Chinese flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

s come in various types. They include

Transverse Flutes:

• Dizi (and its varieties such as the qudi and bangdi; primary transverse flutes, usually made of bamboo and distinctively has a buzzing membrane)
• Koudi
  Koudi
  The koudi is a very small Chinese flute made from bamboo. It was invented in 1971 by the late dizi master Yu Xunfa .-Overview:The instrument comes in two sizes...
  
   (a small center-blown mouth flute with open-ends)
• Tuliang (a large center-blown flute with open-ends)
• Chi (an ancient center-blown transverse flute with closed ends and front finger holes.)
• Hengxiao (dizi without membrane)
• Xindi
  Xindi
  The Xindi is the collective term for six fictional races in the science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise. They are native to the planet Xindus in a region of space known as the Delphic Expanse...
  
   (fully chromatic dizi without membrane)
• Jiajian Di (keyed dizi without membrane)

End-Blown Flutes (air split directly on mouthpiece):

• Xiao
  Xiao (flute)
  The xiao is a Chinese vertical end-blown flute. It is generally made of dark brown bamboo . It is also sometimes called dòngxiāo , dòng meaning "hole." An ancient name for the xiāo is shùdí The xiao is a Chinese vertical end-blown flute. It is generally made of dark brown bamboo (called...
  
   (end-blown
  End-blown flute
  The end-blown flute or rim-blown flute is a keyless woodwind instrument played by directing an airstream against the sharp edge of the upper end of a tube. Unlike a recorder or tin whistle, there isn't a ducted flue voicing, also known as a fipple. Most rim-blown flutes are "oblique" flutes, being...
  
   vertical bamboo flute)
• Gudi
  Gudi (instrument)
  The Jiahu gǔdí is the oldest known musical instrument from China, dating back to around 6000 BC. Gudi literally means "bone flute".- History :...
  
  , an ancient vertical flute made from the bones of large birds
• Paixiao
  Paixiao
  The paixiao is an ancient Chinese wind instrument, a form of pan pipes. It is no longer used, having died out in ancient times, although in the 20th century it was reconstructed...
  
   (pan pipes with distinctive notched or curved blowholes to allow for greater expression)
• Xun (clay globular flute)

(Uyghur

Uyghur people

The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...

 and Mongolian

Mongols

Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...

 minorities also play a version of the Turkish

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

 ney

Ney

The ney is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Middle Eastern music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. It is a very ancient instrument, with depictions of ney players appearing in wall paintings in the Egyptian pyramids and actual neys being found...

.)

Fipple

Fipple

A fipple is a constricted mouthpiece common to many end-blown woodwind instruments, such as the tin whistle and the recorder. These instruments are known variously as fipple flutes, duct flutes, or tubular-ducted flutes.-How it works:...

 Flutes (air split through whistle flue duct):

• Jiexiao "Sister xiao" (one of many forms of recorder
  Recorder
  The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
  
  -style flutes)
• Dongdi (special recorder
  Recorder
  The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
  
  -style flute with additional internal reed)
• Paidi (fipple pipes)
• Taodi and Wudu
  Wudu
  Wuḍhu is the Islamic procedure for washing parts of the body using water often in preparation for formal prayers...
  
   (Chinese ocarina
  Ocarina
  The ocarina is an ancient flute-like wind instrument. Variations do exist, but a typical ocarina is an enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouthpiece that projects from the body...
  
  .)

Free-Reed flutes (use free-reed instead of splitting the airway, but otherwise play in a similar capacity to flute in terms of breath support and fingering.):

• Bawu
  Bawu
  The bawu is a Chinese wind instrument. Although shaped like a flute, it is actually a free reed instrument, with a single metal reed. It is played in a transverse manner...
  
   (transverse free-reed flute)
• Hulusi
  Hulusi
  The hulusi or cucurbit flute is a free reed wind instrument from China. It is held vertically and has three bamboo pipes which pass through a gourd wind chest; the center pipe has finger holes and the outer two are typically drone pipes...
  
   (vertical gourd free-reed flute normally with one or two drone pipes)

Chinese flutes are generally made from bamboo

Bamboo

Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....

 and belong to the bamboo classification of Chinese music, although they can be (and have been) made of other materials such as jade

Jade

Jade is an ornamental stone.The term jade is applied to two different metamorphic rocks that are made up of different silicate minerals:...

.

External links

• Ron Korb's Asian Flute Gallery (features descriptions and photos of the dizi, xun, and other Chinese wind instruments

• Chinese flute (dizi) finger chart

• Extensive displays of Hulusi flute and Bawu flute