The choice of flute should be considered from the quality and category of flute. The quality of the flute depends not only on the quality of the flute tube itself, but also on the level of production. When purchasing, you should check:
1, check the bamboo quality of the flute. The flute tube should be made of solid bamboo (bamboo grain is old), with thin bamboo grain and straight and round tube body. Generally, the head of flute body is slightly thicker than the tail, but the difference should not be too big. The flute has a medium thickness. The inner wall of flute tube is flat and smooth. There is no moth, crack and other phenomena in the whole body. Beautiful and generous appearance. These requirements can be identified by vision.
2. Check the pitch of the flute. The method is to play according to the standard flute or musical instrument (such as sheng, accordion, organ, etc.) as far as possible. ). First check the tonic and barrel sounds of the flute with the D and A sounds of the standard flute or fixed instrument. If the flute and the standard sound are the same height or form an octave relationship, then the height adjustment of the flute is accurate. After the tonic is determined, check the accuracy of all the sounds of the flute according to the interval relationship. You can also play overtones to see if it is easy to generate and clean up. Checking overtones is also a good way to check the pitch of real sounds.
3. Check the volume of the flute. Generally speaking, the loudest one is better. The loud flute is loud and vibrates strongly. Sometimes your fingers will feel numb when you play.
4. Check the timbre of the flute. The general requirements for timbre are loose, thick, round and bright, which depends on the quality of the flute itself, on the other hand, it is closely related to the film pasting technology and playing skills.
5. Check the sensitivity of the flute. Generally speaking, it is better to exhale without dull pronunciation, and the sooner you react, the better.
The same bamboo six-hole diaphragm flute can be divided into three categories, each of which has a variety of flutes with different tones. How to choose? Generally speaking, it is more suitable for beginners to choose a flute in e or f key. Because this kind of flute is easy to play and has a moderate pitch, it is also commonly used in playing. If conditions permit, you want to choose more flutes. Then besides the flutes in E and F, you can also choose A Qu Di in D and A Band-Aid in G, which are also commonly used. With these three flutes, when you learn how to tune on the same flute, you can usually play various tunes.
Flute selection 2
Traditionally, bamboo flutes can be divided into three grades: high, medium and low. This paper introduces the selection of high-grade flutes, which can be summarized as follows:
(1) Diandian
The bamboo flute with good growth and long age is compact in structure, thick in fiber, thick in pipe wall and hard in bamboo. Bamboo flutes made of it are generally heavy, so it feels heavy in your hand.
(2) Look
The flute body is slender and symmetrical. The thickness from the air hole to the flute tail is moderate. Seen from the cross section of the pipe wall of the blowing hole or the sound pressure hole, the bamboo flute has thick fibers, dark color, compact structure, neat and clear arrangement, moderate pipe wall thickness (conventional requirements: Qu Di is about 0.4cm, flute is about 0.3cm), and the inside of the pipe wall is cylindrical. One thing to note here is that western musical instruments are often made of metal, which can be combined into different alloys and shapes according to people's needs at will, so the musical instruments made are very standardized and standardized. Take the flute as an example, because it is made by standardized machinery, its cavity can be made into a pure cylinder. The bamboo flute in China is made of bamboo, which grows naturally. People can't standardize and unify it materially, and sometimes they can only be helpless and obedient to the diversity and uniqueness of nature. Therefore, compared with western flutes, the lumen of bamboo flutes is difficult to be purely cylindrical, and a slightly irregular oval shape that looks less obvious is ok. If the cavity garden is like an egg or a flat garden, and the mistakes are obvious when playing ultra-high, overtone and octave, then this flute cannot be classified as high-grade.
When making Qu Di and bass flute, the length of natural bamboo is not enough, so it is necessary to add a piece of bamboo above the blowhole as a joint. Please have a look. Is the bonding at the joint firm and smooth? Are the thicknesses the same? Is there any deviation in color? On the issue of engraving poems and lettering, it is difficult to make a unified font, but it needs to be skilled in knife work, and the font is thick and powerful, and there can be no wrong sentences and typos. As for the two-stage flute with copper sleeve, we need to have a look. Is the copper sleeve joint smooth and tight? Is it firmly bonded? Is there degumming? Pull it again to see if the tightness of the double copper sleeve is moderate.
