Why long notes
Every bansuri player's riyaz has them: a swara held on a single breath, as long as it will go, steady in pitch and in tone. They build the breath, the embouchure and the ear together. A swara that wavers when held for twenty seconds wavers in a fast phrase too; one that holds still for forty is the foundation of everything else.
What it does
Play and hold a swara. Meend hears your flute, times the breath from its first moment, and says how steady it was, to a few cents: held on one swara, which one; moving across several, from which to which. A tongued break, under a third of a second, doesn't end it. It says a word every ten seconds, so you need not watch the screen, lists each breath, and keeps your longest on your phone. Set a goal, twenty seconds to start with, and raise it.
Free on iPhone and Android, with long notes as a riyaz of their own, from Meend's template: timed as you play, a lotus growing petal by petal.