I need some comments from you guys.

I had always thought of taking up the er hu as my second traditional chinese instrument. Lately I had been considering the pipa instead. The thought of tuning it like a violin (like what empire does to the ruan) had cause me give the pipa some consideration. Furthermore rubbing the cobra skin to get the sound had caused me to associate the difficulty with that of blowing into a mouth piece drill. For some reason if I cant get to master the pipa, I can treat it like a mandolin (which is as good as a guitar - not so much learning curve) and play.

Thats cool. Bella and Alvin..what you cooking ?:-)


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Subangman is the host...so he no need cook anything ya :-)

Faceless...Pipa is not played with a normal guitar Pick...but a much more complicated 'pick on each finger' way. It is the same way as playing as Banjo. It has quite a steep learning curve...mind you. Personally I wont pick up Pipa cos I know i have to spend a long time to get the right hand plucking and strummimng methods right.

hmmm..... i will see what the others have before deciding. coz i dun cook... and most likely gonna source elsewhere. haha

ok...which date shall we set?

Ya, you will not know until you watch the experts in action. I have visited some u-tube site. It did not seem like an easy instrument to pick up.

yes faceless. that is why there are far more Guzheng players than Pipa. Think about it.

lolx... im a pipa player as my main... i know yang qin, erhu, ruan,sheng and limited gu zheng.

learning pipa is not hard la... i duno mandarin.. but still pass thru grade 7.... but i stopped... lolx.. going to college..


the ''finger pickings'' you have to practice everyday... even when you're doing other stuff, move your fingers to get accustom to the motion.. take a chopstick and pluck on it to train ur finger's strength(no kidding.. long solos are tiring.....)

it will take about 2-4 months for you to learn and start doing it like it's second nature. Once you pass that curve, it's all smooth sailing. ^^

i didn't play for 2 years, till now i stil rmb as it's second nature... so, if ya like the sound of pipa? go for it. it's not hard as people say... once you get thru the first few months la.. lolx....

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Added on July 6, 2011, 12:13 pmlolx.... i came frm an english school background, and i still spent 7 years of my life playing in orchestra/solo/performances.... blablabla...

all on traditional chinese instruments.

You can say it is 'rare', but i too can say 'your' choice of music genre is ''COMMON""..

lolx...

like what I say? If you don't, stop flaming please.

thank you.

This post has been edited by IvanWong1989: Jul 6 2011, 12:13 PM

Ahhh another non chinese educated that love chinese instruments. Subangman, Empire and myself are also not chinese educated but we love chinese instruments. Empire is an exception in a way because he play more than 20 instruments. Anyway, welcome to the thread.

Actually the first time I saw people playing pipa was Sam Hui back in the late 60s. He played it like guitar. Empire also put guitar straps on his ruan and play it like a guitar in his concert at MPO. The second time I saw pipa was in a chinese instrument contest. Even though the guy was the champ for the pluck category, he did not impress me because I did not see any difference from plucking the guitar.

Actually I was considering the pipa because my brother will be posted to China (that means he can get me some instrument). Initially, I thought of the ruan (influence by Empire). It seem much smaller and more portable than the guitar. Then I though of exploring the pipa as another alternative. The main idea is to treat it like a guitar if I cant play it.

By the way, if you are talking about the 5 fingers plucking requiring 2 months of training, I agree.

This post has been edited by faceless: Jul 6 2011, 01:23 PM

lolx... ruan is also lighter than pipa actually... hahax... though i must say.... ruan strings are... abit too ''tebal'' for me.. so i only played it enough for orchestras... my fingers grow pain over few days. lolx... for me la.

erm... pipa 5 fingers 2 months for basic sounding.... it will still sound like crap but still acceptable. lolx... that is the first mountain. the second mountain is when ur fingers strt to ''loosen'' up. lolx... i reach that in about 2years... lolx.. i duno it's long or not... by that time... it has matured till individual plucks can be heard clearly on 5 finger sustained plucking. THAT is when the beauty of your songs come in. hahax. It mimics the sound of clear water trickling thru the yam leave. *pardon me.... my sifu likes to explain concepts this way. lolx*

er... aren't guitar plucks inward while pipa plucks outward???? i have a guitar at home.. but it never excites me... lolx

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Added on July 6, 2011, 1:32 pmlolx... btw... im more into yang qin in the later years.. lolx... it sounds terrific. lolx.... though no whr portable... =.=

This post has been edited by IvanWong1989: Jul 6 2011, 01:32 PM

pipa string not so tebal? The only time I played the ruan was with Empire's guidance. I know it hurt more than the guitar.

How does this 5 finger pluck work? Thumb, index, middle, ring, pinky - ring, middle, index, thumb?

