Stella [Nagahara]

It has been a while since the last entry. Things are progressing well enough in life, and I thank the Lord for that. That said though, with this month (and thus the second quarter) finally starting, the road ahead is likely to see even more things that are happening that will strain and stress every fabric of my being.

But first, for something happy. After thinking and saving for nearly eight years, I finally got ahold of a Nagahara MINI in African blackwood, with the basic M1 headjoint.

I call her ``Stella [Nagahara]'', named after Stella Chang, better known as 张清芳, a Taiwanese songstress active in the 1980s/1990s who is well-known for her clear vocals and ability to hit the high notes. She is contemporaneous with Teresa Teng, but I decided to name my new MINI after her instead of Teresa because I find that Stella uses high notes more frequently than Teresa does, and that they always sound so clear.

That's what my MINI's timbre is like.

I will just copy wholesale what I had written in my email correspondence with Nagahara Flutes:

In terms of first impressions for the sound, it sits between the conical bore set up of a regular piccolo, and the cylindrical bore set up of the all-metal ``marching'' piccolo. For the repertoire I play (more relating to the Chinese orchestra than regular piccolo/flute music), it is of the right timbre. The added range on the low side definitely helps, though I definitely need to get used to the different resistance needed for the high notes -- almost all my flutes (used generally here to include the piccolo and dizi) vent out much earlier than the extended tube. General responsiveness across the three main registers are quite high, and the mechanisms were nimble enough to make me forget that I was playing a keyed flute as opposed to the simple one often found in the dizi (my primary instrument).

After taking Stella into rehearsal on Saturday, I have a bit more to add: she can really go high without sounding shrill, hitting concert C8 and C♯8 quite nicely, and not displaying any of the usual problems of intonation for piccolo with respect to the concert B7 note.

I would say that Master Kanichi Nagahara has achieved his exact aim of making a miniature flute with the MINI, as opposed to ``just'' a piccolo with extensions for concert C♯5, C5, and B4. The resistance (used here as a catch-all for amount of effort required to change the embouchure + air stream to sound a note at mf) is very consistent, similar to that of my S.O.S., which shares a similar geometry as it is an Armstrong 204 that has a cylindrical body bore. It is actually easier to play on Stella than the equivalent G 梆笛 for the same set of high notes, but this is hardly new since almost all piccolos play easier for the high notes once one goes beyond concert C6.

``But MT, why did you suddenly decide to pull the trigger and buy now? I thought you were `scouting around to learn more on getting a better piccolo'. What changed?''

It's hard to really say what was the big trigger. Part of it was definitely about the recollection of a statement that Sean made some time back about how Kanichi isn't exactly getting any younger, and my realisation that throughout these eight years, there was still only Nagahara Flutes that made an instrument just like the MINI. My shopping list did posit the option of either the MINI or the Braun ``small flute''. I had tried the Braun small flute and liked it, but it went down to concert C4 only. It's subtle, but if I really wanted a viable option to cover the 梆笛 range comfortably, it had to go do the concert B4 (this is the lowest note of the lowest dizi that ``counts'' as a 梆笛---the E 梆笛).

And thank the Lord for that quick thought of just pulling the trigger---I initiated the email conversation near the end of February 2023, and managed to commit to an order before the most recent price revision that saw an increase in prices across the board.

That said, I should really remove all the other piccolo options now that I have my End Piccolo, but I'll just leave them there for now as a record of high-end piccolo makers/marks.

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With the something happy said, we'll progress to something a bit more serious. After two plus years of following Christ, and a year and change after baptism, it's finally time to actually serve instead of just being served. I don't have the kind of easy-friendliness that many long-time Christians have (I wonder if I still have trauma that I haven't sorted out, or if I'm just not good enough yet), and therefore can serve only in capacities that deal with people but in an abstract way. I have indicated interest in serving the music ministry at church, and will be going for a simple audition and a chat with the deacon in charge soon. I did send the music ministry folks my battered-ass performance resume---I'm no professional by any measure, and much of my experience comes from the Chinese orchestra tradition at an amateur level.

If God is willing, I will pass the audition and serve as a musician in the music ministry. That's the least that I can do to contribute back to the church community, seeing that I'm not good/willing to work with children, not friendly enough to be part of the greeters' ministry, and not street-wise/savvy enough to support any of the many professional skills-related ministries (why would the church want a computer scientist who has machine learning background serve using the aforementioned ``professional skill''?).

I could write more, but I suppose some 900+ words are sufficient for now. Till the next update then.