I am a flutist. This is not defined by how I rate my ability to play. Or how often, when or where. I am a flutist because God has given me a gift. The gift of an instrument. An ancient instrument which gives direction to my heart.
Since I first heard the bansuri or Indian bamboo flute played on the banks of the Ganges River in Rishikesh a few years ago, I have been “entranced”. The dictionary defines entranced: “fill (someone) with wonder and delight, holding their entire attention.” Since that first moment, the bamboo flute has held my entire attention.
I listen. To people. To birds. To nature. If the sound does not suit what I want to hear. Then I keep listening, closer or further. When I listen, I learn.
In her TedX talk, “The flute and the magic around it”, Rasika Shekar musicdescribes playing the flute as, “how you hear, is how you play”. This talk was published on YouTube on 19 May 2015. (Coincidentally the same week that I first heard the bansuri for the first time and consequently blew my first note.)
That is how I play. I play the way I hear. A beginner in learning how to fill the spaces between the sounds that I hear, with my own. There is a hum in my breathe throughout the day. A rhythm that I feel around me. Sometimes this becomes a tune. Or song. Which I learn and repeat, day after day. Other times I just play. Simply blowing into a bamboo stick. A bamboo stick which has been crafted in an ancient way.
I am a flutist and the bamboo flute, means a lot to me.
~AvR