Parts of Xiao and resources

[quentinius]

Hi there,
my first Xiao arrived yesterday and I am happy with the quality and I even managed to play a note and it was fine. But this thread is for the following things: 

1. Can you tell we what is the ring of different color on the bottom for or what material is it? 
2. I would like to learn more about the tuning and breathing holes at the bottom - from what I found out the breathing holes are for achieving the higher octaves , but tuning holes are still a mystery to me.
3. What symbols are used to represent xiao flute? I found 箫 but I want more in case there are some resources under different names. like Xiao method or something.
4. What are some good resources in Chinese? I don't speak Chinese but I hope there are some videos that would be more lengthy and I would be able to watch the techniques and what not.
5. Are there any groups on fb with Xiao content? Or elswhere?

Thanks for all of this and hope to see you soon.

[phoenixiao]

Just a quick response.

1) I’m guessing you mean the ring of horn/plastic material at the tail end? If I’m not wrong it is protective and decorative. Not all Xiao have it.
2) The extra holes are for tuning. I’m not sure what is meant by “breathing”. Higher octave is achieved by higher rate of airstream, sometimes called over-blowing. But the term over-blowing can be misleading as most beginners will just blow harder when the focus should be on smaller embouchure and abdominal pressure.
3) Some variations that may help: 洞箫 Dong Xiao，琴箫 Qin Xiao，北箫 Northern Xiao，北管 Northern pipe，南箫 Southern Xiao，南管 Southern pipe.
4) You’ll probably want to find music scores in numeric notation. Use these terms: 简谱，曲谱. Basic techniques over video can be found on YouTube.
5) Intermediate to advanced content is mostly in Chinese. You may want to find shakuhachi material and see if it helps. These 2 instruments have similar blowing techniques though shakuhachi is more challenging due to various factors which I won’t elaborate here.

[quentinius]

Jan 14, 2020 16:22:50 GMT phoenixiao said:

Just a quick response.

1) I’m guessing you mean the ring of horn/plastic material at the tail end? If I’m not wrong it is protective and decorative. Not all Xiao have it.
2) The extra holes are for tuning. I’m not sure what is meant by “breathing”. Higher octave is achieved by higher rate of airstream, sometimes called over-blowing. But the term over-blowing can be misleading as most beginners will just blow harder when the focus should be on smaller embouchure and abdominal pressure.
3) Some variations that may help: 洞箫 Dong Xiao，琴箫 Qin Xiao，北箫 Northern Xiao，北管 Northern pipe，南箫 Southern Xiao，南管 Southern pipe.
4) You’ll probably want to find music scores in numeric notation. Use these terms: 简谱，曲谱. Basic techniques over video can be found on YouTube.
5) Intermediate to advanced content is mostly in Chinese. You may want to find shakuhachi material and see if it helps. These 2 instruments have similar blowing techniques though shakuhachi is more challenging due to various factors which I won’t elaborate here.

Thanks! Just a quick response: I meant by "breathing holes" the four holes at the back, that are more together - I saw somewhere that they are used for helping players to achieve higher octaves since they are making the instrument little shorter then it's official length but I don't have more info that's why I am asking. The two holes beneath the "breathing holes" are the one that are used for tuning. But here is my question. How do you tune it? Are they just passive holes cut to some distance like frets on guitar cut the string in certain length? I have two section xiao so I guess I will tune with movement of the sections. 

About the rest: is there something like Suzuki have for violins? Some method? I don't need it to be English, just to have sheet music and a video of someone who will be playing it in "practice tempo". Thanks again.

[phoenixiao]

I’m not qualified to know how to use the tuning holes as that’s more for the craftsman to do because it’s a permanent change. As a player we adjust by shorten/lengthen the 2 sections. So single piece bamboo is hard to self adjust pitch unless it’s an open ended mouthpiece, then you can tilt the blowing angle to slightly shift pitch (similar to how shakuhachi players do kari/meri).

I don’t think there’s a standard teaching syllabus or approach. You can try getting this commonly used text book by Master Zhang Wei Liang 张维良:

Title: 箫吹奏法
www.taobao.com/list/product/箫吹奏法张维良.htm

You can also search YouTube for his videos. Other teachers to search are:
Chen Yue: 陈悦
Winson Liao: 廖锦栋 www.donsiau.net/

There are some US or European teachers too which others in the forum mentioned before. Some offer online lessons I think.

[ambientflute]

The extra holes determine the pitch of the lowest note; the extra lenght of the flute has no influence on the actual tuning. It's like the headstock on a guitar: the tuning-holes are the nut of the guitar and determine the string-lenght.