Video 19: Liang Xiao Yin, practice session #1

Video 19: 良宵引 Liang Xiao Yin, practice session #1 - playing from scoresheet (not memorized yet). At this point, I have attended 23 lessons with my American teacher Guqin Master John Thompson (silkqin.com)

For this practice session, my guqin was tuned to A-sharp on the thickest first string.

Calligraphy couplet

Couplet writing done in NAFA on Tuesday night 28 Aug 2012, which was the last session of the 3rd term. So far, I have attended about 28 out of 30 lessons (I think) since January 2012. haha

According to my calligraphy teacher, in the word "Shin" (4th character counted vertically down from top, on the red paper on the right), I should write the stroke in the middle more vertically straighter downwards. Right now, it is a bit slated to the right. haha. LOL

Each character is about the size of a human hand (or Carl's Jr burger). Hohoho

Strange, but I realized that the circular guide markings around each character on the red couplet paper actually "disappear" when shot with a digital camera. haha. How about you? Do you observe the same thing when you use a digital camera to take a photo of your writings on red couplet paper?

What would you grab before fleeing a fire?

Yesterday morning, my next door neighbor's appartment caught fire. They went overseas. 

Thick smoke was pouring out from their windows and gaps in their front door. I called for the fire engine. I asked my children and family to evacuate. Amazingly, I actually thought of grabbing my Guqin 古琴 and my laptop before fleeing. LOL Eventually, I calmly went to take a shower first. I stayed alone at home ready to splash water on any fire that spreads to my home. 

After 15-20 min the Firemen arrived and broke my neighbor's frontdoor, then put out the fire in their kitchen. 

LESSON LEARNED? Always switch OFF everything, including the fridge before you go overseas!!!

First attempt at writing 20 characters on an uncut piece of paper

At this point, I have attended 8 months of calligraphy lessons in Singapore's NAFA (Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts).

This is my first attempt at writing 20 characters on an uncut piece of paper (one of the required 6 pieces for submission to NAFA by the end of November 2012). 

Each vertical line of Chinese characters took me 1 hour to write, so I took 3 hours in total to write just these 3 lines. Each Chinese character is about the size of a hand (or a Carl's Jr. hamburger. LOL) After writing, I used some pegs to secure the piece of paper to the window grill so that the ink can dry. 

Hopefully, it'd be accepted by my calligraphy teacher. According to my calligraphy teacher in NAFA, Madam Feng, the objective is to write each character so that it is centered in its position, and there must not be anything "weird" overall that could ruin the whole piece. Otherwise, the whole piece of 20 characters has to be re-written! After the calligraphy teacher accepts each piece for submission, the student would then be allowed to "luo kuan" 落款 (write the Year according to the Lunar calendar, one's name and apply 2 name seals, all according to established measurements which would be guided by the calligraphy teacher).

What do you think? Please feel free to share your thoughts? Thanks!

Chinese ink paintings (Jan-Aug 2012)

琴 (Guqin) 棋 (weiqi chess) 書 (Chinese calligraphy) and 畫 (Chinese painting) were all required skills in the ancient days gone by for 書生 (Chinese scholars).

Since Jan 2012, I have tried learning by attending formal classes in 琴 (Guqin) with Guqin Master John Thompson, 書 (Chinese calligraphy) and 畫 (Chinese painting) with NAFA (Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts). As for 棋 (weiqi chess), I have only tried learning it on my iPad, since it's very difficult to find anyone to play it with in Singapore. haha. There is a Weiqi association in Singapore, but I have not found the time to sign up for classes with them yet. LOL

So far, I have been attending Chinese painting classes in Singapore's NAFA  since Jan 2012. At this point, I think I have only missed 3 or 4 lessons out of 27 lessons. Before attending classes in NAFA, I didn't know even know how to hold a brush or paint with color. I do not have any western painting foundation. Many of my Chinese painting classmates have received formal training in western painting.

Here are some of my practice pieces. I am supposed to hand in 6 pieces of my best work at the end of the year by Dec 2012. I have learned a lot from my teacher Madam Irene Hong in NAFA. I am very grateful for her patience and guidance.

This is a practice piece which my daughter drew together with me. She likes painting very much. I decided to take up Chinese painting because I thought it would be nice to be able to paint with my daughter.

