gawn
Intermediate
Posts: 43
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Post by gawn on Sept 3, 2010 12:49:03 GMT
I am fascinated with the sound of the Chinese Guanzi and I want to learn playing it. As I do have some experience playing (non-Chinese) double reed instruments (Oboe, Duduk...) I hope that I will soon be able to produce my first small tunes on the Guanzi as well. However, I know that for a beginner it will be very important to have a good, easily playable instrument that really works. Unfortunately with many "exotic" instruments, there are lots of inferior quality "souvenir instruments" on the market that can only be used for decorative purposes and will frustrate any effort to learn playing. The only internet shop offering Guanzi that I could find offers instruments made by the supposedly well known (?) "Wu Family" for 198-229 US$ and instruments by Hebei Wang for 118-128 US$. (http://www.melodyofchina.com/06instruments/winds.html). Being an absolute beginner in Chinese music I don't know if these are really what the dealer claims they are: professional high quality instruments at reasonable prices. So I am in urgent need of professional advice from somebody more familiar with Chinese wind instruments than me... Could you help me ? Do you know other sources where I can get a good Guanzi? Eason.com.sg does not seem seem to have any? Thank you so much for your kind help. Kind regards,
Georg
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Post by song on Sept 4, 2010 0:06:02 GMT
Hi!
Yes we do sell guanzi. Just that we do not list them. They are of professional quality. I can make a sample video using that instrument for you to see before you decide if u want to purchase. Will reply your email in a while.
Thanks!
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Post by guqin on Sept 4, 2010 0:28:48 GMT
It is nice to know that there are people who are interested in the Guanzi. It is a rare instrument, even in Chinese music communities and a rather difficult instrument to play. But since you have played the duduk before, I believe the principles and playing techniques should be similar. The Wu family are famous for producing great woodwind instruments although I have not been following their progress in the past eight years or so. I will also like to know what instruments are available at Eason too.
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gawn
Intermediate
Posts: 43
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Post by gawn on Sept 4, 2010 8:41:14 GMT
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Post by guqin on Sept 4, 2010 10:11:02 GMT
The gentleman in the video is Wu Xiaozhong. I studied briefly under him when he was based in Singapore. He has even made alto, tenor and bass guan out of PVC pipes! I miss his playing and music.
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Post by guqin on Sept 4, 2010 13:06:23 GMT
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gawn
Intermediate
Posts: 43
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Post by gawn on Sept 5, 2010 19:49:37 GMT
Thank you so much for that. Great that you could study with him. You're really lucky. Unfortunately, here in Germany it won't be that easy to find a teacher. I will probably have to rely on self-study, videos and written materials/sheet music as far as they are available. From time to I also travel in Southest Asia - both as a part of my job as a researcher in Southeast Asian studies and also when we visit my wife's family in Yangon. Maybe I can find a teacher to give me an occasional lesson whenever we meet... Master Wu made Guanzi out of PVC pipes... amazing. I guess, that the quality of the reeds and the embrochure is at least as important for the sound as the instrument's body. What about the reeds - are good reeds easily available for sale or do you make them yourself?
Greetings,
Georg
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Post by sanmenxia on Sept 6, 2010 0:36:41 GMT
I also love the sound and music of the guanzi! I've got one but I have no idea how you play it, and I have heard it is a very difficult instrument to play. I did buy some reeds at the same time I bought the guanzi, so ready made reeds are available but I don't know if guanzi players usually make their own reeds or not. The guanzi looks to me to be quite a simple instrument, so I would guess a good one shouldn't be very expensive. I prefer a more traditional style, like this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IxzOQQh0iwplayed by Wu Yaxin, who studied at the Central Conservatoire with Hu Zhihou: That's a 1993 CD called "Music of the Guanzi" on the Japanese "JVC World Sounds" series of CDs (JVC World Sounds VICG-5260). Hu Zhihou is also the guanzi player on the CD "Buddhist Music of the Ming Dynasty, Zhihuasi Temple, Beijing" (1993 CD), JVC World Sounds - VICG 5259, a recording of northern Chinese ritual wind-and-percussion music, with the guanzi as the lead instrument. Another guanzi CD is "Buddhist Music of Tianjin" www.wyastone.co.uk/nrl/world/7064a.html. Photo from the CD: On the Naxos label is "Ten Chinese Guanzi Classics", www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.828014, played by Jin Shiyi: sco.com.sg/english/orchestra/musician/3025.htmlI've started so I might as well finish listing all the CDs/cassettes featuring the guanzi that I've got. The rest are: A CD of Zhihua temple music. Another guanzi solo CD by Hu Zhihou. Half the tracks from a CD of wind-and-percussion music, and silk and bamboo music (Jiangnan sizhu). A few tracks from a cassette of wind-and-percussion music (most of the tracks feature the suona). One track from the Ocora CD: "Chine. Musique classique" sites.radiofrance.fr/radiofrance/kiosque/fiche.php?id=839One track from a CD of music featuring various solo instruments. The last two have only one track each, but those two tracks are absolutely two of my favourite pieces of recorded music, ever. Oh, I nearly forgot I also have a recording from a radio broadcast of a concert of wind-and-percussion music by monks from the temples of Wutai Shan in Shanxi Province. And a radio documentary of wind-and-percussion music from the villages around Beijing.
