To Erhu or not to Erhu…
After getting a haircu t
today (albeit different than what I was hoping for, I guess is the style right now in China), I went with my trusty guide (a student from another class) to a music shop to pickup her Guzheng (A Zither instrument). I forgot how neat they looked – I wanted to learn that instrument while in Chien-Tan (Taiwan Summer Study Abroad kinda thing). Well actually wanted to learn the wooden swordplay, but overslept the day of picking, and got stuck with Flute (my ears ring & hairs on the back of my neck stand up when thinking of those lesson sessions)…though guess it could have been worse, I could have been stuck with Fan Dancing ;-)…
Guzheng
Apparently learning the Zither isn’t that bad/hard. However after consulting with a few people, the consensus is that it’s a girly instrument.
:-p. I think I mostly wanted it because it just looks really neat, but seems silly to own something like that if you don’t know how to play it (hence me wanting to learn how to play it). My attention then got diverted to the Erhu.
It seems pretty basic, just 2 strings and a bow…However because of this minimalism it may be fairly difficult to learn…My trusty guide is looking into possible teachers for me to contact about this instrument, so I guess we’ll see.
Erhu
You may be wondering why I want to pick up the Guzheng or for that matter
the Erhu now.
I really don’t think I have any musical talent, however I do like stuff.
I like stuff even more when its obscure or rare – both the Zither and Erhu are pretty rare (and probably instructors as well) in the U.S.
Below are links to Information about the instruments.
I wish I could review them before posting their links, but will have to rely on Wikipedia’s good run thus far…Stupid China Firewall >:-(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zither
http://www.philmultic.com/guzheng/