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Post by ragtime17 on Oct 7, 2006 4:30:46 GMT
Hello all, I'm new to this forum, got it from googgling  Anyway, I've been a guzheng music lover and now I'm thinking to learn, but after researching about it for a while, i become a bit hesitant, due to some horror stories about how the string can break and snap, injuring your body. Anybody has this experience? or is just an exaggeration? I hope i'm not posting a stupid question  Thanks! rag |
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Post by carol on Oct 7, 2006 16:12:29 GMT
ah ha, don't worry! I live with 8 guzhengs in my house. I seem to be ok!
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Post by jetz320 on Oct 8, 2006 3:28:12 GMT
If guzheng is dangerous, then all strings are dangerous. A rubberband can snap easier than a guzheng string for cryin out loud! I had an erhu string snap once wile I was tuning it and it cut me since it was so sharp!!! Don't worry about it. If you love the music, you wouldn't mind if a string snaps once in a while. It's a risk you'll have to take to learn this instrument.
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Post by blueharp on Oct 8, 2006 6:09:26 GMT
I wouldn't worry.
In all the years I have played string instruments it has never been a problem.
The sound is very loud and it can be startling but I have never been injured. Most of the time the it is the cores that breaks while the outside wrappings are intact holding the pieces together.
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Post by ragtime17 on Oct 9, 2006 4:01:09 GMT
Thanks everyone.
Yes, I guess everything has some sort of risk.
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Post by Vi An on Oct 12, 2006 5:43:59 GMT
You just have to be careful at all times and completely aware and present at all times of what you are doing. I break strings constantly! The worst cut I got was a tiny 2 cm surface scratch on the top of the hand where the fleshy thumb joint is. Gu Zheng strings take their time snapping, because its braided with silk and nylon, by the time it snaps, its a very controled one so that nothing like an elastic snap. How ever a koto string snapping isn't pleasant, you can get hurt by one because the tention is so great and its like plastic, it snaps back instead of unravling so it will whip you badly.
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Post by Charlie Huang on Oct 12, 2006 9:20:10 GMT
Guqin strings (metal-nylon ones) don't snap in my experience. They last so long that I've never encountered a string breaking so I won't know how it would snap. I haven't been playing on silk long enough for one to snap...
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Post by YouLanFengChune on Oct 12, 2006 10:06:17 GMT
Guys, it makes things frightening when you say all these.
yes thats bad my happen, but not always. When i walk into storehouses full of Guzhengs, I think i always have a 99.999% chance of coming out alive. But the truth remains that accident do happen. Dizi carving knives i use are 6 cm long with full sharp blade. I have been cut by splinters, twanged by breaking yangqin and guzheng strings(always wear goggles), cut by erhu-making rope, soldered by soldering iron, hit on the head by Taiko drums (no joke, and it hurt) shoved on my shoulder by falling Yunluo, and a lot of other accidents.
Message, we probably love chinese music too much to consider these. Take it from sky-diving friends. Their risk is far greater.
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Post by dsouthwood on Jul 1, 2008 19:20:37 GMT
I'm taking a break from changing the strings on my guzheng (now I remember why I keep putting it off). There may be a danger of a string breaking while you are playing, as mentioned above, but changing strings might well be the most dangerous time. The danger is especially high when you are pulling the old string out of the hole that it is threaded through, because the end that has been curled around the tuning peg will resist being pulled through, and then will come through with a snap. Forgive the caps, but this has to be said loudly:
NEVER CHANGE STRINGS UNLESS YOU ARE WEARING SAFETY GLASSES.
Although there have been famous blind erhu players, I've never heard of a blind guzheng player, and I wouldn't want to be the first to try it.
Dennis
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