things my erhu teacher says

[csseu]

There hasn't been too much activity lately, so I hope this might be good for discussion.

I recently started taking erhu lesson with a local musician, and have been keeping notes on the things he's told me (though I've only met him twice so far). I'd been learning on my own earlier, and since I had no formal music training experience, it was immensely frustrating to me to have no idea of what I was doing wrong, and how I could improve.

Anyway, there are a lot of people on this board who seem to be learning on their own, so I thought that my notes might be helpful to other beginners - of course, they're no substitute for even one personal lesson! But maybe it's better than nothing. (Of course, the best possible scenario would be if we could all take lessons, and compare experiences.)

I also thought that since I'm a beginner, if I've made any mistakes or missed some important points, some of you with more experience could help me out! ;D

So, here they are. No way is this meant to be conclusive, but I'm hoping that other people can share their tips and ideas too...I've been thinking that it might be nice to eventually build up a database of problems, tips, exercises, etc. I'm not quite sure of the best way to do it...I like the openness of a wiki, but I'd like something with more organizational ability. Does anyone else think this is worthwhile? Any ideas?

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Things my erhu teacher says

Relax
Music seems a lot like martial arts. You're striving for control (of the variety of sounds you can make). To do this you have to be completely relaxed it's important not to be inappropriately tense (see David's point below) for this. When you tense up, you lose power or control.
- Think about playing the music with your entire body. In fact, he says "don't think about how you have an instrument in your hands". (I don't understand this yet)
- Examples and exercises
--1: Pretend you're playing (without holding the instrument) to see what being relaxed feels like.
--2: Right hand bowing: Don't just think about the right wrist, or elbow, or even your arm when you bow. It's true that it's important to move your entire arm, but you should go beyond that. Maybe "playing from your waist". This sounds silly or new-agey, but I think that when you focus on one part of your body, you concentrate a lot of energy there and then tense up. So the best thing is to think holistically.
--3: Or, think of something else entirely. I'm tense in my left wrist when I slide. I should think about my right hand instead, and concentrate on making my bowing slow, smooth, and consistent.

Phrases and Energy
Musical phrases are demarcated by slurs. Think erhu:voice :: musical phrase:spoken phrase. If there are a lot of slurs, you could liken that part of the piece to singing.
- My teachers always talk about "breath". When you say a phrase, you usually do so in one breath. When applied to erhu, this means you probably don't pause in the middle. It can also mean that you don't suddenly/inadvertently accent a note in the middle of the phrase. (note: I know you do accent notes, but I haven't seen one of those in the middle of a slur yet)
- You can think in terms of (sound) energy. In this case, you don't want any sudden drops. First, practice keeping the energy level stable. Then practice raising and lowering it gradually (crescendo and diminuendo).
(When I asked him if I had to bow faster or press harder to do this, he said thinking about that would make me tense. Instead, "I should feel the music inside from the center of my body." This actually helped.)

Caveat: It's not always singing
I suppose you could imitate a thousand things that aren't like singing. For example, the first part of Purple Flower Drum is more like...well...a purple flower drum. So you would probably play that part with more accents (the score I have is noted that way). I guess the important things are to hear the difference between the two (or more) styles of playing and to know how to bust them out appropriately.


"Play more musically" (I had a teacher who used to tell me this, and it drove me crazy)
I don't know. You probably just need to keep playing until you develop an ear for this. Maybe it's subjective, too. But some ideas:
- Open 5 vs. closed 5: The sound of the open 5 (and A string in general) is brighter and louder. Closed string is muted. Think about which sound is more appropriate for the phrase. Maybe you can try singing it, and note what your body does naturally.
- Some ideas using Teresa Teng's Xiao Cheng Gu Shi [1=D, (*)=slur]:
-- "If you play a lot of notes on the inside string, use the inside (closed) 5" (and vice versa). [Ex: 5 (56) 32 35 | 2 - - -]. 32 3 and 2 - - - are all on the inside string, so play the inside 5 also.
-- In the example [3 (35) 65 61 5] : the last few notes drop in pitch. The tone is darker than it was earlier, so use the closed 5.

Tuning
Keep the neck of the instrument supported in your palm when you tune. Don't just grab the pegs freely, because the extra torque of your hand's weight will affect the string's tension, and you'll have to tune again.

Pitch
(I had stickers marking the lines of the Dmaj scale notes, but I focus too much on that and he told me to take them off)
I think you have to learn the general finger spacing in the positions. However, after that you should probably try to find the correct pitch by ear.

Left hand fingering- basic
- General rules: relax! Straight wrist. Elbow is 45o from erhu neck (not high, not low) (see home1.pacific.net.sg/~ak109/erhu.htm) Erhu stem rests in crook of thumb/forefinger. Maybe more on the forefinger side?
- Each finger has a different shape (need pictures?)
- Usually, we press with (at most) two fingers or it gets too tense. (maybe he said this because I'm a beginner)
- Problem: Hand is too tense. (A good way to watch for this is to see if your ulna pops out of your wrist). Practice fingering without bowing: Press each finger at the appropriate point on the string repeatedly, in rhythm.
- Problem: I didn't know how to play 5 and 2. with my pinky in the first position - I was moving my hand down. Don't do that, you have to reach. In reaching, you can change the angle of your palm with the ground (so that your palm faces you). Wrist should still be straight.

