Playing guqin on one's lap

Played guqin (7 silk strings zither) on a warm Singapore night. It has not rained for a month. This is a low end entry level model 幽兰空谷 (elegant orchid in desolate valley) made by Beijing factory 均天坊 Jun Tian Fang. It sounds very nice with silk strings when played on my lap. I could feel the sonic vibrations of the guqin on my lap. It was very wonderful. Finally, I realized how the guqin was really meant to be played on a person's lap; just like a guitar was meant to be held close to a person's body. The experience of playing a guitar if it was placed on a table top would also be dramatically different, I would imagine.

I love playing with silk strings on guqin. There is no aural fatigue listening to silk strings, as there is no metal inside silk strings; hence no aurally fatiguing metallic twang noises.

Played guqin with jets roaring outside

Played guqin in semi darkness of my living room on a warm humid windless Singapore night. Sounds of fighter jets roaring overhead outside my apartment... probably F16s patrolling... I could hear them even with all my windows closed. haha

Contact list of the international guqin teaching community

There is a contact list of guqin teachers and schools at http://blog.sciencenet.cn/u/wangshu&do=blog&id=526793

It is curated by Dr. Liu Chao. Thanks to him, it's much easier to search for people in the international guqin community. If you wish to update Dr. Liu, please contact him directly. Thank you!

Playing guqin in the vastness of space and time

Being able to play my guqin on this little planet suspended within this infinitesimal time and space is truly very special. I feel really minuscule in this vast 13.7 billion years old universe. The universe was here before I arrived. It will still be here even after I have left. Human lifespan is very short. I should just enjoy the moment and forget about all the petty things in life.

Video: how to memorize by not memorizing

This is not guqin per se. However, memorizing new pieces remains a great challenge for me. This is an interesting article and video about how to memorize by not memorizing....

Source article at http://www.violinist.com/blog/hbroadbent/20142/15515/

Played guqin on Saturday afternoon

Enjoyed playing guqin 古琴 on a lazy Saturday Singapore late afternoon. Yea, my messy room is filled with many books... but I actually know the location of every book! If they are "tidied up," I won't be able to locate them anymore. Hahaha

Tunes I played included 流水 (liu shui)，憶故人 (yi gu ten)，平沙落雁 (ping aha luo yan)，關山月 (guan shan yue)，and 良宵引 (liang xiao yin). I did not spend any time trying to memorize any new guqin tunes. haha

Free guqin music by Zha Fu Xi 查阜西

Download free vintage guqin music, performed by Zha Fu Xi, at https://eee.uci.edu/programs/rgarfias/sound-recordings/qin/

The recordings sounded like he had played with metal strings on his guqin, probably because he might not have had access to silk strings for his guqin when these recordings were made.

More details about Zha Fu Xi can be perused at http://www.silkqin.com/09hist/twentieth/zhafuxi.htm

[Special thanks to Guqin Maestro Chang Peiyou for sharing the link to download Zha Fu Xi's guqin music in Facebook.]