HUREN Professional Traditional Woodwind Flute Instrument BaWu Key F - China Transverse Bass Wood Wind Flute Ba Wu - Sandalwood Wooden Pipes Copper Reed Musical Flute

I'm pretty happy with this bawu flute. Is is pretty, well-made, and plays in pitch. I've noticed some reviewers have mentioned that the key is off. This seems to be keyed like my Chinese dizi flutes, that is, the noted key is played when the first three holes are covered (the letter F is carved next to the third hole). That means that, with all holes covered, you should be playing C. That is normal with Chinese flutes in general.I had a bit of trouble getting any sound, until I turned the mouth opening 90 deg so it was facing me directly. You have to open your mouth as if taking a small bite, cover the hole, and blow fairly hard. Not as hard as for a sax or clarinet (which also requires specific embouchure), but certainly harder than for a regular flute or recorder. It's loud!I think I will see if I can get one keyed in G as well. I also want to figure out if I can play into the second octave. I think the nicer bawu flutes can, but idk about this one.

Not what I was expecting, but not disappointed either. It has a one octave range. After practicing with it for a few weeks, it's easier to play. I couldn't find much information on it online, but typical musical instrument logic will tell you how to play it. "Longer the tubing, the lower the sound." =) It's fun to goof around with, that's for sure. I've had a hard time connecting the top to the bottom, but I'm thinking slide grease will help with that.

Arrived at the earliest estimated date. The seller was quick to respond to all of my emails (and there were many of them).This bawu is of high quality, and I don't think you can actually get something similar for this price. The head joint features a slide-on wooden cap that allows you to expose the brass reed for easy replacement, something that is very rare in a market flooded by cheap bawus (which usually have a glued-on mouthpiece instead, making it nearly impossible to change the reed). If I am not mistaken, the dizi virtuoso and composer of the famous bawu solo "Festival Dance" （《节日舞曲》）, Lu Chunling （陆春龄）, used a bawu that also had this same mechanism.Compared to my $25 purple bamboo bawu, the instrument is orders of magnitude more in tune, and the reed is much more responsive to air pressure. This allows the instrument to both be played at lower dynamics more reliably, as well as allow articulation to be heard much more clearly, which was a big issue with my purple bamboo bawu. The timbre is slightly brighter than that of my purple bamboo bawu.Be aware that the seller will send a G bawu by default, I believe, unless you notify them right after you order the item that you want it in a different key. I received my F bawu without any problems after I sent the seller a message requesting it.If this seller had an option for bamboo bawus, I would prefer that due to environmental reasons; rosewood really isn't necessary for a bawu, and it's quickly becoming more and more endangered due to over-harvesting. Also, I think bamboo just looks better. :PFinal note: my bawu arrived with clear acrylic end pieces. I don't care about that, but if you do, I would ask the seller about that.TL;DR: Probably the best deal for your money at this price point. Message seller requesting key of instrument immediately after placing order.

Good quality nice sound

This was a Christmas present for my boyfriend and I didn’t know how to use it at all. I was scared that it was just for show andnhe could actually play it but it’s a bawu flute. And I looked up how to play it and everything was great. He loves it and I do as well

My son is totally enjoying this instrument.

High quality instrument made from beautiful wood. Was really impressed with the tuning and strength of material!

