with or without joint

[tinono]

Hello people,

I'm a beginner player slowly working my way through Tim Liu's program (2measures). I picked it up after reading about it on this forum (thanks for that).

I'm using a nice flute from Xie Bing with a joint. I don't have any trouble with it, but as I like beautiful objects so much, I just ordered another one, also in C key, just for pleasure.

The new flute (just shipped from singapore) will be without a joint.
I'm waiting for it, but I want to ask what difference should I be excpecting from a flute with no joint on it?

Do you generally buy instruments with or without joints?

Thanks!

[davidmdahl]

Welcome to the forum, Tinono, and congratulations on the new dizi flutes. I think you did a good thing for yourself by getting Tim Liu's tutorial. One thing I have found useful is to rip the CDs to my computer, and use an audio program to slow down and loop the clips. Sometimes twice through is not enough for me.

As for the with joint or without joint, I usually get jointed flutes so that I have at least a chance of tuning to my ensemble. The conventional wisdom though is that jointless will result in a better-sounding dizi. In reality, I have usually played my dizi flutes with the joint all the way in, since my ensembles are more likely to play sharp than flat, for some reason. Western flutes are usually at standard pitch when the joint is pulled out a little, but my dizi flutes are at pitch all the way in.

If you are most likely to play by yourself, then jointless is probably best. If you will play with other instruments, jointed may help you play in tune with them more easily. If you have a jointless dizi, it might be easier to get the others in the ensemble to tune to your note.

A jointless dizi is a lot longer than a jointed one, so low keys can be more trouble to transport safely. I also like to keep my bamboo flutes in airtight ziplock bags, and this is easier to do with jointed flutes.

Best wishes,

David