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Post by guqin on Sept 6, 2010 14:20:20 GMT
What about the reeds - are good reeds easily available for sale or do you make them yourself? Reeds are sold at the music shop but they certainly do need some work in order to make them playable. I have 13 reeds but only one is playable! The professional musicians make their own reeds but I usually get mine from the shop. Master Wu goes back to China once a year to collect reeds from the wild to make his reeds. Guanzi reed making is still somewhat a closely guarded secret, unlike oboe and bassoon reeds where there are lots of literature about making them.
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Post by song on Sept 6, 2010 14:29:17 GMT
Yes the guanzi reeds are tricky.
Georg I have sent an email to you. If you do not see it, check in your spam/junk folder.
Thanks! SW
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Post by xindi on Apr 27, 2011 14:10:35 GMT
Thanks for the CD links Sanmenxia - I'll look those up. The ones that aren't already on Spotify that is...
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Post by sanmenxia on May 4, 2011 17:47:21 GMT
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Post by xindi on May 4, 2011 19:37:00 GMT
Some fantastic work coming out of the SOAS group. These publications never get to see mainstream though - at 27 pounds a book, it's good value with the CDs, although I tend to prefer a book and mini-disc option. Well, just a soft-back book actually.
I've not been to Xian for a few years - these days there are truckloads of foreigners all vying for the mausoleum visits to the shrine gardens and terracotta warriors. Travelling as far as Yan An market town and the northern countryside, I never came across any music, except in Baota temples and in Xian, near its famous Muslim Streets, where Shawn Bands and dancers would play. It was a very rural type band too - they used mostly percussion/gong and suona. Having seen too many funerals with suonas, I'm afraid it's not a favourite instrument.
Xian dumplings are fabulous too - try some if you can't find a guanzi out in Shaanxi.
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Post by sanmenxia on May 8, 2011 1:38:31 GMT
Those types of books are definitely not mainstream! I bet 99 out of every 100 copies will have been bought by an university library or a student.
I'm not sure about Shaanxi, but the guanzi does feature in the wind and percussion music of Shanxi, in particular the Wutai mountain area. Although I guess it would be very easy to visit any one area and not see or hear any traditional music, if that type of music is not really played in public or at formal concerts.
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gawn
Intermediate
Posts: 43
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Post by gawn on May 11, 2011 14:55:21 GMT
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Post by edcat7 on May 11, 2011 21:58:55 GMT
I've listened to some of the above and the xaphoon sounds and looks very much like a guanzi, though the xaphoon looks far easier to play. Shame we have only one life and it takes a lifetime to master one instrument.
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Post by xindi on May 13, 2011 20:40:38 GMT
This is an incredibly evocative piece. I have it with the Tang Dynasty Xiao, and instead of the familiar traditional sound with erhu, it achieves an edge of the chair level of emotional intensity for me here. The guanzi player is Henry - he sold me my rosewood guanzi for an incredibly low price!. He founded Melody of China and works on his own now He is an incredible musician - and his guanzi and oboe playing is phenomenal. I can really recommend his services and knowledge - a real gentleman of the highest musical integrity. Having just started the guanzi which I've bought, I really think the best way to describe my sound is a cross between a traditional chinese suona wedding march in a B flat minor key played by someone half-beaten to death - and Donald Duck. It's very easy to switch to the guanzi embouchure, however at the moment my lips are paralysed and I can't find the highest octave on my dizi anymore The buzzing of the lips is really weird. I do feel like my head is about to explode. I could hear ringing in my ears but I realised that was the electronic mosquito repellent I left on. What an incredible instrument. I can't wait to practice again (it's loud!), but the embouchure paralysis really perturbs me. What if I can't play the flute due to switching over to the guanzi? Guess it's back to the bass recorder for me until I find my lips again.
