SULING

Here is me playing suling more or less as it ought to be played. The mode I am using is slendro, a Javanese pentatonic mode.

Here is me playing suling as it ought not to be played. Suling is good for creating the kind of sudden frisson that can scare people out of their pants, if you so desire.

Suling is featured in some gamelan ensembles. Here is a shot of the Alpha Beta Gamelan with my old friend Dave Stewart second from left. (We played progressive rock music together in the 60s — as far as I remember.)

Suling is an Indonesian flute, one of the traditional flutes that uses a form of fipple, or guided duct, in order to produce sound, the way a tin whistle does. The suling does not look or sound anything like a tin whistle, however. It is made from a section of bamboo cut at the node. A narrow notch is made from the solid part of the node down to where the bamboo is hollow, and a piece of raffia or thin bamboo tied round the top to direct the player's air flow (see picture, right). This ingenious device allows you to adjust your embouchure for expression and greater power in the low register, something you can't do on a tin whistle.

The suling fipple