My 3 year old daughter exploring tones on my silk strings guqin

Is playing Guqin difficult? No, not at all really. hahaha. Even a 3 year old child can enjoy it. *smile*

Broken Taigu 7th silk string (thinnest)

String breakage: this is a wonderfully unique experience that someone who plays with metal-nylon guqin strings may never experience. The ancients who played guqin with silk strings would probably also have had this similar lived experience of recovering after string breakages.

Pictures of Taigu silk string (7th and thinnest string) before breakage, and its subsequent re-tie and re-string. And then it's back to the business of playing!

The re-strung 7th string (thinnest) was left untuned to let it "rest". The rest of the strings were tuned up relative to the 7th string.

Amazingly, after tuning the 1st (thickest) to the 6th string, the pitch of the 1st string was close to C (very close to what metal-nylon guqin strings are nornally tuned to).

Only silk strings can be re-tied and re-strung after breaking. If they are metal-nylon guqin strings, they would have to be thrown away.

Lesson learned: After the 7th string (thinnest silk string) has stabilized after a few days, it would better to just tune the thickest 1st string to B-flat (which is the norm for guqin silk strings), and then tune the rest of the strings relative to B-flat, so that the thinnest 7th silk string would not be over-stretched.

Chinese calligraphy - 5 character + 7 character red couplets

Practice pieces of Chinese calligraphy in NAFA on Tuesday night. One was a 5 character couplet. The other pair is a 7 character couplet. Lots of red color; felt like Chinese New Year! My calligraphy teacher said that there's some smudging, and the words were too "translucent" because the ink I used was not thick enough. I totally concur. *smile*

This was the 3 class of the 4th term in NAFA in 2012. It is now September 2012. I have been learning calligraphy in NAFA from scratch since January 2012.

After writing from 7pm-9pm, our calligraphy teacher, Madam Feng, treated everyone to mooncakes and tea! We (1 teacher + 8 students) had a party and took some pictures.

Please share some links or pics of your favorite calligraphy pieces to inspire me! Thanks!

1st Guqin lesson via Skype

My guqin teacher John Thompson taught me a guqin lesson via Skype today. It was a success. Everything happened close to real time. Awesome experience. It felt almost like a regular face-to-face lesson. We were both in Singapore. My teacher was in his home in Devonshire Road, and I was at home in Choa Chu Kang. But we just wanted to try out having a lesson via Skype. Just for fun!

This also means that anyone in the world who wishes to have Guqin skype lessons can contact John Thompson. (www.silkqin.com)

The guy wearing white in the smaller video window is me! At this point, I have officially already attended 26 guqin lessons conducted by my teacher John Thompson, since March 2012.

Video 21: First time playing Taigu guqin silk strings

[NOTE: Please kindly use earphones if you really want to hear what these Taigu silk strings really sound like. Thank you.]

What really surprised me was that the thickest first string was already at the pitch of C, even without attempting to tune it up after mounting the silk string.

This means that Taigu silk strings are capable of being easily tuned to the same pitch as metal-nylon strings. Other brands of silk strings I have tried (Hu-Qiu) and (Jin Wu) can only be tuned to B-flat on the thickest 1st string, without the 7th (thinnest) string breaking.

No reverb or any kind of effects was used. The audio that you hear was recorded by placing the microphone (mounted on a small tripod) below the smaller sound hole of my guqin.

The tune you hear in the video is just a bunch of riffs I made up by noodling around on my guqin. It's not any particular tune. *smile*

There's clearly some kind of voodoo magic in 'em Taigu silk strings. haha LOL

All I want to say is: from now on, I'd always insist on using Taigu brand guqin silk strings. Yes, they really are *that* awesome!

Tying Dragonfly knots on Taigu silk strings and mounting new strings on guqin

Pictures of me tying dragonfly knots on my new set of Taigu brand silk strings, and mounting them on my guqin.

The first dragonfly knot tied.

Picture taken after all 7 dragonfly knots were tied.

The old silk strings (Jin Wu brand) on my guqin were removed (starting with the thinnest 7th string), and each new Taigu brand silk string was inserted into the red colored Rong Kou.

The is no sound post inside this JunTianFang guqin, so nothing would drop out. But still I follow this procedure.

Picture taken during a short break after 3 new Taigu silk strings were mounted on my Guqin.

