Friday, 9 January 2009, 18:52
Today, we learnt how to play the guzheng, from chen lao shi! :D But first, we had to tune the 4 guzhengs there. It was more difficult than I thought, because we had to ensure that it was tuned slightly sharper than it was supposed to be. There are 21 strings on a guzheng, in D, E, F#, A and B. It was a tiring process to tune them! The note "A" is denoted by a green string, and there were 2 types of guzhengs at the studio, those that were made of rosewood, and those that were made from plywood. After we finished tuning the guzhengs, we learnt about the history of the guzheng. The history of the guzheng dates back 2500 years. It used to be squarish, but due to a quarrel between siblings, the old squarish guzheng (which had 56 strings) broke. The design was changed from then on to include 21 strings, an "S" shape near the end that is not played so that the strings do not touch the plywood/rosewood, and bridges, to raise the strings up, and not dampen the sound! The sound is apparently transmitted through the strings, to the bridges (which are moveable and determine the sound), to the main body and through the holes at the bottom of the guzheng. After putting and taping on the fake nail things, we learnt how to play the guzheng, which was played mainly by plucking. There are also different ways of playing the guzheng (to make the sound last longer by, err, I don't know, but its called tremolo! And by creating the sound of "G", and "C" by pressing on the strings on the left side). We got to learn how to play a song, difficult for people who can hardly coordinate, like me.
We got to hear laoshi play a few short songs after that, and then wrapped up for the day and went for an excellent lunch! :D
Labels: Elaine
Music, AWESOME
