Garlic juice works great as a glue! I'm not really surprised since there have been times when cooking when my hands feel sticky from slicing garlic. Interestingly, I think slicing makes for stickier hands than chopping- but I haven't done any controlled experiments on that.
The dimo (or Di mo) was a small flattened tube- not surprising since it's the inner layer of bamboo. I wasn't sure if I was to leave it tubular or make it flat so I opted to cut open the tube and attach one layer only. It went on fairly smoothly but with a portion of the edge folded over because it stuck prematurely to the garlic juice. Initially the membrane- or reed, I've read it called- vibrated a lot. I tightened it by moistening it and smoothing it out a little more, making the creases and crinkles run perpendicular to the flute. The rough vibration smoothed out and my tone was more smooth.
It seems to take a lot of support to play- It could be, in part, that I'm terribly out of shape, but I had only a small range in which I felt comfortable and had good tone. Small, meaning 6 notes. I had to start in the middle of those six notes and play either up or down; it was much more challenging to start higher or lower and move through the small range. I needed to be very conscious of my breath, making certain I breathed with sufficient support, way down in my diaphragm. My tone had to remain very simple and open and even then I would occasionally just lose all sound. I couldn't figure out why, and though I hate to blame the instrument and not my technique, I couldn't help but wonder if the dimo was improperly sealed.
I also wonder if I should remove the tassel at the end of the instrument? It is looped through the last two "vent" holes but wasn't extremely easy to take off since it was a bit snug.
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