Yup...it would sound out of tune, but maybe no one would notice
Say for example, the 4th hole is covered in the D hulusi: this produces the note 'D'.
The 4th hole covered in the C hulusi, produces the note C.
It would be like playing one note out of tune each time.
You could get around this, by re-writing the music (i.e. 1 3 6 3 7 4 becomes 2 4 7 4 5 and so on) completely. This would only 'mask' things, and the notes 4 and 7 would sound a bit out, but the rest would be okay.
The simple way to explain the different (aurally) between D major and D minor: you and the majority prefer D major music, I and the minority prefer D minor music lol (j/k). D major music is usually happy, melodic and lively - this is the basis worldwide for many folk tunes and is probably the most popular key. It is my 'home' key too. The D minor scales are more moody, eery, or 'ethnic' sounding.
The D major scale goes:
D E Fsharp G A B Csharp D
where a sharp = 1/2 a tone or step up, instead of a whole tone. You can picture it on a 8 hole dizi flute where two holes are needed to make 1 whole tone. Jian Pu does not show usually these half steps - it just reads as 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 in the key of D (all dizis I've seen, are in major keys).
Sometimes, the sharp or flat note is shown beside the music for a key.
D minor has what's called a melodic and a harmonic. The harmonic version goes:
D E F G A B(flat) C(sharp) D
The melodic version is different, only in that the B is not flat.
If you play these notes on a piano, you'll notice that the minor key scale sounds more eery or haunting, and the major scale sounds more usual.
It's not usual to play minor scales on a dizi, although it's very possible. It's much easier on some instruments; chromatic instruments, or even shakuhachi flutes, which are usually tuned to a 5 note minor key.
The comments I get when I play minor key music is: "Can you please stop - it sounds like something awful is going to happen". Children don't seem to like minor key music! One of my favourite pieces for western flute, Bach's Sonatas and Partita in A minor, are written strongly in minor keys...it does sound a bit eery. It is much harder to play some minor keys, maybe because I dropped out of grade school before completing Eb minor harmonic scales, which really did my head in with all the flattened notes.
Hopefully someone else will come along and explain it better than I can, but in short, hulusi music is mostly major scale ...probably D, C, F, G, Bb keys!
