1st Chinese Orchestra Education Convention (COEC) 2008

The Co-Curricular activities branch of our Ministry of Education will be organizing the 1st Chinese Orchestra Education Convention (COEC) 2008 on the 25th and 26th of August this year.

They've done education conventions in previous years for symphonic bands and but this year they are doing one for the Chinese Orchestra.

If the band convention is a yardstick to go by, there'll be talks by keynote speakers, workshops, and a mini exhibition all relating Chinese Orchestra music.

For more information, please refer to the official letter below by one of the officers in charged:

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Dear CO teachers-in-charge. CCA administrators, educators and musicians,

MOE,CCA Branch will be organising the 1st Chinese Orchestra Education Convention (COEC) 2008 on 25 and 26 of August at the Singapore Conference Hall. You can visit the COEC website at http://www3.moe.edu.sg/ccab/coec.htm (please bookmark the website URL as more info will be updated in July) for the programme information on this event.

Registration forms can also be downloaded from the above website. Alternatively, you can also come to CCAB reception counter (2nd level) to obtain the registration forms. Participation fee is $50/pax for 2 days including lunch, tea, one convention kit, admission to keynote, concurrent and plenary sessions. For the concurrent sessions, participants will be informed at a later date to sign up for those topics of their interest.

Attached herein are the documents on COEC brief and publicity brochure. Please be informed that registration closes on 8 Aug 2008. So sign up now!

We look forward to your participation at this inaugural COEC 2008.

Thank you.
Lim Seng Yuen
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We'll be having an exhibition booth there as well. I've submitted a proposal to have bikini clad girls playing the erhu, pipa and guzheng at my booth but that was rejected by the organizers. I think they're afraid people might stay at the exhibition area all day.

In any case, please give them your support.

Erhu Bridge Made From Very Very Very Old Wood

A while ago I talked to about a 4300 year old bridge that does wonders to the tone of the Erhu.


I've finally got some audios and videos to show.

I did a test using a Wan Qi Xing Ming Qing Aged Rosewood Erhu. I switched between
a blackwood bridge to the 4300 year old bridge, to a whitewood bridge and back to
the 4300 year old bridge.

The tone of the Erhu using the blackwood and whitewood bridge sounds more restrained and muted, while tone of the Erhu using the new bridge opens up and sounds more liberated!

You can view the video of the whole process here:



In addition to the video I also made a audio recording so that you can listen more clearly the difference in the tone here: http://www.eason.com.sg/documents/4300yearbridge.wav

So instead of spending hundreds or thousands buying a new Erhu, you can have a marked improvement in the tone of your Erhu for just a fraction! We are offering it at an introductory price of US$40.

Yes, yes, I know some of you might be thinking that not all Erhus are created equal. So what if the 4300 year old bridge does not work for me?

Well, just mail the bridge back to us and we will refund you the US$40, plus the shipping you incurred in shipping back the Erhu bridge. (For people in Singapore, feel free to bring your Erhu to our shop to test the bridge before you decide to order)

You have zero risk and absolutely nothing to lose!

We will be ordering limited number of bridges which will come in 6-8 weeks time.

So to avoid disappointment, click here to pre-order your 4300 year old bridge now!

Remember, you have nothing to lose but a whole new sparkling tone to gain!
http://www.eason.com.sg/products/string_access/meh66.jsp

A Visit From a Friend From The Other Side of The World

I was away for quite a while. I went for a 5 day business course.

Recently one of my customer/friend from Canada came to Singapore to visit.

This is Skully, one of the main charactors in my Who? Handroll blog post.


Because he did not buy enough Erhus from me, I decided to teach him a lesson and brought him to a fish farm to feed his feet to the fishes.

Naively, put his feet into the pool full of vociferous fishes, thinking that they will eat away the dead skin on his feet.


Pretty soon, he had no more hair left on his feet....


The progress was too slow, so I suggested to him to go to another pool with bigger fishes.


Soon he had only one foot left.....


This fish took a toe home for supper.


That will teach him to buy more Erhus from me!


Fearing for the rest of his limbs, he begged me to take him to my shop to buy one dozen Erhus back home.


As a special bonus for buying a dozen Erhus from me, I treated him to a Liang Xiao performance on the Erhu with the all seeing eye...


The moral of the story is, if you are coming to visit, buy enough Erhus from me first!

Electric Erhu Part 2

I had a previous entry on an electric Erhu I saw at the Beijing music fair.

I managed to contact the maker to get more information about the Erhu.

Below are some sound files recorded using the instrument:

1. 江河水 Jiang He Shui
Effects: Erhu in Overdrive
10`20

2. 小草 Small Grass
Effects: Wah Wah
2`48

3. 好日子 Good Days
Effects: Mid Pitch Banhu
6`59

4. 良宵 Liang Xiao
Effects: Erhu 二胡音色
2`45

5. 天山 Sky Hill
Effects: Violin
5`01

6. 沸腾 Fei Teng
Effects: High Pitched Matouqin
2`04

7. 花儿为什么红 Why are the flowers red?
Effects: Violin
2`43

8. 天涯歌女 Tian Ya Ge Nu
Effects: Erhu
2`42

9. 草原之夜 The night of the grassland
Effects: Violin Ensemble and Erhu
3`58

The Erhu effects pedal contains 50 over different tones.

The product apparently has won the gold award at the 2nd national traditional Chinese music instruments competition.

Don't think I want to keep inventory so I'm taking pre-orders here.

Interested parties please email me at tansungwah@eason.com.sg.

Enjoy the sound clips! (Though some of them made my hair stand)

6 Pack Erhu Utility Bridge Package

I just posted a new product on my website, in case nobody noticed it.

I named it the 6 Pack Erhu Utility Bridge Package.