The following practice pieces are some other pieces which I painted at home. You can tell that they are painted by a beginner. haha LOL

You may have noticed that I wrote the characters in Japanese hiragana. Yes, I do like to write in Hiragana. I believe in promoting peace among Asian neighbors. (*smile*)

Video: Skywalking in Gardens By The Bay

After my Guqin lesson with Master John Thompson on Friday 17 August morning, I went to Singapore's Gardens By The Bay with my wife and kids in the afternoon after a very late lunch. Here's a video clip taken using my sunglasses-mounted video camera. I love taking video hands-free! haha LOL

calligraphy practice session at NAFA Tuesday night (7pm-10pm) on 14 August 2012

2 pictures of my calligraphy practice session at NAFA last Tuesday night on 14 August 2012. Basically, it's very easy to evaluate whether the writing is good or not. If what I wrote looks very close to the teacher's photocopied sample, it's consider OK. But if my writing (any stroke in each character) is a little different from the sample, it's not considered as good form. (*smile*) There are many bad forms in my writing. See if you can spot them? Please feel free to post your comments! Thank you!

Video 18: (1549) 梅梢月 MeiShaoYue page 1 to end of page 8, practise session #13

[Note: Please use ear phones if you really wish to hear the sounds of silk strings on the Guqin. The tiny speakers in most computers won't be able to produce the low bass sounds of the guqin. Thank you.]

This is *not* a musical performance. This is raw research video to help me spot my mistakes during home practice. The thickest 1st string on this silk strings Guqin is tuned to G-sharp. According to my teacher, his teacher told him that the sounds of the fingers rubbing against the silk strings is also a vital part of Guqin music. It's the dragon's breath! 

In this video, whenever I played something wrongly, instead of stopping the recording, I forced myself to carry on as if nothing happened. haha LOL

Instead of the usual headcam view that I usually do, I did a video recording using a regular Sony handycam, just to show how thin the Guqin actually looks from the side profile.

The microphone was placed inside the bigger hole of the Guqin, so.... the so-called reverb that you may hear on your speakers was actually the actual natural tone of the Guqin.

Watching my own video, I realized that I need to work on my facial expression! If you watch other Youtube videos of other people playing Guqin, they look really calm, but I had that worried look that seems to say "I'm really struggling", even though I was feeling alright.

Also, I have a double-chin!!!, because my head is always lowered when I look down onto the Guqin's fingerboard! (horrors!) I really need to lose some weight so my double chin would disappear! haha LOL yeah, right! hahaha

Just for my own record, at this point, I have attended 21 lessons with my teacher, Guqin Master John Thompson (www.silkqin.com)


Please be my critical friend, and feel free to post your comments. Any comments, whether positive or negative would be gladly appreciated.

Thank you!

Video 17: (1549) 梅梢月 MeiShaoYue page 1 to end of page 8, practise session #12

[Note: Please use ear phones if you really wish to hear the sounds of silk strings on the Guqin. The tiny speakers in most computers won't be able to produce the low bass sounds of the guqin. Thank you.]

This is *not* a musical performance. This is raw research video to help me spot my mistakes during home practice.

For this recording session, this guqin is tuned to G-sharp on the thickest 1st string. This is much lower than the usual B-flat for silk strings on Guqin. Metal-nylon strings can usually be tuned to C on the thickest 1st string on the guqin. But metal-nylon strings can scratch the lacquer of a guqin. Silk strings won't scratch the lacquer of the fingerboard of the guqin.

I have been learning this piece since Friday 1st June 2012. At this point, Mon 13 Aug 2012, it's been more than 2 months. This video recording captures my lived experience of being able, for the very first time, to play the complete piece from page 1 to the end of page 8. It's a very satisfying experience.

At this point, I have attended 21 lessons with my American teacher, Guqin Master John Thompson, who is currently living in Singapore.

This video also helps me to recall my lived experience of playing with silk strings on guqin.

Please be my critical friend, and feel free to post your comments. Any comments, whether positive or negative would be gladly appreciated.

Thank you!

Video 16: Mei Shao Yue page 1 to end of page 7

Video recording is used to spot my mistakes of Mei Shao Yue (page 1 to end of page 7)

At this point, I have attended 21 lessons with my American guqin teacher Master John Thompson.

