Learn how to make a handmade flute

The flute has a long history and is loved by people, so how should a handmade flute be made? Below I have organized the production method of handmade flute, for your reading reference.

Handmade flute production method: select bamboo

There are many materials that can be used to make the flute. Broadly speaking, as long as a certain caliber of the tube can be. Like metal pipe, wooden pipe, jade pipe, bone pipe, plastic pipe and so on. But the most commonly used is still bamboo.

There are a lot of bamboo suitable for making flutes and pipes, such as bitter bamboo, purple bamboo, light bamboo, phoenix-eye bamboo, Xiangfei bamboo, and Meilu bamboo, etc. Among them, bitter bamboo and purple bamboo are the most popular. Among them, bitter bamboo and purple bamboo are the most common.

Bitter bamboo is also called umbrella bamboo, green snake branch. The bamboo shoots are bitter and inedible. It is mainly distributed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and Fujian in the Yangtze River basin. In the mountainous areas of Anji and Yuhang in Zhejiang Province, it is also known as the flute bamboo, which is the ideal bamboo material for flute making.

The purple bamboo is also called black bamboo, ink bamboo, Guanyin bamboo. Distributed in Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and other places. In Anhui, Jiangxi, farmers go to the wedding banquet, often send the custom of purple bamboo, take? Send son? The meaning of congratulations.

The selection of high-quality and production requirements of the old bamboo, is one of the keys to the production of the flute. Generally choose three to five years old bamboo. To determine the age of the bamboo, you can generally observe from the appearance of the bamboo. Young bamboo, short exposure to light, green skin, no luster, hairy bamboo joints, and coarse knots. Especially young bamboo, can also be found at the root of the bamboo molt bamboo. The old bamboo, light time is long, the bamboo skin yellowish green, or even red, the bamboo body bright, fine knots. In addition, from the color of the bamboo leaves can also identify the old and young bamboo. Young bamboo leaves, bright green. The old bamboo leaves are dark green, even with yellow.

The bamboo is cut in the winter of every year. It is commonly known as cutting bamboo. At this time, the moisture content of the bamboo is low, and it is not easy to insect moth. According to the production requirements, select the diameter of roughly 2 to 3 centimeters, moderate pitch, bamboo body round, uniform old bamboo. After felling, the bamboo is cut along the nodes and the root nodes are too thick and the pitch is too short, and the tip nodes are too thin and have gutter branches. There are only about five sections in a bamboo plant that can be used for flute making. Experienced people tend to choose the one or two sections that are just long enough to make the holes for the headjoint. The other sections, although longer in pitch, often feel worse after drying. After drying and processing, the diameter of bamboo generally decreases by 1 to 2 millimeters. Therefore, if the outside diameter of a D-flute is around 25 mm, then you should choose 26 mm bamboo.

The purple bamboo is usually black and shiny or old bamboo with white frost and moss. There is a kind of skin color like eel (called eel bamboo), and a kind of skin color yellow with grains of black dots (called sesame bamboo), are purple bamboo in the top grade. I have foraged to a dragon purple bamboo, very rare. Is the green vine coiled in the purple bamboo, formed by long-term illumination of a circle of natural purple, very beautiful. Made of xiao, let friends to? Looting? Go. The purple bamboo from the root, to have a gutter branch cut off, stay about 120 centimeters or so of a section.

Cut down the fresh bamboo, also known as live bamboo. It cannot be used for production immediately. It should be stored for at least one year for natural drying. During the storage period, attention should be paid to rain, sun, wind and mold. Customarily, the bamboo material is divided into bass flute material (three holes for F, G, A, bB, etc.), the curve flute material (C, D, E, etc.), bang flute material (F, G, A, etc.), the small flute material (bB, C, D, etc.) several kinds. The pipes are divided into the hole xiao material, qin xiao material (the same key name, thickness is different).

Before making, it is very important to choose the right material. The so-called good material, refers to the ratio of heavy, feel good material, and then thickness, thickness, length, roundness to meet the requirements. If it is purple bamboo, it is also good to consider the color, pattern, pitch, etc.. For the maker, it is a great pleasure to select the ideal bamboo. It doesn't matter if you get covered in sweat and dust. Because the birth of a good flute starts with a good material.

How to make a handmade flute: making a blank

After choosing the right material, the next step is to make a blank. The process of making a flute is divided into baking, reaming the tail section, cleaning the bore, planing the skin, polishing, and joining the tail, etc.

First of all, the flute is made by the handmade recorder.

