How to Play Dizi, the Chinese Bamboo Flute: The Dongxiao: How to Play Dizi, the Chinese Bamboo Flute, #3

By H.H. Lee

This book will teach you to play the dongxiao, the Chinese bamboo flute that is blown vertically. Likewise, the ways to choose and maintain a dongxiao, as well as its structure and key signatures will be introduced, whereas a number of sheet music will also be provided for practices. After reading the whole book, you should have a basic understanding of the dongxiao and can play some simple songs by yourself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: H.H. Lee
• Release date: May 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393003465

H.H. Lee

H.H. Lee is a Chinese who has played the erhu for around 20 years. Having joined the Chinese orchestra for long, he knows various Chinese musical instruments well and hopes to introduce their elegance to people outside China.

Book preview

How to Play Dizi,

the Chinese Bamboo Flute

– the Dongxiao

By H.H. Lee

How to Play Dizi, the Chinese Bamboo Flute – the Dongxiao

Copyright © 2019 by H.H. Lee

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

First published on 9 May 2019

Edition 1.1 on 2 September 2020

Table of Contents

Preface

Different Kinds of Xiaos

The Structure of the Dongxiao

How to Choose a Dongxiao

How to Play the Dongxiao

The Numbered Music Notation

The Key Signatures of the Dongxiao

Maintenance of the Dongxiao

Selected Songs

Online Materials

Preface

The term Chinese bamboo flute is not confined to the dizi, but actually refers to a wide range of transverse (horizontally held when played) and end-blown (air split directly on the mouthpiece) flutes that are made of bamboo.  Among them, the xiao is comparable in popularity and prominence to the dizi.

Dongxiao

The Chinese saying heng di zhi xiao means that flutes played horizontally and vertically are named as the dizi and xiao respectively, both of which originate from the bone whistle in the New Stone Age, with a history of more than 8 000 years.  The word xiao in fact indicated panpipes before the Tang Dynasty, and those with their bottom sealed with honey wax were called the paixiao, whereas unsealed ones the dongxiao (literally meaning a xiao with a hole).

The xiao originally had 4 holes (3 finger holes plus 1 sound emitting hole) only, and later more finger holes were added thereon (one in the Western Han Dynasty and one in the Western Jin Dynasty).  In the Tang Dynasty, the dizi was separated upon the invention of the dimo, whereas the vertical end-blown flute has been known as the xiao since then.