Some Music-Related Mumbles

I have an old Nyquist project from my last semester at CMU that I've hosted on my domain for quite a while. Recently, someone emailed me about it to clarify some points of how the library works. Consider me... amused. I suppose it's a good thing that people are actually using stuff that I had put together, right?

On another note, as I was casually looking about dizi resources on the web, I realised that fingering charts are among the most often asked questions. I have probably the most complete fingering charts for the dizi, covering all the basic fingering for all the 5 traditional keys per dizi, and then some. But I suppose it's too complicated for most people, which is funny considering the amount of effort I had put into simplifying the whole shebang. The long and short of it is, the charts make it easy to figure out how to play the dizi chromatically, assuming that one has a decently built dizi to begin with.

I am partial to Ng Teck Seng's (NTS) dizi myself over Dong Xue Hua's (DXH). It's not that DXH makes bad dizi, but that NTS is just more accessible for me, considering that he is a friend of my sifu from back in the day. I prefer dizi that are nimble in response, bright in timbre, and projective in tone, and the NTS ones are excellent for my purposes. I have also spoken with NTS and know that his dizi are crafted with acoustic principles in mind---there is a lot of physics that goes behind each of the bamboo flutes. It makes each instrument very consistent, and that is a very important thing when playing in an orchestra with different genres of pieces to play. A good dizi should consistently be able to reach the equivalent of the high-E note (by concert flute/piccolo fingering---actual pitch is dependent on the native key of the dizi), with the ability to eke out the high-G on occasion as a transient note. All of the NTS dizi that I own have this ability, which goes to say how consistent the workmanship is.

Anyway, that aside, time for more random ranting.

The past week had been quite tiring. I spent a lot time reading up various documentation to gain a deeper insight into the design trade-offs for the various sub-systems that we are intending to put together for the new framework. On the not-work front, I've finished reading Illuminatus!, and am switching over to non-fiction for a while, refreshing my knowledge on economics once again. Once that is done, I think I'll read Hamlet before moving on to some Russian literature (translated of course).

I know that I don't really have much to say, but I suppose it's a good idea to pen some things down here every now and then. After all, should I fall off the net completely (or in a more morbid sense, off this reality), this is one of the few things that are left behind to show that yes I had existed once before.

Till the next update.