Post by quadraticharmony on Sept 29, 2010 2:06:31 GMT
Hello, all!
I'm going to be the first rank newbie to not start my first post with lots of questions that have already been answered somewhere else. I hope. I have been reading and perusing this amazing forum for some time, and thought now would be a good time to come out of the fog.
I live in beautiful central Arkansas, in an area of Little Rock known for musical diversity and spawning many independent music groups. I may be the only newbie erhu player, though.
I scored my (I think) pretty little erhu from an online auction; no case, broken strings, no bridge, but other than that, it seems to be okay, from my limited knowledge. It appears to have natural python skin, and has a round (not hexagonal or octagonal) bottom to it, interestingly enough.
I'm waiting for my Eason Erhu Rejuvination Kit to come, so I thought I would do a little Franken-hu'ing. I carved a bridge from an oak dowel, made strings from some unknown heavy thread I found, and a qingjin from dental floss! I rebuilt a ruined violin bow by making hangers for the bowhair, and stringing it with 8-pound fishing line (it IS Arkansas, after all...). Bound it with gaffer's tape at both ends, and rosined with regular violin rosin.
(I'll take pictures once I figure out how to post them, if anyone is interested)
I'm no expert on ANY bowed instrument by any means, but I did get a couple of pretty nice sounds out of it! I think my bridge is too high, so I'll be shaping that down to a lower profile. And i have no felt in the strings below the bridge as of yet, but I will try to find a makeup foundation sponge... (saw that in this very forum, btw...) I definitely have a lot to learn. Like where in Arkansas an erhu teacher may be!
At any rate, it's been a fun process thus far, and I think I've learned quite a bit about erhu physics just from my tinkerings. Of course, once I get my stuff from Eason, I'll be a bit more serious. Well, not much, but some. :-) Still, it's a lovely fun instrument, and one day I hope to be passably good at it.
Thank you all for sharing all of your knowledge and good sense over several years on this forum. It really makes a newbie such as myself feel much more confident when I can go to one place to learn.
P.S. I love how I'm noted as "illiterate." Boy howdy, never truer words were spoken. Beginners mind forever!
H4
I'm going to be the first rank newbie to not start my first post with lots of questions that have already been answered somewhere else. I hope. I have been reading and perusing this amazing forum for some time, and thought now would be a good time to come out of the fog.
I live in beautiful central Arkansas, in an area of Little Rock known for musical diversity and spawning many independent music groups. I may be the only newbie erhu player, though.
I scored my (I think) pretty little erhu from an online auction; no case, broken strings, no bridge, but other than that, it seems to be okay, from my limited knowledge. It appears to have natural python skin, and has a round (not hexagonal or octagonal) bottom to it, interestingly enough.
I'm waiting for my Eason Erhu Rejuvination Kit to come, so I thought I would do a little Franken-hu'ing. I carved a bridge from an oak dowel, made strings from some unknown heavy thread I found, and a qingjin from dental floss! I rebuilt a ruined violin bow by making hangers for the bowhair, and stringing it with 8-pound fishing line (it IS Arkansas, after all...). Bound it with gaffer's tape at both ends, and rosined with regular violin rosin.
(I'll take pictures once I figure out how to post them, if anyone is interested)
I'm no expert on ANY bowed instrument by any means, but I did get a couple of pretty nice sounds out of it! I think my bridge is too high, so I'll be shaping that down to a lower profile. And i have no felt in the strings below the bridge as of yet, but I will try to find a makeup foundation sponge... (saw that in this very forum, btw...) I definitely have a lot to learn. Like where in Arkansas an erhu teacher may be!
At any rate, it's been a fun process thus far, and I think I've learned quite a bit about erhu physics just from my tinkerings. Of course, once I get my stuff from Eason, I'll be a bit more serious. Well, not much, but some. :-) Still, it's a lovely fun instrument, and one day I hope to be passably good at it.
Thank you all for sharing all of your knowledge and good sense over several years on this forum. It really makes a newbie such as myself feel much more confident when I can go to one place to learn.
P.S. I love how I'm noted as "illiterate." Boy howdy, never truer words were spoken. Beginners mind forever!
H4
