Solo Xiao for Greensleeves

The Xiao is a Chinese traditional vertical end-blown flute. There is no doubt that it can be used to play varies types of Chinese traditional music. However, its capability is not limited to that, as it can be used for western music as well.

There are some challenges to use Xiao in western or contemporary music. First of all, the pitch range for Xiao is not as wide as that for the concert flute. This leads to the fact that there are some repertoire concert flute can play while Xiao cannot. This does not mean Xiao is inferior to concert flute, as it has its strengths in other aspects. I know professional Xiao players can play about three octaves in a Xiao, but this is not easy to achieve by amateurs.

The second challenge is to play chromatic scale in Xiao. The contemporary Xiao has eight holes, which can easily play the ten out of the twelve notes in an octave of chromatic scale. However, there are still two notes, which require the techniques of covering half holes. In a G key Xiao, these two notes are the D sharp and G sharp.

These days I am practicing a piece o traditional western music, Greensleeves. It is an English folk song with a long history. It has quite a poignant melody, and its rhythm is slow, which fits the Xiao well. The difficulty is the frequently used G sharp note that requires covering half hole (playing in A minor on a G key Xiao). The technique is not that easy to master, as the tone sounds a bit week. It is also hard to play a clear tone, especially if I want to play smoothly.