EDIT: So even though my bawu has the letter F carved into it, it's almost definitely in C - even though I sent the seller a message requesting F - now, it's quite possible I'm just not playing it correctly, but here's how it works for me...Using a reed embouchure (sealing the reed and breathing out pretty vigorously), all sound holes covered produce a C. Lifting up fingers one at a time to let the holes open goes like this: D, E, F, G, A, C. Having the last hole covered halfway gives a B. All of this is with the hole underneath (for your thumb) covered. I'm perfectly satisfied with my bawu in C, and I'll do more experimenting, but if you're really hoping for a specific key, that might not happen. Still great, so still keeping it at 5 stars, despite some potential misinformation. But I'm a string player first and foremost so venturing off into the world of woodwinds is a little risky anyway, especially with world instruments that are uncommon in western music. Maybe the F is for "foreign" to go along with my pink decorative knot. Anyway, I'm sure I'll live happily in the key of C.______I am writing this review as someone who knows nearly nothing about this instrument. I try to be a multi-instrumentalist, and I like collecting new instruments and tools to try and incorporate into my repertoire. The closest thing I have experience with is probably the Irish flute/tin whistle and other fipple flutes.I received my bawu in F (which is how it was advertised, but per another reviewer, I requested as such from the seller). I just got home from picking apples to find that my new bawu had arrived, and earlier than I had expected.It arrived in its case, a lovely thing. It feels like vinyl on the outside and had orange cloth felt on the inside, fitted to the halves of the flute. The case's zipper feels sturdy. There's a strap for the case as well, not sure how useful that will prove, but we'll see. It looks quite nice if nothing else. The decorative knot tied to the bawu is pink for me, and a little frayed looking, and as if it were hastily made, but it is pretty and it goes well with the wood of the bawu. Oh, and one more thing before getting into the bawu itself - also included in the case was what appeared to be an alcohol wipe. It had no English text on it, so I'm not entirely sure what was going on there, but it was just a paper square with a wet napkin inside. I threw it out, unsure of what was intended. Maybe I was meant to wipe the mouthpiece down before playing? I was much too excited to try it out so I definitely did not do that. Oh well.The bawu is gorgeous. As soon as I assembled it I could immediately phonate and express. I'm not sure what or where most of the notes are yet, but vibrato, presence, and resonance came naturally. There is a lot of room for breath control and manipulating the sonic envelope with this thing. I've never been able to phonate, that is, produce any pitched sound, with a transverse flute before - things like fifes or western concert flutes. While this is obviously a transverse flute (sort of, I mean it's technically a free reed instrument, but its structured like any transverse flute), the reed makes it behave more like a fipple flute, in that there really isn't any embouchure required to make sound. That might not be true to access other notes or octaves, but so far, it's just blowing = sound. So, more like a reed instrument, where the embouchure is just sealing your mouth around the reed and blowing to make sound.And what a sound! Different notes seem to have different characters entirely, although as a whole it sounds like it belongs snugly in the woodwind family, though it is a little hornlike. The lower pitches are buzzy, sawtooth, and warm. The higher pitches are square and airy - but still powerful. The dynamic and sonic range on this thing - for $40 - is really excellent.My bawu has, as advertised in the pictures, two little end-caps, both of which seem to made of the same wood as the rest of the flute. Another reviewer showed that theirs instead had acrylic. Further, the seller on my receipt was different from the displayed seller on Amazon, so maybe it's just a matter of provenance here. I can't quite tell if mine is used or not - other than some rough, unsanded spots around the finger holes, it is at first glance spotless. There was a very faint camphoraceous smell to the wood - it looks like rosewood that's been lacquered but it's difficult for me to say for sure.I'd like to get a bamboo bawu and a plastic bawu at some point as well, both to compare and just, you know, for variety. But for now, from the first impression of someone who'd only just discovered this instrument a week ago, it's beautiful. For its price point, it looks reasonably well-made, has a practical, professional, and ethereal sound to it, and is very aesthetically pleasing. I hope it stands up to the tests of time and practice, but for now, I am very pleased, and I imagine anyone else would be too.

Fast dispatch, great bawu. Thank you.

The media could not be loaded.  Ich liebe dieses Instrument. Habe die Bawu in F geordert und auch wie bestellt erhalten.Ich bin ein absoluter Anfänger, habe dennoch mal ein Klangbeispiel angehängt. Wer in München einen Lehrer für Bawu kennt, möge man mir das bitte mitteilen :)Da es jemand in einer anderen Rezension angemerkt hat, dass die Bawu in C wäre. Nein, ist sie nicht. Der tiefste Ton ist zwar C und C-Dur ist durchaus spielbar. Die Tonart richtet sich aber bei dem chinesischen Instrument nach dem dritten Ton auf der Bawu (da wo das F eingraviert ist, ist auch ein F ;) )Wenn ich die chinesische Notenschrift ( Jianpu) richtig verstanden habe, wäre das F auch die 1 (obwohl von unten gezählt an vierter Position ;) )Spielbare Noten sind C, D, E, F, G, A, H, c, d // fis, gis, bDamit sind möglich: C-Dur/A-Moll; F-Dur/D-moll, G-Dur/E-MollBitte ergänzen, wenn ich was übersehen habe ;)Dudelsackspieler (wie ich *g*) haben am Anfang einen klaren Vorteil. Man braucht schon einen ordentlichen Anblasdruck.Nicht mit einer Blockflöte zu vergleichen. ;) Zirkularatmung wäre vermutlich auch von Vorteil, die hab ich aber nicht drauf ;)Tontrennungstechniken hab ich auch einfach vom Dudelsack übernommen.In jedem Fall ein tolles Instrument. Da macht man bei dem Preis wirklich nichts falsch.