Am I on the right track?

[coffeeguy]

I hope someone can help me out.

I was wanting to put these dizi's in a way that I can wrap my head around them. It seems each of the keys I have all appear to be off one note from the next. That was interesting. So I randomly grabbed one (key of d) and wanted to see how the fingering lined up with the numbered positions and where they sat with sheet music. Google tells me the scale of d major is D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D but I'm not concerned with sharps right now.

Does this look right so far?
And secondly, what should the highest note be? Is it 7? High dot 5? I only marked up to 6 since 5 and 6 squeak pretty bad still... heh

Thanks

[davidmdahl]

You are almost right.

On a D dizi:

A -  XXX XXX
B -  XXX XXO
C#- XXX XOO
D-   XXX OOO
E-   XXO OOO
F#- XOO OOO
G-   OXX OOO
a-   OXX XXX
b-   XXX XXO
c#- XXX XOO
d-   XXX OOO

X - indicates a covered finger hole

That's what I use anyway.

Best wishes,

David

[coffeeguy]

Aha! Thank you. I'll go back and have another look at it.

I do have a question though from your diagram. When you view "D" and "d" they both have the same fingerings.
Will the note be the same? Or will I need to change the pitch through playing?

[Blue]

You'll have to change the pitch through playing. They are one octave apart.

[coffeeguy]

Okay, I have some work to do. Thanks :-D

[coffeeguy]

Are the second octave notes supposed to be more difficult? After a week I can get up to high dot 2 (as I call it). And at that, the 5 to ^2 are quiet and airy. 5 sounds like it's two tones (like a train whistle lol). Just wondering if I'm making this more difficult than it should be....?

[Flolei]

For the high 5, you must be carefull that the dimo is not too loose, as in that case it doesn't sound well (or it even doesn't sound at all).

[Blue]

If you are coming from a western flute background, you may find the embouchure to be different for a dizi, and this becomes more pronounced at the 2nd octave. If 5 sounds like two tones, it could also mean that you are blowing too hard without tightening up your embouchure, or you are using XXXXXX fingering rather than 0XXXXX. Recommend that you find a dizi player (if you're lucky to have one) to coach you because it can be more difficult to diagnose your issues through writing.

If you want to nullify concerns about the tightness/looseness of the dimo when playing higher octaves, cover the mokong with either scotch tape or an ear plug.

[coffeeguy]

I don't have any experience with any flutes... heh.... I do play guitar and had a piano for a few months - that's about it.

I go back and forth between using the dimo and using Scotch Tape. I must admit, I find it hard keeping the dimo on without it lifting after it gets dry (no matter how much of that glue I put on).

The fingering I use on the 5 is OXXXXX although XXXXXX does sound clearer.

You know... maybe you guys can help me with something else. I received a paper with these that I've been looking at and trying to sort out - David's reply cleared some of it for me. Going back to look at it - it appears everything I need is in the first column but the rest confuses me (which is why I never looked too long at it).

Attachments:

[Blue]

That's a table of relative solfège, which defines what relative solfège note that is played when all holes are covered. Observe that if you ignore the dots, the number of the first row (xxxxxx) actually matches the numbers on the header row.

For relative solfege,

1 = do
2 = re
3 = mi
4 = fa
5 = so
6 = la
7 = tea/si

David's table deals with absolute pitch.

I'll describe more about this when I came back from work, but frankly, just focus and master the first column because you're still learning how to play the flute.