A little over a year ago I was listening to the radio on my way to work. It was a beautiful day and I was in a pretty good mood. A song came on the radio that I had never heard up to that point. It was "Sail" for AWOLNATION. I really liked the intro to this song it really drew me in from the first chords... and then... I'm sure most people have heard this song by now, since I'm usually way behind on the times anyway, but I'll explain: After a few bars entered a low, bassie, rich, distorted sound. I was thinking "You had me at 'Hello.'" I wanted to know what made that sound, and how can I learn to play it.
There are many examples of this style around now, but it was quite a while before I started hearing other groups use this technique in their music. (We don't have a huge variety of radio stations here, and as I said: I'm often behind the times.)
Dave (my husband) suggested that I seek out some dub step to listen too. That was it. I especially gravitate towards pieces of that style that start out pretty mellow and then... suddenly the floor drops out from under you and a gritty bass line throws itself into you... That's the stuff.
So... as you may have guessed "sound" I was looking for is a processed sound and not just some instrument I can learn to play. I've been playing around with a sound editor called "Audacity" to see what I can create. I've been having a lot of fun, but not a lot of satisfaction with the results so far. (Obviously these things take practice.) There are some remarkably talented folks out there creating some fantastic things. One of my favorite artists of this genre is Skream- and not just because he used flutes in a couple of his mixes. ;-)
Last night I was playing around with some tones and experimenting. I decided to try to play around with some flute music that I had previously recorded. I took clip from one piece and dropped the pitch down about 4 octaves, then added some effects to make the sound less clean. I LOVED the results, but most importantly I had just opened a door to infinite possibilities. If I can do that with a flute, then I'm sure I can use my flute to get all sorts of sounds.
My point is: the discovery Dub Step led me to explore a whole new way of creating art with my flute. I'll be experimenting and practicing with some extended techniques to see what I can get. It may take a while before I create something worth sharing with the discerning public, but when I do I'll be sure to post it here. Stay tuned!