Picture of the dragonfly knots at the bridge after all the strings were mounted and tuned. I did not attempt to tune the thickest 1st string at all. All the rest of the silk strings were tuned relative to the thickest 1st string. At this point, I still did not know what the pitch of the thickest 1st string was yet.

Picture of the old silk strings after they were removed. They can still be used as a backup set. Unlike nylon-metal guqin strings, silk strings can still be used after they are removed. Metal-nylon strings, on the other hand, have to be thrown away, just like metal guitar strings.

The biggest surprise was: the untuned thickest 1st string was actually already at C pitch, even though I did not even attempt to tune it up at all. That's the same as what nylon-metal guqin strings are normally tuned to. Behold. That's why Taigu silk strings are so awesome. The pitch was so high, yet the strings still felt super slinky to play. 

I only have one thing to say: Always. Insist. On. Taigu silk strings. Nothing else even comes close. It's that good.

Unwrapping of Taigu silk strings package

Pictures of the unwrapping of the Taigu brand silk strings (Gauge: Medium)

There is a spare 7th silk string (thinnest) inside the package. Nice!

太古 Taigu guqin silk strings in my grubby little hand!

As you can see, the Tai Gu silk strings for Guqin that I ordered has arrived in Singapore!!! I am so excited!

In my previous post, on September 11th, 2012, I wrote that I ordered one set of Taigu silk strings from TaoBao.com using Singapore-based TaoBao agent http://www.sgshop.com.sg and it arrived on September 19th, 2012. So, it took about 8 days for the silk silk strings to be flown to Singapore. Well done SGShop.com.sg!!!

According to the URL printed at the back of the packaging, the manufacturer's website is http://www.shuzhizhai.com

Here's a picture of it in my grubby little hand! hahaha I couldn't stop laughing! I'd try to record and post an audio sample of the Taigu silk strings soon (after they stretch and have stabilized).

Now, nobody can say that they don't use silk strings on their guqin because silk strings are not available. Not an excuse anymore. hahaha *smile*

Calligraphy class - 20 character poetry - Bai Ri Yi Shan Jin

20 character poetry written in calligraphy class in NAFA on Tuesday night. After folding the paper, I used 2 hours just to write this one piece. I took lots of tiny breaks in between. haha

I suppose after writing slowly and deliberately for hundreds of times, I hope that I'd be able to write poetry at *normal* speed. *smile*

Each character is about the size of a small cheeseburger. You can see the size of the US Letter sized book (on the left in the picture) next to the finished calligraphy piece. LOL

The objective is to write the characters so that none of the characters looks mis-aligned out of place, or horribly written. haha

The space on the left is reserved for the purpose of Luo Kuan 落款 (writing the poet's name, the year, my name, etc. in smaller size characters, and finally affixing of the two name seals).

At this point, this is the first week of the 4th term in NAFA. There are 10 weeks in each term in NAFA, which means I have attended 29 calligraphy lessons so far (I missed 2 lessons).

Li XiangTing's guqin masterclass on Friday 28 September 2012

In case, you have been search high and low for information about Li XiangTing's masterclass on Friday 28 September 2012 at 7:30pm, here it is (finally with the help of a newfound friend and guqin enthusiast):

Source: http://www.facebook.com/events/343945095689375/

Ordered one new set of Tai Gu silk strings for my guqin

I just ordered one set of Tai Gu silk strings for my guqin on Tuesday 11 Sept 2012 via http://www.sgshop.com.sg

The original Taobao.com address of the Tai Gu silk strings is at
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=18895132253&ali_trackid=2:mm_14507416_2297358_8935934:1347326312_310_1834089179

Let's see how long it takes for it to ship from China to Singapore. haha

Yes, at RMB1200, it is very expensive! It's equivalent to about 30 upsized double quarter pounder hamburger meals at McDonalds (in Singapore).

2012 TV program about JunTianFang and Guqin

2012 TV program about Guqin, featuring Wang Peng and Jun Tian Fang, the maker of my Guqin, which is a 幽兰空谷 model.

Enjoy!

Video 20 - 2nd home practice of Liang Xiao Yin 良宵引 (1614 version)

2nd home practice of Liang Xiao Yin 良宵引 (1614 version)

At this point, I have attended 24 lessons with my American guqin master teacher, John  Thompson. (silkqin.com)