With the rapid development of our city’s socio-economic and cultural undertakings, the art of guqin has gradually attracted the attention of the city’s citizens and has become an increasingly important part of social and cultural life. Below is the basic knowledge about Guqin that I compiled. Welcome to read and refer to it.
1. Introduction to Guqin
Guqin is the oldest plucked instrument in my country and the essence of Chinese music. Guqin has a very long history. According to legend, it has a history of 5,000 years. According to historical records, it has a history of 3,000 years. It can be said that it basically runs through the entire history of civilization of the Chinese nation. Over the course of thousands of years of history, the guqin has integrated the crystallization of people's wisdom and expressed the Chinese people's praise and pursuit of beautiful things. It has gradually developed and improved to this day, and its charm is naturally unique. It is an art form that condenses the connotation of traditional Chinese culture and is a typical representative of traditional elegant art. It has profoundly influenced all aspects of traditional Chinese culture. Its significance and value far exceed ordinary traditional music.
The guqin is three feet six inches long, symbolizing the three hundred and sixty-five days in a year; six inches wide, symbolizing the Liuhe; and two inches thick, rich in the yin and yang of heaven and earth. There are thirteen emblems on the surface of the piano indicating phonetic positions, symbolizing the twelve months of the year and the leap month that occurs once every four years. Legend has it that the guqin originally had five strings, which were tuned according to Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng, and Yu, representing the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth respectively. Later, King Wen of Zhou added one string, and King Wu of Zhou added one string. So we get seven strings. The piano has a rounded surface and a flat base, which corresponds to the ancient theory of a round sky and a round earth. The images and magical metaphors such as the Yue Mountain and Dragon Gum for stringing, the goose feet for playing the harp, and the Dragon Pond and Phoenix Pond for pronunciation contain the ancient people's love for green mountains and green waters and their persistence in Chinese civilization.
As a musical instrument, its tone is beautiful and deep, with three different timbres: the overtones are elegant, elegant, and ethereal, like the sounds of nature, so they are called the sounds of heaven; the dispersions are far-reaching, powerful, and thick, like bells The sound of the chime is called the sound of the earth; the sound of the chime is delicate, soft and slightly sad, very similar to human singing, so it is called the human voice. Heaven, earth, and people complement each other, reflect each other, and complement each other, creating a rich musical and artistic expression platform for the guqin. "High Mountain", "Flowing Water", "Three Lanes of Plum Blossoms", "Goose Falling on the Flat Sand", "Three Layers of Yangguan", "Drunken Madness", "Guanshan Moon" and other more than 3,000 long and beautiful ancient songs and a large number of Documents about qin players, qin theory, qin making, and qin art have left a rare cultural heritage for future generations.
The guqin is mentioned many times in the "Book of Songs", my country's earliest collection of poetry. "The chair is made of Tongzi lacquer, and the love is played on the piano and harp." "With the piano and harp at your disposal, it's best to be quiet." In "Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals? Original Flavor Pian", it is described that Boya, a famous qin player in the Chu State during the Spring and Autumn Period, described "high mountains and flowing water". After hearing this, Zhong Ziqi sighed with emotion: "The towering ones are aspiring to the mountains, and the oceans are aspiring to the flowing water." ." From then on, the two became close friends. Confucius in the late Spring and Autumn Period was a thinker, educator, and musician. Not only could he play the guqin, he was also very skilled. He once learned to play "Wen Wang Cao" from Shi Xiang, and he could perfectly express the content of the music and had amazing appreciation ability. Among the "six arts" he taught, "music" included playing the piano and reciting poems. He also composed "Huolin Cao", "Yilan Cao" and other piano music. Sima Xiangru, a great writer in the Western Han Dynasty, once played and sang "Phoenix Seeking the Phoenix" for Zhuo Wenjun, thus creating a happy marriage, which was passed down as a good story by later generations. Cai Yong of the Eastern Han Dynasty was not only a master of piano playing, a famous composer, but also a master of piano making. According to the "Book of the Later Han? Biography of Cai Yong": When Cai Yong was in Wudi, one time his neighbor's house burned firewood for cooking. He heard the crisp crackling sound of firewood in the fire. He knew it was good wood and immediately asked his neighbor for it. When the instrument was made, the sound was indeed beautiful. Because the tail of the instrument still had scorch marks, it was called the "scorched tail instrument". This qin is known as the four famous qin in ancient China, together with Duke Huan of Qi's "Hao Zhong", Chu Zhuang Gong's "Rao Liang" and Sima Xiangru's "Green Qi". Ji Kang, a qin player in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, ranked first among the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest". He was erudite, admired Laozi and Zhuangzi, was quite accomplished in music, and politically despised corrupt regimes. He was later killed by the Sima family. Before his execution, he calmly played "Guangling San" to express his resentment and injustice. It can be said that there are countless legends, historical facts and literary works about the guqin.
