Making music on the flute without a head joint, only with the main joint-foot joint-combination? Blown like a Japanese shakuhachi?

Playing notes and whole melodies only on the foot joint? In shakuhachi style?

Treat the head joint as an instrument in its own right with typical hand and finger positions?

And finally a sounding combination of head joint and foot joint? And a separate notation for all these playing styles?

WHY?

It is the fascinating timbres that are created in this way and can only be created in this way: Sometimes it sounds like a South American quena or an Indian bansuri, sometimes like a Japanese ryuteki from courtly gagaku music or even very familiar like a shakuhachi.

You have 4 more instruments, so to speak:

Foot joint solo VIDEO

Main joint-foot joint-combination VIDEO

Head joint solo

Head joint-foot joint-combination VIDEO

A component of the flute can therefore be a whole instrument - a part can stand for a whole: lat. pars-pro-toto. That is why I have chosen this unusual name for my playing techniques.

You can also find my detailed videos on the Pars-pro-Toto-Playing on youtube. VIDEO

Here I offer you a free download area for two PDFs with useful material: 

1. some first instructions - Basics PDF

2. some little melodies and "Autumn comes" PDF

My book "Das Pars-pro Toto Spiel Neue Klänge auf Teilen der Flöte" (ZM 33470, 2003 Musikverlag Zimmermann, Mainz) [Pars-pro-Toto Playing - New sounds on Parts of the Flute - actually published only in German] explains these different ways of playing step by step and in great detail – starting with a single note, through the complete tonal system to simpler and finally more complex exercises and melodies. The new playing styles also work as a duo in combination with the full flute or even the piano. An outlook on the use of extended playing techniques (e.g. harmonics, whistle sounds etc.) rounds off this guide which is supplemented by extensive illustrated material and a sample CD (partly with play-along tracks).

The wealth of unusual suggestions is not only interesting for flutists who want to expand their sound spectrum, but also for composers. EDITION