flute (Di) and vertical bamboo flute (Xiao)
（1）One bamboo will do! Since ancient times,
China is famous with instruments that are made from bamboo. Among the
instruments, flute and vertical bamboo flute are two of the most popular
instruments due to the exquisite skill of the instrument makers. With only one
bamboo, the instrument is made. Although the structure of these instruments is
simple, the tonality is complete. In the hand of an outstanding musician, these flutes produce various fine
and beautiful melody.
（2）Is it vertically or horizontally? A lot of people wanted to know whether the flute is
played vertically or horizontally. The answer for this is that the one that is
played horizontally is called “Di Zi”, while the one that is played vertically
is called “Xiao”. In this case, why it is written in the book that we play “Di
Zi” vertically? In older days, “Di Zi” and “Xiao” do not have obvious
classification. No matter it is played vertically or horizontally, it is called
“Di”; Nowadays, due to the differences in the distinguishing features of the
tune and performance skills of both instruments, these instruments have been
classified into “Di Zi” (being blown horizontally) and “Xiao” (being blown
vertically).
（2）Shakuhachi (“Chi Ba”)? Is it Fujian province or
Japanese? In Tang Dynasty,
flute began to be popular in the southern part of China near the Fujian
province. The flute was known as “Chi Ba Xiao” at that moment because this
instrument is made from one bamboo that is exactly one foot eight inches long.
Due to its origin place from the south and it was one of the representative
instrument in the southern ancient musical instruments, it was called “Nan
Guan” (Southern Flute). It was also called Fujian Chi Ba due to the originality
from the Fujian Province. Japan sent envoy to China in order to learn the
culture from Tang Dynasty and brought back the Fujian Chi Ba to Japan, hence,
it became Shakuhachi, one of the crucial part in Japanese musical culture.
（3）Di Zi is a bamboo that played horizontally. Some people called it horizontal
flute, while some people called it bamboo flute. Although it is just a bamboo,
it produces fantastic and superb style of music through the hand of the
musician. In the northern part of China, the flute is one foot long with narrow
body, known as “Bang Di”. In the southern part, it is common to see flutes that
are larger and longer (approximately 2-3 feet), known as “Qu Di”.
（4）In China, we can hear beautiful melody of flute
everywhere, from folk music to opera, in the large scale of orchestra, in films
and in modern music. In the northern part of China, musician loves playing
“Bang Di”, which produces lively and bold music. Meanwhile in the southern part
of China, the musician loves playing “Qu Di”, which produces melodious and
soothing music. In modern orchestra, we can always hear the sound of a high
pitch flute, known as “Xiao Di” (small flute) due to its small body size. This
small flute always plays the highest pitch of the melody in orchestra. Another
flute which has the lowest pitch is known as “Da Di” (big flute). Big flute
often appears in modern music and movies. It has rich and mysteriously low
sound.
（5）The Magical Effect. Since ancient times, among all the sounds of bamboo-made
flute around the world, you can easily recognise the sound of a horizontal
bamboo flute (“Di Zi”). The sound of a Di Zi is unique and different from the
rest of the bamboo flute. The magical secret of it is on its thin film. On a
horizontal bamboo, open a blowing hole on the left and a few sound holes on the
right, it becomes a simple bamboo flute. However, it is different for Di Zi. If
we open a hole in between of the blowing hole and the sound holes, something
strange will happen. The flute will lost its voice; but magically, if we cover
the hole with a thin film, the flute will gain a new and loud voice. Among all
the flutes around the world, Di Zi is the only flute that changes its voice
with the existence of only one thin film.
（6）Light as a feather, hard to obtain - the flute
diaphragm. Long time ago,
a master of flute brought his disciples to the mountain to find for the flute
diaphragm, but not bringing all of his disciple. He only brought the disciples
who gained his personal training to be future performers. Collecting the
diaphragm is like an exquisite skill. Firstly, we have to collect and choose
the bamboo that has the membrane. Then, we need to be careful during the
process of cutting open the bamboo and getting out the membrane from the inner
part of the bamboo. The membrane will then be kept for usage after the process.