(3) Blow
Pick up the flute and blow it at will according to your own habits, commonly known as "taking the flute." Listen to the timbre. A high-grade bamboo flute (taking Qu Di as an example) should have a rounded bass and a crisp and bright treble. Don't underestimate this "flute", as the saying goes: "An expert will know if he has it as soon as he makes a move." Just a few blows, in front of experts, the player's level and the advantages and disadvantages of this flute will be revealed in all likelihood.
When it is inconvenient to use the tuner, play a piece of commonly used or familiar music and listen to the feeling of melody. Take Qu Di in the key of C as an example: first blow Gusuhang with a drum sound of "5", then "Partridge Flying" with a drum sound of "2", and then "357" with a drum sound of "6", all of which are called "1". Is the melody smooth, smooth and pleasant? If the answers to the above steps are yes, then you can say that you have chosen a really high-grade boutique flute. There are two suggestions for reference:
1. There are some specification data about tank body thickness, inner diameter and pipe wall thickness. Of course, we can also increase or decrease according to our performance level and actual needs. Take Qu Di in D key as an example: if it is used for song and dance accompaniment, accompaniment, ensemble, band ensemble, etc. Then it is enough to use a flute with a thin bamboo wall or a thin flute body, otherwise it is enough to use a flute made of conventional data. If most of them are traditional music in the middle and low-pitched areas, such as Wu Opera in Zhejiang, Sizhu and Kunqu Opera in Jiangnan, Shanghai and so on. Or you need to strengthen the training of basic skills and improve your skills, then choose a bamboo flute with a slightly larger inner diameter, thicker pipe wall, thicker flute body and heavier weight. This kind of bamboo flute is loud in volume, strong in personality and rich in timbre, but it is difficult to play, which requires the player's effective control ability and high performance level to use it freely, especially when playing high notes, if there is no certain skill to control the mouth strength and breath. For high-level players, if they haven't practiced bamboo flute for a long time, or they are tired, the pitch will be slightly lower when playing this kind of bamboo flute. Therefore, many professional bamboo flute players are used to setting the pitch of bamboo flute slightly higher than the standard sound used by the band before using this kind of bamboo flute, so that they can play with ease.
We know that in ancient weapons, a good hard bow has strong elasticity, can shoot far and accurately, but it needs an excellent archer with strong arm strength and good eyesight to fully draw the bow, accurately aim at the target, shoot the arrow far and make the best use of it. By the same token, a truly high-quality boutique flute needs a high-level flute player or an experienced one to select, identify and play, so as to produce the best listening effect.
2. According to the calculation, every time the temperature increases or decreases by 10 degrees, the flute will increase or decrease for 30 minutes. Take Shanghai as an example, the highest temperature in hot summer can reach above 35 degrees Celsius, while the lowest temperature in cold winter will drop to MINUS 5 degrees, and the temperature difference between winter and summer is as high as 40 degrees. According to the law of average, the whole tone is 200 tones. Then, 30×4 = 120 tones, which is more than half a tone. Imagine that you have a flute, and it is very satisfying to cooperate with the band in summer. Then, cooperating with the band in winter will only make you sad. Therefore, I think that in the cooperation with the band, in order to ensure the normal play of intonation and performance level, we can't just use one flute or a set of flutes with the same tune all year round. Especially for solo, there must be at least three flutes-one in winter, one in summer and two in spring and autumn.
A newly bought bamboo flute, no matter how well made and how accurate the pitch calibration is, has to go through a process of constant adaptation and constant "fine tuning" for the player. In other words, you must play it often, and if possible, it is best to use it often in the cooperation of the band. In this way, you can gradually know the performance of your bamboo flute like the back of your hand, and it is handy to use.
When you have a satisfactory bamboo flute, please remember to take good care of it. Usually, after the flute is blown, it should be put into the flute box or flute bag at any time. First, be hygienic and free from dust. Secondly, it can also prevent the flute from cracking in cold winter or dry north.