Left hand slide/position change
- Two things to do to make sure you're starting and ending at the right pitches:
--1: Listen
--2: You have to move your whole arm (but think body?), not just your wrist or fingers. Your arm/body should memorize the approximate amount to move up or down.
- On the slide, the left hand sliding finger shouldn't meander between the two notes. It's very fast.
- Problem: My left hand gets stuck, esp when coming up
-- Too tense, energy is focused in wrist. Disperse through arm.
-- practice...
- Problem: when I try to make the LH finger move quickly, I move my RH more quickly too. (The difference is really audible!)
-- Within a song, practice RH bowing pattern without the LH
-- Again, focus on the RH bowing technique when you slide



Right hand ability check
- Smooth, consistent tone along full length of bow
- Crescendo and diminuendo (without tensing up. feel the music!)
- No sudden changes in volume or tone when changing the direction of bowing
---> Continuous sound when changing the direction of bowing
- Same thing, but while changing strings (either in the middle or at the end of bow push/pull)
- Differentiate between normal bowing and bowing with accents (i.e. staccato and tenudo)

Left hand ability check
- Good position/relax
- Scales (different tempos and note values)
--> correct pitch
--> general agility
- Normal slide
- Position change
- slide with cross/changing fingers (I haven't gotten to this yet)

[davidmdahl]

Great topic! There is too much there for me to respond to every point, but a few thoughts come to mind. A good teacher does not necessarily say the same things to every student. Each student may have both common and individual challenges to deal with. We also may understand terms in different ways. I say this just to warn that what is wisdom for one student is not necessarily useful for another. Your teacher might have to tell me to do something completely different than you in order to get the same result. Whatever works is the right method.

Relaxation and tension is a very significant topic for any musician, and is very easy to misunderstand. Inappropriate tension combined with repetitive motion can result in injury! The goal is not actually to be completely relaxed, but to use the right muscles in appropriate ways.

I find that when I am first learning a new instrument or a new technique on a familiar one, I do have to think about how I am using my body. With practice, my muscles learn what they need to do and I "just do it". At the beginning though, I would find it frustrating to be told that I don't need to think about what my wrist or arm should be doing.

Playing musically to me means being expressive. That means putting in as much variety as is possible in terms of dynamics, phrasing, and tone color, to name a few examples. Of course, the palette for expression is dependent on the traditions of the music and the nature of the instrument.

More later.

Best wishes,

David

[notmadeinzhongguo]

Great stuff!

One thing that helped me with the whole "don't think about how you have an instrument in your hands," thing was this little metaphor that I thought up, now I'm still very much a beginner so this could very well be crap (lol) but I found it helpful for me.

OK, imagine that everyone is born with an erhu (bear with me) it is part of you, just like an arm or a leg. The strings are like your vocal cords and the bow is the air you breath. You don't think about breathing, you just do; you (hopefully) think, for a moment, what your going to say (like picking out the piece you are going to play) and then, without another thought, you start and don't think again until you are finished expressing that thought (piece of music.) The erhu is part of you body, you're not holding at instrument, you are singing.
With hope, that did not sound new agey.

[YouLanFengChune]

HI!

That was Yo-Yo Ma's idea, that one should be "one" with instrument, and in his case, the cello was his Lungs..

[xieliyan]

Hi there
I am new here and i am actually bludging at work. But I am an Erhu player too. I agree with Yo Yo Ma in the sense that u must become one with the instrument thus u will naturally play out its sounds. However only hard practice on ur instrument will allow u to achieve this over time. And when u play the music, play it without thinking and it will naturally sound better and natural. But again only constant practice and instruction can allow to achieve this result.

[davidmdahl]

These metaphysical comments about how to play an instrument can be easy to misunderstand for a beginner. From my experience learning musical instruments, we start out learning the basics. For a while we do need to pay attention to what our bodies are doing and the mechanics of playing the instrument. Eventually, with focused practicing, the basics become a part of the muscle memory and the wiring in the mind. Then it is possible to focus on making music.

I do not find that expressive music necessarily comes when we are zoned-out. Good music making requires constant attention to what is happening in the music and planning for what will happen.

Best wishes,

David

[xieliyan]

Well yeah i agree. Also adequate rest is very important in playing string and bow instruments. Alittle bit like singing i think.

[cloudlesszen]

不要急! Bu yao ji!! This is by far the most frequent thing my erhu teacher says. Mostly, don't be so impatient, don't play so urgently, don't rush.

[andyrrgrstevie]

Wow your teacher is very wise in music.
I had learned erhu and somehow mastered the relax part. But when the time comes for me to teach fellow friends they never understand how can they never make a sound like me and I have no idea of how to explain to them. But after I read your post it's like an enlightment. I finally know what I have and what they don't have. Most of my firends are too tense while playing erhu. That's why they always lost it.

And also there's a part of your post that intrigued me

"- Think about playing the music with your entire body. In fact, he says "don't think about how you have an instrument in your hands". (I don't understand this yet)"

What your teacher is trying to say is something like this
"Before you know the lyrics of a song, you start by humming first."
The tip your teacher gave is exactly how I learn to play erhu.

You may found my method of learning erhu is wierd in a few ways but I'll give you a picture of it:
I want to master (let's say) Jiang He Shui piece (It's the river of sorrow piece). So I search on youtube for videos resources. I download a few videos as the guidelines for learning. Then I'll listen to every videos I've downloaded and decide which one is the best sounding. At this point I usually combine performances from diffrent artists. Then I watch the video repeatedly, paying attention at the fingerings and the sound. Naturally I know the notes by only listening to them. At this point some of you might go straight to your erhu and try it out. But not me, I learn the fingering for my own first without using the instrument. This is the part when your teacher said "as if you're not having the instrument in your hand". I use everything to learn the fingering: sticks, spoon, chopsticks, even table edge. After I feel confidence with my fingering, thet's when I'll start using the insttument to play the music.

In short I learn erhu without an erhu. That's pretty much sums up how I learn erhu

[onegod]

Great stuff! Thank you.....