GREAT BOOK FOR BEGINNERS

[Si]

Its called xiao er shue gu qin (kids learn gu qin) and the ISBN is - 7-103-02863-x

its all in chinese unfortunatly, and it has a dvd which i have not watched yet.

the thing that made me want to tell the world about it though, was that fact that it seems very easy for beginners to pick up and learn the pieces even if they have not teacher!

the scores are simple and easy to follow without any head scratching that usually seems to be part of qin pu notation. they mainly use the simple fingerings without the difficult techniques and even tell you where your left hand should start before you slide up to the first indicated note. its in jian zi pu too. no jing fu's or fen kai's etc.

i could pick up the final tune - mei hua san nong quickly and i have never played it before! there are 10 tunes as well as drills.

the down side it maybe the tunes will be a big simple without the interesting techniques but i think those fingerings can be added later when the beginner has more skill and confidence.

although having said all that, i think i am the only gu qin beginner on this forum! ;D

[Charlie Huang]

Sounds interesting. Probably get that to add to my library...

[gubaba]

If this is the book I think it is I have a copy of this book and it's DVD.

The DVD is rather interesting as the students are a group of little girls perhaps 6 to 10 years old. They are amazing to watch. I have wondered about the instruments they are using as they are definitely a smaller instrument perhaps something like the 37" instruments that show up on ebay.

The notation in the book does not have staff notation which I miss. There are however some fingering charts, 2 for F and 2 for Bflat. (I am sinolinguoimpaired and can't read the captions).

I am also a beginner to the guqin. I use LXT's book and VCD for material as the chances of finding an available teacher is pretty remote. I also spend time with the guzheng and the erhu though at the moment I have had to put the erhu aside due to repetitive stress issues.

[Si]

Yep, I think you have the same as me.

The book shows a smaller gu qin for kids.

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Regarding the DVD kids - Why are they all girls? Even when I see the classes tought in china, seems 4 out of five students are female with one male. I always thought of the qin as more popular for men to play. Especially old foggies, you never see old ladies playing.......I detect that in 20 years there will be a gender inbalance in the instrument. Probably something to do with the fact that the guqin is sooooooo uncooool if your a kid in china but i suppose thats another story (Just an inoccent observation from where i am in China)