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Snoot-Flute: make music with your nose!

Cory Doctorow at 9:00 am Mon, Dec 10, 2012

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Why this never caught on is beyond me.

Snoot-Flute

Read more in Music at Boing Boing

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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  • Chris Thompson

    I used to have one of those (It was called a nose flute). They were pretty awesome. 

    Oh, turns out you can still buy them 

    https://www.google.com/search?q=nose+flute&aq=f&oq=nose+flute&aqs=chrome.0.57j5j0l2j60.3873&sugexp=chrome,mod=10&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=nose+flute&hl=en&tbo=u&source=univ&tbm=shop&sa=X&ei=jRbGUI6sBoSB0AG7pICIBg&ved=0CFYQsxg&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=7483acfa4548cef0&bpcl=39650382&biw=1920&bih=951

    • http://fallsastar.com Crashproof

      So did I.  I never figured out how to get any sort of sound out of it though.

  • http://factoidlabs.com mack

    I have one of these made of bamboo I got in a wild imported-instruments store I found in Brighton. They’re really easy to play, and amusing as hell. 

    You can still find ‘em in plastic, for a (hah) song: https://www.google.com/search?q=nose+flute&oq=nose+flute&aqs=chrome.0.57j60l4j62.1129&sugexp=chrome,mod=9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

  • edgore

    Clearly, this is a Groaci plot!

  • theophrastvs

    yet another esoteric musical appliance begging to be rendered 3d-printedable (along with the alboka and various ocarinas) …yep.

  • http://binarygirl.myopenid.com/ binarygirl

    “…on triangle, Martin Prince, and with a flute up his nose, Ralph Wiggum.” **toot toot**

  • http://www.facebook.com/saint.al.5 Saint Al

    The plastic nose flutes have a somewhat recorder-like tone. Yep, I own and play one- not so much for adding to the musical skill set but for comedic effect. Protip- blow your nose before a performance. 

  • dragonfrog

    A friend of mine was in a nose-flute ensemble.  I’m not sure if the group is still a going thing, but my friend is no longer in it, as she moved out of town, almost certainly not to escape the noseflute ensemble.
    http://www.noseflute.ca/

  • technogeekagain

    They’re actually playable instruments, with a sound much like a slide-whistle … which is essentially what they are; your mouth acts as the tuneable resonating chamber. I keep one with my music book for times when something silly is needed.

  • knoxblox

    Now sharing a harmonica doesn’t seem so bad by comparison.

  • Heevee Lister

    I can’t recall which, but at least one of PDQ Bach’s works has a part for the Schnazefloete.

  • http://twitter.com/bobledrew Bob LeDrew

    I love my humanatone. http://www.thewhistleshop.com/catalog/whistles/inexpensive/noseflute.htm

  • Boundegar

    I understand this product sold much better than its predecessor, the Snot Flute.

    • showme

      But not as well as its replacement, the Skin Flute.

      • robotnik

        I hear that those are being given away for free, and that sometimes, other people are being paid to play them.

  • Jake0748

    Snoot-Flute, huh?  Archie & Jughead’s science teacher was professor Flutesnoot.  (Don’t ask me how or why I remember this kind of stuff). 

  • http://www.facebook.com/aeiou11235 Sebastian Mayer

    for sure it caught on, at least in Berlin Kreuzberg: das Kreuzberger Nasenfloeten Orchester (Noseflute Orchestra of Kreuzberg). Please check: http://youtube.com/watch?v=whAufqoH24Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player

  • coolvoodoo

    In the 50′s and 60′s they were made from stamped sheet metal…..and sounded much better of course!

  • Alex

    I brought one to a BoingBoing meetup.  That was a good time, we should do it again!  http://boingboing.net/2011/06/16/boing-boing-meetup-r-1.html