The one Guzheng you have to own...

A new batch of Shanghai Dunhuang 'Yun' Brand aged Rosewood Guzheng just arrived recently so excuse me I am going to do some selling.

I think every Guzheng player who can afford it should own an aged Rosewood Guzheng. Not just any aged Rosewood Guzheng, but Shanghai Dunhuang 'Yun' brand aged Rosewood Guzheng. The tone is unbelievably rich and full. You have to play it to experience it. It sounds even better than a Violet Sandalwood Guzheng in my opinion.

Click on the pictures below for more information.

And don't they look just gorgeous?

By the way, we are the sole distributor for Shanghai Dunhuang 'Yun' Brand in Singapore and 'Yun' Brand is our registered trademark. We are aware that some other companies are hawking the Shanghai Dunhuang 'Yun' brand in Singapore as well. Their instruments are most likely fakes or illegal imports of inferior quality. So do be careful.

Terrific Erhu Practice Passage!

This is one of the most effective practice passages that I have come across. It trains the nimbleness of your left hand, stretches your left hand, strengthens your left hand and trains your right hand in changing strings.

It is written in jianpu, as with most Chinese music scores. For those who haven't got a clue how to read jianpu, go to wikipedia and search for jianpu.

When you are playing this passage, it is important that your first finger stays in position. Meaning to say, when you are stretching your fourth finger to play 5 on the inner string, your first finger stays in the 2 position.

Try it slow first, increasing the tempo as you get more familiar. The best is to practice with a metronome. We have a 3-1 metronome, tuner and tone generator which you might be interested to take a look.

Remember to take breaks in between to rest your left hand, which will get strained after a while.

This is the piece. Practice the first 3 lines will do. (Click for a larger picture)



I'll post a video soon.

Hey Bow! Hang Loose!

In relation to my youtube video on "How to bow the Erhu", I would like to say a few words regarding the tension of the Erhu bow.

I think a lot of people have the notion that an Erhu bow has to be tighten till the hairs are taut, close to that of a violin bow. Even my father who's been selling Erhus for the longest time used to setup Erhus with taut bows.

I personally feel that the tension in Erhu bows should be loose to the extent that the bow hairs form an angle with the strings when it is resting against them. The bamboo should be resting on the sloping side of the resonator. It should look something like this:



A bow that is too taut will look something like this when the bow rests on the resonator:



A Erhu bow that is slack will give a smoother and more full bodied tone as compared to the tone produced by a taut bow, which I would describe as 'constipated'.

Try it and you should find your tone improved, albeit its not as easy to handle as before for some.

Erhu Skin Stress Reliever

The strings and bridge exert quite a lot of pressure on the snakeskin of your Erhu. After a while, the snakeskin will start to sag. To prolong the inevitable, it is a good idea to remove the bridge when you are not using. However, moving the bridge frequently might damage the snakeskin and also disrupt the rapport and harmony that the bridge has formed with the snakeskin over time.

Thus, a good idea would be to put something between the strings and resonator to relieve some of the pressure.

You can use a dowel like object,


or take a pencil and roll it with masking tape,


or take a long tube and slot it right above the bridge(material used with compliments from Clyde of Hawaii).

Video - How to fix the dimo on the dizi

I posted this video on youtube a long time ago.



I just want to add 2 more things:
- The natural lines on the Dimo runs parallel with the length of the Dizi.
- The creases that you make on the Dimo(see video) runs perpendicular to the length of the Dizi.

Today also happens to be the National Day of Singapore.

So happy birthday Singapore!