David Chu; Flute specialist and owner of Sideblown Technologies

A few weeks ago I travelled down to Boston for some meetings and to visit some flute makers. An interesting fact is that most of the classical concert flute makers in the USA are located in the Boston area.  The older established companies like Wm. S. Haynes and Verne Q. Powell along with the newer companies like Burkart, Brannen, Arista, Emmanuel, Williams and Nagahara are all within 50 miles of each other. The advantage for this is that they can share a lot of the same suppliers and the same highly skilled work force. Many technicians leave one company to work at another and never have to move. Others even start their own businesses making complete flutes, providing service freelance or specializing in making peripherals.

One such person is David Chu. Originally from Hong Kong, he first came to Boston to study classical flute at the New England Conservatory. He later moved to Phoenix where he wrote music for film and television as well as playing and contracting orchestras for film music sessions.

He then returned to New England where he began working for Burkart Flutes and Piccolos where he learned the trade of flute making.  After that he worked for Arista Flutes and eventually became the General Manager of Wm. S. Haynes Company.

Now David works has created his own company called Sideblown Technologies repairing modern flutes as well as restoring historical flute by such makers as Louis Lot and Bonneville. These great French flute makers flourished during the 1860s to 1930s. Some of those flutes are pitched at        A 438 and others have had the holes repositioned to play at A440.

David has also created his own line of hardwood and bamboo headjoints.  I bought one of his bamboo headjoints that clip onto the Boehm system concert flute many years ago.  I have used it quite a bit for studio work. It is very handy when a composer needs an exotic tone but the piece has a lot of chromaticism.

The headjoints David is fashioning out of the hardwoods like grenadilla and boxwood are particularly excellent. These headjoints have wonderful sound and crisp articulation.  He offers them with and without the wooden lipplate.

Restored historic French flutes and newly made hardwood head joints

For more information please look at David’s website http://www.sideblown.com which among other things is a great resource for used instruments and other flute related sites.

In early February I traveled to Varanasi, India, where I was staying in the home of my teacher, Pandit Vikash Maharaj. a maestro of the Sarod (a fretless, plucked-string instrument more akin to the guitar than the flute). I originally sought his guidance in 2001 to learn how to apply Indian melodic ideas to my guitar playing. In the last several years, however, I’ve been working on applying sarod-style techniques to bansuri playing. The process brings up some very interesting ideas that I think anyone can apply to their own studies.

When playing any instrument, there are phrases that seem to come naturally as a result of the way that the human hand interfaces with the physical tasks involved with making music on it. I think it’s a good idea to learn to make the most out the types of ideas that come naturally on your instrument. I also think it’s a good idea to try to break out of your patterns by emulating the styles of other instruments. At Berklee College of Music, we were encouraged to learn saxophone and piano riffs on guitar as a way of expanding our melodic vocabulary beyond the usual “guitaristic” types of ideas. When I started learning bansuri with Vikash Maharaj, I decided to try to apply the same concept to bansuri playing.

Sarod players use only two fingers of their left hand for playing notes on the fingerboard. This is a self-imposed limitation that actually leads to enormous creativity. While deprived of the guitar-like ability to play complex shapes that are only possible with all four fingers, sarod players compensate by developing a very complex rhythmic language enabled by a fierce right-hand picking technique. Simply put, sarod style is fewer notes played with incredible rhythm.

Lets say that you’re going to play on one string with only two fingers. For the purposes of this example, let’s ignore the fact that you can play up and down the fingerboard. Thus, you would have the open string (no fingers) and two more notes that you can add (one for each finger). How many ways can you play those 3 notes? Let’s take a look at how complex this can actually be. Try choosing 3 notes on your flute and playing through each line below, with each note given equal duration (i.e. all 8th notes). Go at whatever speed you’re comfortable with and repeat each line several times before moving on:

11111112
11111121
11111211
11112111
11121111
11211111
12111111
21111111

11111212
11112121
11121211
11212111
12121111
21211111

11112113
11121131
11211311
12113111
21131111

Notice how each rhythm feels different? Which ones sound good to you? Now try again and substitute 3 for 2 and 2 for 3. Or substitute 3 for 1. Or chop off the last note and work with 7 beat phrases (or 6 or 5 or 13 for that matter). All of a sudden the permutations multiply and endless combinations become possible – with only 3 notes! And this is really just the beginning of the kinds of patterns you can explore. Make up your own and try them!

One favorite of mine is to use the rhythmic template of 3 beats + 3 beats + 2 beats as in:

12312312
13213212
12313212
13212312

12212212
13313313
12213312
etc.

Turn them upside down and it sounds like this:

32132132
31231232
32131232
31232132

32232232
31131131
32231132
etc.

You can also try them backwards or upside down and backwards…and any other way you can think of!

