[No.1] ErHu Practice Log | 二胡練習日誌

[The Lesson]

Today’s lesson was alright. I missed last week’s lesson because I went on a school trip to 墾丁。The week before that, we had a holiday so no class. I’m not sure but I guess last week we went over proper finger placement for the 6th scale degree in the D-major scale (the most basic scale on erhu二胡) . When I came in this week, the teacher used white-out to mark where I should place my fingers to play in tune. He uses a tuner that has like a mic that you can clip onto the neck of the ErHu, I guess it’s more accurate? Anyway, so he tunes the instrument and played Re and marked the spot where Re is in tune, and did the same for Mi.

We started the class by doing some empty string bowing (the left hand doesn’t touch the string). I think we were playing at around 60BPM but I don’t remember now. Anyway, we started by bowing 4 beats, and then 2 beats, and then just 1 beat. Lord hammercy, that shit was literally ridiculous. The screeching was unbearable, all of us are pretty much beginners, so in totality we sounded like cats in heat. As the bow got faster though, most of the screeching went away. He was warning everyone to make sure their bowing accompanies the beat. You need to manage how fast you bow so that you have enough bow for a longer note, and that you are able to use the whole bow to bow a note that is faster. I guess this is just at the beginner level though, I imagine that when the notes get really fast, it’s impossible to use the whole bow? But I could be wrong. The teacher also expressed that it is really important to get into the habit of keeping proper a proper playing posture even if you’re playing an empty string, it’s bad to drop your wrist and arm just because you’re not fingering a note. Also, we should pay attention the the looseness of our wrist, and to make sure when we 拉弓 that our wrist is leading the bow outwards, and when we 推弓 that our wrist is leading us back as well.

After we played the empty bow exercises, we played the D-major scale, each note got one beat and we played at 60BPM. This is where that shit went to the left lmao. So our class is a mix of both beginners and intermediate people. But, almost no one in the class plays in tune besides the teacher. I’ve been trying hard to make sure that my playing is as in tune as possible, but damn, playing with other beginners is an intense ass ear training session. I can’t tell who’s in tune, who’s out of tune, or what note we’re even playing. The shit is ridiculous lmao. And I know the teacher really ain’t trying to hear that garbage anyway, but he just smiles and is like :)))))))))), everyone try to press the string in the spot where I marked the right note for you, thanksssssszz.

Every week the people who have taken his class before and the people who haven’t separate into different classrooms. At first I felt some type of way that I got put into the “n00b” section, because shitttt, listening to them play we are all about the same damn level. But now I’m happy about it, because there’s only about 6 of us in the other classroom so the teacher can give us more individual attention.

This week we played exercises that focused on the fingering of the 6th and 7th scale degrees[La, Ti]. In the video I started by playing some empty bow exercises from the previous week because I didn’t feel like my bowing is getting enough practice. I guess technically you are practicing bowing whenever you play anything on the ErHu, but I think it complicates things when you need to finger notes as well. I don’t even got the damn basic straight down so yeah, I think I’ll continue to start my practice sessions like that.

[The Video]

1.  外線[outer string] Open String Bowing Practice 

To be honest, I really fucking hate playing this exercise LOL. Because I feel like no matter how much I practice the exercises he gave us, I still get scratchy notes, I can’t bow the bow long enough, bow in the wrong direction or I can’t keep a straight bow. But as I practice more, I can feel that I am figuring out how much pressure to put on the bow, and how quickly to bow the bow to not get a really scratchy sound.

2. 內線[inner string] Empty Bow Practice 

This is the same kind of exercise as the previous one obviously, but just on the inner bow. For whatever reason, when I first picked up the ErHu, I thought it was difficult to make a non-scratchy sound on the outer string because I didn’t need to worry about anything besides dragging the bow across the string. But now, I feel the exact opposite. I feel like I have more control over the inner string.

3. Open String Practice, Shifting Strings

This one isn’t very hard, but I find that it’s sometimes hard for me to shift the strings and make sure my bow doesn’t shift too much. When the bow shifts, I get that death cry from the strings lmao. So yeah, there’s that. The trouble spot for me are the 5th-8th measures, so I practiced that particular section a lot this week.

4. Fretting Scale Degree 6

Out of the scale degrees we’ve learned and have played, I think this one is the one that I think has the best intonation. Not really sure why, but, I can usually be pretty close to being in tune when I play this note LOLLL.

5. Fretting Scale Degree 7

This quite possibly is the hardest fucking note to have good intonation on. I didn’t show it in the videos here, but I have been using drone practice to try and make my intonation better. For the other notes that I’ve been practicing, if I use the drone tone, I can get pretty close to being in tune. I can hear the note in my head and be pretty accurate in producing it on the ErHu, but this note, nah. Even in my high school music theory class, I always struggled with major seventh intervals, so that could be the reason why? But I don’t know. lmao.