Japanese Bamboo Flute with Black Lines 7/8 Hon Handmade Bamboo Musical Instrument (7 Hon)

I'm impressed with the craftsmanship of this flute. The lacquer finish looks nice and I like the red felt bag that it comes in and can store it in. This flute is difficult to play! I made one out of driftwood I found in California (I'd love to believe this came from Japan!) and it plays much easier than this flute, though I am pleased with the sound and how precise the craftsmanship is on this shinobue. This is because the hole is farther toward the end of the shinobue than other shinobue flutes usually are, from my research. Is this the wrong way to do it? No! The sound on this is much better than my shinobue I made, likely because of the nice craftsmanship. It is difficult to learn so practice daily. It will be frustrating at first because to need to figure out "how to get sound" out of then flute. Everyone starts like this. It will not take long after this to get a feel for how to make different notes and you can get creative with the finger positions quickly. It also comes with a note sheet that is very helpful. The black dots mean place fingers here!

The “mouth” end of this flute is plugged, so, to use this flute, you have to be able to play it by blowing into a hole on the side of the flute rather than that of a recorder style which is blown on the end, and so, you must know how to play a flute to use this piece, which, I do not know. The craftsmanship is very nice, (nicer than I expected for the price.) it is very nicely lacquered and polished and the black wrapping is very nice and nicely wound on the bamboo. The inside of the flute seems to be lined with some sort of red felt-like coating. In the end, this flute is very nice.

I was amazed when it arrived. The flute was a beautiful piece of craftsmanship, carefully packaged and included a felt bag, a fingering diagram, and a snap-on plastic mouthpiece that let me get a beautiful sound from the flute right out of the box. However, I knew that this was going to be a challenge to play for someone who had never played a real flute-like instrument (recorders don't count). But I just came back from Japan where I was at a local harvest festival and saw dozens of school kids marching with these along with taiko drums and wanted to give this instrument a try. As I anticipated, I put my lips to the blowhole, blew, and nothing happened, I then found Miko Saito's basic introduction on YouTube (she's wonderful!) and got to work. With the help of another diagram I found on the web, I managed to get a flute-like sound out of it a few times. Figuring out what made the plastic mouthpiece worked is helping as well. It does take hours or weeks to get past this hurtle. But I am looking forward to the beautifully expressive sounds a flute like this can create. For $18, it's a wonderfully fun challenge for me. I think if you approach it with that attitude, you will love this product!

I have tried every combination to get different sounds. There is some change on the FIRST hole from the mouthpiece. I have tried holding my fingers over several holes but NO difference. Also mine didn't come with any instructions.

so good

If you are looking for a real good peaceful flute to play this will be your choice

Looks cool, you can play it with a lot of difficulty. Stand isn't the greatest quality but whatever. Don't buy this if you want to play it. Tone isn't that great either.

The build quality is amazing, if you know what you're doing, the sound is really nice, and rich. If you're looking to learn how to play a flute like this, I'd suggest it. Just be very very careful, and make sure it doesn't hit anything too hard, because judging from other reviews, you might break it. So be careful! Oh, and the little attatchment to make playing it without experience with these types of flutes is great!