Please forgive me!!

[jdclay]

I haven't been practicing my erhu in a long time (summer was around). I've not really learned anything yet, so I am an extreme novice (yes, still). I somewhat have the beginning of D down (D4-G4, A4-D5). What I need help with are some recommendations for easy, beginner-based, beautiful sounding songs that a novice could learn with Jianpu notation, so that I can begin learning something that sounds like something from an erhu (and to familiarize myself with Jianpu).

Any advice is welcome.
--Justin

[jdclay]

www.shoppingchinanow.com/music_tutorial/erhu.html

Here's an online tutorial of sorts for the erhu which I find rather cool. However, not being able to speak Chinese makes the learning impossible. At the end of the page, there's a song called "Spring Scenery In The Countryside"... does anyone have chinese name for it, or the notation for it, its a difficulty of 1, and its beautiful!!

[maaltan]

tian yuan chun se
田园春色

That was my first song. Pretty nice song. Unfortunately the sheet music is not in electronic format and my scanner is dead. sorry

I will look online if i have time tonight.

[jdclay]

Here's another odd request for notes... "Jia Ren Qu", or "The Beauty Song", from House of Flying Daggers. It seems extremely easy, but I am not skilled enough to distinguish notes for the Erhu yet.

anhphi.free.fr/Jia%20Ren%20Qu%20-%20Beauty%20Song%20.mp3

Oh, and its a short piece.

Many thanks.

[karl]

I found a copy here:
galaxyyouth.googlepages.com/SpringGardenScore.GIF

[maaltan]

jdclay said:

Here's another odd request for notes... "Jia Ren Qu", or "The Beauty Song", from House of Flying Daggers. It seems extremely easy, but I am not skilled enough to distinguish notes for the Erhu yet.

anhphi.free.fr/Jia%20Ren%20Qu%20-%20Beauty%20Song%20.mp3

Oh, and its a short piece.

Many thanks.

Me also. I need to find "lovers" which appears not to have a chinese name (it appeared english even in the credits). They play it in the field of flowers and at the end with vocals.

[jdclay]

Its amazing that the composer for House of Flying Daggers hasn't released the score for all the instruments to his songs, or that people haven't figured them out and done it themselves. Those songs from the soundtrack are just so moving and beautiful!

[davidmdahl]

It should be pretty easy to write out the melody for Jia Ren Qu. I will take a stab at it this weekend if I can make the time. I have written to the composer, Mr. Shigeru Umebayashi for permission, and will report on the response.

Best wishes,

David

[maaltan]

since we on the subject... in the background during that song I noticed there were about 10 pipas and 1 erhu. is the erhu that much louder or is this an unrealistic layout?

Also im not sure they were playing anything in particular back there... At least it looked better than in some movies ive seen recently.

[jdclay]

No, usually a smaller orchestra in Chinese music only require a single Erhu, with other strings behind it because the Erhu is really THAT much louder than other instruments.

Oh, and they weren't playing it in the movie .

[karl]

Here's my attempt at Jia Ren Qu

What I noticed that it starts out an octave lower than what my erhu can play. Did they switch the strings to be D-A instead of A-E (if that is possible) or is this a different type of qin?

1=D        .     
| 3  5  6  1   | 6 -    |

| 1  2  35 2   | 1 -    |

| 3  5  6  7   | 3 -    |

| 3  1  2  7   | 6 -    |

| 3  5  6  1   | 6 -    |

| 1  2  35 2   | 1 -    |

| 3  5  6  7   | 3 -    |

| 6  7  3  5   | 6 -    |

| 66 7  ii 75  | 3 -    |

| 3  1  2  7   | 6 -    |

[jdclay]

karl!! Thank you for this!

Seems really confusing. I dunno if your jianpu is right on, or I'm not reading it right (read: its probably the latter). I think you have some notes marked higher in some spots and lower in others, where it might be vice-versa. But it is really close!! I'll try my hand at it later.

Thanks again!
-Justin

[jdclay]

Well the Spring Garden song (Tian Juan Chun Se) isn't going very well. I can get the first beginning part (kinda), but the "4" over the two 5s are beginning to confuse me... how do i play something like that? Going open string to 4th finger on A4 on inner string seems a little difficult!! Does someone have other really basic songs to learn from? I can do Ode to Joy well, but not much else. Any recommendations?

[maaltan]

Yes you are reading that right it goes from outer to inner to outer 5.

The string transition is very tricky but something (in my mostly uneducated opinion) needs to be learned early. I am getting pretty comfortable in the string transitions but still muck up the 5 on the inner string alot.

For something simpler there is always twinkle twinkle little star. Although its not traditional, its slow and methodical giving you a good feel for each note. It was the first song "assigned" by the chinese VCDs i have. It has a few string transitions but the melody is a bit more forgiving.

Of course you should be able to do the scales effortlessly before attempting the song. Try the following variation of the scales to make it more interesting. (in () means up octave)

1 3 2 4 3 5 4 6 5 7 6 (1) 7 (2) (1)

(1) 6 7 5 6 4 5 3 4 2 3 1 2 3 1

let me see if i can get the notation for twinkle twinkle (from memory so forgive mistakes).

1 1 | 5 5 | 6 6| 5 - | 4 4 | 3 3 | 2 2 | 1 - | 5 5 | 4 4 | 3 3 | 2 - | 5 5 | 4 4| 3 3| 2 - | 1 1 | 5 5 | 6 6 | 5 - | 4 4 | 3 3 | 2 2 | 1 -

It should work in any key.

... and of course practice and repetition.

[dsouthwood]

Here's a lullaby from my guzheng lesson book. The melody line is simple enough that I can really concentrate on my bowing when I play it as a warm-up.

睡 眠 曲 (lullaby) 3/4

|1-2|3--|3-2|1--|1-3|2-1|2--|

|1-2|3--|3-2|1--|1-3|2-2|1--|

[karl]

jdclay,
Concerning the jump from open A(outer string) to 4th finger (inner string).. You could make the song easier by playing all A's using outer open strings instead of playing 4th finger on inner string.

Then after you have mastered the song, you can later add back in the 4th finger to open string transition.

[jdclay]

Yeah, I should try that.