How to blow?

[shawn]

Greetings,

I just moved to China about 5 months ago, to be with my wife, and was walking down the street today when we entered a school supply store out of my curiousity. Well, there they sold Dizi for students. Now, I've never played a musical instrument of ANY type before (though I would love to learn the electric violin), but have aways wanted to learn. I saw a dizi for sell for about 2USD and decided to go for it.

Unfortunately, the only sounds I make are air, lol. How do you blow? I have searched the net high and low and can't find any free blowing resources. I've seen
www.2measures.com/products.html and honestly don't feel like shelling out 30-40USD on something brand new to be.

Any help and tips would be greatly appreciate. I would love to learn this instrument and eventually the pan flute.

Thanks,
Shawn Wilkes

[davidmdahl]

Welcome to our forum, Shawn!

A dizi usually has six finger holes, the embouchure (where you blow across), and a dimo membrane hole. Sometimes when you buy a new flute the dimo hole is open. If this is true, you will not be able to get a tone even if you blow correctly. Until you are ready to deal with the dimo with the reed membrane, just cover the dimo hole with tape.

For blowing a dizi, you will need to blow against the far edge of the embouchure hole. The mechanics of doing this are very hard to describe in an email. Sometimes people get it by just playing around with it for a while. To start with, do not worry about covering any holes. If you can get a tone, do it in front of a mirror so you can see what it looks like when it works.

Find a flute player to show you the ropes. If you decide to get serious, music lessons can be a real joy and will save you a lot of time and trouble.

Best wishes,

David

[jetz320]

Hi and welcome!!! The dizi is hard to get to blow. I've had friends that play the flute and they can't blowinto my dizis. When I first started playing, I didn't know that you needed the membrane so I thought the flute was broken and I got ripped off!!!! The membrane is bamboo paper made just for the dizi. It sounds a little off though on cheaper flutes. You would need a intermediate flute to actually start the good sound of the dizi. A cheap flute, you won't get good high notes with the dimo. Just use tape right now.

The dizi, I first lick my lips a little to make them moist. Then, I adjust the flute directly in the middle of my lips. I put the flute about half of the bottom lip. So half is cvoered by the flute and the other is open. I seem to notice that many people put it under their lip. That's to hard for me because the air has to go inside the flute. Now, blowing. You have to make sure the air isn't going straight down. Blow it in an angle. The air should be blown at about a 2 mm hole in your mouth. About that size. Your lip should also not cover the hole. It should look like your not even blowing. Do it in a mirror. When doing high notes, then make the hole even smaller.

So again,
1) Don't blow straight in
2) Make your lips a little moist
3) The flute is about half way up your bottom lip
4) BLOW SMOOTHLY!!!!!! Don't rush it. Or you won't get any good sound out of it!!!
5) Don't cover the blow hole with your top lip.

Some tips:

Don't leave dizi in sunlight
Don't get it wet
Wipe inside after playing (Usea cloth or something)
Put it back inside the case when finished
Don't let it be in cold or hot weather (Dizi should have some silk threads wrapped around it)

Here's a picture of the capped flutes:
cadenzamusic.biz/dxh_bd/1.jpg

Have fun with the dizi!!!! I also hope this information helped!