Musicians, have mercy. I’m trying to learn something new.
I ordered a bamboo flute through Amazon.com and it arrived today. I don’t know what I was expecting, but this is not exactly it.
I ordered one in a pentatonic C minor only because I know that the black notes on the piano have an Asian sound to them.
I don’t think that I blow into either end since there is no cresent opening or anything to indicate that the breath would do anything other than go straight through.
So I assume that I should hold the flute to the side and learn to pass my breath over one of the holes at one of the ends of the flute to produce a sound and that producing a consistent and pleasant sound will take practice.
The flute is about 25 inches long and slightly over an inch thick. At one end there is a hole that is four inches from the end. This hole is in line with – but not close to – two other holes.
At the other end of the flute, there is a hole about 5 and 3/4 inches from the end. It is not in line with any other hole. It is at right angles to the hole at the other end of the flute.
I mentioned that the hole that is four inches from one end lines up with two other holes. Those two holes and located 9 and 1/4 and 13 and 3/4 inches away from the first hole.
Then this is where things take a strange turn for me. A third hole is located almost but not quite an equal distance between the two holes – yet it is off to the side by about 5/8 on an inch.
I just want to know for sure how to hold the flute and where to put which figures and where to uh…blow.
Also, I know to warm the flute up with my hands before practicing. Any other advice on care? Can you recommend any good books on how to play a rustic bamboo flute?
Or should I ship this thing back and go for a really nice one and learn shakuhachi?
Hey, I play the bamboo flute! It’s called the sao truc here, and mine is only about 17" long. (My flute I mean. Stop your damn sniggering! Stupid, juvenile teeming masses.)
OK, going on. You blow into the hole (I’m warning you guys!) … you blow into the hole that’s by itself on one end. The three holes on the opposite end are just for tuning. Ignore them.
OK, that leaves you with six hole in a row, right? Those are for your fingers. Your left index, middle, and ring fingers cover the first three. Those fingers curl under the flute and so should point toward you. Your right index, middle, and ring fingers cover the remaining threes. Those go over the flute so point away from you.
All six holes covered is a middle C. All open is a B. The finger is the same as a penny whistle I believe. By blowing harder, you get notes up an octave. That’s not exactly it, but you sort of have to get a feel for how to make notes in the different octaves.
Now, you’re theory seems to me to be a bit off. Pentatonic C minor? As far as I know, the pentatonic scale is just the Western major scale with fa and si removed: do, re, mi, sol, la. You can of course play that scale on your new flute, as well as major, minor, and dorian modes if you want. The flute doesn’t care.
Good luck! I’ll check back to see if you have any more questions. If you want to drop by Saigon sometime, I’m sure I can find you a teacher.
C-Eb-F-G-Bb-C? That doesn’t look familiar at all, and it sounds a bit strange. You may have invented a brand new scale! We can call it the Bruce_Daddy scale, unless someone else comes along to claim it.
I tried playing one once and the basic technique was completely non-intuitive. You place the end with the notch at your mouth, then place the notched side against your lower lip, so that most of the hole is actually below your mouth. Here’sa photo that might make it clearer.
I never went any farther than giving it an occasional toot, so I can’t help much beyond this.
The intervallic relationship is the same between the major and minor pentatonics, but with different roots. So your flute can play in both C minor and Eb major, depending on which root you use.
</anal theory mode>
Huh. I guess my rock guitar/back alley theory is a little off. Picker is right, it’s a minor scale, very blues-ey. Here’s a good page that shows what I was thinking of.
The Bruce_Daddy Scale. Ha! I’d like to hear what B.B.King would have to say about that!
