help on erhu

[cansint]

hello everyone,
a couple of days before i bought myself an erhu. I bought a cheap one to be honest, to see if i can do ok with it. it came in today. the problem is this is my first stringed instrument and i cannot produce any sound with it. so i tried to solve my problem through the net but could not find anything. first i thought maybe the strings are not tight enough or maybe its the bow, but after playing with the tightness of the strings and the bow i realized there is another problem because whatever i do, there is only friction sound, nothing like what an erhu should sound like...
i've been reading this forum about the erhu and i am thinking now that maybe my problem is that i havent used any rosin on the string.
anyway, i wanted to ask you for help, that maybe you guys could think of a reason why there is no sound.

thanks
Cansint

[sanmenxia]

Hi!
It sounds like there's no rosin on your bow hair. If you still have a problem after rubbing some rosin on the hair, then your erhu's problaby not set up correctly.

[davidmdahl]

The possibilities that come to mind that might explain the lack of sound when you attempt to play your erhu include no rosin on the bow and no bridge. The bridge is a relatively small chip of wood (usually) that sits at the center of the snake skin. The strings rest on the bridge. The vibration from the strings is transmitted to the snake skin via the bridge, so if it is missing or in the wrong place, you might not hear much of anything.

As you mentioned, a lack of rosin on the bow will also result in very little sound. Some very cheap bows are made with synthetic hair rather than horse hair. My experience with nylon hair is that it is difficult to get rosin to stick to it very well. A new bow will probably not have any rosin on the hair yet, so this is a good bet.

It seems common for cello rosin to be packaged with erhus, even though it is not a good option. I have had best luck with violin rosin.

As I have written before, a cheap erhu can often be made more playable by exchanging the bow, strings, and bridge with good quality replacements. This does not cost very much and can make a big difference.

Be sure also to put a pad of felt or cloth below the bridge under the strings. This is often missing from a new erhu or could be loose in the case.

Best wishes,

David

[cansint]

thanks for the quick replies. i think the problem is rosin and i would get it as quick as possible to see the effect.
furthermore, replacing the strings, the bow and the bridge would be a good idea, i will look into it in the weekend...
lastly there is no cloth under the bridge, but how high should the bridge be? is it supposed to be in the middle of the skin, a little higher a little lower? after i learn the place of the bridge i will put a cloth under the bridge as you told.

thanks

Cansın

[sanmenxia]

The bridge should in the middle or up to about 5mm above. You need to experiment a bit to find the place which will give the best sound.

[davidmdahl]

A picture is worth a thousand words. Check the erhu photos on Cadenza at:

www.cadenzamusic.biz/huqin.htm

Hopefully that will clarify at least some of the miscommunications regarding location of bridge and damper cloth.

Best wishes,

David

[rickwalker]

Sometimes new rosin is a bit glazed. Also, clean bow hair doesn't have enough friction to eat into the rosin cake. Once you have some rosin, everything works as usual.

It helps to scratch the rosin with a knife to generate a bit of powder. You can then put this powder on your bow hair to get it started. Until you break the surface of the rosin you can rub for quite a long time before you actually get enough on the bow to make it useable.

I think that you should always start with the bridge exactly dead center in the head. Some defects in the erhu (too tight or too loose skin, etc.) may cause the instrument to sound better with an off center bridge, but first try center and then make explorations from there.