Video on how to get to Eason Enterprises from Bugis MRT Station

Some of my customers have trouble finding their way to my shop. So I've made a video on how to get to our shop from Bugis MRT station. It is just a 5 minutes walk away.

New Video on the Basics of Ruan

Just finished a new video on the Ruan.

Its a 4 minute video on the basics of Ruan playing.

Special thanks to Clara Tan for making this possible.

If you want to learn how to play the ruan, please email tansungwah@eason.com.sg.

Here is the video:



This is the instrument used in the video: http://www.eason.com.sg/products/ruan/tbzr13.jsp

Crazy Violin Sale!

We're clearing our stock of violins!

China semi hand-made violins with 50% discount!
Usual Price: S$1800 - NOW: S$900!
Usual Price: S$1200 - NOW: S$600!
Usual Price: S$600 - NOW: S$300!

European handmade violins with 30% discount!
Usual Price: S$4500 - NOW: S$3150!
Usual Price: S$3500 - NOW: S$2450!

Feel free to drop by for a look! (Mon - Sun, 11am to 6pm)

I Am More 'Ming Gui' Than you!

I'm sure flute players are very familiar with the 'Ming Gui' brand dimo. The meaning of Ming Gui (名贵) is along the lines of precious, valuable and pricelss.



The bright red 'Ming Gui' packaging has come to represent high quality dimo for a lot of flute players.

But did you know that actually 'Ming Gui' dimo is not just produced by 1 company?

Let me rephrase that. A whole lot of companies are using the bright red 'Ming Gui' packaging to package their dimo. The poor founder of 'Ming Gui' dimo did not copyright his 'Ming Gui' packaging and every dimo maker in China is using his packaging. As a result, you get a lot of 'Ming Gui' dimo with varying quality of dimo inside.

Just flip the package over and you can see the maker of the 'Ming Gui' dimo:


Take a close look at the dimo itself. The one on the left looks to be of better quality. It looks silky smooth and is broader. The one of the right looks a little coarser. The middle one looks, well, in between the left and right.

So does it mean that if you buy from the maker on the left you'll definitely get better dimo than the one on the left? Well, not neccessarily. The maker on the right might get a good batch of reeds once in a while and the maker on the left might get crap reeds sometime as well.

So unless you're on good terms with the maker who picks the good quality dimo for you, you'll get this and that, here and then.

Currently we're carrying dimos from the maker on the left, who told us these dimos comes from a particularly good batch of reeds. We opened a few and they look pretty good.

So if you want some good dimo now's a good time to order, cause we're not sure if the next batch would be as good. But don't hoard them as well cos they turn yellowish if kept for too long.

http://www.eason.com.sg/products/wind_access/mdz7.jsp

Job Vacancy at Eason!

We are looking for someone to work with us to bring more interesting information and media to people all over the world who are interested in Chinese traditional music and instruments!

So if you:
- know how to do web, video and photo editing
- interested in web 2.0 stuff like blog, twitter, youtube
- and love Chinese music (no need to know how to play them)

We would be interested to know more about you!

Positions are open for full-time or part-time.

If you are interested, please drop us an email at tansungwah@eason.com.sg.

Eason Music on Twitter!

Hey guys I've started twittering!

See the column on the right ----------->

Join twitter and follow me on my tweets!

Homemade Guzheng from Norway

Check this out! One of my customers Ann from Norway decided to try her hand at building a Guzheng!

So she ordered some bridges and strings from me and did the rest herself! (Well together with her husband)

Looks pretty cool eh?



Here's what she said:
"The guzheng is good enough to practice on, even though it's no substitute for a real instrument. I use it on weekends when we are in Sweden. It has a surprisingly good sound, considering it's a big heavy pine box! A piano tuner donated the tuning pegs and told us what sort of wood to use for them, and we consulted a book about piano building to learn details about how to drill the holes for them. We tried to mimic the curved top of a real guzheng by making the end pieces (that the strings go over) curved, and by arranging the bridges with the smallest on either end and the tallest in the middle. That's why I bought two sets of bridges, so we had enough of the different sizes to choose from. But despite all that, the strings are basically pretty flat. It isn't a big problem for occasional practice, though. And I measured the distance between the strings on my Dunhuang guzheng carefully, so the octave reach on this instrument is correct."

You're right Ann, it does sound pretty good! And you played it really well!



Well, we hope she does not do this seriously and put us out of business....

Our shop is now open on Sundays as well!

In our bid to serve our customers better, Eason Enterprises / Eason Music is now opened 7 days a week!

Yes, from now, our showroom at Rochor Centre will be opened on Sundays as well - from 11am to 6pm.

So feel free to drop by after Church, CO practice, morning exercise or whatever.

Closed on public holidays.

Music Lessons @ Eason Music!

After 30 years in the business of selling Chinese musical instruments, we finally decide to devote some of our precious shop space to conduct individual music lessons.

Offering music lessons seem to be a natural extension of a music retail shop but we never got down to doing it because we were all tied up with other aspects of the business. So after years of of talking about it, we're finally walking the talk.

What kind of music lessons do we offer? Almost everything under the sun - erhu, guzheng, pipa, dizi, zhongruan, yangqin, liuqin, xiao, hulusi, suona and even Chinese percussion.

Our profile of music instructors are a mixture of professional players who are young and talented, as well as not so young and overflowing with experience. The one thing they have in common is that they are all very passionate about their music.

Our instructors are effectively bilingual in Chinese and English.

So if you are interested in picking up a Chinese music instrument or want to bring your skills up another notch. Please email tansungwah@eason.com.sg or look for 'Wei Long' or 'Sung Wah' at 6294 7522.

I'll see you at our shop soon!

-------------------------

Details:
- 1 to 1 lessons
- Once a week, 45mins per lesson

• Beginner $120/mth (4 lessons, excl. GST)
• Intermediate $150/mth (4 lessons, excl. GST)
• Advanced $180/mth (4 lessons, excl. GST)
  

- Registration Fee $15 (excl. GST- 4 lessons)
- Monday to Sundays (10:30am - 9:00pm)

Contact 'Wei Long' or 'Sung Wah' @ 6294 7522 or email tansungwah@eason.com.sg for enquiries.

Scratch and Dent Sale!

Wow, its been quite a while since I updated the blog.

So what's up lately? Well, we are currently moving our store from point A to point B and its taking up a lot a lot of our time.

Its not as straightforward as moving from point A to point B. We've carved out 2 rooms in our new unit thus the storage space has been reduced.

If you've seen our store you would agree some parts resembles a bombed bunker. Some of the items found leaves me amazed at the diversity of my predecessors.

Anyway to reduce some of our inventory of older and less than perfect items, we are holding a 'scratch and dent sale' from this Sat, 4 March to 8 March.

Some items you can expect to find are:
- Erhu, Liuqin, Pipa, Guzheng hard and soft cases
- Erhu
- Pipa
- Liuqin
- Dizi
- Picolos
- Western Flutes
- French horn
- Trumpet
- Harmonica
- Violins
- Cellos
- Ruans
- Casette tapes
- CDs
- VCDs
- Yangqins

.....and many unimaginable things.

These items may look older or have a scratch or ding here and there, but they are going at rock bottom prices! And they definitely can be used to make music and not just for display.

So if you are thinking of setting up a Chinese orchestra but have limited budget, or you have always wanted to try to play Chinese instruments but don't want to spend too much, or you are someone who likes to work on instruments, do make a date to come down to our store this weekend.

Address:
1 Rochor Road
#02-606
Singapore 180001

Time: 10:30am to 7:00pm