How to Play Bawu and Hulusi: A Beginner’s Guide to these Popular Chinese Wind Instruments

When I discovered the melodic sound of the Hulusi, I knew I wanted to learn to play this instrument. I ordered one from Amazon and I loved the sound, but there was not a lot of information on how to play or any music to play on my new instrument. Then a friend (thank you Jane) sent me a link on this book and I ordered it. This book is very thorough and even has scales for the instruments that come in other keys. there is even instruction on how to play the cross fingering so you can play the missing notes on your instrument. The author, Pat Missin, also has an additional book to play more tunes. So happy. I also have a Bawu Flute.

It is in English, with the standard western musical notation used for the practice tunes included. It is a pretty good reference and practice guide for beginners at bawu/hulusi but as with learning any instrument, it will be helpful if you have some musical experience on another instrument first so that you understand the basics of reading sheet music. If you don't already know how to read sheet music this book only provides a VERY simple description so you might want to get a tutor to help you learn about reading music before you dive into this. It includes a fingering guide for the nine basic notes you can hit without special fingering or breathing techniques. These are available for the keys of low D, high D, F, G, A, Bb, and C. There are a few pages of instruction on "alternate fingerings" for the half-steps (sharps and flats) and the "missing notes" that you cannot hit with the standard fingerings. It discusses the basic procedures for blowing under-tones and over-tones to get some different notes, half-covering some holes to get different notes, and skipping one hole to get different notes. These tips are valid for the hulusi and bawu both. It assumes that the bawu is in the key of G, and the hulusi is in C. So the fingering patterns it describes will be different notes if yours is in a different key, but the play style will be the same. It also has a little mini-guide on how the Chinese musical notation "jianpu" is supposed to be read and played. Much of the instruction on how to play the instrument is actually discussed in the "Do Re Mi..." notation rather than using real notes. Practice tunes are written in keys of C and G. There are five English tunes and 13 Chinese tunes. They are all written in the standard Western notation. "Amazing Grace" is written in both Western and Jianpu so you can compare the Jianpu to the Western musical notation styles. All of the English tunes also include a "tablature" notation to show you how to finger each note (assuming your instrument is in the right key; if yours is not in C or G then you must transpose the music for it to sound right). The Chinese tunes do not include tablature notation.

Recommend for all Hulusi beginners. We all know that majority the Hulusi books are in Chinese. :) I love this book and can't wait to receive my KEY C Hulusi. FYI!!! THIS BOOK ONLY OFFERS KEY C AND G FOR TUNES/INFO. THERE IS A PAPERBACK THAT HAS ALL THE NOTES AVAILABLE.

Sadly the Hulusi I got is unplayable. The book seems nicely laid out. There's tablature for the western songs, but not for the eastern songs.

Of course, there is no competition :) However, this book is written in a very practical way and helps guide those of us who really know nothing about the instrument, what it is supposed to sound like, how to produce the correct sound (this is not apparent from "common sense"), etc.

it's a good learning guide for beginner and the print quality is good. It worth for the high shipping fee to my country.

There aren't many English books out there teaching how to play traditional Chinese flutes, so this one is quite useful. The intro to the instruments and techniques are simple to follow for a beginner, but a basic knowledge of reading sheet music helps. The English song selections have musical notation and fingerings but are limited. There are a few Chinese songs as well, but you'd have to be familiar with their tunes and musical notation to play them well.

If you buy either Bawu or Hulusi, you will need some basic instructions about them. This is a good book for that purpose. I wish you well in this endeavor.

It's a book to teach me to play this strange instrument

Well written, it could be better, but it is the only book in english about hulusi so... This is the (only) one

Le livre a été livré en parfait état. Il comprend une présentation de l'instrument, des informations quant à son entretien et aux problèmes que l'on peut rencontrer en tant que débutants. Il détaille aussi les différentes techniques de jeu, et inclut deux séries d'exercices. Les premiers, très simples, consistent en des sortes de "tablatures" sur des morceaux très courts d'airs très connus en Occident, comme Amazing Grace par exemple. Chaque air permet d'apprendre une technique et de mettre en place progressivement le jeu, la dextérité et la synchronisation entre les doigts et le souffle, sur des mélodies qui se retiennent facilement. La deuxième série d'exercices regroupe des partitions de mélodies du folklore chinois, et permet d'approfondir et de mettre en place les techniques plus complexes. Il y a un descriptif aussi de chaque morceau, avec le contexte et l'histoire qu'il raconte. Je trouve ce livre de méthode extrêmement bien fait, très complet et surtout, très pédagogique. Malgré le fait que ce soit rédigé en anglais, les explications sont très claires, les phrases simples, on sent une vraie volonté d'enseigner de la part de l'auteur de ce bouquin, et ça le rend abordable pour tout passionné débutant. Je l'utilise depuis 5 mois, date à laquelle j'ai découvert le hulusi et commencé mon apprentissage, et en jouant deux-trois fois par semaine, je peux déjà jouer de l'instrument. Pas comme un pro, mais suffisamment bien pour que ce soit convaincant et que ça m'encourage à continuer. Je commence seulement maintenant les exercices de la deuxième partie (airs chinois), et je complète cet enseignement par des vidéos YouTube de musiciens qui en jouent en gros plans (pour qu'on voit leurs doigts et leur respiration). C'est impeccable ! Ce livre est une très belle découverte, que je recommande chaleureusement et sans aucune hésitation !

Good beginner tutor. Very easy to understand and follow.

Bought this because the title led me to believe that it might contain more than it did. Although the two instruments are very similar, there are several pages that are copied word for word for each, on how to hold them and which fingers to use. There is some useful info on Numbered notation and a few Western and Chinese tunes to play but although the author points to his website for examples to listen to, I couldn't find any mention on his site. I was hoping for more of an introductory course, with simple fingering exercises etc. as it is supposed to be aimed at beginners. As the only English language book I could find on these instruments it was rather disappointing.