So it begins.

[ziman]

At long last, I've finally begun studying guqin.

Some time ago, I mentioned a guqin exhibition that was being held in Kuala Lumpur. I went to that exhibition and some of its activities. The upshot of that was, I met with one of the few guqin teachers in Malaysia, Mr. Ng Teck Hing (黃德欣), who was trained by Gong Yi. He is now my teacher.

Since I'll be in Kuala Lumpur for only a few months, I'll be training as intensively as I can. Fortunately, I won't be entirely on my own once I leave for Minneapolis again, as I have two friends there who are also guqin players.

I am overjoyed by this turn of events, as I had been wanting to learn guqin since 2004 (my high school years), but could not find a teacher in Malaysia back then. I had been tempted to self-study in the past, but after my first few lessons on the guqin I am glad I did not do so. There are subtleties in the execution of each of the finger techniques that really have to be shown to you physically for you to "get" it.

[edcat7]

Congratulations on your quqin tuition.

We occasionally get enquiries about what to look for when buying a guqin. Can you answer that now?

[davidmdahl]

Wow, congratulations ziman! It looks like you are going about study of the guqin in the best way. I wish you the best. Have fun!

[yudingbon]

I am so jealous! Congratulations on the beginning of the journey that will very well last the rest of your life. I wish I could step forth on this path too.

[carol]

Teck Hing is my good friend. His qin playing is good. Have fun there!

[ziman]

Thanks for all the well-wishes!

Right now, I'm once more experiencing how Chinese teachers are all about the basics, as Ed always says- it's all intensive finger technique drills on and on and on at the moment... tiao-gou-tiao-tiao-gou-tiao.... Gong Yi sure knows how to compose practice pieces that really strengthen one's basics. My teacher reminisced that back in the day, Gong Yi made him practice just "gou" and "tiao" continuously for 7 weeks...!!!

Ed, on what to look for when buying a guqin, Charlie wrote a bit about it a long time ago: starvoid.proboards.com/thread/56

The New York-based guqin teacher Zhang Peiyou has described important criteria in detail too, at this page (scroll down below the picture): www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=481270968559029&set=a.308895985796529.83183.161971637155632&type=1

Together, the posts by Charlie and Peiyou give a pretty good summary of the critical things to look for when evaluating a guqin. A guqin that satisfies all these criteria should be at least a decent instrument.

Beyond these criteria, things start to get complicated and subjective. Guqins that pass the above tests often still differ a lot in timbre, but what kind of sound characteristic is "better" depends on your playing style, your personal taste, the kinds of pieces you play most often, and the way you intend to use the instrument (e.g. whether you intend to play in lots of large concerts, what type of strings you plan to use, etc.),

I'll illustrate this point by describing the timbre of guqins from three different master makers which I had the privilege to play on recently: Wang Peng, Ni Shiyun, and Ma Weiheng. Of the three, the Wang Peng qin was the loudest by a significant margin, with a bright and smooth timbre. In a classroom-sized space, even without amplification, you wouldn't have to worry about anyone not being able to hear you. On the other hand, its loudness and bright tone meant that it sounded much less mellow than the other two. The Ni Shiyun qin was very interesting- its timbre was a bit nasal (a bystander who didn't like it remarked that it sounded "like a singer with a stuffy nose"), and it had a particular sort of... looseness? ... to its tone which my teacher described as "a drumskin-like tone", a hard-to-imagine description which I did agree with once I heard it. Of the three qins, the Ni Shiyun one had the most interesting variations in tone color, both between the three types of qin sounds (open strings, stopped strings, harmonics) and also when sliding up and down a stopped string. The Ma Weiheng qin, on the other hand, had a very steady, even tone which felt gentle, mellow, and ancient (I don't really know how to convey the meaning of the term "古樸"... "elegant simplicity which evokes a feeling of antiquity" should do..?). Really pleasant to listen to, especially up close. On the other hand, its mellowness means that the Ma Weiheng qin is not as loud, projects less well, and has a less penetrating tone compared to the Wang Peng qin.

The timbre differences between those three qins mean that they are each suited to people with different tastes, for different applications, for different styles of play, and for different kinds of pieces. If you do mostly public performances to large audiences, and sometimes have to perform without amplification, the Wang Peng qin would definitely be very high on your preference list. On the other hand, if you usually play in more intimate settings and/or like gentle songs (think Ping Sha Luo Yan / Wild Geese Descending on the Sandbank), or if you like a more mellow "antique" kind of tone, the Ma Weiheng qin would probably be your favorite. If you like to play complex, virtuosic pieces that make full use of the range of tone colors a guqin is capable of (think You Lan/ Solitary Orchid), the Ni Shiyun qin would help you bring out the tone color differences that are so interesting.

So, once the guqin you are considering fulfills the basic criteria outlined by Charlie and Peiyou, then listen carefully to its tone, be clear about your musical preferences... and pick your axe.