an assignment

[maaltan]

First off I have my new Erhu. Very nice instrument. the sandlewood is DENSE. If it was cool to the touch I would swear it was made from steel or lead. It has a wooden flute quality i really like ( i could easily play native american flute pieces on it). i will get pictures whenever my camera gets back.

Since i do not have a teacher, I have been skipping around a little learning to play some songs i like but are way above my skill. (erquan yingyue, huai xiang xing, liang xiao)

I dont know if it is hurting or not... but i am getting to a certain point where the melody gets complex and I get frustrated and switch songs. Playing song by song in the book i have is getting very boring. i can't find an MP3 and midi is too inaccurate so its basically a waste of time trying to play the songs blindly (deafly?) not to mention my book has LOTS of typos/errors. Zhi zhu diao degenerates into random in the middle (it was NOT just me I found out after referencing several other version).

Would someone like to give me some assignments for the next step? Im mainly looking for a set of songs i can find mp3's/cds for and learn to play at my skill level. I feel like if i take another ride through the countryside in spring ill go crazy

The songs excercises I can play in approximate order of proficiency

• D major Scale (2nd octave comes out right about 75% of the time)
  
• tian yuan chun se (90% accurate)
  
• G Major scale (both full second position and spit first/second position)
  
• First octave of pretty much any scale that follows the "major" pattern
  
• zhi zhu Diao (i dont like it.. to fast and my copy has too many typos)
  
• liang xiao(~75% complete from beginning .. about 50%-75% of that accurate)
  
• huai xiang xing(about 50% from beginning.. about 90% of that correct)
  

medium slides are coming pretty easy to me now. short are hard to start and stop gracefully in the correct spots. long the string doesnt appear to vibrate properly.. especially when sliding down on the inside string (even more specifically 4 to (.)5 in G). The string keeps vibrating at 4 for upwards of a second after my finger is finished moving usually transitioning with a squeal. Also related, I have found out that if i am really careful i can stop the string precisely at the center point on inner string (d5... octave point). When i let go (go to open string) the string keeps vibrating at d5 for several seconds. It eventually drops back to d4 usually making noise on its way. I have found if i change the volume right (give the bow just a touch of extra pressure) when i let go it falls back to d4 alot smoother.

As for Vibrato...I am doing it wrong. but it sounds nice and i can control it pretty well(most of the time). Its a combination of the string squeezing and the violin/forearm wiggling techniques. My arm is mostly stationary and my fingers never to that dramatic wavy thing but it works. It works well for the slow beginning of huai xiang xing.

Overall i need to work on bowing. Especially soft starting a note. I cant seem to get the bow to grab the string without it starting at half volume or squeeking.

Feel free to comment or convey any suggestions you may have. Thanks for your help.
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(hmm this is my 7 bit post)

[paulv]

maaltan,

Sent you a PM.

Regards,
paul...

[sanmenxia]

How about "Xiao hua gu" (little flower drum) it's in F, so it makes a change from playing in D and G.

My teacher told me with the normal vibrato, the string bending comes from the rolling of the fingertips on the strings, with the motion coming from the wrist and arm. You shouldn't squeeze the strings as if you were closing your hand. But there is a special type of vibrato where you do squeeze your hand, but it's only used in certain pieces as a sort of imitation of trad folk style huqin playing.

[YouLanFengChune]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCnrpReGN9Y

thats one of my few erhu teachers inb my music school.
You may have seen her on Wang Yong De's Instructional VCD from Shanghai Conservatory..

[sanmenxia]

it's going OT but I've always wondered what those players are doing now. All the players on the Wang Yongde VCDs are brilliant! Is Kong Yanyan at your music school full time? Other players on the VCDs:
Chen Chunyuan; my favourite, big, powerful tone.
Duan Aiai; more subtle, but still beautiful tone.
Kong Yanyan; very bold playing.
Wang Yi; not on VCDs but on audio version, playing is very full of character.

[karl]

Right after Liang Xiao I tried to tackle Sai Ma. I'm 1/2 way through Sai Ma.

When trying to learn how to play the correct note, I have heard that you should not 'mark' the position on the string. Well, I would have like to do that but didn't know how that was possible without a fingerboard.

I ended up buying the Korg CA-30
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EE2136
And placing it on the music stand next to the sheet music, I was able to get instant feedback as to whether I was playing too high or low.

So just out of curiosity, how does one mark the strings for finger positions?

[Charlie Huang]

Saw the Korg CA-30 at the Royal Academy of Music but forgot to buy it... dang

[Si]

whats spo special about a korg thingy

i have a seiko chromatic tuner - is that similar?

