*PLEASE HELP* Identify this flute please :(

[crazymanzy]

Hello everyone, I'm new to the (this) flute world !

Btws, I've recently just found a flute in my house. Bought about, 9 years ago? D: It's a chinese flute from China. Anyone can help me identify it pls?



Front View



Back View
PS: The righter hole is actually on the lower left part of the flute.





The place where you, urm, blow air?



The rear!

Help me identify this please! I'd really appreaciate it!

PS: I'd get my lips itchy after blowing it D: I don't know how to clean it on the inside since it's mostly bamboo =X

[MTGuru]

Very interesting! This is called a T'ai P'ing Xiao (or Hsiao). It's basically a whistle form of the Dizi (Chinese flute).

It's a duct flute or fipple flute like a whistle, and it's played vertically like a whistle or a Chinese Xiao. But like a Dizi, the topmost hole is not a finger-hole but a membrane hole (mo kong) which is normally covered with a thin membrane called a Dimo. This gives the instrument a characteristic "buzzing" tone like a Dizi, and a bit similar to a kazoo.

If you want to try playing it, you can cover the membrane hole with a piece of tape then finger the remaining 6 finger holes like a whistle. The bottom 4 holes are just "tuning" holes, and are not fingered.

Here's a nice photo of one from the Boston MFA, originally in the Galpin Collection: http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/d ... iao--50642

Funny ... A few years ago I asked here on the board if there was such a thing as a "dizi whistle". Someone said yes, but now I really have the answer. Thanks for sharing this ...

[brianholton]

Hi

I have never seen or heard the term t'ai-p'ing hsiao in all my travels in China over 20 years: from the spelling, it may be a Taiwan term (on the mainland it would be spelled taiping xiao).

I have only ever heard this called the mu di (i.e. 'shepherd's/cowherd's flute'). Otherwise, you're absolutley right.

BH
(Translator of Chinese literature by day, whistler by night!)

[crazymanzy]

Very interesting! This is called a T'ai P'ing Xiao (or Hsiao). It's basically a whistle form of the Dizi (Chinese flute).

It's a duct flute or fipple flute like a whistle, and it's played vertically like a whistle or a Chinese Xiao. But like a Dizi, the topmost hole is not a finger-hole but a membrane hole (mo kong) which is normally covered with a thin membrane called a Dimo. This gives the instrument a characteristic "buzzing" tone like a Dizi, and a bit similar to a kazoo.

If you want to try playing it, you can cover the membrane hole with a piece of tape then finger the remaining 6 finger holes like a whistle. The bottom 4 holes are just "tuning" holes, and are not fingered.

Here's a nice photo of one from the Boston MFA, originally in the Galpin Collection: http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/d ... iao--50642

Funny ... A few years ago I asked here on the board if there was such a thing as a "dizi whistle". Someone said yes, but now I really have the answer. Thanks for sharing this ...

Urm... Which hole should i cover with a membrane? :O

And btws, no problem =) I've been stuck with this mystery since I was a kid

[I.D.10-t]

The Xiao that I have seem pictures of don't have the same kind of fipple. This does not seem the case for the T'ai P'ing Xiao linked above.


Thailand has what is called a khlui. I believe at times it also used a membrane.
http://content.lib.washington.edu/cgi-b ... OMODE=grid

Being purchased in china, it is most likely not the same thing.

[crazymanzy]

Hey that Khuil looks like mine! :O

[crazymanzy]

Hey can anyone teach me the keys of this flute? =/
It doesn't really cope with the 6-hole fingering chart, but with the native 1 - a little =/

[donpiper]

G'day all,

crazymany asked:

Urm... Which hole should i cover with a membrane?

I saw Elaine Jeffreys play one of these in Melbourne quite a few years ago.

She placed a cigarette paper over the top hole with the glue towards the fipple.
(the hole closest to the fipple on the side with 8 or 9 holes).
She then placed her fingers on the next six holes as you would a normal whistle,
and blew in the end with the plug in it.

It had a buzzing tone as described above, and from what I saw the fingering looked
a lot like a whistle or a simple system flute.

cheers,
donpiper

[Innocent Bystander]

I've been told that you can use the juice of garlic to stick paper over the appropriate hole. This is on a regular chinese transverse bamboo flute, not exactly like the one in the OP. It does stick with garlic juice - very well - but it's too fragile and prone to tear if you are a careless wretch like me. After a few attempts at this I gave up and used ordinary sticky tape. It's too taut to make any kind of buzzing noise that I notice, but the flute is playable (at least, by somebody better at transverse flute than me).

Yep, the six-hole principle works on my bamboo flute, and I can't see why it wouldn't work on this yoke. Those "tuning holes" are so you can make a much longer instrument, which is useful to impress audiences, and to clobber them with if they are less than impressed. It is the same principle as is used in Walking-stick flutes and whistles. There was a thread on this recently in the whistle forum.

[Nanohedron]

After a few attempts at this I gave up and used ordinary sticky tape. It's too taut to make any kind of buzzing noise that I notice, but the flute is playable (at least, by somebody better at transverse flute than me).

Only just a couple of days ago I came across the information that the membrane is not supposed to be smoothly taut, but to get that signature dizi buzz the membrane must be intentionally somewhat wrinkled, and that this is a skill in itself when it comes to getting the particular nuance of buzz that you want. You might have a happier result being sloppy!

The traditional membrane would be the papery inner lining you see in bamboo tubes, but there are synthetics nowadays that give you the same structural delicacy needed, and none of the weather issues.

I also found out that while garlic juice is indeed used, contrary to my own assumption it's not the majority choice, or at least no longer these days. Sorry; I don't recall what the main go-to adhesive product is now.

[mutepointe]

Just a wild guess on my part but I think egg white might be the adhesive that is most natural.

Just another guess on my part but I bet there are people who can go absolutely ballistic and are no longer on speaking terms because of the other person's method of crumpling the membrane. You just know some of those people are not traditionalists.

[MTGuru]

Just a wild guess on my part but I think egg white might be the adhesive that is most natural.

No, not eggs. IIRC, the traditional glue is animal based. Maybe horse. Or panda.

[mutepointe]

Granted, I know nothing, absolutely nothing about this subject, so I feel totally qualified to rebut someone who has an extensive knowledge of way more stuff than I do.

But, if the membrane is so delicate, why would a person want to use an animal based glue? A person would have to replace a delicate membrane often (and maybe quickly) and would have to deal with animal based glue clean up and build up. Garlic juice (and egg white) would be as temporary and the membrane and they would wipe clean with warm water (and maybe some soap). I had originally thought rice water or some other common household substance. There would be glue build up on at least some of these found bamboo flutes. I'm not buying the animal based glue substance.

Rebut done for now.

Do you know the method to crumple the membrane?

[MTGuru]

But pandas are water-soluble. Did you ever see a panda sitting in a bathtub? No? I rest my case.

Do you know the method to crumple the membrane?

No, but I've seen an illustrated web tutorial about how to adjust the wrinkles.

My dizi currently has a piece of Chinese traditional Scotch tape as a dimo.

[MTGuru]

Er Jiao, or Ah Jiao is a Traditional Chinese Medicine made from mule skin. It is specially used by Chinese flute or Dizi player to affix the Dizi membrane or “Dimo” on the Dizi.

http://www.eason.com.sg/products/wind_access/mdz9.jsp