Geoffery has some new Quimeras up for sale on his site.
I’ve got a maple in C major arriving on Tuesday.
These are going quick!
Its here!!!
Super light, less than 3 oz.
And wonderfully ergonomic.
Its going to be a learning curve to master the embouchure, but thats expected here.
Same for the fingering.
Im very pleased at the quality for the price point.
YOOOHOOO! NEW FLUTE DAY!!!
Update.
Ive been getting my embrouchure…
Not consistant but getting there.
Lovely tones when I do my part though.
Pretty happy, so far.
I looked it up on the Ellis site, it looks really cool.
So it’s like a Kena with a chromatic hole layout?
As I understand it the hole layout of the Xiao is more or less like that of the Kaval, giving a chromatic scale without needing crossfingerings?
Actually the xiao is not quite chromatic, at least not without half-holing and cross-fingering. You can half-hole an Eflat (on a D xiao) in the same way you might do on a low whistle, but the note is weak and has pretty poor tone color. You can also half-hole to a get a G#. This sounds better than the Eflat, but still weaker. And you cross-finger for the Cnat, same as on Irish flute.
The xiao has a lot of flexibility and can be played in many different keys. What I called a D xiao is actually in G by Chinese reckoning, because the primary scale is G major. Next comes D major and F major. You can also get D minor, G minor, E minor and a bunch of other exotic scales.
So the Quimera (as you undoubtedly read) is basically a quenacho (a low quena) with the xiao scale instead of the traditional six-hole diatonic major scale. Same versatility as the xiao, but a totally different flavor.