How to choose a good dizi?

Introduction

The Chinese flute, or Dizi, is one of the oldest instruments in the present day Chinese Orchestra. The earliest artifact was discovered in Western China and ancient tombs, were dated to be 5000 years old, and were made of animal bones.

Its construction is simple, theoretically with only holes bore into bamboo. However, many adjustments and intricacies must be taken care of to enable to the flute to meet the present day performance requirements of a soloist or an orchestra performer.

The choice of the dizi is thus very important to any serious performer and selection is based on several criteria.


Material

The Dizi may be made of bamboo, but the choice of bamboo generally determines the tone, timbre, responsiveness and sensitivity. There are many types of bamboo, but can be largely divided by its grains and colour.

The Red Bamboo (??) generally is dark brown with a reddish tinge and hence its name. Its tone is bright and shrill. Coupled with its responsive resonance, it is usually used to make Dizi from Beijing and sometimes Shanghai. Its drawback perhaps would be the lack of sensitivity, making it slightly more difficult to master for a beginner.

The White Bamboo(??) generally is yellowish white. Its tone though shrill, lacks the brightness of the Red Bamboo and is not as sensitive. Hence, it is largely used to make the Shuzhou Qudi. It is generally cheaper, however and is mellow and suitable for playing Jiangnan Sizu related pieces.

The Violet Bamboo(??) is largely khaki brown. It has patterned grain or may even be spotted. Its tone is sweet and mellow, though may lack the responsiveness and shrill the Red or White Bamboo, but proper construction of the dizi can render it to be a worthy investment. The Purple Bamboo is rare, especially if unjointed. It is sensitive as well as mellow when played by a player of reasonable standard


Construction

The shape and construction of a dizi is on the whole the same. It is a simple open bamboo pipe with on end sealed off and holes bore on it as finger holes and blowing hole.

However, fairly recent changes in the dizi construction include the jointing of bamboo to make 1 instrument, making a movable joint in the middle of the dizi. Such an addition enables the tuning of the instrument by means of lengthening the dizi minutely. The drawback would be that such a contraption would affect the overall resonance of the dizi. Additional weight would make the dizi out of balance and the material (bamboo) would not resonate naturally and with same frequency as the copper jointing. The resultant timbre would be unnatural. Another drawback would be that bamboo absorbs water and condensation from our breath, resulting in a change of density of the materials. The copper joint, on the other hand, would not be able to absorb moisture. The density, of the joint would remain unchanged. Hence, the overall resonance of the dizi would be firstly unbalanced and changed. One must pay attention to the joint when buying a dizi with a joint and reconsider whether it would be a worthy investment.

Generally, jointed dizi are good for beginners and orchestra musicians and for the extreme piccolos as it is more important to get the instrument in tune. However for virtuosos and solo performers, the unjointed version would be preferred as it gives a better tone and guarantees that the timbre will not deteriorate but due to the absorption of moisture, improve.

The use of dimo, or flute membrane, was introduced in the Han dynasty, giving the dizi its unique shrill timbre. Some compositions, however, require the tone to be much more subdued, or even blend into the accompaniment. Hence, in the 1930s, the musicians introduced the Xindi or New flute to emulate the blending mellow tone of the classical flute. Today, the Xindi is a mainstay of most modern orchestras. Such a dizi has no dimo and thus is constructed exactly like a basic classical flute.

Selection

One must make careful note of the following during selection.

1. Materials – The material used should be according to what you want or have been told. There should not have been cracks, either filled or unfilled

2. Construction – The holes bored should be in a line (except for the flute with seven keys). The Cork up the end of the dizi should be free of large cracks and the ends must be well polished and kept intact.

3. The tone must be desirable to the player himself. Playing should require minimum effort.

However, it is important to note that successful selection depends on experience and skill.

Thus, at Cadenza we do the selection for you. As for the tone and sound, comments and critical evaluations are all done by experienced players and instructors in the field. Hence you can be assured that every instrument, regardless of price or grade, comes with the same quality assurance from Cadenza.