Video 14: 梅梢月 MeiShaoYue (Take 1 of page 1 to end of page 6)

梅梢月 MeiShaoYue Take 1 page 1 to end of page 6. There are a total of 8 pages in this piece. So far I have only memorised until the end of page 6. At this point, I have attended 19 lessons with Guqin master John Thompson (www.silkqin.com), who lives in Singapore.

There are more mistakes in Take 1 than in the Take 2 video. But the playing in Take 1 was slightly more "carefree", which is good.

Spontaneity and being carefree are desired qualities in Chinese arts like calligraphy, painting, and of course in the playing of guqin. But that only comes after many rounds of practising, possibly after a thousand times.

A very famous Japanese shakuhachi flute teacher once told me, "it's the job of the performer to play with correct pitch, and focus on doing the job well. It's the job of the audience to imagine while listening to the music and day-dream. It's not the performer's job to day dream with the music. The performer's job is to focus and play with correct pitch, and do the job well." Valuable words of wisdom indeed. I like that very much.

In the videos, it may seem that I am playing with a light touch, but I am actually pressing down with quite a bit of strength with my fingers onto the silk strings. The rough texture of the silk strings can sometimes also cause tiny "rope burns" on my left thumb and fingers. haha LOL

The 1st string (thickest) was tuned to G-sharp (also known as A-flat). To be able to drop-tune like that, thin gauge silk strings cannot be used, because they would become "floppy". Only the thickest gauge silk strings should be used if you want to drop-tune your silk strings guqin, so that there would be enough tension in the silk strings when you play them.

Video 13: 梅梢月 MeiShaoYue (take 2, page 1 to end of page 6)

2nd recording of my home practise session. Mei Shao Yue page 1 to end of page 6.

This is *not* a musical performance. It's just used to help me to spot my mistakes, and to help me to recall my lived experiences of playing sensuous sounding silk strings on guqin. No metallic sounds at all. No aural fatigue after playing silk strings for a long time.

The 1st string (thickest) was tuned to G-sharp (also known as A-flat). To be able to drop-tune like that, thin gauge silk strings cannot be used, because they would become "floppy". Only the thickest gauge silk strings should be used if you want to drop-tune your silk strings guqin, so that there would be enough tension in the silk strings when you play them.

Normally, a guqin can be tuned to B (on the 1st string, which is the thickest string) or even C if metal-nylon strings are used.

However, in my limited experience of using pure silk strings, I realized that the thinnest 7th silk string would break if I base all the strings' tunings on the 1st string tuned to B pitch.

Audio recording of pages 1 to 6 of the piece 梅梢月 MeiShaoYue

[NOTE: Please use ear phones to listen to the sounds of this video recording if you really wish to hear what silk strings on Guqin really sound like. Most puny speakers on notebook computers are unable to play the low bass sounds of the Guqin. Thank you.]

Audio recording of my personal practise session of pages 1 to 6 of the piece 梅梢月 (pronounced in Mandarin as Mei Shao Yue). This is *not* a musical performance. It is just a recording to help me to spot my horrible mistakes. Deliberately played super slowly, as I am still trying to memorise the score notation. At this point in July 2012, I have had 18 lessons since March 2012 with Guqin Master John Thompson (www.silkqin.com). He's a very patient and excellent teacher. It really helps that he can explain guqin concepts to me in English.

3rd experience dealing with broken 7th string (silk)

My 7th string broke when I was tuning it today. I probably tried to tune it too high. This is a unique experience that only silk string guqin players would encounter. Metal string players would probably never experience a broken 7th string ever. The nice thing about silk strings is: you can simply re-tie a knot on the broken silk string and then re-string it, and continue using it. In contrast, for metal strings, if it is damaged, a new string would need to be purchased. I love using silk strings on guqin! 

As you can see in this picture, the "Rong Kou" fell out. I re-tied the knot on the broken 7th string. I followed this diagram to re-tie the knot.

I used a paper clip to guide the Rong Kou back into the hole for the 7th string on the guqin.

The 7th string with the newly re-tied knot was positioned properly with the Rong Kou.

I wrapped my right hand with a clean thick sock so that the silk string would not hurt me when I pull the string tight.

After the 7th string was wrapped tightly around the Goose Foot, it's back to business as usual. The whole guqin was tuned lower to A on the 1st string (instead of B-flat on the 1st string), and I continued to practise my pieces as usual. (*smile*) I love silk strings!

Video 12: 梅梢月 MeiShaoYue pages 1 to 6, practise session #7

[NOTE: Please use ear phones to listen to the sounds of this video recording if you really wish to hear what silk strings on Guqin really sound like. Most puny speakers on notebook computers are unable to play the low bass sounds of the Guqin. Thank you.]


Video 12: 梅梢月 MeiShaoYue pages 1 to 6 (out of total of 8 pages of score notation, prepared by my teacher American Guqin Master John Thompson). This video recording helps me to spot my horrible mistakes.


At this point, I am still a beginner learner who had merely 17 lessons with Guqin Master John Thompson, who is living in Singapore. I have been learning to play 梅梢月 since the beginning of May 2012. It has been almost 2 months of learning this beautiful piece. Progress has been slow on my part, but very enjoyable.


Guqin used: Entry-level 幽兰空谷 model manufactured by Jun Tian Fang 均天坊, which is headed by Master Guqin maker Wang Peng 王鹏 in Beijing, China.


Silk strings used: Jin Hu brand, thick gauge, which is purchased from Taobao.com. For information of how I purchased these silk strings through a Singapore-based Taobao agent, please click here.


Head mounted video camera used: GoPro HD Hero2

Video 11: 梅梢月 MeiShaoYue pages 1-4, practice session #6

[NOTE: Please use ear phones to listen to the sounds of this video recording if you really wish to hear what silk strings on Guqin really sound like. Most puny speakers on notebook computers are unable to play the low bass sounds of the Guqin. Thank you.]

At this point, I am only a beginner learner of guqin, having attended only a mere 15 lessons from Mr. John Thompson. Any fault in the playing is entirely mine; it's not the teacher or the guqin.

After struggling to memorize another page of guqin score notation, I have finally made a video recording of myself playing pages 1-4 of 梅梢月 Mei Shao Yue (which starts at 2:16 in this video), which has a total of 8 pages. I was just warming up and noodling around on the guqin form the start of the video until 2:15. Please ignore the front part. Thanks!)

I was playing it extremely slowly in this video. It should sound much faster, more rhythmic, and smother when played by experienced guqin masters. This is my feeble attempt at learning to play pages 1 to 4 (out of 8 pages) of Mei Shao Yue 梅梢月. Click here to see and hear a really good exemplar when it is correctly played by a real Guqin Master with many years of experience.

However, I really do enjoy learning to play this piece, even though it is a very difficult piece. Even when my fingers are aching from exerting on the silk strings, I do not feel fatigue, as there are no jarring metallic sounds (unlike when using metal nylon strings on guqin).

If you want to find out where I bought my silk strings from, please read this previous post.