Video 22: Yan Luo Ping Sha (1634 earliest version) home practice

Video 22: Yan Luo Ping Sha (1634 earliest version).

I know how hard it it to find videos of guqin playing with silk strings, let alone videos which expose the practice process of a guqin player. That's why I made this video. Please feel free to use this video for your own research. (creative commons-compliant). For example, you can use it to compare how a beginner plays (this video) and how a real guqin master plays.

Or, for example, just as a suggestion, you may also consider using this video to analyze the differences in styles (e.g., need to press harder into the wood, need for player to endure rope burn feeling on the fingers) when playing rougher textured silk strings (this video) and in playing metal-nylon strings (some other video which you have to record yourself, I do not have a guqin strung with metal-nylon strings).

The score of this tune was provided by my teacher, guqin master John Thompson (silkqin.com), but I must admit that during home practice, I made lots of mistakes in this video, and I added bits of my own stuff, just for the fun of it. I really enjoy home practice of guqin, as the silk strings sound great. There is no aural fatigue, as there are no jarring metallic twang sounds (which you can hear in many CD recordings; even with the best metal-nylon guqin strings, strung on the best and exorbitantly expensive guqins). In my personal opinion, silk strings may even make the entry-level guqins (such as mine) sound great!

There are many mistakes in my playing. Please do not regard my playing to be the "standard" if you wish to learn how to play this tune. Thank you.

Note: This version which was 打譜 dapu by Mr. John Thompson seems to only contain the very bare basic structure of this tune's melody line, with many of the 'slides' in the modern version of this tune missing. You may also try your own hand to dapu this tune by referring to the original score of this tune (and many other tunes) at this archive. Yes, anyone can try their hands at dapu too, not just guqin masters. haha

There's also another performance of this tune by Madam Cheng Peiyou. She played it very closely to Mr. John Thompson's score and how he would play this piece (click here to listen to Mr. John Thompson's rendition of Luo Yan Ping Sha), much closer than my version here. *smile*