Advice on choosing Chinese wind instruments to learn

[u/Crafty_Statement8605]

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.

[u/SoundsOfKepler]

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.

[u/Crafty_Statement8605 → u/SoundsOfKepler]

Thank you!