Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Tea ceremony products by Jun Tian Fang 均天坊

Recently, Jun Tian Fang started to offer tea ceremony related products, such as...

guqin shaped tea ceremony platform
URL: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.1.w5003-4600636555.8.5fD33E&id=35979955443&scene=taobao_shop

Elegant tea cups
URL: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.1.w5003-4600636555.9.5fD33E&id=35948865645&scene=taobao_shop

If you are located in Singapore, Taobao can now accept non-PRC credit cards. Yay!

However, for complete peace of mind, if you are in Singapore, you may wish to consider engaging the services of a Taobao agent, such as www.sgshop.com.sg or www.65daigou.com

or www.taobaoring.com if you are located in North America or Europe or Australia or New Zealand, etc.


Friday, November 22, 2013

two Tang Dynasty qins by 雷威 and 雷霄 played on silk strings

[Special thanks to Madam Chang Peiyou and Mr. Charles Tsua for sharing this in FB]

Audio recordings of two Tang Dynasty qins by 雷威 and 雷霄. Played on silk strings by Ding Chengyun and the Yao brothers in 2008.

You can listen to the audio recordings online at http://www.xiami.com/album/436446?spm=a1z1s.3521865.23309997.4.G8qM1o

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Wang Fei plays with silk strings on WangPeng-made guqin

Wang  Fei, a very famous guqin player in the United States of America, test played with silk strings on a guqin made by Jun Tian Fang (Wang Peng's guqin factory in Beijing). Enjoy!

Yes, Jun Tian Fang guqins are now available for sale in the USA at http://www.chineseculture.net/guqin/instruments/guqinlist.html


Sunday, November 17, 2013

Guqin lessons offered in Singapore's Zhu Lu Teahouse at Shaw Towers

I just realized that there has always been guqin lessons being offered in this tea house in Singapore for the past 15 years (since around 1998). Yet, I did not know about it until last month on October 27th 2013, when I met the owner of the tea house, Madam Jenny Liu, during the farewell dinner organized by Mr Kenny Leong in my guqin teacher Mr. John Thompson’s honor.



Source of information:

Gu Qin 4 lessons per month, one-to-one instruction, conducted inside the tea house
SGD$140 per month
Wednesdays (flexible-timing), please call the telephone number below to register for guqin lessons
Guqin teacher’s name: Lin Yong Hong

Tel: 9755 2954
Address: 100 Beach Road #02-20 Shaw Tower


This means that there are 4 places in Singapore where students can learn to play guqin: 

(1) Mr and Mrs Kee Ji Koon (in Tampines)
(2) Om Music Center (in Waterloo Street)
(3) Zhu Lu Teahouse (in Shaw Towers)
(4) He Yue Zhai (within walking distance from Paya Lebar MRT station)












Thursday, November 14, 2013

Using BassEgg to amplify my soft inaudible guqin sounds

I hold in my grubby little hand a BassEgg. It can amplify the sounds of a guqin using any surface. After trying out different materials with the Bass Egg, I realized that less dense wooden materials sound much louder and richer in bass, compared to denser wooden materials. Maybe it's because less dense wooden materials could vibrate more. Glass and concrete are the softest, as they won't vibrate much. I had inserted an Audio-Technica brand lavalier microphone deep inside the soundbox of the guqin from the larger sound hole and connected it to the Bass Egg. Check out www.BassEgg.com for more details. It ships to customers worldwide from the USA or from UK (two different warehouses). *smile*



Picture of BassEgg next to my guqin.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Can tuning guqin to A=432 Hertz improve your mood?

According to an article, if you tune a musical instrument to A=432Hz (instead of the ISO standard A=440Hz), your mood may improve. haha.. it sounds very interesting!
[Special thanks to Mr. Kenny Leong for sharing this interesting article on Fb!]

So, being a curious cat, I recorded these 2 audio samples.

Please listen to the 2 audio samples below and try to observe if you can hear a difference? *smile*


Audio sample with A=432Hz
Please listen to audio recording of my guqin tuned to A=432Hz (relative to thickest 1st string tuned to A-sharp, also known as B-flat).





Audio sample with A=440Hz
Next, please listen to audio recording of my guqin tuned to A=440Hz (relative to thickest 1st string tuned to A-sharp, also known as B-flat). Can you tell which audio sample sounds lower? Which sounds slightly higher? *smile*




B-flat is a common tuning for silk strings. It is also displayed on the electronic chromatic tuner as A-sharp.

Method: First, I plucked the thickest 1st silk string on my guqin. The chromatic tuner displayed A-sharp at 432Hz. Subsequently, I adjusted the measuring frequency on the electronic tuner to 440Hz and I plucked the same thickest 1st string on the guqin again (without touching or turning the tuning peg at all) and I observed what was displayed on the electronic tuner.

Observation: At 432Hz, A-sharp is equal to a very slightly flatted A-sharp at 440Hz. In other words, the difference is only very small. *smile*


Photo of equipment I used to record the audio samples at 432Hz and 440Hz respectively. *smile* They include a guqin with Tobaya silk strings, a lavalier microphone inserted into the larger sound hole under the guqin, a Sony audio recorder, and an Ibanez brand chromatic electronic tuner with a Seiko brand vibration-senstive clip.


Well, hahaha.... whatever it may be.... from now on, I'd try to always tune my guqin to A=432 Hertz and see if my mood improves when I play it. *smile*


Sunday, November 10, 2013

龙翔操 Soaring Dragon guqin tune





Went to Singapore's Science Center with my kids on Sunday to visit the dinosaurs fossils exhibition. Then I saw these! *smile* Do they look like dragon skulls to you? ^_^




Thursday, November 7, 2013

Audio recording: 空山憶故人 Kong Shan Yi Gu Ren (my guqin home practice on silk strings)



My home practice of the Guqin tune 空山憶故人 Kong Shan Yi Gu Ren, played on Silk Strings (Tobaya brand) on my ZhangYong-made guqin.

I taught myself how to play this tune from a guqin score book after I watched and was so inspired by the vintage video footages of Professor Sun Yi Chin. 

If you compare what I played with what Prof Sun played, you can easily tell that I've still got a long way to go. haha *smile*


Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Practiced on silk strings guqin in my usually noisy home


At night in my Singapore home. My home is usually this noisy at night. haha... Audio recording was made with an Audio Technica brand small sized battery-powered lavalier microphone (purchased from www.reddotphoto.com.sg) inserted a few inches into the sound box of my guqin from the larger sound hole (dragon's pool). 

In reality, I could not really hear my guqin as I was playing in my living room, as my guqin was inherently quite soft and almost inaudible in a noisy environment. However, I continued playing anyway. haha

Raw unedited audio recording of my lived experience of practicing on my JunTianFang guqin strung with Tobaya silk strings. 




Sunday, November 3, 2013

BassEgg and EpiShock - turn anything into speakers



Question: Has anyone tried using either the Bass Egg (http://bassegg.com) or the EpiShock (http://www.origaudio.com/shop/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=29848) to amplify your guqin sounds by turning your table (or any other large surface) into a loud speaker?





Any comments from anyone who has guqin amplification experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Yes, both the Bass Egg and the Epishock can accept audio input from a small battery powered microphone, such as this small-sized Sony microphone which I have (http://www.sony.com.sg/product/ecm-719), which can be placed under the guqin's bigger sound hole. Thanks for sharing your info or experiences! *smile* Mucho Gracias!