More Flute Forum Hijinks

In response to yet another single post of a picture of a poorly made 笛子 with a question on how to play it on the Flute Forum:

I'm going to make a BIG assumption that you are approaching this from the experience of a concert flute player (and that you're not trolling).

First off, make sure that the membrane over the hole closest to the embouchure hole has the right amount of tension. Since this is your first time, err on the side of having high tension over low -- the lower the tension, the greater the "buzz", but there is a minimum amount of tension before it effectively acts like a venting hole. The higher the tension, the more the membrane acts like a "hard" wall instead of a hole, and the more concert flute-like it sounds (is bad in the case of dizi), and the easier it is to get a sound out of the instrument initially.

It also lowers the pitch slightly when the tension is maxed out, but that's a detail you don't need to worry about now.

Ensure also that whatever light adhesive you use actually covers all the parts of the membrane that is not directly over the hole. It is a beginner's mistake to have gaps in the adhesive coverage, which causes leakages.

Second, familiarise yourself with the "simple system of flutes" -- the fingering patterns are similar, from the number of holes (6), the overblown fingering patterns (i.e. jumping to the next octave/register), and the interval relative to the "bell tone". There are subtle differences, but I don't think you are at a stage where you need to worry about that.

To avoid getting yourself into future trouble, please play it orthodox, i.e. the flute extending out to your RIGHT, your left hand closer to the embouchure hole, and your right hand farther away, like how you would normally play the concert flute.

Now comes the difficult part -- the embouchure and air control.

The embouchure needed for the dizi is closer to piccolo than concert flute due to how the embouchure hole is shaped (curved according to the body of the dizi with no lip plate and riser), or if your only experience is with the concert flute, think about how you play the third register -- that's roughly the shape, and size for your embouchure. You will also need a fast air speed similar to the amount you use for third register concert flute pitches. For reference, the first register pitches on a usual dizi corresponds to the second register pitches on the concert flute, so have that mental model in mind when you try to play anything on the dizi.

In addition, the air stream for the dizi needs to be a tad stronger [more volume per second] as well, as compared to the concert flute.

In concert flute, your air stream needs to only work in the transverse direction (i.e. up and down the pipe) for the appropriate standing waves to operate. In the dizi though, we also need the air stream to work in a radial direction as well (i.e. bounce the walls from the centre and back). This means that you need more POWER in your air stream to allow this effect to happen and vibrate the membrane. Power in air stream translates to more cubic-centimetres of air per second, relative to the concert flute.

A common problem with concert flute players who first switch to the dizi is not giving enough power in their air stream. It ends with a really flat tone which causes them to choose rolling the dizi out more to fix it. The dizi was never meant to be a "meek" instrument, it often leads the orchestra in melody, as such its sound is bright and piercing, requiring enough POWER in the air stream to sound right. Give the dizi the power it requires and it will sound fine without having to compromise on ergonomics, mechanics, and tone production.

There are definitely more things than what I said that you should look out for, but I think this should be enough to get you started. If you want to go deeper, you might need to find a teacher to help you with it. No I can't be your teacher. 😅

Now, that all said and done, a quick glance at your picture of your dizi seems to suggest that it is of a really cheap make. This means that you may get poor results even if you have done everything well.

If you want to match the pitch to the tuner, I suggest you look at what the letter next to the fourth hole from the membrane hole states. Cover all the finger holes above it and play it into your tuner -- that note letter should show up. An alternative tuning mark may be found at the sixth hole from the membrane hole, in which case cover all the six finger holes and then play into your tuner -- that note letter should show up.

Your tuner should be set to A442. I also notice that your dizi does not have a tuning slide/joint. That's rather unfortunate because it means that if your dizi was tuned in an ambient temperature/humidity that is too far away from where you are playing it, you might find it difficult/impossible to actually get it in tune.

Okay, essay done. Get out there and try it out!