Do go ahead and meet up...both of you. There are only a few people here who are still active in this site. I seldom play Erhu and ZhongRuan now as I play more Electric Guitar and Keyboard nowadays.

Again to restate .. I am a beginner with no formal musical education . Any comments appreciated.

Anyway before we get excited, let's look into some nitty gritty and go from there after the 'cooling off' period.

A purpose - music for fun , to play or perform together for pleasure. Emphasize would be chinese music but I would welcome anyone
whatever your inclination and forte is. Since this is a beginner group it would be fantastic if someone could guide us musically.

A place to meet and make all the noises.
This place must be accessible and convenient to all interested participants.For starters locations can be rotated among what is
available but best option is somewhere fixed or permanent- maybe a later option.
An unsed studio would be ideal...

I can only offer my dining space or my store room during weekends. Around Kepong area.

A time and duration 2-3 hrs - weekends or public holidays.
Frequency - Not to be too ambitious in the beginning - maybe once in two months.

A program - what to play . Solo , Dual and ensemble.
I am open to anything. With the right arrangements a guitar or keyboard can sound as classical as a
ZhongRuan. Here is where we need a sifu's help again. Writing simple scores to keep everyone engaged.
We can start by 'synchronizing' with each other and see how it goes......

In a group the expectations will only be as good as the weakest player but since we are all beginners I don't see a problem if everyone can put in a bit of effort.

We may have to start a new thread to guage others interest in this ...

Kc

faceless is in Setapak. Where are you?

Bukit Maluri , Kepong to be exact

anyone know where i can learn Guzheng or erhu lesson around damansara heights or PJ/ Sg Buloh. I learn guzheng /erhu during my school days but stop leeson when in come to kl to work. That was 25 years ago. Want to get back to my guzheng/erhu.

Thanks..

Hi Abie.C ,

Welcome ... nice to note the length of time you stopped learning Gz/Eh .... Wonder whether you have either instruments from those days .. would be quite an antique now.

Anyway my Sis-in-law learns GZ from a place around Kepong so if you are keen I can get her tutor contact for you. Pm me. For Erhu I know that Pusat Seni Zhuan Yi 专艺艺术中心 does provide classes because my brother who has just started to learn the Erhu went to their place to buy an Eh bag. You might want to visit them for further information. They used to be based around the Pasar Road are but have shifted so just google for the latest address. Do let us know further your interests ... .

Kc

I still have my GZ in my hometown ipoh and well kept in a hard case box. (My GZ and Erhu already 27 years old) Only the string is loose. If I tighten back the string then it is goods to use. That time my dad bought the GZ for RM2200 for me.

Can you please PM me the contact number ur sis in-law learn the GZ. I would like to call her and ask about the lesson and time. As for Pusat Seni Zhuan Yi is quite a distant from Sg. buloh or from my working office in Damansara Heights. Prefer to look for music school or private tutor near my house or office.

Good to see more and more people here. Let's keep the momentum going. We are the minority breed of Chinese who are not chinese educated and have not gotten the chance to explore much in chinese musical instruments.

With the few humble people here.... may it snowball into something bigger soon.

This is very good logistics. You are now elected as the logistic man for this project. Oops I am talking like I am the host of this thread.

This is a well define purpose and objective. I agree and support.

Nice of you to make the offer. Music practice session is just noise to people who don't like music. Starting with a small group, I can accommodate in spite of living under a roof where people don't appreciate music.

It comes down to you and I to get this going. Extra effort is all we need here.

A new thread will be due in no time. In this forum once a thread exceed 138 page the moderators will close the thread. Then we can look at getting a version 2 of this thread going. You have already outline the objectives for it.


WHAT! 2.2k for guzheng 27 years ago! It must be performance class material. I would certainly love to see it. I can go to Ipoh just to sight it. Hahahah, only Ipoh I will go. Ipoh has many attraction along the way. Chicken biscuit in Kampar. Some very smooth chee cheong fun. Salted chicken and bean sprout chicken in Ipoh itself .... many more attraction. Some place along the way, they have the good old soy sauce made the traditional way. The taste is just nostalgic. I must check with my friend before I make the trip so that I can stock up my soy sauce supply. If you can play host and tour guide me will be ideal lor. Oops pardon the Malaysian lingo. Anyway back to guzheng. Somehow Ipoh just makes me think of food.

