Hi Guys,

There will be a small gathering again on the 18th Oct 2015 2-6pm Sunday at a house in Taman Bukit Maluri to play Chinese Traditional Music instruments together. We are all beginners so any person keen to join or look see look see are welcome. Please pm me or faceless for the exact location or directions. Read the previous few posts about our first meet. Most of us are in their 40s-50s but like all hobbies age is no barrier ... like the chinese saying .. 活到老学到老！And some of us are bananas so if you are also the same species you wll feel right at home.

Regards ..... kc

Second gathering and snowballing in size slowly.
Come learn together and grow together.
Musicians need fellowship to excel.

This post has been edited by faceless: Oct 9 2015, 12:30 AM

Hi Guys ,

Thanks for coming . Looking forward to our next meet. We need more practices. Will need a few more simple scores to complement our setup next time. Any sifus around to provide arrangements? Pro-bono basis ...

Regards ... Kc

so whats the update?

The second meeting on October18 was great. We had riku2replica join us. Now we have 3 erhu in the team. I improve a bit in playing with the team thanks, to easy songs and more familiarity. Riku played in a team during his school days so he blended in very quickly. Now we need some running room.

i Hope to be able to meet all of you. I am now embarking on a DIHU.... which is a big ERHU that is 1 octave below. I have yet to receive the DIHU.... as the seller in China is unable to meet the orders on time.

It will around Christmas for the DIHU to arrive.By the way... I have never seen a DIHU in Malaysia. Zhonghu is also rarely seen...what more a DIHU?

One octave lower need to increase erhu size? I see a picture of those gigantic size bow instrument like the cello. This coming CNY must pay you a visit and check out your dihu. I believe the big size is an attraction for your band simply because it is big and unique. I think it won't take long for you fingers to explore it and come up with some performance for it. I think by end January you can do Jimi Hendrix's version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" with the DIhu.

hehehehe faceless.... I am not an ERHU expert.

Not expert but can play multi-instrument. For you no need to play like an expert. Can entertain your audience enough.

Why a Dihu ? This is the 'double bass' string member of a chinese orchestra . Plucked and bowed frequently. Associated with calluses on fingers. Always begs the question of what size is the reptile to complete this instrument sound box.... Will definitely beef up any ensemble.

This post has been edited by kcleong18: Nov 5 2015, 10:12 AM

KCleong. DIHU is more like a Cello range....lower than Zhonghu...(which is a Viola range).
The Double Bass in the Erhu family is called DADIHU....which is so big ... you cant put it on your lap. It is placed on the floor.

I guess they have to find an anaconda to have such a big skin to place over the DADIHU.

A DIHU is about 4 times bigger than a normal Erhu. This is one I bought... and still can be played on my lap like an Erhu...albeit a lot heavier and your fingers will need longer stretch to play the notes.

The dimension of the DIHU I bought.

This post has been edited by empire: Nov 5 2015, 01:42 PM


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4x bigger is huge. I see the measurement on the picture is like almost 1ft X 1ft. Longer finger stretch don't sound fun.

It's physics. Cant expect an Erhu dimension to sound like Dihu....and vice versa. HAha
There are 3 different DIHU's.

Large....Medium and Small....which pertain to the size of the resonating box. Large will give a lot of bass....low mid and less highs.

Medium will give more mids...lesser bass and more highs.

Small will give more highs...more mids and less bass.

I opted for the Large model....which I suspect is not a solo instrument ... but more of a supporting role in an Ensemble due to the amount of bass it produces.

My bad. When I saw the word Dihu I associated that with the Dadihu . I was curious that you are buying such a size instrument , hence my query. Talking about finger stretch , any experience to enhance your natural limit ? I am looking at ways to add a few mm to the length of my fingers ....

It will be good for playing rhythm to accompany your band. You can improvise out a nice rhythm so the dihu get some attention. Lots of bass, low mid and less high has an attraction of its own. You definitely must feature your new instrument to show the uniqueness of your band.

I give you an idea for the dihu to take center stage. You must get a fake mustache, hehehe. I suggest you play "general orders". Here is some background to it for you to flaunt your MC skills.
General Orders is traditional or ancient name. It paints the situation of an army getting ready for war and fighting it until it ends. You can give it the Tchaikovsky's Overture effect. If you can get a chinese drum it will be nice. Get one of your angels to play it. The drum and guzheng are the two compulsory instruments. Drum because drum beat dictates army movement. Guzheng is used for the range. Opening verses use the lower base notes. Your dihu will fit just fine. In middle the same verse were play the octave above c middle. I have seen people use dizi and erhu for it.
The modern name is "Theme from Wong Fei Hung". The modern version played by Jet Li "once Upon a Time in China" had the lyrics done by George Lam. With a fake mustache you can impersonate George Lam while you play the dihu. Wong Fei Hung is about opium war. Chinese should strengthen their bodies with kung fu not destroying it with opium. So getting your angels to do kung fu instead of dance would be a change.

Faceless...wow...you should be a movie director! LOL!

My DIHU is merely for fun. I may play a few slow sentimental Songs on stage with it...and treat it as a Cello sounding instrument. That's all.

Just throwing some ideas for your to toy around with only. You probably can do a better job if you buy the concept. Any way if you really do perform general orders with your dihu in some open function, let me know. By open function I mean those that I can come support and not those private functions like companies annual dinners.

hi guys, i'll be moving to bandar utama, pj next month (year); so i'm wondering if there's any music centres or places that offer classes on erhu? i learnt erhu during my uni days for a few months and i'm looking to continue learning.
eager to hear from you guys!