QUOTE(faceless @ Feb 8 2011, 10:40 AM)
Sorry, JieXian we did not mean to come across like we are ignoring you. We are just excited about firming up our gathering.
You should compare notes with laBella (a classical guitarist attempting the same thing). If you look back 5-10 pages from here, I have listed "sound effect" of the guzheng.It is a pleasure to meet you. It seems like you are into my kind of instruments. I play the harmonica by ear. I use the keyboard to understand music theory (scales,...). As for guitar, I only know how to hold down chord and change it in split second
Somewhere around page 4 onwards, we have covered tips on getting a guzheng. Tips on getting a teacher? That is a new one. I have no clue.
I read back until July 2010 But couldn;t find the post about the sound effect. I read the post on page 4 about drying process - how can I judge a gu zheng and look for signs?
You also mentioned about wood used. It is good information which is similar to classical guitar but I always listen to the sound and worry too much about the wood of course - I always compare with my own guitar because many semi decent ones sound good to me, but mine is actually better when I went back the second time with my guitar. The problem is that for Gu Zheng I have no reference point and no experience. It is not surprising at all to me if one guitar with better wood sounds inferior to another guitar because there are so many many other things involved.
Teachers are a big problem in my opinion. PhilBoey said that most teachers and his own teacher taught him the "wrong" things and he had to relearn a lot of things when he went to China. Same thing for flamenco. A lot of bogus US people on youtube and even Malaysians don't have good technique and many aren't even playing flamenco but falsely label their music as flamenco. Since there's a saxophonist here I would think you have some problems about Kenny G calling his stuff "jazz"
I have a sister and a cousin who learnt piano and they don't seem to know much about music at all. My sister learnt the same time as me and all she knows is to play notes written on the sheet, following the forte or piano. I met another guy at a guitar exam who is in the same situation as my sister, his teacher didn't show him anything. I'm very sure most music students are like that, especially classical piano players.
OF course I taught my sister and cousin and things are different, but although I discovered a lot of things myself and thanks to the internet, my teacher also played a big role in exposure.
What I think is important in actually learning music is ability to play and feel rhythms - with accents by ear, improvisations, exposure to and eventually enjoying music that is not just mainstream club pop (I'm not anti-mainstream but the recent trend of the "songs" that are out around 2010 onwards, at least in the 90's people on the radio actually knew at least simple theory) and of course putting a feeling or mood into a song which does not come from reading the piano and forte signs on the paper.
Edit: Even the formal ABSRM "theory" my sister learnt until grade 6 or 7 was somewhat useless although she always got 90+ for her exams. I read up articles and watch some videos and asked her a few things but she doesn't seem to have learnt simple and useful (imo) things. Simple things like thinking about structure of music (eg ABABCBB),
function (very angry with this)
of all the scales she and so many piano players practiced like a robot. I flicked through her book before and I was wondering why there are so many general things taught but not the essentials (imo) first.
Improvisation, musicality, playing by ear and feeling the accents and rhythm are very hard to master but I firmly believe in teaching people that so that they will slowly learn. I believe everyone even pros are working those everyday.
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I already PMed empire but I hope you will allow me to meet you all - I don't mind at all if you want to meet each other without anyone intruding because I'm just an outsider - But I can say that I don't mind sitting and just listening without making noise. Mostly I'm very interested to meet musicians because I really only know a few people who don't just play pop songs.
Thank you.
This post has been edited by JieXian: Feb 9 2011, 04:05 PM 
Feb 8 2011, 10:40 AM
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You can bring the twins sax mah. I wanna see if I am really a noob at wind instruments
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