Comparison of extended technique flute sounds produced by an expert human player and an artificial blower

Extended techniques for the flute include whistle tones, multiphonics, and singing while playing. These techniques are of interest for both for the sounds they produce and for how they can, once mastered, improve a player's proficiency at generating traditional flute tones. The present work used spectral analysis to examine a variety of extended technique tones and sound effects generated by a skilled human player and by “MechMouth,” a flute powered by an artificial blower that allows the experimenter to vary air jet speed, position, and direction. The human player was one of the authors (RD), an early pioneer of these techniques who has used and championed them throughout a 50-year career as a flutist/composer and teacher. Spectrograms of the human player's complex sound effects provided clarification of the methods used to produce them, while comparison of human and MechMouth renditions of whistle tones, multiphonics, and simple examples of singing while playing (where MechMouth's voice was supplied by a speaker attached to the blower's air supply) provided insights into the human performer's special playing skills and a look at how his widely recognized pedagogy worked with a non-human student.