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.

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.

This was a gift for my adult son. The book has a soft cover. It appears to be well illustrated. Other than that, I haven't received any feedback from my son. The three stars represent my own overall impression.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Selbst erst-Musiker werden hier schön abgeholt. Es wird alles über das Instrument und seine Stimmung und Spielweise erklärt und man hat sowohl westliche Stücke um sich daran zu gewöhnen das Instrument zu spielen und bekannte Melodien richtig und schön zu spielen, als auch weiter hinten im Buch dann chinesische Stücke um die Hulusi (und Bawu) zur vollen Geltung zu bringen und eine Musik zu spielen die für uns im Westen so fremd und doch durch Medien so vertraut ist. Vor allen chinesische Stücke sind ja hier bei uns nicht so leicht zu finden

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.