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gawn
Intermediate
Posts: 43
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Post by gawn on May 15, 2011 21:02:07 GMT
The guanzi player is Henry - he sold me my rosewood guanzi for an incredibly low price!. He founded Melody of China and works on his own now He is an incredible musician - and his guanzi and oboe playing is phenomenal. I can really recommend his services and knowledge - a real gentleman of the highest musical integrity. LOL... and the Sheng player, Wu Wei (who, by the way belongs to the very same Wu family that makes the Wu family instruments) lives in Berlin (Germany) and runs a Chinese music school close to where I used to live in Berlin until last year... www.beepworld.de/members/cmz-berlin/index.htmSmall, small world...
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Post by xindi on May 22, 2011 21:01:06 GMT
Well I no longer sound like Donald Duck on the Guanzi lol.
More like a first octave version of Huey, Louis and Dewey!
Wu Family guanzi and flutes have a great reputation. I'm glad I settled for a rosewood rather than an ebony guanzi first though since it is heavy enough to carry around.
Wu Wei's playing is superb. He makes the sheng sound almost ecclesiastical.
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Post by maluna on Jun 22, 2011 16:05:49 GMT
Dear gawn,
Yeah, sorry to say that Guan-zi is a hard instrument to learn by yourself. I'm a guanzi player from Japan, I studied with Mr. Wu Xiao Zhong's on and off since 1987 in Tokyo, Singapore, and Xi'an.
Usually, the player makes his or her own reed (哨子 shao-zi) I think. Or at least you need to know how to tune it, unless you have someone who can do it for you all the time. Just like western oboe, a Guanzi player has to take care and tune the reed all the time. Tuning is crucial for guanzi. The way one player tune his guanzi is different from the way other players do. Because of the way the shaozi is made. You use tube cane (whole), without cutting it into pieces like western oboe reed. So none of those tube canes is exactly the same size and quality as material. That means you have to tune reed and guanzi to be matched in tune.
Very often, the size of the instrument and the way the finger holes are drilled are different in each guanzi (in same key). Also each player has different style of tuning the instrument. Mr. Wu Xiao Zhong and Mr. Hu Zhihou has different way of tuning the instrument even though Mr. Wu studied with Mr. Hu. Their playing styles are different. I can say my tuning is now a bit different from Mr. Wu's.
The excelrent instruments are very difficult to find these days, I think. Even back in 80s, it was difficult, because there's no more old and good wood materials exist for guanzi making.
I was lucky. Most of my guanzi are through Mr. Wu. So I didn't need to look for instrument for my self. Actually there weren't many ways or places I could buy guanzi those days. Maybe still not. : )
But I would say the quality of the instrument is secondary. The way you play and the quality of the reed makes more difference.
"Wu family's" guanzi I saw 4-5 years ago was "way too heavy!", me and Mr. Wu Xiao Zhong had the conversation in Xi'an.
So, sorry I can't name where you should look for a good guanzi now.
By the way, "Silk Road Fantasia" was composed FOR Mr. Wu Xiao Zhong. just a tips.
Nao
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Post by sanmenxia on Jun 23, 2011 14:27:09 GMT
That's very informative.
When I got my guanzi, I got a few reeds as well. The bottom were wrapped with cotton thread, which I assume it's so that it increases the diameter to fit into the top of the guanzi.
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Post by maluna on Jun 24, 2011 17:07:59 GMT
That's very informative. >When I got my guanzi, I got a few reeds as well. The bottom were wrapped with cotton thread, which I assume it's so that it increases the diameter to fit into the top of the guanzi. Yes, and the the cotton thread part will be wrapped w/ thin paper tape (you can make the tape out of kitchen paper towel).
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Post by sanmenxia on Jun 26, 2011 16:28:12 GMT
Mine didn't have the paper tape, but then I've never used them anyway as I don't even know how to get a sound out of the guanzi.
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Post by xindi on Jul 1, 2011 0:07:57 GMT
I took the paper tissue off mine. It has a metal wire wrapped around the reed, and the wire casket holds it in the guanzi.
I've not been practicing much, due to it destroying my flute embouchure and making my lips numb. So far I've worked out a pentatonic scale in D, which works along the same lines as the guzheng [D E F# A B]. The second octave is going to make my head pop. The pressure is too unpleasant for me, so I'm just working on refining it.
Have you thought of taking lessons? Maybe it's cheaper for a few students, instead of individual. I've learnt mostly through trial and error - just walking around the forest with the reed (no guanzi), and learning to control it. It is devastatingly loud without the guanzi! It is worse than a fuvezela (whatever).
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Post by yudingbon on Oct 25, 2011 3:37:50 GMT
So where did you finally get your guanzi from? Anyone have suggestion for a good vendor?
I always wanted to learn to play and I figure its about time I did something about it. I don't mind spending for a good instrument, but I definitely do not want to be ripped off.
There has been some talks about people buying off of taobao.com. Anyone with experience of the vendors on there?
~Lucian
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