Monday, August 13, 2007

Terrific Erhu Practice Passage!

This is one of the most effective practice passages that I have come across. It trains the nimbleness of your left hand, stretches your left hand, strengthens your left hand and trains your right hand in changing strings.

It is written in jianpu, as with most Chinese music scores. For those who haven't got a clue how to read jianpu, go to wikipedia and search for jianpu.

When you are playing this passage, it is important that your first finger stays in position. Meaning to say, when you are stretching your fourth finger to play 5 on the inner string, your first finger stays in the 2 position.

Try it slow first, increasing the tempo as you get more familiar. The best is to practice with a metronome. We have a 3-1 metronome, tuner and tone generator which you might be interested to take a look.

Remember to take breaks in between to rest your left hand, which will get strained after a while.

This is the piece. Practice the first 3 lines will do. (Click for a larger picture)



I'll post a video soon.

3 comments:

  1. No its not. It was passed to me by Erhu teacher some 15 years ago.

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  2. Thanks Sung Wah ! I'm going to try this and come back to you with my enlightened comments !

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