What are the differences between different levels of Xiaos?
We're currently carrying 4 categories of xiaos-Dongxiaos (From Beginner to Performance levels).The main differences between different levels are the quality of materials,tunings and crafting.
For example,the sound produced by each xiao can be gretly effected by the "dryness" of the bamboo,the top level ones ,e.g.710 would be using bamboos that has been air dried for around 4 years,the dryness and texture of the bamboo will be optimum then,whereas beginner ones e.g. 668 would be less than 1 year.There're also other aspects on the quality of bamboos used for xiao.
About tuning,as xiao uses natural materials,the tuning of each instrument has to be done individually.Tuning chinese bamboos requires highly professional skills,thus higher levels chinese flutes are precisely tuned to the pitch as they're usually crafted and tuned by senior technicians,which would require much more time and efforts,whereas lower level ones would be tuned by junior technicians or trainees.
However,among all the flutes we sell,no matter which levels the flute's in,they have passed the quality control from the manufacturer to make sure the pitches lies in range.*Each levels of chinese flutes will have slightly different error range too.For higer levels the error range is close to zero.
Finally,the obvious part would be decoration and carving on different levels.For beginner levels manufacturers will use ox bone to decorate (668),for higher levels,ox horn would be used(ox horn in plain brown color are usually used for lower levels,e.g.678,and patterned ox horn are used for higher levels,e.g. 698,718.Some manufacturers also use jade or other materials.
Anyway,this is briefly the differences between xiao levels.Should you have any questions,just send us a message anytime! |