In addition, the guqin is also a handicraft. The body of the guqin is painted (i.e. lacquered) made of fine wood (the top is usually made of sycamore or fir, and the bottom is usually made of fir or catalpa). ) is coated with a layer of black and shiny lacquer, and the lacquer is also mixed with antler gray and Babao gray (gold powder is crushed and mixed with precious jade such as malachite, agate, and jade). The thirteen emblems are made of mother-of-pearl, jade, gold, silver and other textures. The tuning instruments are also made of wood, ivory, horn, jade and other materials. The silk tassels add a bit of beauty to the guqin. The piano bag is made of elegant and luxurious silk and satin, and some pianos are also packed with piano boxes made of precious woods such as red sandalwood or huanghuali. There are also exquisite carvings inside and outside the piano boxes. Due to the exquisite craftsmanship and beautiful sound of the guqin, the owners of the guqin often regard the guqin as a treasure and name the guqin according to its characteristics, timbre, etc., along with verses praising the qin, engraved on the bottom plate of the qin.
The famous Tang Dynasty Qin "Jiuxiao Huanpei" now collected in the Palace Museum is in the Fuxi style, with poems and inscriptions engraved on the bottom plate. The seal script "Jiuxiao Huanpei" is engraved above the dragon pond. , the seal script engraved below the dragon pond "contains" one side of the big seal, and below it is a poem by Su Dongpo: "The gentle spring breeze, the ring of sound, the new Yan language hanging on the curtain, the old dragon chanting across the sea. Su Shi's twenty-three words" . On the left side of the dragon pond are engraved the ten characters "Chaoji Cangxiao, Xiaoyao Taiji. Tingjian", and on the right side are the ten characters "Lingran Xi Taikoo, Shimengzhai Collection" and "Shimengzhai Seal". A small oval seal in regular script "Three Tang Dynasties Qinxie" is engraved above the marsh, and a small seal in seal script "Chu Yuan Zangqin" is engraved below the marsh. On the left side of the belly of the piano, there are seven characters in regular script engraved on the left side of the sound, "Kaiyuan Guichou three years ago". This Qin is said to have been made by Lei Xiao of Western Shu during the Tang Dynasty.
There are many styles of guqin. "Taikou Yiyin" (a Song copy) compiled by Tian Zhiweng of the Southern Song Dynasty is the earliest qin theory monograph in my country that contains guqin styles. There are thirty-eight styles of guqin on it: Shennong, Fuxi, Lingji, Xiangquan, Fengshi, Lianzhu, Zhongni, Liezi, Lingguan, Shikuang, Luoxia and other Qin styles, the most common are Zhongni, Fuxi, Lianzhu, Luoxia, Jiaoye and other styles. The name of the piano style mostly comes from the name of the inventor, myths and legends, historical allusions or objects in nature. Each name has its own specific meaning.
There is a thick volume of poems, lyrics, songs, and poems written specifically for the guqin by literati in the past dynasties. Li Bai, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, once wrote a poem: "Waving your hand for me is like listening to thousands of pines."
In the piano, there are sky, earth, and people; there are years, months, and suns; there are mountains and water; there are dragons and phoenixes; there are Beichen, the Five Elements, and so on. It is really like a small universe. It has gone through many vicissitudes and remains simple and unpretentious, full of charm but not ostentatious. It tells the world the long history of the Chinese nation with its own charm and reveals the deep and simple hearts of the Chinese people.
2. How to learn Guqin well
"How to learn Guqin well?" is a very common question that is worthy of discussion. There may be different views on this issue among qin players, but as an instrument, guqin is the same as erhu, pipa, piano, and violin. The learning process is from easy to difficult, from easy to difficult, and from easy to difficult. From entry to advanced studies, the rules and processes should be the same.
When opening the fingers at the beginning of playing Man, the player should master the more correct playing methods and understand the basic principles of finger movement. Through practice, you will understand and master the rules. Players can practice carefully under the guidance of teachers to make the method correct, the ability to move freely, the tone to be mellow and appropriately changed, and the posture to be stretched, generous, beautiful and natural. In fact, paying attention to basic fingering and correct fingering are the same requirements for playing all musical instruments, including the guqin. Many piano masters list "Xian Weng Cao", "Autumn Wind Ci" and other small pieces as opening music in their teaching, because these pieces of music themselves have the nature and function of etudes. Some individual piano students have to learn a certain large or medium-sized piece of music from the beginning. Their mood for learning is understandable, but it is by no means the best idea. When you are just starting to learn fingering, not only is there no need to learn difficult and well-known classic music, but you should also not be too hasty and eager to "make progress" when playing "etudes". Because only by mastering the correct and solid basic skills can we have the basic guarantee for improvement and further study. It can be seen that the initial "finger opening" teaching is a very important lesson.
When practicing a regular piece of music, you also need targeted practice procedures. Because the basic skills training of etudes cannot include all the technical skills training, not to mention the performance technology and skills are also constantly developing. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out targeted exercises that grasp key highlights.
Finally, through meticulous processing, the thoughts and feelings of the music are expressed through performance, and the shaping of the artistic image is completed.