The first is baking and prying bamboo. This is a very technical work. In addition to special tools, but also a long period of practice. The purpose of baking, in addition to facilitating the processing of prying straight, but also has the bamboo water pulp baked dry, so that the role of the bamboo more solid. The mastery of the fire, not only on the color appearance, but also on the future made of flute pipe sound quality.

In the prying straight processing, experienced masters can also pry the less round bamboo garden. The process of baking and prying is repeated at least two times. Some of the bamboo nature "stubborn", pry straight placed a few days later, and then bent, the workers called "wake up", but also have to be processed again, until it "pry sweet". Interestingly, "strong head stubborn brain" bamboo, often good bamboo, pry straight process is easier to pry crack.

In the production process, there is a local re-bending place, but also at any time under the alcohol lamp carefully local baking, pry straight. After prying straight, with cold water "cold knot, it is not easy to re-bend.

With "corrective overkill" to the analogy of prying bamboo, is very appropriate, experienced workers, often pry the bamboo slightly over the head, so that later rebent, just in a straight state. Therefore, the performance of bamboo to have an understanding. Opened a hole in the bamboo re-bending, generally no longer bake pry, so as not to cause exclusion crack.

After prying the bamboo straight, white bamboo {bitter bamboo} to cut off the head section, the length of the appropriate appropriate length, the length is not enough, but also must be connected to the tail. The tail section is usually retained, reamed with a knife, filed flat. The bamboo bark is shaved off, polished to a smooth finish, and the inner garbage is removed.

Recently, there is the practice of retaining the bamboo bark, because the bark is hard, not easy to crack, and the bamboo pattern is beautiful, ornamental, made into a flute, has its own a kind of simple and natural flavor.

The bamboo itself is quite beautiful, do not have to plan the skin, but the inner section of the bamboo must be shoveled flat, polished. Cut off the excess. If you make a xiao, the mouthpiece end retains the knuckle cap. Nine knots are retained, commonly known as the nine-jointed xiao. There is a folk saying of eight fists and nine joints. Some zi zhu nine sections are too long, so cut off one section and make it eight sections, there is no harm. To make a purple bamboo flute, generally retain six sections.

Handmade flute production method: fixed

After the completion of the process of making blanks, then enter the fixed, line process.

The first step is to mark the position of the mouthpiece. The location of the mouthpiece must be determined by what to do the tune, although in the selection of materials, has been initially decided to make what the tune. However, after baking, peeling, polishing, the situation will change, the original intention to do the tune, may not feel right, need to rethink.

To decide what is the most appropriate tone for a piece of material, one. To consider the inner diameter, whether the thickness is appropriate. Two. Consider whether the length is long enough. Each key has its own suitable conditions. Although due to different requirements, there will be differences, but the difference will not be very large. If the key of G is suitable, it will not be ideal if it is made into the key of F or A. If the key of G is suitable, the key of A will not be ideal. Inexperienced, often for the wrong key, open the wrong mouthpiece position, waste a good material and chagrin.

In addition to the key factor, but also from the bamboo flat, round situation to consider. The mouthpiece of the xiao, usually open in the flat part, the flute on the contrary, open in the side of the part, so there are? Side flute flat xiao? The flute's mouthpiece is usually opened on the flat part, while the flute is opened on the side. The left and right hand flutes are not the same, and so on. Although these factors are subtle, but the bad mouthpiece angle, will affect the performance.

If the bamboo is purple, you should also consider the concavity and convexity of the joints, the arrangement of the tone holes with the joints, and even the color and pattern of the bamboo. Under the premise of meeting the reasonable position of the mouthpiece, try to arrange the raised side of the bamboo joints on the back of the open hole, and at the same time, try to arrange the side of the beautiful color and pattern on the open hole side. Bamboo joints and holes should be arranged properly, the holes try to avoid the section, especially the membrane holes, can not be arranged in the section.

In short, the flute piper sets the tone, the mouthpiece positioning is a very careful thing, need to weigh from various aspects. Open the wrong mouthpiece position, as? The wrong medication? That way. Therefore, even if the veteran producer, in setting the tone, the position of the mouthpiece, will be repeatedly thought, not easy to start. It is not an exaggeration to say that the positioning of the mouthpiece is like setting the life of the flute.

When positioning the mouthpiece, the length of the base note and the length of the tail are actually taken into account. The tail is generally about one-fifth of the length of the base note. If it is too long or too short, the sound quality will be affected.

The inner diameter of the flute, is the production of a very concerned about the matter, in the inner diameter calculation formula, the musical instrument industry predecessor Mr. Liu Heyun put forward according to the 2 open 18th method, combined with the deep theoretician Mr. Tu Shijian Mr. Liu's D key flute inner diameter changed to 1. 7CM, according to the common ratio, the inner diameter of the various keys are basically very appropriate.

