Thread: New Flute Day

A Chinese Xiao.

I was on the look out for a shakuhachi but seeing as they appear pretty difficult to play even half decently and can be pretty expensive for a top quality one (considering it's just a bamboo root), I opted for it's Chinese ancestor, the xiao.

It has a nice warm timbre in it's lower end, reminiscient of a deep bansuri, whilst in the higher pitches it moves towards its tranverse brother, the dizi. I got a six-hole version as opposed to the eight so fingering notes outside the G Ionian tuning requires more half-holing. (Surprising considering I can get nearly all 12 diatonic notes plus slight inflections out of my six-hole suling with just cross-fingering except for having to half-hole the bottom hole).

It's made from lovely dark bamboo and has a poem in Chinese etched into it. If anyone can translate it, it'd be appreciated.

Translation reads: "This flute is not for fans of Black Sabbath".

Originally Posted by HarpsichordConcerto

Translation reads: "This flute is not for fans of Black Sabbath".

That doesn't make sense. Surely people who aren't fans of Black Sabbath, aren't fans of music.

Here's some Sabbath featuring a flute (played by Iommi) for you to sink your teeth into, HC.

Originally Posted by Argus

Here's some Sabbath featuring a flute (played by Iommi) for you to sink your teeth into, HC.

Thanks. Like I often say when I hear good music, utterly civilised stuff. Tommy Iommi will probably be remembered well, perhaps even more than folks around the same time though in different genres, like John Cage???!!!! Both were writing much music, say during the 70s and 80s.