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Post by Blue on Sept 24, 2012 16:04:58 GMT
www.carrotmusic.com/servlet/the-291/Dizi-Shinobue-Shakuhachi-Flute/DetailBut the pitch is too high for my tastes . . . . . . (C#!) I wonder what will be next? They're already selling violins. Maybe the next thing will be Ukeleles . . . . . There are dedicated Ukelele shops in Taipei, Hsinchu, Tainan, and Kaohsiung . . . . . for instance: www.ukuleletaiwan.com/Where I live, there are dedicated cello and made-in-taiwan violins. Even the father of my classmate makes violins. And most music shops in Taiwan display ukeleles on their windows. So much ukelele madness when the xiao is supposed to be the indigenous instrument in Taiwan! Still, if anyone visits me in Taiwan, I will show that person all the traditional music shops that I know in northern Taiwan (at least eleven of them) plus the home of Dongsiau (appointment must be made in advance) and the home of a xiao maker in central taiwan. And I'll show anyone where to get Xindi, including the Queen's Tears version!
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Post by Blue on Sept 24, 2012 16:13:01 GMT
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Post by edcat7 on Sept 24, 2012 22:35:07 GMT
I can understand the ukulele madness, having not just one but 3. David also has one too. It's a bit like sitting in my other car (which has been laying forlornly in the garage for the last 4 years), a smile is permanently etched on my face.
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Post by lbowen on Sept 25, 2012 10:13:17 GMT
It seems here (in Shandong) that for the most part, people are learning guitar and piano... it's not bad, but hey, China has many instruments that are at least superficially similar to guitar.... and hammered dulcimer is a little like piano, I guess?
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Post by phillipr on Sept 25, 2012 11:42:38 GMT
Allen, with such a generous offer to show folks the (musical) sights of Taiwan, it's hard not be able to take you up on your offer. Would that I had more time and money... especially since Taiwan is not only the home of folks such as yourself and master "Dongsiau," but also because some of the best Oolong teas on the world come out of Taiwan!  |
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Post by phillipr on Sept 25, 2012 11:47:18 GMT
Incidentally, Carrot has also started carrying tuning-slide-free "performance grade" dizi. I'm hoping to purchase a few of them at some point down the road (perhaps with Christmas money) as I've been pretty satisfied with the quality of the product put out by Carrot.
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Post by edcat7 on Sept 25, 2012 15:12:04 GMT
Hello, what is a tuning-slide-free 'performance grade' dizi? I'll have to look it up. btw, looking at some of the prices of dizis some of the internet companies are charging, one wonders how much they can be bought for (with haggling) at a music shop in China.
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Post by Blue on Sept 25, 2012 15:15:53 GMT
Tuning-slide-free "performance grade" dizi is simply a performance dizi without the tuning tenon like the alto C DongXueHua dizi that I gave you! Hope you're playing the bass Bb dizi, BTW. Very tempted to get another one from the seller in New Taipei City especially that there's now a metro stop next to her place.
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Post by Blue on Sept 25, 2012 15:17:22 GMT
I think I'll sign up for my company's Ukelele level 1 class which will start Friday of next week. Costs roughly US$50 for ten sessions. Don't label me a traitor to Chinese music for doing this. If I do get used to string music, maybe one day you'll see me with a pipa.
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Post by Flolei on Sept 25, 2012 15:25:07 GMT
O, so, Allen, you were serious when you wrote you'll switch to another instrument...
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Post by edcat7 on Sept 25, 2012 18:43:00 GMT
Thanks Allen, but I'd have to admit I'm not a fan of 1 piece dizis. Even if it's perfectly in tune, when playing with other dizis, their's might not be. Also carrying and cleaning is a problem.
If you're ever in London again you can help yourself to one of my ukuleles.
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Post by Blue on Sept 26, 2012 0:16:41 GMT
It just feels that my flute-playing muse has abandoned me without any explanation . . . . . I just wished that muse returned. But I suppose learning the Ukelele would give me another perspective on music, and maybe partially help me with some of the issues I have with wind instruments by thinking in other dimensions.
