How do I set up my erhu for playing Sun Wenming’s Tan Yue弹乐?

[d̗̰̗͆͘ǎ͔̱͈̰̬̫ͨ̌ͮͥ͗ͭ̕vid]

This is what the sheet music says about it

Do I need any special strings (not erhu D A ones) to tune to a low D or a low A? Do I need to use a Zhonghu for this? Also, if I remove my qianjin, the open string for the inner D string will not sound good because the string touches the lower peg. 

Thanks 
Dāvîd

[davidmdahl]

Hello David,

You don't need anything special to play Tan Yue. A standard erhu with standard strings will do just fine. I worked on this several years ago, and had a lot of fun with it. I didn't feel like taking off the qianjin for one tune, so the plucked notes were not quite as low as intended, but it sounded just fine. If you have an extra erhu laying around that you can dedicate for playing Tan Yue, then go ahead and remove the qianjin, but it is not absolutely necessary.

Best wishes,

David