How to blow dizi

[annadough]

Hello! My dizi flute arrived and I tried all day to make a sound with it, but I can't. I watched several YouTube tutorials, I read some articles but nothing works. All I get is a wooshing sound. I lose my hope. How should I it? How should I place my lips on the hole, what distance, angle, size of the opening of the mouth, just how? I mention there is no teacher in my area, maybe in my entire country, I have thick lips and I wear braces.

[dawei]

It may take a bit of time to develop an embouchure (the technical name for your mouth when blowing an instrument) but once you do it you will never forget how, like riding a bike.

Are you blow over the hole not into it?

Did you check in a mirror to see if your mouth matches the instructional material?

Is there a leak in your dizi? Occasionally the cork (if there is one) slips or dries out, or the instrument may have a leak in the tuning slide if there is one, or another leak somewhere.

Is the dimo on correctly?

If you are really having trouble use a piece of tape over the dimo hole just to test things.

I hope this helps. Please be patient, it can take a couple days to get comfortable getting a nice tone.

[davidmdahl]

Welcome to the forum, Anna. I understand that thick lips and braces can be a challenge. You mentioned that there are no teachers in your area. Blowing the dizi is very much like blowing any other transverse flute, which is common in many countries. If you can find a teacher of any sort of flute, they should be able to help you at least get started.

Normally a flute player will place the edge of the blowing hole (embouchure)at the lower edge of the lower lip. That may be too low for you, so try placing the flute a little higher on your lower lip. As for the braces, I believe that people have had good luck raising the area just below the embouchure with layers of tape. This can provide a better blowing angle when you have braces. This works on Western (Boehm) flute, but I expect it should work for dizi too.

There is so much about playing the flute that is hard to describe, but relatively easy in person. I hope you can find a flute teacher.

Best wishes,

David

[dawei]

Nov 1, 2017 21:16:21 GMT davidmdahl said:

 Blowing the dizi is very much like blowing any other transverse flute, which is common in many countries. If you can find a teacher of any sort of flute, they should be able to help you at least get started.

This is right on - the dizi is basically blown the same as the concert Boehm flute, Irish flutes, Japanese shinobue, etc. 

The styles of playing, fingerings, etc. differ but the mechanics of blowing a transverse flute are fairly constant.