The idea of all of this is not to reduce music to a math problem. The point is to use your brain to create variations of an idea, then try them and see how they sound. Most of them you will forget, but a few of them will stick and become part of your vocabulary. With practice, you will be able to improvise with these kinds of ideas in a real-time musical environment – often with very satisfying results. When you start with a simple concept and explore variations of it within an improvisational paragraph, the other musicians and the listeners can follow your thought process easily and you will have communicated something. When that energy comes back to you amplified through the creativity of the other musicians and the feelings of the audience, that’s what we live for!

I hope you find this useful and inspiring. If so, please let me know, and I’ll be sure to follow up with more. In my next post, I’ll get into applying sarod-style right-hand techniques to flute playing as well as telling some more about my trip and some exciting career developments that have taken place very recently.

Chinese Mouth Organs, Sheng and Hulu si

In the photo above there are some beautiful examples of Chinese mouth organs. The ones on the back wall are multi-reed pipes called sheng and the gourd shaped one in the front has only two pipes and is called the hulu si. The hulu si has one pipe that is simply a drone and the other has finger holes that can play melody. 

Chinese transverse flutes (dizi)

Here is a beautifully carved jade dizi (Chinese transverse flute). Notice the interesting finger hole pattern in the flute to the right. At first look it doesn’t make any sense. Some Chinese players play the flute right to left instead of left to right and this finger pattern might be a strange hybrid of both.

Chinese Xun (egg shaped ocarinas)

The xun is an egg shaped ocarina made of clay. This flute does not have a fipple like a South American ocarina but instead the player has to blow across the top like on a soda bottle. This flute produces a beautiful earthy tone and employs all the fingers of the player except the pinkie on the right hand. Even both thumbs are used.

Double reeds (Suona, Guanzi)

In this display case we have some double reeds. On the right we have a very ornate suona. This instrument has a trumpet like bell and rather a kazoo type tone.  Almost like a coloratura soprano cross bred with a mosquito. On the middle stand we have the guanzi which has sounds similar to a saxophone.  In 2002, I was involved with a concert in China where we did collaboration with a guanzi player who was studying jazz and we performed a piece in the style of George Benson’s Affirmation.

pitched bamboo pipes

Aside from a comprehensive offering of woodwinds, the District Museum also has a great complement of strings and percussion. The string collection includes bowed, hammered and plucked instruments of all shapes and sizes.  Some instruments normally the dimensions of  a small banjo were the size of double basses and there was also a wide array of gongs and metallophones.  

Qibao - Ancient Water Village

The Minheng District Museum claims the artefacts predate the Qing Dynasty (1616 – 1911). The instruments are displayed in simple glass cases with descriptions in Chinese only.   In this display you can see a series of end blown flutes. The ones on the top row and on the bottom right are notched flutes similar to the Japanese shakuhachi. The others on the lower right are similar to the Ney or modern day Xiao. The flutes in the front are an ancient set of panpipes and the stand to the left appear to be made of animal bone.  (to be continued)

end blown flutes

The Oriental Angels

In 2007, I had the privilege of playing a concert at the recently relocated and beautifully renovated historic Shanghai Concert Hall. Yes, I did say relocated, as the Shanghai local government spent six million dollars to jog the hall over two blocks. This concert hall was in the 1979 documentary Mao to Mozart with violinist Isaac Stern. Our performance was part of the Shanghai International Spring Music Festival and featured my band along with The Oriental Angels, which is a traditional classical instrumental music group chosen from the top female virtuosos from across China. They play the Chinese erhu (2 string violin) the dizi (6 holed bamboo flute) yangqin (hammered dulcimer) zheng (21 string zither) and the pipa (4 string lute). Aside from concertizing, the Angels all teach music in either the Central or Shanghai Conservatories.

I stayed a week after the show to do some sightseeing. As I am always looking for new instruments, I asked my promoter if they could take me to a musical instrument factory. They obliged me and took me to The Dunhuang Musical Instrument Co., Ltd. makers of traditional Chinese instruments in Fengxian District of Shanghai.

Dunhuang makes a wide range of instruments including traditional strings (guzheng, yangqin, pipa, erhu etc.), woodwinds (dizi, bawu, xiao, hulusi etc.) and percussion. For me as a flute enthusiast, it was rather like Charlie finding the gold ticket to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory.

We were met by the shop foreman Mr. Zhao Jin-gua and taken to the woodwind workshop upstairs. The craftsmen at the factory had all seen my concert the night before and said they really enjoyed it, however, those flutes I played by their competitor flute makers in Northern China just wouldn’t do. I was very impressed that they were not only producing old designs but also developing new ones like flutes with a curved headjoints similar to the silver bass flute. It was here that I got to try the world’s biggest Chinese dizi flute. It produced a very low quiet tone. Since it requires three people to operate it is not really practical for the road.