Phillip, also, nanguan performers (this includes the dongxiao performer) love to congregate at certain temples in Taiwan during the morning. For instance, if you go to the Taipei Confucian Temple in the morning of a weekend, you'll definitely spot dongxiao performer. Sadly the audience is all elderly people and the crowd is negligible.
If I'm ever in London again, I'll be eating rhubarb and scones. At best, I would prefer visiting again in the summer rather than in the winter, having seen what summer and winter are like and having witnessed the brussels sprout crop being totally destroyed in the winter. Yep, I like brussels sprouts too as well as zucchini, but people in Taiwan don't seem to like eating those types of veggies. Okra is extremely popular in Taiwan, however.
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Post by Flolei on Sept 26, 2012 7:11:34 GMT
I'm sure it is a good thing to play an instrument from another group. Personnaly I started to play the piano one month ago (because I bought one for my children, especially for my 11 years old daughter who was practicing for 5 years on a bad keyboard). Of course, I do it now because I'm quite often at home and I do it beside flute playing. It gives another perspective on music, for sure. It will give you a lot of positive things. But you were so in love with flutes... It's a little sad to give up completely, isn't it?
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Post by Blue on Sept 29, 2012 15:23:19 GMT
t's very hard to find a place to practice the flute, especially when one lives in a studio apartment and gets written complaints about practicing the dizi (thank goodness there's no comment about playing the xiao yet). Playing outside is always a challenge in a windy city like Hsinchu (nickname is 風城) with the sheet music scattering like crazy even if they are placed in the folder of transparencies to secure them. Playing after hours in the company's departmental office when the office is located next to the department manager and the department manager doesn't get off from work till 9pm is always a challenge. Learning how to maintain good control of the high notes is just plain impossible with such environmental constraints. Nowadays, my dizi playing sounds like a person stuttering all the time rather than speaking coherently.
Given the ukulele craze in Taiwan, people don't mind the practicing of the ukulele. Go to any music shop in Taiwan, and your eyes will be overwhelmed by ukuleles rather than dizi or xiao. And then I work insane number of hours in the company each day and do not properly get too much sleep until the weekends or when on vacation. By the time I get out of work, it's not the optimal time to be playing the dizi in the neighborhood. So the consequence of sleeping too much on the weekends on when on vacation in a country with a radically different time zone? Frustration by my parents who wish that I take care of them in their old age. Or one of the hosts in the country of the other time zone imposing damnatio memoriae / meidung / shunning on me because I slept too much from jetlag and exhaustion from work rather than spending time playing the dizi and xiao with them.
If there's more acceptance and tolerance for playing the ukulele and the ukulele probably won't generate noise complaints from neighbors and department managers, then maybe I should try playing the ukulele.
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Post by Flolei on Sept 29, 2012 19:39:18 GMT
Allen, in such bad environment and circunstances, of cours it's better to play a quiter instrument. I actually gave up flute for 10 years when I was living with other students and after that by my mother-in-law (even if she's a very nice person and wouldn't have complained). I started again only about 4 years ago, when I realized that I had my own home and actually could do all what I wanted. Now I still play more when I'm alone at home than when other people can hear me!
If you like the sound of ukulele, then play ukulele! What about zhongruan?
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Post by Blue on Sept 30, 2012 2:28:36 GMT
Portability and the fact that Ukulele classes are being offered in my company's lecture hall (5 minute walk) for about US$5 per class during lunchtime. One would have to travel outside the company and pay at least US$20 per class for the zhongruan. Company's dizi course is hosted at another site in the company, which takes 20 mins to reach and attendance is just on average 2 people compared 200-300 people in the Ukulele course. Originally the dizi course had 10 people at the beginning of the year.
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Post by Flolei on Sept 30, 2012 6:04:21 GMT
It's interesting. In Asia (especially in Japan) this instrument is very popular. In France and here in Slovenia it's very exotic and rare... Yes, you're right about all you wrote. Lookinf forward to hear your first piece!