[YouLanFengChune]

she's a member of Singapore Chinese Orchestra...
she teaches quite ba lot of students in my place.

anyway, she's a greta personal friend of mine, and we have luch at least 3 for 4 times a week.

[paulv]

karl/syburn,

Both of those tuners are excellent for tuning the erhu, but for playing along and watching your notes, they are way too slow. I picked up a nice tuner on my last trip to China that cost about $14 USD and will tune erhu, pipa, guzheng, violin & guitar, and it also has a transducer pickup.

For practicing, I use AP Tuner on my laptop, and watch it out of the corner of my eye. The better I get, the less I depend on the tuner. Some people here will advocate putting marks on the strings or neck for reference but I don't do that. One time, I put a small mark on the neck at the octave position, and my teacher yelled at me, so I removed it. I've hooked up a cheapo computer mic to the back of the erhu and it works great. Here's the URL www.cerlsoundgroup.org . I suggest you try and get an older version as the older ones have a faster response time. I'm using version 2.07

Regards,
paul....

[calden]

Karl:

I was going to suggest making a tiny mark with white-out (easily removable) on the neck at a couple of key positions, but Paul will just scold me. (see his post above) He's basically right. I haven't marked mine, and though it's harder to get the right notes for a while, when your hand DOES learn them it seems like no big deal, and you're not reliant on visual cues. It kind of forces you to relay on feeling your arm position, angle of the erhu in your lap. stretch of your fingers, etc., which is what you want anyway.

I kind of cheat. There is a tiny little dent in the neck of my erhu, and I use it almost subconsiously for positioning. It's nothing that anyone else would even notice, but I feel it in my hand when I slide up and down the neck. But don't take this as advice and go at your erhu with a hammer. Please.

Carlos

[paulv]

calden said:

...............

I was going to suggest making a tiny mark with white-out (easily removable) on the neck at a couple of key positions, but Paul will just scold me. (see his post above) He's basically right.

...........................................

No, I'm not going to scold you. You've been studying/playing much longer than I, and it would be disrespectable to scold my erhu 哥哥.

Regards,
paul.

[maaltan]

i must be doing good then. I play almost exclusively by feel, sound, and , when i start new keys or things just dont want to sound right, ap tuner. If i look at my hands or bow i instantly get tangled up.

i cant seem to maintain pitch perfect notes though.

also. My open A4 sounds bad sometimes. What does that mean? loose qianjin? or just dont use it? Everone around here that plays guitar like instruments say never use an open string if possible as they are unpredictable.

[paulv]

A big reason not to play open strings is because you can't vibrato them, and also with that is the same idea for notes that require the pinky finger.

Playing "good" open string notes comes with practice (the same with everything else).

By the way, make sure the strings are not too far away or too close to the erhu neck (stick).

Regards,
paul....

[calden]

Check your qian jin about the A sounding bad. Also fiddle with your bridge. (get it? "fiddle"? ha ha) Sometimes if the string slot on the bridge is a bit wide the A string will vibrate withing the slot and create some hellacious overtones. You want it to sit nice and snug in a half-slot, not vibrating against the sides of a slot. It's easy to check to see if this is the problem - loosen your A string and put a little piece of paper under the string on top of the bridge, then re-tune. If the bad sound goes away you know that the bridge slot was the problem.

You need to use it open sometimes. There is a great version of Liang Xiao by George Gao where he goes back and forth on the fingered A and open A, and it sounds great - lots of expressive differences.

You can also get vibrato on open strings. While holding the erhu in open -string position, shake your hand as if you were fingering a note with vibrato. I saw a street musician in Beijing do this and it made sense - sounds great. Try it, you'll get the hang of it.

Carlos

[sanmenxia]

I would have thought the open strings were the easiest to play, at least you know you¡¯re definitely going be in tune (assuming your erhu¡¯s in tune)

Yeah you can vibrate the open strings, you bend the strings above the qianjin, I think it¡¯s a gaohu technique.

The open strings will have a different tone compared with fingered notes, esp the A, so there might not be anything wrong with your erhu.

Playing an open A follow by a fingered A is very common in erhu music, I assume Liang Xiao was originally written to be played like that.

Re: position markers, yeah they can help the beginner but eventually you will need to find the notes by ear. Your finger has to move to a position which is accurate to, say 0.1mm ? and you can only do that by ear.

[calden]

Sanmenxia:

Yeah, I think that A note open-fingered is indeed written. I play it by ear so I've lost touch with the written form in my brain.

Carlos