The preferred yaozhi technique?

[guzhenglover]

Dear guzheng players

This one is relating to yaozhi. My teacher seems adament when it comes to yaozhi (where one has a choice) that one should go for the kong yao/xuan yao of the thumb, rather than zha yao (yao with support from the little finger) of the thumb or the index finger. Personally I am finding kong yao/xuan yao of the thumb requiring more effort (at least at the present stage of my guzheng playing) than zha yao of the thumb, and in general I am finding yao zhi with the index finger (whether with zha or not) easier than yao zhi with the thumb.

What are your expert opinions out there? When you have a choice, would you tend to go for yao zhi based on the thumb or the index finger? And if you go for the thumb, do you use your little finger as support, or do you go without anysupport i.e. kong/xuan yao?

Thanx a lot!

[carol]

I use thumb tremelo. Then I use either with little finger support or without depends on the context. If the music requires bright and more connected tone, I play with little finger support, and if the music requires softer and loose tone, I play without support.

[guzhenglover]

Thanks Carol for that. It looks like no-one else has anythinig else to add. To me musical context doesn't seem to matter at this stage of my development, for I am still finding myself having to improve on the mastery of yaozhi before I could focus on things such as musical context. At the moment, my yaozhi has a tendency to sound bright and intense in all contexts, and in fact playing without support i.e. xuan yao seems to make me tense. I find yaozhi with support generally makes me more relaxed and hence making the music softer and less intense (if this is what you mean by "loose"), though my teacher does not encourage yaozhi with support. So this is the reason why I asked the question in this thread in the first place.

[sleepy]

Both are valid yaozhi techniques which can be used in turn in the same piece, according to the musical effects you want to achieve. I wouldn't consider which is preferred and then dismiss the other. Having said that I would take one thing at a time, whichever yaozhi technique you choose to learn, get a good hang of it first and learn the other next. Then you'll have 2 different techniques at your disposal.