No pardon needed. This is chinese instrument thread. We have high mountains and flowing waters in guzheng

Inward pluck or outward pluck I dont really know. I am not a guitar expert. I can just hold down a chord and strum. la Bella is our guitar expert.

This post has been edited by faceless: Jul 6 2011, 01:58 PM

er... may i know whut instrument you play? hahax

erm.. nope... pipa string are thinner and softer... since they need to stretch.... er... this probably u gt see b4 in utube.. ermm they pull the string to the side.. to make the special sound effect.. lolx...

main pipa plucking all is outwards de.... using ur finger nails, or wearing those fake nails... got towards inside also. but it's not often. lol.x

5 finger plucking is starting with index finger, then middle, ring, pinky, thumb, then returning with index and so on.. imagine a wheell.lolx..

when u starting to learn... ur ring and pinky finger no strngth de... weakling. lolx.. hav to train strong. hahax.

the basic plucking action is called ''tan'' using index finger, and ''tiau'' using thumb.. lolx...


similar to guitar using pick. hehe.

Ivan...welcome welcome! GOod to see more non- Chinese educated People here who appreciates chinese mucisal instruments.

I have to correct you a bit about you saying you are English educated. Unless you are from an international School...you are most likely from a normal Sekolah Kebangsaan. So that means you are MALAY educated like me. Not english educated.

Ivan,
I play guzheng. It is the only instrument in which I am taking lessons. The harmonica I play by ear. The guitar, I just hold a few chords down and simply hantam. The keyboard I toy with when I explore scales and all the music theory stuff that I am trying to self learn with some tips from forumers at lyn.

"ermm they pull the string to the side.." is call string bending in guitar terminology. For lack of better term you can call it bending too. Sometimes we even use guitar terms like pick of plectrum to refer to "fake nails". In guzheng we had different types of bending such as dian, shang hua, xia hua, an and zhen. So we dont use bending if we need to be specific.

I believe you have heard of Liu Fang. Besides the pipa, she plays the guzheng. I had seen a clip of her using the 5 fingers plucking style on the guzheng. She did it at the start. It was not even part of the song. I guess it was a finger warm up habit for her. So, I have been doing the same on my guzheng. Only my pinky dont have the strength. The others have the strength due to guzheng training.

Empire,
For that matter, I am also Malay educated. It just funny that we continue to refer it as English educated after some many years since the SPM had replaced MCE.

This post has been edited by faceless: Jul 7 2011, 09:35 AM

Faceless...yup. Many people fail to realise that and thought it is more 'stylish' to proudly state they are ENGLISH educated....when they are in fact MALAY educated.

came frm st. michaels... missionary school.. lolx.. 99.99% all speak englishy. lolx.

Missionary schools are like that. The teaches are too inflexible to adapt and therefore did not start teaching in malay until a majority of their student starts to fail the malay paper.

I think I can try out the pipa and treat it like a guitar if I fail to be a pipa player At least, I have another portable instrument I will eventually need Empire's help to convert the fingerings to get the right chords. I think Little Ice also should know since it is tuned to violin strings. How much does the pipa cost these days.

Now I have to try the 5 finger thingy on my guzheng using "backhand" strokes (outward plucking). Since you play a bit of guzheng, you will know that each finger uses a different name for in and out plucking. I just use the term backhand as a general name for all of them.

This post has been edited by faceless: Jul 7 2011, 03:04 PM

lolx... im actually grateful it's an english speaking environment... haha. Trained my englishy.. hehe.... though my bm in spm nearly catastrophically failed...


haha... i bought mine last time at rm1500.... that was... erm... 5 or 7 years ago i think.... haha... then used for 2 years then sold to friend... too bz to play..

it was made from redwood.... clear varnish... so can see authentic wood pattern.. weight like a tonne!!!!!!!!!!! broke the head... hah..fixed it back myself. lolx


use guzheng to train the ''wheel'' yeng lor.. lolx..

though u must make sure it's correct leh...

once bad habit is ingrained... hard time to throw de....

This is on the soundboard, right?

I am just following Liu Fang only. I agree that it has to be done right or bad habits will be created. Anyway it is a good finger drill for guzheng. I had previously use a different finger drill. Yesterday, I had just tried the back hand. It looks like I could further enhance the strength of my fingers with this drill.

I AM BACK..... sori ah veri busy. hardly got time to do internet except on fbook just checking on my personal stuff.
last week was the most hectic week. kena tekan here and there by my client to handover my project sakit for their pesta .

Bella / Empire :- The DunHuang Type B strings arrived 2 weeks ago. So time to pass them to you all if still requires them
else I will keep them for Mei-mei in case of SOS times....


Faceless :- time to lim teh alrid......

Empire :- u still perform in kelana tmw... mayb i come look C look C...

subangman,
Please keep 1 set of dunhuang type B strings for me. Thanks.