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I just bought this Rosewood Chinese dizi flute for $60...

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 5:04 pm
by Mae
It was on Amazon (I have Prime, so I don't know how it would work for others), but I've never seen a dizi flute made from rosewood. I have several cheapie ones made by Kmise in many keys, and those were less than $20 each, but they play decently. This rosewood one is a professional model, and it really is all that. The difference is astounding. The only other professional one I have is what they call a Bass G by Carrot Music (also $60), which is actually plays down to a low C with extra hole, because when you see the letter of the tuning, it refers to the first 3 fingers held down.

So, the rosewood really makes a huge difference in tone. Even with a pro grade bamboo, the tone is a little lighter, and little breathier. The rosewood is rich and beautiful, and I find it more flexible in terms of speed and jumping notes. It also seems easier to play, as I'm not really that good a flute player, about 50% of the time can I get a good note, and I'm still having problems with the exact embouchure for the 2nd octave, but this one seems to have improved my numbers. If you are in the US (because I don't know if they sell these internationally besides the country of origin), you can get it here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C3 ... bw_c_x_5_w

If you do get one of these, you have to either cover the extra 2nd hole, or use the rice paper to cover it to make that buzzy sound. I use Parafilm to cover the hole because I don't like the buzzy sound. Don't use tape, though. I'm afraid that may damage the wood.

Re: I just bought this Rosewood Chinese dizi flute for $60..

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 12:27 am
by Tor
How is the tuning? I have several bamboo ones in various keys, and I enjoy playing them. But sadly they are all tuned lower (with the slide all in) than A440, and thus useless for playing with other instruments.

Re: I just bought this Rosewood Chinese dizi flute for $60..

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 1:29 am
by Mae
The tuning is definitely at concert pitch. I checked by ear against a tuned piano, but, even better, I had someone with perfect pitch check it. I also have several of the cheaper bamboo dizi flutes, and they are all in tune, though I can tell the tone is not quite as nice as this rosewood one. I must have had really good luck with the tuning on all my flutes. All the bamboo ones I own were purchased from Amazon as well, under the seller name Kmise or Kmise-US:

https://www.amazon.com/Traditional-Hand ... amboo+dizi

I have the G, F, E, D and C, and they were so cheap but still very playable. Are yours similar to these?

Re: I just bought this Rosewood Chinese dizi flute for $60..

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 4:34 am
by Tor
Yes, the ones I have look very similar. They are all very easy to play (I never had any flute experience before I got the first one, and had no problems. It helps that whistle fingering works basically fine, as a starting point). The relative tuning is also fine, i.e. they're in tune with themselves. But they're not at concert pitch - almost, but not good enough. I can even hear the offset, with no reference - I don't have perfect pitch, but I have concert pitch in my memory after a lifetime of guitar. So I hear it. It doesn't bother me at all, but sadly I can't use one when it would sound better than a whistle when playing with others. I may try your Amazon version, it's not like they're expensive - unfortunately I'll probably run into indecent shipping costs though. I'll check. [Edit: Well, they don't ship here anyway]

Re: I just bought this Rosewood Chinese dizi flute for $60..

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 12:54 pm
by Mae
Oh, that's too bad. I will mention that I had purchased another bamboo flute a while back from a regular store, not from Amazon, and at first it sounded okay. Relative pitch was fine, but when I got it home, I realized it was tuned too sharp, and it was a single piece, no tuning slide. I ended up tossing that after a while. It was cheap, less than $10, so I didn't care.

Honestly, I do use my whistles more often, and I play non-Irish songs most of the time on them, when I want that kind of sound. I'm far better at recorders, but the sound of those don't quite match what I want to do sometimes. The flutes are cool, but I'm not ever going to get good enough to play it the way I play recorders and whistles.

One thing also to note, I may have been really, really lucky on my flutes. I always go into buying these things with the thought that they won't be tuned perfectly to concert pitch, even whistles. This is why I always buy tunable anything.

I'm not sure where you are located, because you list two, but I've noticed many countries have their own style of transverse folk flute, and if you look around locally, you could probably find something interesting and not too expensive. The one thing I've never been able to play is the end blown flutes such as the quena, the Chinese xiao or the Japanese shakuhachi. I bought a couple of inexpensive ones to try, and was only able to play proper notes out of them maybe once or twice. Then, the positioning of the mouthpiece made my chin break out because I have really sensitive skin. I had to give those up.

Re: I just bought this Rosewood Chinese dizi flute for $60..

Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 2:17 am
by Tor
As for the two locations, I have been moving forth and back over the last few years. A few months here, then there..
I didn't have much trouble getting a quena to play (as in - being able to play simple melodies). I bought my quena in Japan, the seller was a guy from Peru. He demonstrated it for me first, so I knew I got one which was nicely in tune. The shakuhachi though.. that's a different beast. There's one in my little office and I would try to wrestle a sound out of it when I needed a break. Took me months and months to be able to get more than the accidental tone (which I couldn't repeat, for a long time). I don't think I will ever be a shakuhachi player. But I'll always try - musical instruments will always be interesting toys for me.

Re: I just bought this Rosewood Chinese dizi flute for $60..

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2019 6:15 am
by Tor
[Thread revival. - Mod]

[2.5 year old thread]

Just to conclude on the dizi flutes.. it turns out that every one of those I own are tuned to A=432 Hz. Some sellers on ebay explicitly state that they are tuned to 432 Hz, but it looks like the rest of them in general do the same.

Too bad really, because I've never found anything as easy to play, and as easy to get a nice sound from.
Why, oh why 432 Hz..

Re: I just bought this Rosewood Chinese dizi flute for $60..

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 6:23 am
by Steve Bliven
Tor wrote:Why, oh why 432 Hz..
Apparently they were not signatories to the Treaty of Versaille—part of which fixed A=440.

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzznBt8tVnI for resolution to the "Sharpness Wars."

Best wishes.

Steve

Re: I just bought this Rosewood Chinese dizi flute for $60..

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2019 1:27 am
by benhall.1
Tor wrote:Why, oh why 432 Hz..
Verdi tuning

There is some very weird, and potentially quite nasty, stuff surrounding this, which, for the usual reasons, we won't go into here. Suffice to say that conspiracy theorists have a part to play in this.

Re: I just bought this Rosewood Chinese dizi flute for $60..

Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2019 5:21 am
by Tor
Yes, I've heard some pretty strange things about 432 Hz before.. but in this case I assume it's simply that it's just the common tuning where these flutes are made. So it looks like it would be difficult to get them in a tuning that's useful over here. I suspect that the difference is too large for any filing&cutting adjustments I could make.

Re: I just bought this Rosewood Chinese dizi flute for $60..

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2019 6:19 am
by AuLoS303
Interesting. I recognise the name Kmise from the ukuleles they produce which get mixed reviews. I didn't know they made aerophones too.