Wednesday, May 30, 2012

My 3 year old daughter on Guqin

This is my 3 year old daughter. She took over my Guqin, and started to play it her using her own natural techniques, which was probably the similar way that the ancients figured out how to play musical instruments thousands of years ago. haha. LOL


Hmmm...... it seems that she shows natural interest in playing the Guqin. Good for her. She can have this Guqin if she wishes to learn the skills when she is a little older. haha. LOL




After playing the guqin, she asked to play the violin several times, so I helped her to bring her violin case from the book shelf.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

1st time I tied a 蝇头YingTou knot & re-attached a silk string to my Guqin

The first time the 7th string (thinnest) showed signs of distress. Only 2 strands in this silk string were holding up. The rest of the strands in this silk string have already snapped.

So I snipped the knot off neatly using a pair of scissors.
Next, I removed the silk string from the "goose foot" at the bottom of the Guqin. As you can see, there's still lots of excess silk string left. I just need to tie another "ying tou" knot and attach the same silk string to the "rong kou", and it'd be as good as new!

I re-tied a ying tou knot using this very useful diagram found from this URL http://hiphotos.baidu.com/%C7%D9%B5%C0/pic/item/cda2270635dd327403088166.jpg

After re-attaching the newly tied "ying tou" knot to the rong kou, I re-tied the silk string to the goose foot, and it's really for tuning and playing!



Sunday, May 27, 2012

Best sounding silk strings Guqin iPhone app ever!

Best sounding silk strings Guqin iPhone app ever! The silk string sounds are so sensuous and beautiful.It features actual Guqin tablature that you can look at and then play on your real Guqin. 

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Video 4: Phenomenological Aesthetics of playing Silk Strings Guqin



Raw video recording of my lived experience of playing on silk strings Guqin. NOT a musical performance. Creative Commons. Feel free to use this for your own research paper, but please cite me in your References section. Thank you!

I used a Headcam (GoPro HD Hero2) to capture where I was looking at when handling this Guqin, so you can clearly see which part of the Guqin I was focusing on.

This video is simply a tool or device used to help me to remember my own lived experiences, which includes sensations and feelings and thoughts as I touch the silk strings on the Guqin.

You can hear the noise of the subway train moving on the tracks (they call it the MRT in Singapore) in the background from outside my window. The video also shows me tuning the silk strings Guqin. In Singapore, I tuned the thickest 1st string to B-flat. When not playing, I would detune the silk strings so that they do not over stretch in Singapore's hot (above 30 degrees Celcius or about 86 Fehrenheit) and humid (about 80 percent humidity) weather.



I am just a beginner learner of Guqin, having only experienced 11 weeks of playing a Guqin at this point.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

My 3 year old daughter singing & strumming Guqin



I was playing guqin the other day, when my 3 year old daughter came next to me and started doing this! (please watch the video) This particular guqin that she played on was on loan for 7 weeks from my teacher, before my own guqin was purchased from China. I did not know it then, but this guqin was made in 1990 by He Ming Wei, a very famous guqin maker in China.

Metal strings were used on this particular practice Qin, so you can clearly hear the metallic "twang" from the strings in this video.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Video 3: Lived experience of playing Guqin tune 梅花 MEI HUA





2 video cams were used to capture my lived experience of learning to memorize and play the Guqin tune MEI HUA 梅花 (Plum Blossom), from Hewen Zhuyin Qinpu 和文注音琴谱, published around the year 1676.

I am only a beginner learner of Guqin (started only 9 weeks ago). I learned this beginner tune from my teacher only 1 week ago.

Please watch the video and post your comments. Thank you!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Video 2 (head cam) - Guqin home practice



Test video of using a head cam to capture my own lived experiences of playing on a Guqin 7-string Chinese zither at home in Singapore on a warm tropical night. Enjoy!

Friday, May 4, 2012

Video 1 (upside down view) - Autoethnography (study of self): Guqin 古琴 home practice



Please watch and post your comments! Any positive or negative comments are all very welcome! Thank you!

1st video of Guqin 古琴 home practice after a mere 7 weeks of lessons from an American guqin teacher in Singapore, Master John Thompson.

I was horrified when I watched my own video. But this helps me to spot all my horrible mistakes. I could not hear the loud rough scrapping and loud plucking noises when I was playing the guqin. I also learned that I need to play the silk strings extremely gently even though the music is very soft, because the microphone can pick up all kinds of unexpected noises. I should only play with my nails of my right hand, not pluck the strings with the flesh part of my right fingers.

Must be something wrong with the way I tuned my own guqin. I realized that I was not pressing accurately on the "hui" markers with my left fingers. Look carefully at my left hand in the video again and you will see what I mean. Perhaps it is due to the fact that when I look towards to the left side when I was tuning / playing the Guqin, I thought that my finger was aligned with the "hui" markers, but in fact they are not. Oh well, another lesson learned! haha!

Please watch and post your comments! Any positive or negative comments are all very welcome! Thank you!