Chinese flute, irish music? (Bamboo flutes revisited)

Azathoth · Post by **Azathoth** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 4:54 am

Hi ppl,

OK, I've read the threads on the relative merits of Olwell bamboo, Dixon polymer, etc., etc. and wanted to throw something else in the stew as well, which is: has anyone any experience with playing Irish music on a Chinese Dizi flute?

AFAIK they are available in D, and should play as a D bamboo flute would. So, my question is -- without entering into a long and heated debate about the quality of said Dizis (I know they is a LOT of rubbish out there), or whether it is 'traditional' (which it certainly isn't, the Dizi is structurally slightly different to the standard bamboo conical flutes that Olwell makes) -- anyone know anything more about this?

I was wondering since I might be able to get my hands on a good Dizi, and although I'll be using it for Chinese music anyway, I was wondering if I could also use it for my as-yet-only-whistle ITM.

Thoughts and musings welcome :=)

Az

sturob · Post by **sturob** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 5:15 am

Olwell's bamboo flutes are cylindrical, not conical, so they might not be as different as you think.

If you had a dizi in D, you could of course play Irish stuff on it. Well, you could play Irish stuff on one of any key, but our standard is D. It's the membrane-buzziness thing that'd be really different.

GCollins may be the one to ask . . . G, calling G . . . he'll see this thread sometime.

Stuart

Azathoth · Post by **Azathoth** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 5:46 am

sturob wrote:Olwell's bamboo flutes are cylindrical, not conical, so they might not be as different as you think.

Um -- yeah I meant cylindrical. Like, a circle cross-section thingy.

Not my strong point, geometry in 3D

*G

Az

sturob · Post by **sturob** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 5:59 am

I hope you know, too, that I was correcting simply for the sake of having the thread be right; not to be Mr. Corrector.

Eh, well. Whatever.

Stuart

The Sporting Pitchfork · Mon Jan 26, 2004 7:10 pm

Well, I'm not GCollins, but I do have a dizi. Got it on a very weird but wonderful trip to Jiangxi Province in China last year. It's not a professional quality one--those can cost a lot even in China--but the quality seems about average-good. It certainly has a lovely tone. I've tried playing Irish stuff on it occasionally, but several notes in the scale don't seem to quite match up. The B in particular is way off. That could be a fault of the individual instrument itself; I don't know. At any rate, it makes tunes like "The Gold Ring" sound very, very funky.

Blackbeer · Post by **Blackbeer** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 7:21 pm

Well I have a pair of those, tunable in C and D and they work great for Irish trad and anything else you want to play. I just tape up the hole for the rice paper and let her rip. As I said mine are tuneable so that might make a difference. They are very loud.

Tom

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:26 pm

sturob wrote:G, calling G . . . he'll see this thread sometime.

Yes?

g

Tak_the_whistler · Post by **Tak_the_whistler** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 1:14 am

hmmm....dizi in the key of D....

gcollins · Post by **gcollins** » Fri Jan 30, 2004 8:57 am

Hey Fellas, sorry for the wait...I've been freezing my tail off in the Seoul afterhours nightclubs for the last week and still can't see straight from the whisky and Asian male entertainment.

Stuart, you're always a trip!

About Dizis. Sure, you can play Irish music on a Chinese flute or Chinese music on an Irish flute flute (Matt Mallow does!). As for the quality of the dizi--most that you can buy do not have the same kind of high end quality that you can find in high end flutes (they're all cylindrical of course). But I have about 12 of them, and they vary. Some are very nice and some stink all the way to the (as the Chinese say) into the smelly well. My Olwell bamboo is better than any Chinese Dizi I've played--and that is literally hundreds.

I can get dizi for anybody here if you want one, but don't be surprised if the extra membrane (rice paper or regular sticky tape can be used) over the buzz hole sounds annoyingly buzzy--it's supposed to. You can play Irish music and get varying results on the cuts and rolls, depending on flute and skill. up to you--go for it. Grey Larson plays irish music on a flute most unlike the tone of any other I've heard and he gets by just fine. More than fine.

I'm actually into re-interpreting chinese dizi music on much better Irish flutes. Cool stuff.

I know some amazing flute players in China and most are completely illiterate and have never even been beyond grade school. but they can mimic birds, the wind blowing over bamboo or mountains (can you, as a flute player, imagine the difference? I can't), all kinds of things. Fabulous talent--they play dizi beautifully. BUT THEIR FLUTES SUCK! Oh, I think I'm not supposed to say that here, as the middle-class mafia might throw me out.

The player of the music makes the music not the flute, but I still like to play only good flutes.

Try it and see how it sounds! They're fun.

Regards,
G

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Fri Jan 30, 2004 11:35 am

gcollins wrote:I know some amazing flute players in China and most are completely illiterate and have never even been beyond grade school. but they can mimic birds, the wind blowing over bamboo or mountains (can you, as a flute player, imagine the difference? I can't), all kinds of things. Fabulous talent--they play dizi beautifully.

Don''t get them get their hands on an Olwell bamboo! They'll be changing the birds migratory patterns.

Denny

gcollins · Post by **gcollins** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 5:46 am

Denny, my hometown mate.

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 3:13 pm

Birds are terrible gossips, you never know what will stop by to check out the scene, or join the session!

Denny