27 years ago the guzheng is most likely a slanted back bridge as oppose to an "s" bridge. It is most likely 18 strings. If I am right about this, you can't buy strings. It is no longer in production. I don't advise playing it. Once any string snap, that will be the end of your antique.

I also doubt you can get lessons. The new breed or old timers who had adapted to the 21 strings will have problems with the missing 3 strings. Even then music scores today are made for the 21 strings. I did cover the history of guzheng development and how 21 strings became the in-thing and the 18 strings got phased out here but I can't find which page. To cut it short, some power house (maybe Shanghai or Beijing Conservatory) endorsed the 21 strings sometime in the 80s. Since then 21 strings is the standard and others got phase out.

If you can't find lessons, maybe you can join me and KC Leong. Now we are talking about getting a small group going on a regular basis. I have good teaching skills but my performing skills sucks. We can do it the way we started our first AGM (see some of my post 2 -3 pages back). Show us what you have been talking about when you post on the thread. My post impressed people here but when it comes to performance, I can't play a complete song without mistakes. I guess I am not a perfectionist when it comes to music. But nobody cared. As long as I have knowledge and was willing to share it and you can benefit from it.

Then all we need is another long overdue AGM and you bring out the colors.

This post has been edited by faceless: Aug 17 2015, 11:12 AM

My GZ is 21 string not 18 string. I got my GZ upgrade from from 18 string to 21 string. And this is my 3rd GZ. My previous one is 18 string.

btw, any one knows where I can fine tune my GZ. Or just bought a GZ tuner and tune it myself. But first of all I need to get back my GZ from Ipoh back to Kl.

Get a tuner and tune it yourself is better. Transport a guzheng to people for tuning not "ma-fan" meh? Good news no need to buy tuner if you use android phone. There are plenty of tuners there. I believe there tuners on mac/iphone too but I am not a mac user to comment.

Some 5 years ago I bought a tuner off the shelf and it showed me ABCD. These type of tuner is no use for GZ. From string 1 to 21 you have 5 - D notes. You will not know which D note for the string. You need a tuner that shows the frequency. You can get this type of tuner on android apps.

String #1 for GZ is the highest note. It is the thinnest string. GZ colored (green) strings is call note 5. The highest note 5 for GZ is string #3. It is tuned to 440Htz. Going down another 5 strings to the next colored string is the middle note 5 or string number #8. It is tuned to 220Htz. Next colored string is 110Htz and the last one is 55Htz. With the frequency as a guide you will know how much to screw the tuning peg. Any string between the middle 5 and upper 5 note had to be in the range of 220-440Htz.

The alphabetic note guide is Note 1 = D, Note 2 = E, Note 3 = F#, Note 5 = A, Note 6 = B. If you tune with this guide (without frequency) you can snap some strings tuning them too tight. It was my first experience.

String under tension is an exciting story. This was on girl's experience. She was my class mate and I know her because she starts class when I finished mine. I told this story here too. Her GZ always run out of tune. Her GZ spend more time at school for tuning than at home for practice. When string come under tension it takes time for them to settle into position for a good grip. It usually takes a week. In the interim the position will run and tuning is required again. It the case of my class mate GZ it will always run. I asked my teacher about it and he told me about string under tension. Feeling sorry for my class mate, I taught her how to tune with a tuner and that solved her problem.

If all this is too complicated, you can bring your GZ to me. I can teach you how to tune with a tuner. No need to buy tuner just download one. By the way I am meeting with KC Leong this Sunday. You are welcome to join us.

sound so complicated. Anyhow, this end month merdeka holiday I will go back ipoh and bring back my GZ first. will look into my andriod apps to lok for a GZ tuner. if can't find then i will buy it from taobao.com which is selling for RMB 39.90.

I don't know why you want to buy it and carry an extra equipment with you. You can carry the instrument tuner with you all the time wherever you go. I am sure you bring your phone with you wherever you go.

Here is the link for the tuner that I am using. Log in to your google id that you associated to your phone. The click that link. Find the download button and it will download to your phone if your phone is connected to the internet. If phone is not connected get it connected and shortly you will see it download.

______________

Sorry, the link above cost some RM7+ today. I found another one that is free here.

The other thing about tuner is you don't use often. What is infuriating is when you need it the most the battery is flat. Put the tuner on your phone and you will never have to worry about tuner no battery.

