulakshmi, G. N. Balasubramaniam & Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer are ardent admirers of flute music. In fact, G. N. Balasubramaniam, the legendary superstar of Carnatic music, in his early years as a young boy, got his first taste of swara nyana from the flautist Palladam Sanjeeva Rao, who was a frequent visitor to his home. He would listen with rapt attention to his flute recitals & later reproduce the notes by singing them.
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