IF I had a dollar for every one who asked me how to PROPERLY attach the dizi membrane, I would probably make a couple more dollars everyday. It seems weird that with dizi being such a prevalent instrument, we ought to see that the skill to do dimo as commonplace as dizi itself. Sadly, thats not the case. Watched a few popular youtube videos, and seen quite a few posts on social media. They all say the same things.
Well, for 30 years, (thats as long as I have been playing dizi) I have been taught only 1 way of doing membrane. I am not saying that its the ONLY right way. Thats just how I have been taught, and thats how I teach my students. Its not rocket science, but its not as simple as it seems online.
Firstly, we need to understand WHAT IS DIZI MEMBRANE? It is the inner tubing of the cattail reed. Stripped from the inside of the cattail reed and dried, and packed. Best times to buy dimo (for us in bulk) is early summer. The membrane lasts several years, but we get first pick somewhere in May/June. That is if you (like us) buy about 500-1000 packs in an order. Between, me, my students and my close associates (about 20 packs each), thats all the first picks that we get for the year. The usual run-of-the-mill dizi membranes are OK. I use them myself daily. For that special recording or special performance, we may use our picked dizi membrane. 🙂
Now that we know the membrane is a piece of inner tubing in a plant, 8 times thinner than paper, we need to understand its properties. First up : If you wet the membrane, the part where it is IN THE HOLE, the membrane is gone. The sweet buzzing sound of the membrane will no longer hold. Even if you manage to dry it, the membrane is about to disintegrate. Remember this, as it will really affect the process of attaching the membrane.
Step 1
Dimo Stuff
Assemble all the stuff you need. In a perfect world, you have some bit of water, a piece of glue (I prefer E-jiao) , a small pair of scissors, and some dimo in a pack. In the “real” world – and in concert halls, I usually have my piece of glue and the membrane. Thats the bare minimum for me, though I know of people surviving with just the membrane.
Step 2
CLEAN THE DIMO HOLE. I cannot stress how important it is to wet the membrane hole and wipe it real clean. On your shirt, if you are desperate enough and make it real clean. AND DRY.
Step 3
Cut one inch off the tube of dimo from the pack, and have it slit open. In a perfect world, you have a pair of scissors, so thats how it should look like.
Slitting the Dizi Membrane
Usually, you can use ANYTHING. I have used kebab sticks, pen nibs, the edge of the dimo pack, my glasses, my dizi tuning carving knives.
Step 4
This is a critical part which many others miss.
Opened membrane
Open up the slit membrane, and look at it closely. You may want to take it up to the light. this is what you see. You want to see the NATURAL GRAINS on the dizi membrane. This is the natural lines on the membrane. These lines will have to go PARALLEL to the length of the dizi.
Next you need to make Artificial Lines. These lines are meant to be the stretch lines caused by you. These lines go perpendicular to the natural lines. You pick up the dimo up, and hold it with your thumbs, ensuring the the natural lines are vertical (facing you) if you hold the membrane up. Wiggle the membrane a bit with a gentle bit of horizontal tugging force. Do this for maybe 5 secs. Set the membrane aside.
Stretching the Membrane
Step 6
Glue up. I prefer Ejiao as it is a solid piece, no mess, no bottles. For those of you squeamish about using boiled gelatin of donkey skin, you can use any type of glue that cleans up easily with water. Starch glue, mod-podge even hair gel has been used by me. It was a concert tour, and seriously it was… desperate. Traditionally we used cut garlic as well. It works very well.
Dip the glue piece in a tiny bit of water. In a perfect world, we have nice little containers with clean water. On stage, in other situations, just wet the glue. I don’t care how we do it. After that, rub the wet glue piece around the hole, ensuring that you rub around the hole and about half an inch around the hole on the dizi. Use more glue if you ever feel there is not enough glue. There cannot be too much glue (if you use Ejiao), so just rub more, and rub it sparingly.
Step 7
I stated right from the onset, the center of the membrane, that is over the membrane hole MUST NOT touch any wetness. SO, stick your pinky-finger into the membrane hole, and clean up any bit of glue that may have dripped in. This is VERY VERY IMPORTANT. Turn the finger around a few times to ensure no glue is INSIDE the edge of the hole.
Cleaning the inside edge of the dizi membrane hole
Step 8
The moment we have all been waiting for. Attaching the membrane. This takes a lot of practice (and wasted membrane) but do it, and you will thank yourself. for it.
Attaching the membrane
You hold one edge of the membrane down to the side of the hole with your thumb, and in ONE SWIFT MOTION, hold the other other side of the membrane across the hole and stretch it firmly, and at the same time, pressing it down. It needs to be stretched firmly at this point.
Keep in mind the natural grains, the artificial lines that we spoke about earlier.
After this, rub the (still) wet glue stick around the edges of the membrane, to ensure that the membrane stays down. Please ensure that its is just sticky and no very wet this time round. PLEASE do not wet the center of the membrane.
Step 9
Play the dizi for a bit. If you feel that the membrane is too tight, gently press on the membrane (while playing the dizi. somehow this doesn’t loosen well when you are not playing it). If its too loose, wet the edges around the hole, and stretch the membrane out using your thumbs.
AFTERWORD
The above is basically what I do when I put on my dizi membrane. It is in no way definitive. I just felt that a lot of details were missing when most other people attach the membrane. you are most welcome to email me at ask@orientalmusic.org if you have any queries or have any other suggestions, which I will be happy to accept.
