Erhu sound problem

[Ilbrim]

Hi ,

i purchased an erhu few months ago but people around me starts saying my Erhu's sound was quite unpleasent and sometimes the erhu make an acute sound so i wanted to know if there was such a problem on my Erhu!
First of all , i tuned my Erhu on D4 and A4 , The bridge is on the middle of the snake skin and the damper is just a bit bellow the bridge.
Is there anything i've done wrong ? I think i put too much rosin on the bow i wanted to know if there's some special way to wash the bow or if it can be cleaned with water.

Also i wanted to get some tips for beginners about the posture, the bow and maybe some melodies for beginners !

Thanks a lot in advance !

Yohann

[eugene]

Hi Yohann.

Welcome to this form. I'm not quite sure what do you mean by unpleasant sound hear like.
But if you could take a video of how you bow and how its sound like, I believe some of the pro player here can advise on this.
Of course, the type of dumper you are using and how you place might affect as well.
I don't think having too much rosin will affect it. At most it will could cause too much white dust or powder.
But of course it depend on the type of rosin you use as well.

For me I only use normal wet tissues to clean the bow hair and then let it to dry.
But that's only when I need to keep or store the bow for a long time.

[Ilbrim]

Hi Eugene.

Thank you for your reply. I would love to take a video of me playing if it will help to find where's the problem but the fact is that i don't have high quality microphone so the sound seems awful when i try to record it.
What i meant by unpleasant sound is that sometimes for an instant there is no sound outputed , sometimes times it sounds harsh , and sometimes there's a really high unpleasant sound ( like when you learn for the first time how to bow on a violin for most beginner for example )

Ok but there's powder residue on the strings , can it be a cause of the sound problem or is it normal ?

Thank you a lot for helping me !

[davidmdahl]

Hello Yohann,

You do need to clean rosin from the strings and anywhere else it collects, but I suspect your problems are more to do with the usual challenges. Bowing the erhu strings amounts to a balancing of bow speed and pressure. With light pressure, you don't need to bow so fast. With more pressure, bow faster. It takes a while to get used to this. You also need good posture and bowing technique, including holding the bow correctly and bowing at the correct angle. I suggest looking up the video that Jie Bing Chan did several years ago. I don't have a link handy, but maybe someone else does.

Best wishes,

David

[Ilbrim]

Hi David,

Thanks a lot for the tips you gave to me, i'll search for the video you're talking about soon and hopefully it will teach me important things to improve myself with the Erhu.

Yohann