We aim to keep you accompanied in a tailored way at the beginning of your Guzheng journey in the UK.
Size and components:
Guzhengs come in various different sizes. In the modern days, it is widely accepted to use a 163 centimetre (64 inches) Guzheng with 21 strings which were tuned on a major pentatonic scale. The main components include a soundboard, a bottom board, decoration boards, strings and bridges.
The soundboard, a critical component determining the quality of a Guzheng, is made out of a large piece of high-quality Paulownia wood. On the market, the mainstream of soundboard manufacturing methods is either a curved board directly carved out of a whole piece of wood, or a flat sheet cut out of a whole piece of wood then bent with mechanical forces. The direct carving style is an ancient method which gives a long-lingering resonant sound after the plucking. This suits the traditional style of music, which focuses more on the technique of the left-hand skills on the after sound. The flat-sheet style serves modern music better as it sounds brighter with slightly shorter after-sound. In either style, a clear sound is preferred nowadays compared to the preference some decades ago. Countless brands from different regions manufacture Guzheng in unique regional styles, which makes it harder to choose your favourite one.
The bridges can be made out of different kinds of woods in slightly different shapes. Together with different types of strings, different bottom board designs and the wood types of decoration boards, one Guzheng may sound quite different to another. Hence it is quite difficult to choose an appropriate Guzheng as a first time player. The best way is to try a Guzheng in person, wherever and whenever possible. When a player becomes more experienced, it is also extremely common that one owns various different types of Guzhengs to suit different styles of music or to be tuned in different keys.
Techniques and performance:
A Guzheng player needs to master several types of techniques to perform Guzheng music. Whilst the traditional style is to only wear finger picks on three fingers of the right hand, modern Guzheng players always wear 8 finger picks on 4 fingers of each hand. The material of finger picks also plays an important role in the sound style.
There are four main categories of the playing techniques: finger-initiated plucking, left-hand skills, wrist/arm-associated skills and Guzheng special techniques. It can then be divided into many different sub-categories such as plucks, sweeps, glissando, arpeggios, tremolos, portamento, vibrato, percussion etc. The ongoing development of playing techniques brings the benefit of multi-types of timbre of a Guzheng, which have enabled a Guzheng musician to overwhelm their audience with different styles of music expression.
Music:
Guzheng music has been continuously developed. Generation over generations, Guzheng musicians have maintained the original vitality of Guzheng music by interweaving its traditional repertoire with the rich heritage of folk songs and regional operas across China; and also have produced novel creativity by the inspiration from western and modern music across the globe. With its continued increasing popularity internationally, Guzheng is now taught in professional music conservatories within and outside of China.
Please visit our video gallery to have a taste of a modern piece of Guzheng music named as ‘Just be it’, performed by Miss Yi Shen, a professional Guzheng musician from the most prestigious Guzheng conservatoire in China.