My 3 year old daughter messing around on my Guqin

My 3 year old daughter messing around with my Guqin. She simply climbed onto the stool and started noodling on the musical instrument on her own. LOL

Here's a video of how she messed around on my guqin. haha

Calligraphy: learning to write bigger-sized Chinese characters

Presented here are 3 pictures of my hand writing vis-a-vis the photocopied samples provided by my calligraphy teacher, Madam Feng of NAFA. You can see some significant differences. Some of the Chinese characters written by me are *not* properly in the center of each red box. This is highly undesirable, as one single off-centered word could affect the "balance" of entire piece of calligraphy writing, so the the whole thing needs to be written from scratch again.

What I learned in class on Tuesday night of 7 August 2012 was: when writing big sized Chinese characters, it's better to write with bolder strokes. This can be done by holding higher up on the stem of the brush, and by using a bigger sized brush. Also, one has to avoid resting the writing arm's elbow when writing bigger-sized characters. (*smile*) I still have much to learn!

Audio recording of home practice session: MeiShaoYue page 1 to middle of page 7

Audio recording of my home practice session: page 1 to middle of page 7

The 7 silk strings on my guqin were tuned relative to the 20 cents marker below A-sharp on the thickest 1st silk string.

This is *not* a musical performance. This is merely a recording to help me to spot my mistakes.

Silk strings on Guqin which are tuned lower (normally between A to B-flat) may sound more "rustic" than metal-nylon strings used on modern Guqin (normally tuned to C on the thickest 1st string).

Video 15: 梅梢月 MeiShaoYue page 1 to middle of page 7

[Note: Please use ear phones if you really wish to hear the sounds of silk strings on the Guqin. The tiny speakers in most computers won't be able to produce the low bass sounds of the guqin. Thank you.]

My 7-string Chinese zither 古琴 (gu qin) is tuned to A-flat (also known as G-sharp) on the 1st string (thickest silk string). Normally, silk strings on Guqin can be tuned as high as B-flat on the 1st string, but I prefer to drop-tune it on this set of thick gauge silk strings. (Click here to read more about how I procured them.)

This video recording from my headcam (GoPro Hero2) is used to capture my lived experiences of practising a piece called 梅梢月 Mei Shao Yue (page 1 to middle of page 7).

The aim is not just to see how much I can memorise and play while "under pressure" of being recorded, but more importantly, the video helps me to recall the lived experience of the phenomenon of playing sensuous sounding silk strings on Guqin. There is absolutely no metallic sound from silk strings, so there is no aural fatigue, and I can play for hours on a guqin strung with silk strings. (*smile*)

At this point in my learning, I have attended 19 lessons with my American teacher, Guqin master John Thompson (silkqin.com)

Please feel free to post your comments! Any comments (whether positive or negative comments) would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Part of my lived experience of learning to play guqin: a worn out left thumb

A sure sign of a Guqin player..... who has not "seasoned" his left thumb yet! hahaha LOL

There is actually no pain at all. It's just that some skin on my thumb was worn out after playing on my guqin during home practice. haha

So, I took a photo of this, just to record my lived experience of learning to play guqin. (*smile*)

Chinese calligraphy writings from Tuesday 31 July 2012 class in NAFA

Even though this is a blog about my experiences of learning Guqin, learning to write calligraphy with ink and brush is also considered an integral part of ancient literati's required skills. It's related to "self-cultivation". How is that so? Well, when I spend time learning to play Guqin, or spending time writing calligraphy with ink and brush, I have no time to wreck havoc in the world or cause any scandals. haha LOL. So there is world peace. haha LOL (just kidding!)

I wrote this during calligraphy class on Tuesday night 31 July 2012 in NAFA. One thing I learned is: it may seem ok when I look at this piece in real life, but after looking the its digital photo, I realized that the strokes I wrote are uneven: some words have thicker and thinner strokes, so it's "not nice" to look at from a distance. This helps me to pay more attention to avoiding these mistakes when I practice writing these characters again in calligraphy class.

These are another 2 pieces that I wrote during calligraphy class on Tuesday night 31 July 2012. The calligraphy teacher, Mdm Feng, also taught us how to fold a big blank piece of paper so that we can use the grid lines as guides for the characters.

At this point, this is the 25th week of lessons conducted by Mdm Feng of NAFA (the middle of the 3rd semester in NAFA). I have attended 23 lessons in total because I missed 2 lessons.

25 weeks ago, I do not know anything about Chinese calligraphy or even how to hold a brush. Thank you Madam Feng!

I don't do any calligraphy practice at home. No time.