gawn
Intermediate
Posts: 43
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Post by gawn on Apr 1, 2011 13:47:56 GMT
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Post by davidmdahl on Apr 1, 2011 17:27:30 GMT
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Post by xindi on Apr 1, 2011 20:24:45 GMT
My goodness! You play the Guanzi?!!! Wow! That's amazing. I wish I could be helpful - unfortunately i can't read very well either. If you're on a Mac (well - Windows, if you know how to screen for malware and viruses): www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=song+ting+ting+capriccio+grassland&aq=f&aqi=g-v1g-j1g-b3&aql=&oq=www.yesasia.com/us/song-ting-ting/0-aid1057080-0-bpt.47-en/list.htmlwww.yesasia.com/us/capriccio-grassland-china-version/1014451252-0-0-0-en/info.htmlSong Ting Ting (instrumental Gu Zheng soloist - no accompaniment) - is absolutely stunning. Her Capriccio Grassland is the CD that changed my mind forever about the Gu Zheng and made me go out and buy one. Her tremelo and minor pentatonic scale bending is just hauntingly sublime whereas 'Go out of the Himalayas' is more austere and beautiful in a slow way. Lin Ling's Gu Zheng recordings are first rate (she plays with classical chinese chamber orchestras). You'll find plenty of those on Yesasia too. As for flute ... I've not come across many recordings - I tend to watch mine on Youtube, only because i don't know which pieces to buy. I did buy a superb soloist (dizi) which came with the original chinese music scores. It is rather advanced in grade so I can't even play half of it, but the music is superb.
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gawn
Intermediate
Posts: 43
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Post by gawn on Apr 4, 2011 15:08:36 GMT
Thank you ... I'll soon have a few more CDs... Oh, well... I'm trying my best to learn it. Having learned to play the oboe, I didn't find it too difficult to blow my first notes, only I had to reduce my pressure considerably. I use an electronic tuner to work on my embouchure and the finetuning of the individual notes and for the first octave it's already getting better. So I can play a few easy melodies & songs within that octave that do not need too much halfholing, but that's it so far. I found this finger chart: www.melodyofchina.com/12score/guanzi_fingerchart.gifMay I ask if somebody would be so kind to translate the terms written on the left beside the wholes for me? I think it's probably the fingers - but which one is the thumb covering the hole below? I am trying to figure out how to get into the second (overblown) octave ... I hope that the above set of 4 VCDs and a book (hopefully containing illustrations and studies/exercises in jianpu or staff notation or the like) that I just ordered from Yesasia will help me to advance further... Kind regards & greetings to everybody, Georg
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Post by sanmenxia on Apr 4, 2011 20:40:08 GMT
The characters on the left of the holes says: 8th hole 7th hole going down to 1st hole. So with all 8 holes covered you get E, the lowest note. With hole 2 to 8 covered you get the next note up, which is F sharp. Standard blowing might be better than "blowing flatted". I don't think there are many guanzi CDs out there, there's one on Naxos called "Ten Chinese Guanzi Classics" www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.828014and there are a couple on the JVC World Music Sounds series played by Hu Zhihou (author of the guanzi tutor in the first link).
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gawn
Intermediate
Posts: 43
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Post by gawn on Apr 5, 2011 8:21:08 GMT
Thank you sanmenxia! I've already got the CDs you mention... and there's a guy on youtube (flytobluesky2000) who has posted many amazing videos of guanzi performances - like this one of Hu Zhihou: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ1ATNzy5gg. My Guanzi is in F actually and I thought that this would just mean that I'd have to transpose the scale in staff notation below the chart. Or is the fingering different for F / G / A Guanzis? What confuses me a bit is which of these 8 wholes is the thumbhole on the downside of the instrument - or doesn't the A Guanzi have that? It is between the first and second whole on the upper side, so it could be hole 1 or hole 2 ? And finally I don't think I am blowing 'flattened' - it is just compared to the oboe that the Guanzi appears to need more air (in terms of the volume going through the larger reed) but less pressure (i.e. less speed of airflow) - the reed blocks when I use too much force... Finally one question regarding to pitch - what would be the standard tuning of Chinese instruments ? A=440 Hz ? Thanks again and kind regards, Georg
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Post by sanmenxia on Apr 5, 2011 11:36:43 GMT
I don't actually know how to play the guanzi! But I did buy one and a couple of guanzi books when I was in China. The one on the left is a discussion on guanzi playing by Hu Zhihou, the one on the right is sheet music compiled by the Central Conservatoire. It looks like the thumb hole is counted as the *seventh* hole, from the book by Hu Zhihou: On the picture of the guanzi without the reed, the intervals (I thinK) are indicated on the left, the hole numbers are on the right. The book also has exactly the same fingering chart you linked to. Re "blowing flattened", I think that's a bad literal translation of "pingchui", I understand "ping" can mean flat, level, but it can also mean ordinary, usual, normal, or standard. Chui means blow. I don't think "pingchui" means blowing flat in pitch. I think modern made instruments would have their pitches standardised to A=440. Another essential guanzi CD is Buddhist Music of Tianjin (Nimbus NI 5416).
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gawn
Intermediate
Posts: 43
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Post by gawn on Apr 5, 2011 16:04:11 GMT
Thanks Sanmenxia. This is indeed great help!
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Post by xindi on Apr 5, 2011 20:51:59 GMT
Yes - everything I play is tuned to A=440Hz too. Just out of laziness, since I don't know any better and that is the default for most of my instruments.
With the guanzi - the reed seems to move in and out of the mouth during play. Why is this?
I suppose I shouldn't get too curious in case I end up with yet another unmastered instrument on my wish list to play ...
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gawn
Intermediate
Posts: 43
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Post by gawn on Apr 5, 2011 22:23:27 GMT
Well, from closely watching Guanzi videos I would suppose that it's a way of playing vibrato. Then again, you can also change the embouchure (the way you embrace the reed with your lips) to modify sound quality from soft and velvetlike to sharp and piercing). But these are just my guesses based on what I know about oboe and other double reeds...
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Post by xindi on Apr 5, 2011 22:39:10 GMT
Thanks - that makes sense. Are you familiar with this album? I've not heard it very much, so I'm not saying this is an outright recommendation or anything, but it is rather 'strange' and might interest you: The version of 'Autumn Reverie at the Dressing Table' is very unusual - at least for me, since I never ever play it this way. It is more of a 'xiao' flute album, and takes some getting to like.
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Post by xindi on Apr 5, 2011 22:48:59 GMT
... and Master Zhong Xian's classic compilation - the Guqin works are splendid but I guess you probably already know this one? s.dsimg.com/image/R-2334994-1277744238.jpegwww.amazon.com/Qinxin-Classical-Chinese-Wisdom-Traditions/dp/B000QQX29YI'm not a fan of the vocals. Lu Chun Ling's Naxos (Marco Polo rebranded) Dizi works - 'The Art of the Dizi' is the one CD most of us are familiar with here in the west. I'm sure I've got more in my collection, but I can't remember off-hand. If there's anything specific you're after, I can try and find out when I have more time over Easter.
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