• How is the Fujara flute played?
• How can I learn to play the Fujara flute?
  • How can I play the fujara scale?
  • How should I regulate my breath to hit the "right" note?
  • How can I play Fujara characterist ornaments?
  • Throat tuning ?

Please see the answers below:

How is the Fujara flute played?

Fujara is played STANDING. The Fujara flute is blown into the mouthpiece at the lower end of the smaller Fujara flute wind pipe.

Fujara flute is in principle played like end-blown fipple flute, where the player doesn't need to know how to blow across an embouchure.
In spite of Fujara flute's greater dimensions and different design it is played in principle like e.g. recorder, tin whistle or NAF (Native American Flute) by blowing into a fipple wind hole.

Fujara flute is NOT played like transverse flutes, e.g. Silver flute, Japanese Shakuhachi or Bulgarian Kaval by blowing across a wind hole.

How can I learn to play the Fujara flute?

First learn how to stand and hold your Fujara flute. Yes, fujara is usually played standing, holding the flute vertically. As soon as you will find the right and comfortable possition, you can start sound the first notes. Don’t attempt to cover holes with the fingertips, but rather use the ‘pads’ of the first joint of your thumb and middle fingers - it is very important to cover all the holes completely, avoiding any air-leakage.

Fujara has 3 holes (vents) and the height of tone is decided mainly by the strength of in-blown air achieving thus various overtones.

Fujara overtone overblowing (breathing-like) playing technique feels very natural and is easy to learn for anybody. Moreover, every Fujara overtone fipple flute is by its rich spectrum of overtones naturaly tuned to itself so its harmonic scale feels very natural too.
It often happens that brand new fujara players can produce nice melodies even within the first day of Fujara practice. However, mastering the fujara flute playing technique will take surely a lot of practice :)

How can I play the fujara scale?

Fujara has range of over three octaves. In its two middle octaves Fujara is capable to play western diatonic scale: See the fingering diagrams of these two middle octaves. To play the fujara scale is essential to cover all the holes completely without any air-leakage.

Fingering is used mostly in the lower bass series (lower three octaves) while on the other hand the fourth, highest fujara octave is played purely by overblowing the overtones where the height of tone is decided by the sthrenght of the inblown air. Thus the fourth - highest fujara octave is not tuned to western diatonic scale while it is created purely by overtones and in fact represent an "overtone (harmonic) " scale.

The higher in fujara scale one goes, the less important becomes the fingering and on contrary more important becomes the precise sthrenght of the inblown air by overblowing the flute's overtones.

How should I regulate my breath to hit the "right" note?

Any tone in the fujara scale is a precise combination of the right fingering and the right strenght of inblown air.
The height of tone is decided mainly by the strenght of inblown air. So, the most important is to learn to regulate one's own breath and only at the second place is the fingering. Especially in the higher fujara overtone series of upper two octaves it is vital to estimate exact strenght of breath to "hit" the note correctly.

Good excercise is sounding the ascending / descending series of fujara harmonics/overtones which share the closed fingering (all 3 holes closed) - described here.

If you find difficult to "hit" some note even with the right fingering, vibrato may help you to "find" it.
For the lowest notes blow the fujara very, indeed very gently, for the highest, blow indeed strong, and the higher you go the more precise breath you will needed:
In the highest fujara octave you will need to separate the notes by "hitting" the right strenght of breath from start, "legato" won't usually work well.
... experiment a lot, fujara is perfect solo flute for evening meditations, when everything becomes quiet...

How can I play Fujara characterist ornaments?

"Scatter" and "Whoosh" are specific Fujara ornaments where whole fujara spectrum is sounded at one time. They are usually played with all 3 fingering holes covered completely.

Scatter is a high-intensity ornament particular to the fujara overtone flute that is often used at the beginning of songs. It begins with a high-itensity, repeated percussive blow that can be made by saying something like "DA DA DA Da Da Da da da da ..." Where the pressure of each "Da" gets less and less and the fujara descends through the overtone scale.
Woosh An ornament added onto the end of some notes in a song. It is done with a steady, rapidly increasing blow of air that cause a very fast ascending scale up the fujara.

Throat tuning ?

written by Adam Simmons

The throat tuning thing - this concept comes from Robert Dick, probably the contemporary flautist in the world. I'm not sure if it completely complements the fujara but I think its helping me. What follows is my understanding and interpretation of it:
Basically its training the throat to tune to the required pitch. This helps the throat and vocal chords to resonate at the right pitch and encourage a stronger clearer note. Find the lowest comfortable note that you can both sing and play. First play the note, then sing it, then sing and play, then just play. Do this with with three notes - G-A-B-A-G - same thing - play, sing, sing and play, just play. Then maybe 5 notes - G-A-B-C-D-C-B-A-G. Then move up a note and do the same thing. When the voice starts to get tired then stop - don't wear out the voice, it will strengthen. Also try and sing the lowest pitch so you keep the throat nice and open - so sometimes you will need to go down an octave with the voice while the instrument pitch goes up - the octaves will resonate fine and this helps strengthen and open the high notes.
This is maybe easier or more applicable to do on transverse flute than on fujara but i'm finding it does help when I can't get certain notes to try thinking of this. Another thing is also to try and whistle the note I want first, then play the note. And then I try it with a few notes, say from a melody that I'm having trouble pitching. Having the pitch you want in your head first is vital to hitting it properly on the instrument.