World's biggest Chinese Dizi Bamboo flute

After the visit with the flute makers I went downstairs to the showroom to see the finished products. When I walked though the door a very determined young lady was in the midst of negotiating full tilt with the slightly annoyed salesman to get a bigger discount on a guzheng (Chinese zither). She was talking up a storm and kept saying she travelled a long way and spent many hours on the train to get there. The salesman then looked up at me and smiled and said, “He came all the way from Canada, so what is your point”? The storm cleared up and she quietly retreated to the corner to think of a restructured battle plan.

Again I’ve included a video clip and since I can’t get them to play here I’ve posted this to my blog.
Read Peru part 4

If you’ve missed the first three parts here are their links
Part 1: “Journey to Peru”
Part 2: “Lost in Translation”
Part 3: “Flight of the (Silver) Condor”

After three full days in Lima, a large, bustling, urban city, we finally head into the heart of the Inca world and the Peruvian Quechua culture, Cuzco. To get there we got on a 737 operated by the Peruvian airline LAN. Actually LAN is a Chilean airline company but they are based in Lima.

The entire time we were in Lima the skies were overcast from the coastal fog produced by the Humboldt Current. As the jet climbed higher into the sky we soon broke through the cloud cover, riding above a solid desert of clouds, punctuated to the east by the peaks of the Andes mountains. The Andes are the longest exposed mountain range in the world, at 4,300 miles in length, extending from the southern end of Chile to the norther part of Peru. The average height is 13,000 feet!

Read the rest and watch the videos

In my last post I talked about the first days of my journey to Peru. In this post we’ll look at the city of Lima in more depth. Since this post has some video and there seems to be a problem with posting video on the portal I’ve posted it on my Blog.

The chance to visit Peru happened quickly. The subject came up just eight weeks before the trip actually took place. We thought about it for another two weeks, made the decision to go and then six weeks later we arrived at LAX, tickets in hand, bound for Peru. Our destinations: Lima, Cuzco, the Sacred Valley of the Tambo and Machu Picchu.

Although I went to see Machu Picchu, what I found was a vibrant culture. Full of color, music, dramatic history, prehispanic ruins, cold foggy coastlines and clear mountain skies. For me, Peru was a land of extremes.

When we left Los Angeles in late July it was summer. Peru however, being in the southern hemisphere, was obviously having winter. The weather looked similar to LA’s winters. Cool days but with colder nights than we get here in LA. So we boarded the plane dressed for cool weather. On our way we had to switch planes, with a one hour layover in San Salvador, El Salvador, where we were greeted by hot humide weather. It felt like 100˚ and the thick air hit you like a wall. As we were wearing long sleeves and fleece jackets it was very uncomfortable.

Lush tropical jungle surrounded the airport, like a rain forest. But despite a hard search we could not find water for sale anywhere in the terminal. The heat droned on.

I’m sure El Salvador is a wonderful country, I love Pupusas, so I know the food is great, but we were happy to be on our way and escape the humid heat of the tropics. As our plane climbed skyward the classic cone of the San Salvador volcano, or Quetzaltepec, hovered in the distance. We headed southeast. The sun slipped below the horizon.

LIMA
when we landed in Lima at 8:30 local time it was dark, cold, and cloudy. Lima is a big city. Like all big cities there were people everywhere and cars zigging in and out of traffic. The taxi ride from the airport to the district of Mira Flores took about 40 minutes. The streets were busy and full of people. American business reared their heads in the form of McDonald, Starbucks, KFC, TGI Fridays and from the UK was there with Burger King. It’s always somewhat of a disappointment to travel somewhere and find exactly what you left behind.

Peruvian Starbucks

We were surprised to find that gambling is legal in Lima and we drove past many gaudy casinos. As we got closer to our hotel in the Mira Flores district, the streets got quieter and quieter. A light drizzle began to fall. For Lima this is a major “rain” event. The city, although right on the Pacific coast, is in a desert and receives only 1/4″ of rain on average each year.

We arrived at our hotel, checked in our room, and then checked out some local stores, an upscale market and had a nice quiet dinner nearby. The next day we explored further.

MIRAFLORES
The first place we visited was Kennedy park in Miraflores. It was named after JFK, our 35th president. The “city” of Lima is made up of several towns, of which Lima is just one of the. Miraflores is another. It has it’s own city government.

Kennedy Park

Next to the park was a church. My understanding is that Peru is 80% Catholic, but I get the sense that there is a strong practice of the older indigenous religions that predate the Spanish. Very much so in the highlands.

Church near Kennedy Park

Detail of church

As we left the area on Kennedy Park we spied one of the few cats we saw in Peru, sleeping on a grate next to the church.