When digging the hole, the mouthpiece can be temporarily smaller, leaving room for later adjustment. The size and shape of the mouthpiece should be varied according to the needs of intonation, tone and volume, and should not be stereotyped.

The position of the stopper should be such that the flute can accurately produce overtones, as an inappropriate stopper and position will affect the sound quality of the flute. The bore of the flute should be measured accurately and can also be corrected by observing the roundness of the bore to provide a reference for the positioning of the fundamental.

The length of the fundamental note of each key of the flute can be determined by the ? The three-part gain/loss method can be used to find out the length of the base note. can be found, or the common ratio of the 12th power of 2 can be used to find it, which is similar to the actual production.

The inner diameter of the flute can be referred to the inner diameter of the upward fifth flute. If it is a zither xiao the inner diameter can also be smaller, so that, and the ancient zither sound is very harmonious. The length of the base note of the xiao can be referred to the same degree of the flute, if you want to accurately find the length of the base note of the xiao, you can also use? The second tuning method can also be used to find out the exact length of the base note. The second tuning method is one of my favorite methods for finding the length of the base note of the xiao. The second tuning method is based on my previous work, and the accuracy is almost 100%, I passed it on to Dong Xuehua and Huang Weidong.

The length of the flute's fundamental can also be determined by the quadratic tuning method. The second tuning method can also be used to find the length of the base note. The flute's base note length can also be determined by the "secondary tuning method". In actual production, make a few sets of flutes suitable for various temperatures with several diameter specifications? look? According to the condition of the bamboo, it is practical to locate the fundamental tone against different looks. Calculating and Applying the Frequency of the Transverse Flute by Mr. Songting Zhao is very helpful for flute making.

After determining the position of the fundamental tone, empirically delineate the two ? front exit holes? The two ? auxiliary tone holes? are about 2 centimeters below the base tone holes. These holes are not audio requirements, but have a close relationship to the high notes, if the super blowing high notes have obstacles, often is to adjust the size of the two holes, hole spacing, or adjust the length of the tail.

The size of the holes in the flute is based on the length of a straight line from the center of the mouthpiece to the base note, in a certain ratio.

Regarding the sound rhythm of the flute, the modern music giants Zheng Hajiwen, Yang Yinliu, Zheng Yusun, Mr. Zhao Songting, etc., have made a deep study, summed up a lot of effective theory. Mr. Yang Yinliu personally conducted hundreds of experiments. In his "Talking about flute sound" written in 1947 and other papers about flute and xiao, he made a deep exploration of the fingerings of flute and xiao, especially the problem of flute rhythm. After the seventies, he wrote "Pipe Laws Defense" and "Three Laws Examination", which are the summaries of his lifelong research on Chinese music laws. It is a summary of his lifelong study of Chinese music law, and it is of great significance as a guide to the production of flutes and pipes.

In the production, there are also with? The line board? This kind of tool is used to set the hole position. The scribe is based on the principle of proportionality, and is operated according to different situations, with the use of a "lift" or "drop". Lifting and lowering? The technique of "up and down" is used to delineate the hole position. It is said that Mr. Ding Fuyuan and Mr. Zhang Zhanming were the first to use the scribing board in Shanghai. Later, the national musical instrument factories in Shanghai and Suzhou also used this tool in the production of flutes, and many flute factories in Tonglingqiao also used this tool. Production practice has proved that this is a very practical and efficient tool. As for who invented it, there is no way to prove it.

Handmade flute production method: open the hole school sound

The flute piper each sound hole position is determined, the next is to drill holes. Choose the right size of three-pronged drill or plum blossom drill. Although there is now a hole digging machine, but master a hand of exquisite hole digging technology is still very important kung fu. There are two kinds of hole-digging techniques, one is the knife holding method, which is passed down in Suzhou, Shanghai, and in recent years in Tonglingqiao, and the other is the knife pinching method. The two types of knives have different digging techniques and different shapes of knives. Suzhou, Shanghai and Tonglingqiao belong to the same school of flute making, with a clear line of succession. This school is the most influential and powerful in modern China. Many famous flute makers, such as Zhou Laiyou, Xu Liusi, Chang Dunming, Chen Jianping, Zou Xusheng, Zhou Xiaonan, Jia Yaoliang, Wang Yiliang, Zhou Linsheng, Shen Jueqing, Yang Liangen, Zhao Jingguo, Dong Xuehua, Huang Weidong, etc., come from this school.