Every step is a skill. Nowadays, it is very convenience in blowing a Di Zi. We
can get good quality diaphragm from instrument shops. In current market, the
common diaphragm is the membrane from reed. From the refine process of cutting
out and packing, it is very convenience to stick it on the flute. Moreover, the
quality is assured, the tone is stable and the performance will not be ruined
easily.
（7）Skill.
Putting on the diaphragm of the flute is a very skilful and important process.
Is the sound of the flute beautiful? If the diaphragm is put skilfully, the
performance is considered partially successful. Beside having talent in the
skill of blowing a flute, the performer has to be skilful and experienced in
sticking the diaphragm on the flute. A more elegant way to stick the diaphragm
is by using donkey-hide gelatin (originally it is a type of Chinese medicine
with the purpose of enriching the blood, can be dissolve in water). Firstly, we
wet the surrounding of the hole with water. Next, hold the flute with left hand
while the gelatin with right hand and elegantly rub it onto the hole averagely,
just like rubbing an ink-stick against the inkstone until the desire thickness.
Then, slowly paste the pre-cut thin diaphragm onto the hole. During the pasting
process, we need to be careful to align the lines of the diaphragm with the
texture of the bamboo; cover the thin diaphragm and hold it firmly with left
thumb and index finger while slowly vibrate with right thumb and index finger
to produce horizontal lines. As for how the quantity of the line, the pattern
and the tenseness will affect the tone of the flute, it is all depend on the experience
and opinion of the musician.
（8）Skill - The skill in playing a flute refers to the utilisation of fingers and
the tongue. The traditional finger skill are based on the changes of the left
and right index, middle and ring fingers. Therefore, there are six sound holes
in a traditional flute, called the six-hole-flute. Then, due to the issue of
changing changing tone and half tone, six-hole-flute has changed to 7 sound
holes, then later 8 holes and eventually become 9 holes. Although 9 holes flute
has solve most of the issue in changing tone and half tone, these flutes caused
the disability to perform traditional finger and playing skills. Therefore, the
musicians nowadays insist on using the traditional six-hole-flutes to perform
the uniqueness of the traditional flutes and show their skilful talents. In
order to change tone, musicians will change to playing a different flute during
a performance, or tie few flutes with different tones together to make the
changing of flutes convenient during the performance, which is called a pan
flute (“Pai Di”).
（9）Now, let us talk about vertically blown instrument -
the vertical bamboo flute “Xiao”. The tone of this flute is elegant and
tranquil, suitable for solo play, duet with zither, or play in small orchestra.
The “Dong Xiao”, which is one meter long with
fine and graceful tone, is popular in China. The flute which is used to
play with zither has narrow body, named “Qin Xiao”. The common flute is G key
and F key, one octave lower than “Bang Di” which has the same key. Another
vertical bamboo flute which has broader body and 1 foot 8 inch length is called
“Chi Ba”. It is originated from Fujian, called the Fujian Chi Ba. After
spreading into Japan, it is called Shakuhachi. The blowing hole of Shakuhachi
uses the design from the Tang Dynasty. The inclined surface of Shakuhachi is at
the outer par, called “Wai Qie” or “Tang Kou”. It has bold and loud sound. The
China Chi Ba and Dong Xiao are same, whereby the blowing hole is inner cut,
called the U hole or V hole. It has fine and elegant sound.
（10）Pan flute is Di Zi, panpipes is Xiao not Di Zi. What
is that? In the early
Tang Dynasty, Xiao was not refer to Dong Xiao or Chi Ba Xiao, but it means the
instrument that combined various bamboo tubes, called the panpipes (“Pai
Xiao”). The panpipes is blown vertically. There is only one blowing hole in
each bamboo tube and does not have any other sound holes. Therefore, each tube
can only produce one sound. The structure is similar to South American pan
flute, Romanian pan flute and Greek pan flute. It is blown vertically, with
beautiful and mystical sounds, and full of emotions. Chinese pan flute is
totally different. It is a combination of a few different key flute and is
blown horizontally. Each bamboo tube is a complete flute (Di Zi), which has 6-7
sound holes. Each bamboo tube can be played in solo, has more than 2 octaves of
range. Pan flute has a total of 3-4 octaves of key range so that the performers
can easily change key during a performance. Therefore, Chinese pan flute and
panpipes are totally different instruments from the western pan flute.