According to the bridge maker who came up with this package, with this 6 pack in hand you can conquer the world.

So here they are, the 6 superheroes (clockwise from top left):

1. *Long shaped maple bottom with ebony tip* – All purpose bridge. Responsive.

2. *Long shaped Pinewood* – Traditional Beijing Erhu bridge. Reduced noise

3. *Long shaped Sandalwood* – Rich and penetrative tone.

4. *Round shaped wood* – Suitable for new Erhus. Clean clear tone

5. *Round shaped maple* – Same material as violin bridge, gentle and beautiful tone

6. *Round shaped Ebony* – hard material, loud and bright tone, suitable for snakeskin with less tension

The bridges come together with a big piece of damper and some sandpaper - all packed in a box.

Click here to purchase it.

Disclaimer: The above are just general guidelines by the maker. Experience tells us that every Erhu is different and what sounds good on one, may not sound good on another.

Electric Erhu with Effects Pedal

This is a new plexiglass Electric Erhu I saw at the Beijing fair.


There are knobs at the bottom of the Erhu which think should be volume and tone.


It has a bridge made of plexiglass as well. Initially I thought the plexiglass bridge is essential till I saw another piece with a normal bridge and a damper!


Ok, the interesting part of the electric Erhu is not the Erhu itself. It is the stuff that comes with it. It comes with a specially designed effects board with presets where your Erhu can sound like an Erhu, Zhonghu, Jinghu, Zhuihu, Cello, Erhu in overdrive etc. It has 60 over different presets.





The Erhu in overdrive.... The guy is played double stop quite clearly. I suspect the bow is modified such that the bamboo part is playable as well.

Alternative Way of Putting Your Damper

Here's another way of putting the damper on your Erhu.

You fold it and insert it in between the strings.

The idea is that the unwanted noise comes from the part of the string between the bridge and the base of the Erhu. So putting the damper there reduces the noise. The Erhu will sound less muted than if you put the damper under the strings because there is much less pressure on the snakeskin.

New Bridges

I brought back some interesting bridges from the music fair:

1) The tip is made of Ebony and the bottom is made of Pine.


2) A hybrid of Ebony and Maple.


3) Bridge made from Maple wood


4) Bridge made from very old sandalwood

5) Maple bridges


6) I like this one - white sandalwood. (The names the Chinese come up with...)


8) Finally the mother of all bridges - Bridge made from 4300 year old petrified wood. Be afraid.....be very afraid......


I have tried it and it is really good. It feels like when you have a nose block and a hoarse throat, then suddenly your nose block clears and your throat feels great and you can sing without any obstacles!

Beijing Music Fair 2008

Ok so here we go, an update on my trip to Beijing for their yearly music fair. It wasn't a particularly big scale fair, but all the better since I don't need to cover so much ground. I didn't take a lot of pictures so here they are.

Here is the entrance to the fairgrounds. The balding guy in the centre of the picture with a sling bag across is my father.


Here is where you insert your tickets. When you exit, you get touts waiting to buy your tickets to resell to others. But you have the police walking around trying to catch the touts as well.


In preparation of the upcoming Olympics, all visitors have to have their belongings scanned. They only confiscated cigarette lighters. I don't see anyone being searched like in the airport.


Here's where you line up to get your pass into the exhibition area. Foreign visitors have an express queue. :)


Another shot before going into the exhibition area.


There are booths set up opposite the ticketing area, mostly electronic products.


Traditional Chinese Music Instruments occupy a small hall on level 2. This is the first booth you see when you enter the hall.


Next to it is the booth of Biquan Guzhengs. They have a Guzheng performance going on!


Real triplets playing the Guzheng. Very charming. They are personally coached by my good friend and famous Guzheng performer Yuan Sha. They are 16 years old this year - all of them.


They were bamboo thin the first time I saw them 3 years ago. I heard they've been told to watch their weight!


Here's a short video of them in action:




This is the booth of Beijing Raoyang instruments factory. The boss is a certain Mr Yang. I had dinner him together with Dizi maker Dong Xue Hua and Pipa maker Cao Wei Dong one night. Boy can they drink. After downing a few bottles of Chinese liquor with 55% alcohol content, they still have to order a few bottles of beer to wash down the Chinese liquor!


Some Pipas hanging at the back of Beijing Raoyang's booth with artwork on it:




Newly designed arty Hulusis!


Ooh...Looks like some part of the female anatomy with dragons tattooed on it.


Erhu with huge scales on the snake skin.


Get an idea of the noise level I had to deal with at the fair:




Dear dear binoculars, what are you doing together with banhu resonators? Have you lost your way? The fair for peeping toms is on the other side....



Another electric Erhu found. I'll leave the details for another post.


Finally, a young dude in Zhang Zhong's booth playing Jiang He Shui. He's pretty good.




I'll post more after I've finished testing my newly acquired accessories.

I am back!

Took an overnight flight and touched down at 6am in the morning.

Well, overall I had a good trip to Beijing. The fair wasn't particular big (I reckon just 1/5 the size of the Shanghai trip) but I still saw some interesting stuff.

I've got some new Erhu bridges. Pictures and audio comparisms will be posted soon. I've also got lo and behold! - 2 pieces of the US$50 Erhu bridge to try out. It is made from fossilized wood that is 4300 years old! Tested it today and whoa....the difference will blow you away. Details coming soon.

I've also got some samples of a Pipa sling, so that you can dance and play the Pipa at the same time.

Brought back some Dong Xue Hua Xiaos and Dizis. If I owe you some DXH Dizis or Xiaos, they are already on their way.

I've got some pretty interesting Erhu bow as well, some woolly damper for the Erhu and an excellent sandalwood Erhu.

I'll post more details after I've tested them.