Post by amadhia on Jun 7, 2018 20:30:43 GMT
Hi!
I’ve spent the last few days reading bits-and-pieces from the forums here, there is a lot of great info here I haven’t been able to find anywhere else. Thank you to you who posted and answered questions that it seems all newbies have!
There are still a bunch of questions rattling around in my head, though.
When you play, does the bow hairs actually rest on the bit of (for my erhu) faux-tortise-shell guard that protects the top/side of the python skin? (If not, roughly how far above the skin should I bow the strings?)
I’m guessing I should be pretty careful about not letting the bow touch the neck/body as I play? (The rosin marks scared me the first time I looked down and saw what appeared to be scratches in the beautiful new instrument. They cleaned-off with a damp cloth, but still, I don’t want to be either sloppy or stupid and inadvertently damage my instruement.)
How does one properly hang the bow on the pegs? I’ve seen photos of this done, but in the photos the erhus are so distant I can’t see clearly how it’s being done — and again, I don’t want to damage my erhu or bow.
What’s the best way to clean rosin off the strings? (They got sticky the first time I hung the bow on the pegs — now I put a bit of silk over the strings before hanging the bow when I’m not playing it.)
I made a makeshift “skin saver” out of a 10mm wide, smooth plastic pen barrel, (thank you to the thread posters about that!). How high in relation to the bridge should this “skin saver” be? Should it be so much taller than the bridge that it eliminats any change in angle of the strings as they pass over the bridge? (Or should it just reduce the angle, and if so, by how much?)
I’m guessing that I should remove the rosin dust from the skin (head) before putting a “skin saver” on?
Could someone post a closeup pic of how the bow should be held for both inner and outer strings? YouTube has been kind-of helpful with this, but I’m still fuzzy on it.
Thanks! And sorry for the huge question-dump. I just got my erhu this past Monday, and I want to make sure I’m not “baking-in” bad habits or hurting it through my ignorance.
(I’ve attached a photo of it — was changing bridges to see the difference between the two that came with it. What’s wild is that though the two seem nearly identical in dimensions, one is seriously screech-prone for me, while the other seems much easier for me to get a good tone.
(It’s the ~$350 “Lantom” purchased through Amazon, though I’ve not been able to find any info on the company, nor where it’s manufactured... and it didn’t come with import papers for the snake-skin. Any thoughts on it would be very much welcome!)
I’ve spent the last few days reading bits-and-pieces from the forums here, there is a lot of great info here I haven’t been able to find anywhere else. Thank you to you who posted and answered questions that it seems all newbies have!
There are still a bunch of questions rattling around in my head, though.
When you play, does the bow hairs actually rest on the bit of (for my erhu) faux-tortise-shell guard that protects the top/side of the python skin? (If not, roughly how far above the skin should I bow the strings?)
I’m guessing I should be pretty careful about not letting the bow touch the neck/body as I play? (The rosin marks scared me the first time I looked down and saw what appeared to be scratches in the beautiful new instrument. They cleaned-off with a damp cloth, but still, I don’t want to be either sloppy or stupid and inadvertently damage my instruement.)
How does one properly hang the bow on the pegs? I’ve seen photos of this done, but in the photos the erhus are so distant I can’t see clearly how it’s being done — and again, I don’t want to damage my erhu or bow.
What’s the best way to clean rosin off the strings? (They got sticky the first time I hung the bow on the pegs — now I put a bit of silk over the strings before hanging the bow when I’m not playing it.)
I made a makeshift “skin saver” out of a 10mm wide, smooth plastic pen barrel, (thank you to the thread posters about that!). How high in relation to the bridge should this “skin saver” be? Should it be so much taller than the bridge that it eliminats any change in angle of the strings as they pass over the bridge? (Or should it just reduce the angle, and if so, by how much?)
I’m guessing that I should remove the rosin dust from the skin (head) before putting a “skin saver” on?
Could someone post a closeup pic of how the bow should be held for both inner and outer strings? YouTube has been kind-of helpful with this, but I’m still fuzzy on it.
Thanks! And sorry for the huge question-dump. I just got my erhu this past Monday, and I want to make sure I’m not “baking-in” bad habits or hurting it through my ignorance.
(I’ve attached a photo of it — was changing bridges to see the difference between the two that came with it. What’s wild is that though the two seem nearly identical in dimensions, one is seriously screech-prone for me, while the other seems much easier for me to get a good tone.
(It’s the ~$350 “Lantom” purchased through Amazon, though I’ve not been able to find any info on the company, nor where it’s manufactured... and it didn’t come with import papers for the snake-skin. Any thoughts on it would be very much welcome!)
Attachments:
It's to protect the snakeskin from the friction of the bow and the rosin that could damage it. Make sure that when you bow, you keep the bow tight enough that you could easily move from string to string. Keep the bowing motion flat and be sure that you don't have a high bow. 
