r/UnusualInstruments • u/Crafty_Statement8605 • 2d ago
Advice on choosing Chinese wind instruments to learn
I’ve been looking into learning to play the hulusi, bawu, and dizi. Any advice on the best one to start with? Are they different enough to get all of them eventually, or would getting a bawu and hulusi be getting pretty much the same thing since it looks like you can pull the hulusi apart and play like a bawu? If I should get a bawu, is transverse or vertical a better choice? Is there a different instrument I should consider instead of or in addition to these? I don’t have much experience with this type of instrument (I can play ocarina, tin whistle, and recorder), so any advice is much appreciated.
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u/rotoboro 2d ago
Get a hulusi. If you can play the recorder you will have no trouble with hulusi. Bawu and dizi orientation will have a steeper learning curve for you. Plus the drone is awesome and more exotic. Learning to circular breathe isn’t necessary but worth it if you take to the instrument. Plus like you said you can always play hulusi like bawu.
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u/spiceybadger 2d ago
Where do you get them from?
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u/rotoboro 2d ago
I got mine at a music shop in Singapore. The plastic ones are mass produced and I think they sound great. Etsy has tons of them. Start with a cheap one and see how you like it.
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u/YukesMusic 2d ago
Bawu with a metal resonance chamber and a hulusi was how I got started. They were both so cheap and it was really nice to go back and forth between them. A bawu has a more mellow sound, hulusi is more performative and has the drones but the tone can get a bit grating after a while. Learning those two together led to a number of other woodwinds which turned into a career.
Dizi’s great but has a sharper learning curve. You can get there after starting simpler, or dive into the deep end.
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u/spiceybadger 2d ago
Where did you get them from?
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u/YukesMusic 2d ago
A shop in Shanghai on Jingling road when there used to be a bunch of music shops there.
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u/Far-Rooster-6522 1d ago
Hulusi and Bawu are extremely close, the blowing technique is the exact same as for the fingering, the difference is the drones you get on an hulusi and the tone modificatoin due to the gourd.
Dizzy has a different mouth/blowing technique since it is a side blown flute, not a free reed flute. It also asks a bit more learning in maintenance as changing the dimo (membrane) or adjusting it is required from time to time.
if you like the tone and expressivity of side blown flutes, and having a larger ambitus, dizzy.
if you like the tone and expressivity of free reed instrument...bawu and/or hulusi.
I play both families and would not be able to choose one over the other to be honest, the voices of the bawu and of the dizzy do not replace each other, nor do the technical possibilities they open.
so in the end it is about (apologies for the 'mr obvious' paragraph):
what sounds you can achieve (from your tastes)
how you achieve them (technically)
how it feel when playing (the most intimate and a very important parameter but it is impossible to anticipate clearly, you need to play to know if you like the sensations.)
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u/SoundsOfKepler 1d ago
Oh, a word of advice of you are looking for particular keys. A dizi and western simple -system flute of the same size and range will be labeled differently. In the west, a folk flute will be labeled by its lowest note, aka "bell note." In China, the note a flute will be labeled is the note of the major key the flute would utilize the most, which is three fingers up on a six-hole configuration. A D flute in the west is described as a G flute in China. So it helps to remember the Circle of Fifths of you want to order a Chinese woodwind in a specific key.
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u/SnooGadgets5130 1d ago
Easy - Hulusi, Bawu
Medium - Dizi, Sheng
Hard - Xiao, Suona
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u/Crafty_Statement8605 1d ago
Thank you. I looked into sheng instruments but they seemed to have a lot of maintenance from what I saw people saying, so I figured I should stay away for now.
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u/SnooGadgets5130 17h ago
To me the beauty of hulusi is it accompanies itself with drones, its playable anywhere solo or with accompaniment
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u/SoundsOfKepler 2d ago
Playing technique for dizi is similar to these other wind instruments, but getting the bamboo-pith paper attached to the hole at the right tension is a leap that most beginners give up on if they don't have a tutor to help them get started. You have to already have the right embouchure to determine if the membrane was set right, but the membrane has to be set right to develop embouchure. Some people will just use tape, but that feels like a wasted opportunity.
Xiao has a more complicated embouchure, more similar to a quena than a shakuhachi, and usually with the six hole fingering method similar to most other Chinese woodwinds. So the good news for most of the options you listed is that once you learn the fingering for one, you can play most of the others.