reason head portion is a drone glued to rest

[Blue]

Had a discussion with a dizi teacher over the reason that the head portion of a bitter bamboo flute is actually a drone glued to the rest of the flute body. Unlike purple or queen's tears bamboo, the bitter bamboo's culm length is aparently not as long on average. So one glues a drone to compensate.

For the bitter bamboo, one needs to harvest the second or third culm above the root culm to acquire a flute body with good enough density. Anything above the third culm is only suitable to make other types of bamboo products.

When I was around 11 years old in Taiwan, I witnessed the mass flowering of bamboos growing near the place I lived. Some people use it for an ultra-expensive bouquet given its rarity, but other people shun it because it symbolizes death. Approximately every one century or so, bamboos start blooming and then they all die. Sometimes I wonder if this would cause a supply shock for some flute makers as they often need to have 5-10 year old timber to make their flutes.

[xindi]

I wonder if that is why, some manufacturers like the famous Bao flutes, do not offer anything lower than a key of D in bitter bamboo, unless it is a much cheaper drone style as you've pointed out, in bitter bamboo.

There isn't much in the way of harvesting bamboo in errr, Europe, so I suppose most of us here won't have a great grasp of the complexities and art of bamboo flute making. That video link you had of Janet doing some explanations was very helpful though!

[Blue]

Another way that Chinese flute makers get around this problem for bitter bamboo is if the flute has a metal tenon. In such case, the blow head and the body with the hole fingers are likely from separate bitter bamboo pieces. You'll notice that purple bamboo and mottled bamboo, which are often used to make long one-piece xiaos, have sufficient bamboo density to make extremely long one-piece bamboo flutes.

[xindi]

Those 1 piece xiaos are impressive - particularly if they are tuned perfectly across all 2 1/2 octaves. Especially impressive, given bamboo's unique non-uniformity, which unlike carved wood, is the natural shape of bamboo in the wild.

I only have 1x 1 piece ..the rest have succumbed to tenons, which at least, enable the mould prevention efforts to pay off. Yes - these are one piece bamboo too.....yes...it cracked :~/