The digging of the holes should be synchronized with the proofreading, and the holes should be dug purposefully according to the condition of the holes. This can effectively adjust the pitch and sound quality. After the holes are dug, the overall sound of the flute should be carefully tuned.

? Audio meter? s use greatly facilitates tuning. However, do not blow a tone and right the instrument, it is not easy to tune the tone. Generally speaking, the audio meter can be used to debug the pitch of the fundamental tone. The overall intonation of the flute is still dependent on proper blowing and a sensitive ear to identify it. Therefore, blowing and hearing become very important.

How to make a handmade flute: finishing

After completing the tuning of the dug holes, it is time to move on to the painting and finishing stage. Purple bamboo flute is relatively easy, just cut off the excess bamboo part, paint the inner chamber, set the bone ornaments, polish the exterior, engraved with poems, tuning names, signatures, packaging, and then finished.

The white bamboo flute also needs to be blanked, primed, laced, lacquered, etc. The bass flute, the curved flute, etc. almost always need to be connected to a section of the head, commonly known as? The head of the bamboo flute is almost always needed to be connected to the head, commonly known as "connecting the blanks". In some cases, it is also necessary to connect the tail when making blanks.

To join the blank, you need to choose a bamboo material with an outer diameter, color, pattern, and garden similar to that of the flute you are joining. Tail joint also consider the inner diameter, thickness is the same. Whether it is a joint or a tail, it should be arranged in the part of the tie line. In this way, the joints will not be visible after the threads are tied and lacquered. The joint can be made of thicker material, and the thickness of the top and the end should not be too different, otherwise, the big head and small tail will not look good. The whole flute should be balanced with the membrane hole as the center. In short, it should meet the requirements of firmness, balance and beauty.

The billet should be glued with a strong and firm glue. When gluing, the headjoint should be glued straight, not crooked. In winter, you should also know the relationship between the temperature and the drying time of the glue. After the glue has dried, the joints can be sanded and smoothed, and then the inner chamber and outer primer can be applied.

From the sound quality considerations, the bore in addition to the requirements of smooth, but also need to have a certain degree of hardness and ? Damping? Requirements. There is a kind of bamboo called? Iron heart bamboo? The hardness of the bore is very good pronunciation, very popular. The paints used for the bore are usually liquid insecticide, nitro lacquer, and lacquer. The bore, the plug face, the crevices, and the walls of all the sound holes are coated. Before, can also be in all the holes on the wall of the drip irrigation? 502? glue, which is anti-cracking, very useful. After the bore, the sound hole after finishing the flute, its **** vibration significantly improved, the gas to the sound out, the fingers have a numb feeling, players call it? Very through?

To the flute appearance on the primer, usually have the color, black and so on. The primer is usually made of liquid shellac or mixed with dyes. When the primer is dry and solid, fine grinding, and then coated with ? Nitro lacquer? or 685 varnish. Before applying the primer, the body of the flute must be polished so as not to leave any traces of processing. I once saw a flute lacquered by Master Chen Jianping, which was so shiny that it looked like it was wrapped in a layer of transparent cellophane. After the flute is coated inside and out, the bamboo and air are isolated, which is useful for protecting the flute and improving the tone.

Decoration is a traditional craft. A flute is decorated with polished jade-like bone ornaments and horn ornaments, which are more ornamental. Bone ornaments are made of sturdy cow claw bone, processed, but also after degreasing, bleaching. Horn ornaments are made of cow horns. There are also jade ornaments made of jade. Mr. Shao Zhipei of Qingtian, Zhejiang Province, used the famous Qingtian jade to make dragon flute, phoenix xiao, jade ocarina, and xiao, as well as string pulling, plucking, and percussion. As well as string pulling, plucking, percussion and other jade series of folk musical instruments, at home and abroad has caused great repercussions.

The flute xiao's tie line, has its own certain pattern. Usually, Jinlun thread is used to tie the thread. Most of the shabu lacquers are made of nitro jujube red lacquer. In the past, custom-made silk strings were used, and shabu-shabu was a raw lacquer. The longer the year, the brighter and more colorful the lacquer was, and it was not easy to come off. The color of the lacquer became brighter and more vivid as the years went by, and it was not easy to peel off. The pens used for shabu-shabu are specially made? Hairbrush Nowadays, it is possible to use an oil brush. You should shabu-shabu no less than three times, and the lacquer should be slightly wider than the thread, so that it does not show the bottom of the thread. Before shabu-shabu, you can drop some 502 glue on the line, so that the line is not easy to fall off.