This post has been edited by faceless: Aug 18 2015, 01:26 PM

to be fair....phone tuners are not as accurate as a dedicated tuner....but it gets the job done if you are not a fussy person

I don't have your ears. You can tune with your ears. You don't even need a tuning fork. My opinion is like this. Electronic stuff is the same because components are all made in China. You think how sensitive is a RM10-20 stuff compared to your phone? There is no diff actually. If you are talking branded tuners in the range of RM150, it is a different story. This I have not tested.

I had rated my phone with my tuner (cost around RM20). On all 21 strings both tuner and phone also say tuned correctly. I purposely go to music shop and test my phone against tuning fork and it checks out okay. So it depend on your phone sensitivity when it receive sound. High end phone have better electronic components to record the frequency correctly. I personally believe it is better than cheap tuners. The latest iPhone for example is now good enough for voice command. Their sensitivity is superior compare to cheapo gadgets.

I always envy people with music ears. I understand when I am a semitone off but am pixxed off (with myself) when told that I am playing a little too high or too low . Just don't registered any difference with my hearing organ. Tried some of the pitch exercises from the net and still misses out sometimes the semitone and tone tests . Hopefully it is not getting worse with age...

Half tone off is okay. Even though I can by a song that I am familiar with (by by ear). I can't tune any instrument. So I always need electronic tuners.

empire
The guzheng is tuned to D. That is 11th string is middle D. When you play with the band, your Shanghai Angels tune the guzheng to what? I think tune it to 11th string = C middle should synchronized it with the other instrument like erhu and pipa.

I am looking forward to my meeting with KC Leong this Sunday.

This post has been edited by faceless: Aug 20 2015, 11:28 AM

Hi Guys ,

This is an open invitation from me for all to come to a little meet with another enthusiast here ,faceless, at Kepong , Bukit Maluri from 2-4pm this coming Sunday 23th August 2015. Tentative aim is just to enjoy ourselves and form a regular schedule to play music with chinese classical instruments.

Currently present are a couple of GuZhengs and Erhus with a Pipa and a dizi. Instruments though , not players.

Note that this is basically a beginner's group so learning from each other will be the main objective. No age limit or $ needed. Just bring your music instrument for pure musical fun. Any professionals or sifus are welcome too, whether to guide or teach or to demonstrate or just look to ' look see look see'.

If you are keen to come please PM me for location and directions.Thanks you.

Kc

This event finally got underway. A week before KC and I listed 小星星(Twinkle Twinkle Little Star), 小蜜蜂(Lightly Row) 哦苏珊娜(Oh Susana) and 上学哥 to be played for the session. KC's brother (which I will refer to as Leong on this thread) and his sister in law (Mrs Leong) hosted the gathering.
We had two guzheng (Mrs Leong and I)
two erhu (KC and Leong)
one dizi (KC)

KC was the only one among us who had some experience playing in a group. Thanks to that, he had provided the lead to get things off in the right track. Starting will simple songs was great. We could do it in a short time.

We shared a you-tube tutorial on how to fit rhythm and chord into a song. I am assign to do that for the next meeting for 上学哥. I hope to come out with at least the rhythm part in a month and email it out. That will give everyone some time to get ready for it. We are still open for people to join us. PM me or KC.

On a personal note, my preparation was a disaster and my strings was a mess. Since I had to bring two instruments, I had some paranoia in packing and it did no good. I forgot to bring my erhu strings. Thankfully Leong kept some spare strings. Erhu players will know there is a cushion like component near the bridge. Mine was missing and Leong again made my day when he had spare.

Sometimes old string don't snap. They just wear out by muting themselves. This happen to one of my guzheng's string. Thankfully the replacement can be found among Mrs Leong spare string basket. My thanks to the Leongs for their hospitality. Each time I pick up my erhu, I will remember Leong and his wife. Mrs Leong help in tying a thread that serves as bridge for the erhu strings. This knot is very tricky. The experience erhu player can tie it alone. As a beginner Leong had his wife help him. When it comes to doing mine, his wife's help is need too. They tie it without any communication, so they must have a lot of practice. My knot was the work of a harmonious couple. I look at the bridge and will remember the cushion Leong provided. I play my guzheng and I can see string#3 was Mrs Leong's generous token.