Learning to play hulusi

[hulusilearner]

I have recently acquired a hulusi but I can only get 2 basic tones on it - one by covering all the holes and the other is the same whether I cover all the finger holes or not with the thumb hole closed. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks for any suggestions.

[Charlie Huang]

There are 'drone' holes that are meant to stay open all the time. You finger on the main shalf only.

[hulusilearner]

Thanks very much. I also realised that this is not like a recorder instrument and I needed to blow harder going up the scale.

[humac]

Hi, I've only had 10 lessons so far (I'm living in Shanghai at the moment) but can tell you that the drones or side pipes are not meant to be on all the time...at least not while you're learning. That comes later.

I've seen a lot of references to blowing harder but this is not the case - my teacher is always telling me to blow softer. It's almost like breathing out as if you were sighing. And there's an additional low note (with all holes covered) which you get by hardly blowing at all.

Best of luck, it's great fun and there are lots of wonderful tunes out there.

[dragoonat]

when I play I blow softer when I reach the high notes and harder on the low notes, The high notes probably wudnt sound if you blow harder, and the low notes will be off-tune if you blow softer.