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Post by alovely94 on May 10, 2014 14:35:03 GMT
Hello everyone! I'm new to this forum and from what I have read it seems like a great crowd of people. I just have a few, kind of stupid questions, I would to ask. I recently got a guzheng as a big gift for my graduation. My Questions are
1. Is the Guzheng only for women to play? Or can men play it as well? Is it seen as "Taboo" if a man plays it?
2. Is it difficult to teach yourself how to play the Guzheng?
3. If I do teach myself, how long do you think it would take for me to learn the basics of the instrument?
4. I cannot read regular sheet music, I joke about it calling it "Music dyslexia". Do you think I will have this same problem with the chinese music notation? If so, it's not a problem. I can play by ear
5. Last Question! Will I have to learn Chinese in order to play? and look like I am chinese so I do not offend the culture? I know it is a strange question to ask, but I do not want to play in public or on the internet (once I am good enough) and be offending others.
Thanks everyone! have a great day!
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Post by Flolei on May 11, 2014 7:22:02 GMT
Hello and welcome! I play only Chinese woodwinds, but I can give you some answers about more general questions: - Even if it's true that guzheng is mostly played by women, there are men players too. If you look at this video and other related one, you see that this master doesn't seems to be complexed at all. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuj7kY4QCr8- As far I know Chinese people are very happy to see that Westerners are interested in their culture and music. I really look Westerner woman (I have no Asian roots) and Asian people are always very kind with me when I perform. For other questions I would like to know if you ever played any other instrument, mayvbe even string instrument. Best regards, Flolei
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Post by Flolei on May 11, 2014 7:45:56 GMT
PS: As someone remembered me, in fact in the past all Chinese musicians were men.
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Post by alovely94 on May 11, 2014 14:05:58 GMT
Thank you for the reply Flolei,
Thank you very much for the video. I did play piano and bass guitar for 5 years, and I do still play them on occasion. I was actually thinking about buying a Xiao flute or a Dizi. I was thinking and I did teach myself how to play both guitar and piano. So I think that I will be able to do it with the GuZheng. I know it is a completely different style of playing, but I will try to not let that stop me. I also found lessons on youtube.
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jock
Intermediate
Posts: 44
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Post by jock on Jul 16, 2014 7:23:28 GMT
I have a girlfriend who plays Guzheng, and her instructor is an old man. It makes me think of ancient legend.
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Post by cloudlesszen on Aug 23, 2014 11:57:23 GMT
My wife has been playing Guzheng in Taiwan for a few years now. While you can certainly start to get a feel for the basics by learning by yourself, there are many techniques or ornamentations that will be very hard without an experienced teacher to show you properly. I hope this doesn't put you off, my wife learned by herself for several months, but then reached the limit of basic skill. You don't need to know Chinese to play, that would of course help, and most Taiwanese guzheng players use the numbered jianpu notation here anyways. It does seem more women play guzheng recently, it is rare to see men that are proficient, but they are out there and there is no gender stigma attached to the guzheng.
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Ruisi
Novice
I'm glad to offer help with my 20 years of guzheng experiences
Posts: 9
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Post by Ruisi on Oct 3, 2014 22:36:43 GMT
Hello, Thank you for these questions, which are commonly asked by beginners. I have 20 years of guzheng experiences since very young, so I hope my answers would be helpful. 1. During the history of guzheng development, there are many guzheng masters who are men. They made significant contributions in the composition, teaching and performing. For example, the one who change the 13 strings to 21 strings, and the one who composed the “Fishing boat song”, etc. In modern times, one of the most famous masters is Wang Zhongshan . He is my teacher’s teacher and he made a lot of innovations in techniques. The guzheng music played by men can be more powerful, dramatic and passionate compared to women, not necessarily soft. 2. Of course you can teach yourself, especially if you have some other music foundations. However, self-teaching can be not easy, especially for beginners. Once you master some basic techniques, it would be easier to teach yourself. I am planning to make some videos of basic guzheng lessons on youtube. It would be in English, around 5 minutes for one lesson, and it for free. May be it would help you to start. 3. It is not easy to tell how long you will to learn the basics of the instrument. It’ll be related with your practicing time and whether you find the right method. Generally speaking, 3-6months would be the enough for the very basic knowledge and skills. 4. Staff notation and Chinese music notation are different. Specifically for guzheng, the numbers indicate the strings, so once you remember the corresponding notes and position, you’ll make the right sound. I have a 7 year old student who can not read staff notation on piano, but she can read the Chinese notation on guzheng, which surprised her parents. 5. Not necessary to learn Chinese. You can try to look for some teaching materials in English on internet, and I hope my teaching materials would be helpful. I’m not sure if I get the idea of this question. For culture and art, it’s free and open. So offending others are rarely seen in this domain, and now there are lot of fusion music and collaborations between different kinds of music. So music is the most lovely thing which bring people together, not separate them. I hope this would answer it in the right way.
Best wishes and good luck! Guzhenger
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Post by davidmdahl on Oct 3, 2014 23:18:59 GMT
Welcome to the forum, Guzhenger! I look forward to your posts.
In the interests of full disclosure, Guzhenger has joined at my invitation. She is my guzheng teacher, and one of the best teachers I have had on any instrument. I highly recommend paying close attention to her advice.
Regarding stereotypes of men and women playing guzheng and other instruments, this is something we see making the rounds in the music world. The funny thing is that sometimes an instrument is seen as a men's instrument, and some years later the pendulum has swung the other direction, and the instrument is played mostly by women. I expect that if you were to listen to a recording of a good musician, you could not tell if the performer is male or female. If an instrument calls to you, then don't worry about stereotypes.
Best wishes,
David
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Ruisi
Novice
I'm glad to offer help with my 20 years of guzheng experiences
Posts: 9
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Post by Ruisi on Oct 4, 2014 0:31:57 GMT
Thank you for your invitation David. As to the language issue in learning guzheng, I have a data that 80 percent of my students in the US don't speak or know Chinese. I hope language would not be a barrier that keep people out of the door of the music. Even though, currently most of the teaching materials are written in Chinese, I think more and more English version would emerge in the near future.
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