The Worst Questions Ever (Warned)

[demigrind]

Greetings guys,

My name is Anthony, and as of yesterday I have recieved my first erhu from Cadenza. My love for erhu originally came as a result of my love for Asian cinema. After hearing it in scores of films so often, eventually curiosity got the best of me and I did some investigating, found out about the erhu and committed myself to learning it. I consider myself an accomplished guitar player and as such, figured I'd try and parlay that skill to a bowed string instrument. The erhu was the natural choice, but now I find myself at an impass, one that I'm embarassed about to say the least.

HOW DO I BOW THE D STRING? This seems so elementary to me, after only a day of playing I can move fairly well up and down the A string, I have even gotten some vibrato down. But bowing the low string just doesn't work for me. I have watched this (http://www.jiebingchen.com/erhu/video.shtml) video so many times, and it looks so easy to bow the low string. It just seems to me that you're supposed to hold the erhu on your left knee correct? With the snakeskin facing out to the right? When you hold it properly (from the looks of the video at least) the low string is almost parallel to your torso, so how can I bow it properly? It really is maddening. I can't very well get good at this gorgeous instrument if I can only play half of it.

I suppose this brings me to my next question, I have been ghosting on this forum for quite sometime, thanks to most of you guys' saavy and know how, I was able to make a good decision on which erhu to get (Cadenza's $433 Redwood). But my question is, why does everyone say that you need rosin on both sides of the bow? How can you possibly bow with the inside of the horse hair? I'm sure these questions are very easily answered by someone who knows what they're talking about. I will more than likely start lessons if I can find a teacher, but for now I must confess I am at somewhat of a loss as for what to do.

I apologize for the long winded nature of my post, I tend to write the same way that I talk, but if anyone can offer me any sort of assistance I will be most grateful.

Master of the A string,
- Anthony -

[davidmdahl]

Hello Anthony! Welcome to our forum. You will find among us others who were at one time just as bewildered as you, so don't worry.

From your description, I am betting that your bow has been separated from the erhu. The bow hair is actually supposed to be between the D and A strings. The stick part should be on the outside of the A string. The bow hair is rosined on both sides since the bottom rubs against the D string, and the top rubs against the A string. You hold the bow such that you either push the bow hair inward against the D string, or push the stick out so that the bow hair rubs the A string.

Best wishes,

David

[demigrind]

Holy **** david, thank you so very much! I had thought that was supposed to be that way but I second guessed myself. "Surely you wouldn't have to thread the hair IN BETWEEN the strings!" HAHAHA!!! I guess it's just one of those things that you don't know until someone tells you. Thank you good sir for schooling me in the ways of the D string!

So the bow goes through the A and D string eh? I suppose the only way to put it in and take it out are to undo a string (as I just did)? Logic would tell me that to be true. So do you all really take a string off to put rosin on your bows? Or do you just put it on with the bow still between the strings? Thanks again for answering my rookie questions! I'm having so much more fun playing BOTH strings on this thing! HAHAHA!!

- Anthony -

[maaltan]

you can also remove the ...frog. (is that term valid for erhu bow? ) by unscrewing the tensioning screw enough to slip it of the hook or completely if its inside a piece of plastic (like mine).

Be careful its easy to twist the bow hair. not thats it hard to correct or seems to affect much of the sound quality. I'm still pretty horrible playing so i don't notice a lot of the minutae. Also dont be alarmed if one or two hairs fall out from a new bow when you loosen it. At least i wasn't, should I have been? You seem to know your way around an instrument so I'm probably preaching to the choir.

(although I dont understand that euphemism. If i had to stand up there for hours part of the choir, I would appreciate some inspirational speaking... of course I'm not religious so i wouldn't be up there at all )

[demigrind]

Maaltan, very nice, I was wondering about that thing and what it was. I unscrewed it a bit after I got my erhu and bow and realized that it loosened and tighted the hair, I just didn't have the testicular fortitude to take it all the way off, glad to know that I can without doing some damage. Great response by the way. Fortunately I have some crazy callouses on my left hand from guitar playing, so as soon as I got my bowing sounding decent, I started dropping some vibrato, and it sounds so wonderful to my ear. I think I may be doing it wrong though. Are you supposed to do vibrato by sliding your finger a half step or > from the note? Or by pushing the string down toward the vertical post. I've been doing the latter and it sounds nice. How do you guys do it?

Sorry, just realized this is covered in a different topic... I'll take that last question to that post. Thanks for your responses guys, I'm having more fun with this instrument by the second!

- Anthony -

[YouLanFengChune]

Haha, hi!

You should have sent the question to my helpdesk. My person on duty this week is erhu trained.

Hmm.. Thanks for getting the 433 rosewood erhu(if you're John Cage fan, you'll be laughing). You have gotten a mighty good aged rosewood (30 yr old wood) with the 4th piece in the 5.5metre long Burmese Python. Good Stuff...

[demigrind]

Yes YouLanFengChune you're probably right, I should have asked you guys for help. I was kind of embarassed to be honest with you. I figured it was something I should have figured out. Anyway, I love my erhu and I appreciate Cadenza for hooking it up so quickly. Thanks!