Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Anybody play in a pub yesterday? I took my new shaku band " Pat and the Ripe Hocchiku" out last night. I don't think the crowd got the music as we  certainly were less than respectful in general, but we made a good showing in the brawl. All in all a fine debut. We'll have some tough repair work to do on the hocchiku though. Ripe ones don't crack as clean as the dry stuff but they match real nice with the green leotards and hats.

Last edited by chikuzen (2008-03-18 12:29:31)

Caligium wrote:

The only problem is I cant find a membrane.

Here's one option:

          http://www.clarionmusic.com/index.php?a … =pricelist


Here is some perhaps useful information:

     "The dizi has a thin membrane covering a hole in the wall of the instrument about halfway between the mouth hole and the first finger-hole. The membrane of the dizi is made of a square of thin skin peeled from the inner surface of a section of reed or bamboo. It is larger than the hole and attached with water-soluble glue."

And...

     "As the membrane is crucial for dizi sound production, one important lesson when beginning to learn to play the dizi is the 'art' of choosing and sealing the membrane. Although the empirical rules of membrane-sealing are well-mentioned in dizi textbooks, they cannot be learned without a teacher's demonstration and the student's own trial-and-error.

The dizi membrane is made of a square of skin peeled from the inside of reed or bamboo. It is larger than the membrane hole, and is affixed with water-soluble glue. A membrane sealed on the dizi can work for several months. If the tension in the membrane becomes too low, a player can increase it by applying saliva and gently spreading the edges of the paper. To get the 'correct' timbre of the dizi, it is important to adjust the membrane with appropriate lateral wrinkles. These thin wrinkles should be distributed uniformly across the membrane and not overlap each other.:

And more in the same vein can be found here:

          http://www.gim.ntu.edu.tw/gia/dizi/

[the above information was obtained by Googling "dizi membrane", and checking the first two hits. You've heard of Google, right ?]


I've also heard that a membrane can be made using the inner, almost transparent skin of an onion, and using onion juice to afix the membrane.
Not the most salubrious solution, perhaps...

eB

Last edited by edosan (2008-03-20 19:34:27)

Here's a little update from Wikipedia:

    "Whereas most simple flutes have only a blowing hole (known as chui kong in Chinese) and finger-holes, the dizi has very different additional hole, called a mo kong (膜孔), between the embouchure and finger-holes. A special membrane called dimo (笛膜, lit. "di membrane"), made from an almost tissue-like shaving of reed, is made taut and glued over this hole, traditionally with a substance called ejiao. Garlic juice or glue sticks may also be used to adhere the dimo. This application process, in which fine wrinkles are created in the centre of the dimo to create a penetrating buzzy timbre, is an art form in itself.

The dimo covered mokong has a distinctive resonating effect on the sound produced by the dizi, making it brighter and louder, and adding harmonics to give the final tone a buzzing, nasal quality. Dizi have a relatively large range, covering about two-and-a-quarter octaves."

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dizi

eB

Not all dizi have a hole for the membrane. Not all dizi have the same number of holes. The same goes for the end-blown xiao (pronounced 'syow'). It appears that you've purchased one without the membrane hole. I had an 11-hole dizi without it. I'm no bass player, but counting to 11 ain't easy... and a 7-hole one with. I personally couldn't stand the buzzing, so I used hard tape over the whole, instead. When I 'discovered' the shakuhachi, I promptly gave them away.

Zak -- jinashi size queen

Caligium wrote:

So I just play it without a membrane? The amazon page for the one I ordered said I needed one.

If it plays without one you don't need it. It goes over an extra hole between the mouth hole and the closest finger hole. So they will only play one note if you don't cover the hole that the membrane is supposed to go over. In the picture you provided I don't see a hole for the membrane.  But what really botheres me about that picture is that I don't see a mouth hole either. I understand that there are some dizi that are only for decoration, could that be what you stumbled upon?

Also, I was told that you could use cigarette rolling paper for the membrane. I never tried it, I used transparent tape on mine, you don't get the traditional buzz that way but at least it makes the flutes playable. BTW, I'll be putting mine up on Ebay tomorrow, if you want you can send me an email and I'll send you a link to the auction. I don't know anything about Chinese music so I can't say much about how well they play except that they are playable.

Caligium wrote:

Does anyone know where I can order one for the same price (or around the same price) that is for playing?

Try this:

         http://larkinam.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_ … +Flutes_E_



eB

The first of these vids has a master playing a .... low pitch Dizi? Really punching out the vibrating membrane thing.

Chinese music: Flute, Banjo, Citer and Erhu

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=uiOgOQcWG … re=related

And then another master playing solo bird music:

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=RvPi56INS … re=related

and a full modern traditional orchestra featuring ERHU with a dizi interlude:

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj13KU3SA … re=related

A fine performance on a big Dizi:

     http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xft92cJB … re=related

In the first minute or so you can see in closeup the hole setup, with the relative position of the membrane.

eB