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Post by edcat7 on Sept 30, 2012 9:00:58 GMT
Portability and the fact that Ukulele classes are being offered in my company's lecture hall (5 minute walk) for about US$5 per class during lunchtime. One would have to travel outside the company and pay at least US$20 per class for the zhongruan. Company's dizi course is hosted at another site in the company, which takes 20 mins to reach and attendance is just on average 2 people compared 200-300 people in the Ukulele course. Originally the dizi course had 10 people at the beginning of the year. Huh Cheap! My zhongruan/liuqin teacher was charging me £45/ 1.5 hrs. |
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Post by lbowen on Oct 3, 2012 22:33:57 GMT
In my home country of New Zealand there are also lots of ukeleles.... and almost noone plays Maori instruments at all. It's too bad, there are some instruments between flutes and trumpets that I'd like to try out that are indigenous to my country...
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Post by Blue on Oct 3, 2012 23:26:30 GMT
Before my father visited New Zealand a few years ago, I asked him to see if there were any Maori wind instruments that could be bought in a souvenir shop. Unfortunately he couldn't find any, and he did spent quite an effort asking around.
It's kinda like Taiwan: the dongxiao is a very traditional Taiwanese instrument, and I can see enough people outside of the Asian world who are extremely interested in it (including on facebook). However, you simply won't see it being sold at a tourist area in Taiwan. You'll just see pineapple shortcakes, post cards, nostalgic toy and food products, souvenirs that resemble the jade cabbage from the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and other souvenirs that will likely accumulate with dust once you bring it home and don't know what else to do with it.
In the Osaka-Kyoto region, one does encounter cheap shinobue flutes (ie less than 20,000 yen) sold at tourist shops, although it's not tuned to the western scale.
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Post by Blue on Oct 3, 2012 23:33:20 GMT
This now reminds me of my time in Okinawa.
There's this street vendor advertising themselves by playing a flute-broom hybrid!
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Post by Blue on Oct 3, 2012 23:39:04 GMT
Here's the website of that music vendor from Okinawa. sion.shimatabi.jp/www/Those who are used to oval blowing hole like the dizi may find the circular blowing hole of the Okinawa flute maker to be frustrating because one would have to make considerable adjustments to the embouchure. |
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Post by lbowen on Oct 4, 2012 1:08:08 GMT
Yeah, its sad to say that Maori flutes seem to pretty much be museum pieces here, or restricted to use in traditional ceremonies. The only way you could get one would be to get one custom made, I guess. It's always sad to see traditional culture being marginalised. Here's a gallery of (most likely all) Maori instruments www.tahaa.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15&Itemid=30Apparently (according to another article I read) the putorino can be played the same way as xiao! |
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Post by Blue on Oct 8, 2012 15:04:24 GMT
‘The Gods sang the Universe into Existence’ Interesting, because Tolkien's concept of the universe--of which Middle-Earth is in-- was created by immortal beings who had some discord in their music as some of these beings didn't want to quite follow the theme directed by the supreme being. Anyway, my neighbors would probably banish me if I tried to play this Pukaea:  They would also banish me if I played the Putatara (conch shell) or the Putorino . . . . (gasp, all trumpet -style instruments!). Looks like some of the instruments are meant to conjure birds. One joke about the xiao is that it's designed to conjure spirits and ghosts! I do know that me playing the dizi will conjure noise complaint messages posted on my door! If the putorino can be played as a xiao or quena/quenacho, then where's the notch? |
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Post by lbowen on Oct 8, 2012 22:16:50 GMT
Yeah, apparently most musical instruments of the pacific were just made to have the same notes as the human voice so they're pretty monotonous and can play just a few notes. Trumpet? Putorino? Hah! That's what they want you to believe... really "Larger pipes than this, end-blown, if they have no special blow-hole, require the player to form such, commonly by means of his own lower lip acting as a fipple. This general method of blowing a fairly large tube at the end is widely distributed. Piggott and Sachs describes it for the Japanese shakuhachi. Kirby pictures for South Africa both the method of blowing and types of the instruments themselves, which are bevelled where they go against the lip to make this lip-fipple device easier and any other method virtually impossible." from here www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_54_1945/Volume_54,_No._1/The_acoustics_of_three_Maori_flutes,_by_Ernest_S._Dodge,_p_39-61/p1 I feel like I'm back at university.. |
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