The next place we went to was the Artist’s District of Miraflores. This was an area of several blocks that had little malls full of small shops, or stalls selling everything from textiles to jewelery, art, silver pieces and even musical instrument. We had been told that most of the stuff was not of the best quality, and it was recommended that we wait until we get to the highlands for better stuff. So I didn’t buy the long belt shaker I saw hanging from the ceiling of one stall. I never saw another one the rest of the trip am and still bummed that I passed on getting that one.

The inside a mall in the Artist’s District

Outside the Artist’s District

THE PACIFIC COAST
The building in Miraflores were all painted in pale pastels, adding a bright counterpoint to the gray skies that constantly hung over the city. The clouds were dreary in general, but more so once we walked down to the coast. From Kennedy park it took about 20 minutes to walk to the coast. Lima sits on the Pacific Ocean, but is in the same time zone as New York City.

Lima-Miraflores sits on the Pacific Ocean
In Miraflores there is a new “American” style mall called Lancomar which over looks the ocean. While there were some local stores, many of them were U.S. chains. Nevertheless the view from the mall was very nice.

View from the Lancomar Mall

There were lots of locals at the mall and in the strip of parkland that extended along the top of the cliffs next to the ocean. For a price you could go Para-gliding in the constant breeze that swept the coast up the cliffs. Not a price I would pay…

Para-gliding

Next to Lancomar was Lover’s Park which was dominated by a huge statue of a couple wrapped in embrace.

“Get a room!”

For me the highlight of the park was the tile benches that snaked along the sides. Done in a style reminiscent of the work of Gaudi, there were quotes about love set in the tile mosaic.

In my next post about Peru we visit two local markets, including a fish market right on the coast. Things get lost in translation, but it’s all good. Plus I break out the video camera…

Visiting military bases is always a special time, maybe more so this year with the events at Fort Hood and because I now have two nephews serving, one on active duty with the Navy Reserves and one just finishing basic training with the Army.

At concerts, people often ask about the lyrics to “Warrior Song” (from the Dancing the Full Moon project).  Since this is Veterans Day, I’ll take the opportunity to share a bit about it.

The lyrics and tune came in a series of dreams while I was visiting by Dad in Ohio over the holidays some years back.  I wasn’t really looking to write this kind of song, but when things show up in dreams, it’s best to pay attention.  Each verse honors a different generation of veterans, including individuals from my family.  The first verse is for World War II era vets, including my Dad’s older brother who served with the Marines in the Pacific Theater (and earned two Purple Hearts), his older sister, who served with the WACs and her husband (Ojibwa descent) who served with the Navy in the European Theater.  The second verse honors Vietnam era vets, including my step-father who had two tours of duty there.  The third verse honors those currently serving, including Laurie Piestewa, the first Native American woman killed in action over seas (of course many of our dear women died defending their home lands over the past five hundred years), and now, of course, my two nephews.  The remaining verse calls all of them home to do the work needed here.

Throughout the song, the question returns, “How do you earn your feather now?”  The traditional way of the warrior has largely been replaced by modern mechanized mass killing.  I remember hearing a member of one of the western tribes describe his People’s traditional requirements for earning “War Chief” honors.  I am probably forgetting some things, but they included actions like “leading a successful war party and returning all of your men safely”; “stealing your enemies weapon”; “stealing your enemies horse”; etc.  I was deeply struck by the fact that it was entirely possible to earn full war honors without killing or even harming another person.  The traditional way of the warrior for most of us Native folks seems to have been more about individual courage and resourcefulness and less about simply killing as many of the enemy as possible to impose your will upon them.  Although always ready, of course, to defend the community from immediate dangers.

The English complained that American Indians did not know how to make war properly, because we would “fight” all day and hardly anyone would get killed.  Sometimes no one would get killed.  Unfortunately, I think we’ve learned all too well in the mean time.  I sometimes think that being on a continual war footing for five hundred years as a matter of survival has changed our understanding of the traditional warrior’s path.  And not necessarily for the better.  The great Cuban singer Campay Segundo is quoted as saying that “until more people carry guitars than carry guns, the world will not change”.  Carrying flutes would help, too.  For me, what is inexcusable these days is that our returning vets often have so much trouble getting the medical, psychological and spiritual help they need to transition back into society.

To any vets reading this, a heart felt thanks for the service and sacrifices you and your families have given.  This song is for you.

On the music side (since this is supposed to be a music blog), a grinding roots/blues rock seemed to be the right feel for this song.  It was originally in e minor.  We recorded it in Eb minor to get it into a more comfy range for Janice and now usually do it even lower in concert.  D minor is happier for the guitar, lets Janice stay in her power house range and gives the whole song a darker, more powerful vibe.

OK – see ya next week.

Ron Warren

www.ronwarrenmusic.com