The specific methods of practicing piano are as follows:
(1) During the process of practicing piano, you should always keep your whole body relaxed and your mind calm. To master the fingering technique, you can work hard and do not have to be impatient and coercive. It is necessary to allow for the process of going from inexperienced to meeting, from raw to mature, from shallow to deep. Even allow the process to take longer so that haste is not waste. If you feel pain when pressing strings with your left ring finger when you first learn, you should stop and practice again after a while to avoid blisters, let alone break them. If blisters have formed, stop practicing until the blisters are gone before you can practice again. If your finger is bruised, you must wait until it is completely healed before you can practice again. If your arms, fingers, and wrists feel sore or tired, it is caused by incorrect method and local tension. You should stop and move immediately, relax and practice again. When practicing kneeling fingers, you can just make a "kneeling" movement on the strings at the beginning without actually pressing the strings. After a few days, when the part where you press the strings gradually becomes less painful, you can then gradually increase the intensity and start playing the strings officially.
(2) Time should be allocated for practice every day, rather than stopping for multiple days at a time or practicing for several hours at a time. The effectiveness of a few hours at a time cannot replace the effectiveness of an hour a day.
(5) The requirement for the left hand to press the strings is that when the notes are pressed truly, the force should be as small as possible, so small that if the note is made any smaller, it will be muted. It is difficult for beginners to do it, but they should always pay attention to it to feel the relaxation and saving of force. This saving is also for the flexible use of the left hand.
When practicing pressing notes and moving your fingers left and right, keep the intensity neither increasing nor decreasing. Moreover, you should practice at a slow speed, see the phonemes first, and then move your fingers to them. You should not repeat blindly, casually, or ineffectively.
(6) When practicing, you should try to understand and examine the phrases in piano music or even etudes, and clearly divide the sounds into groups. Memorize the music and practice while looking at your left hand. It will be more effective to practice the sounds, phrases, and sections in the music cumulatively from small to large, and from parts to the whole. During practice, you should also observe whether both hands are correct and whether they are tense. To correctly pronounce groups of sounds, sentences one by one. Moreover, each sentence or each group of sounds needs to be repeated many times to be practiced well. It is also necessary to practice the whole song from beginning to end without pausing in the middle. Only then can it be conducive to true mastery. When practicing the piano, you should sing the melody silently in your mind, and use the melody in your heart to control and master the playing movements of your hands.
(7) When listening to the recording, it is best to sing along, at least silently in your mind, and tap each time with your hands or feet. It is necessary for beginners to use their feet to hit each beat like this when playing the piano. But as the level of playing improves, this time-tapping movement needs to be eliminated. There is a feeling of beat after beat and beat after beat, which can be used as the basis and scale of the music's rhythm.
(8) After you can play the next piece of music from memory completely, you can use a tape recorder to record your performance and listen to it objectively and repeatedly. This will help you to clearly identify problems, which will help you focus on practicing to overcome problems. The place. It would be better if you could record yourself and review yourself objectively.
(9) Imitation is an effective method when learning. When you have become more proficient in playing a piece of music from memory, you can adjust the strings to the same pitch as the music in the recording material provided by the teacher and play along with the recording. In the past, many people used to teach piano playing method, which is this. A method based on imitation.
3. Don’ts and taboos when playing the piano
When playing, not only the shape and movement of the five senses and limbs must be regulated to a certain extent, but also the spirit, thoughts and breathing must not be loose and rough, in order to achieve the wonderful state, especially When you first learn, you must first lay a solid foundation and practice proficiently, so as not to become a habit and difficult to change over time. The ancients had many rules and regulations here. Hereby we will list what is appropriate and what is taboo, and select the most important ones. Scholars must always reflect on themselves and pay attention to corrections, and then they will naturally obey.
Basic knowledge of guqin
(1) The spirit must be calm, the body must be upright, and must not be impetuous and crooked.
(2) Thoughts should be pure, feelings should be focused, and should not be disorganized.
(3) Breathing should be even and even, visual and auditory should be focused, and should not be rough and indulgent.
(4) Finger movements should be simple and quiet, not complicated, and the fingernails and flesh should be used in conjunction with each other. Too many nails will make the sound burnt, and too much flesh will make the sound muddy. If you use both, the sound will be natural, clear, moist and exciting. .
(5) The force of both hands should not be felt, and should not be excessive. It should be light but not floating, and important but not rough.
(6) When pressing the string with your thumb, do not pinch it with your index finger to make a circle to help with force, and do not open the tiger's mouth.
(7) When pressing the strings with the ring finger, the end of the finger should be protruding and should not be sunken. A sunken finger is called a broken finger and cannot be pressed firmly. You can't press your middle finger on it to help apply force.
(8) When playing strings with the index finger, although the thumb finger can touch the string, it should not be pinched tightly to avoid affecting the force exerted by the index finger.
(9) The position of the left and right fingers should be elegant and beautiful. The fingers of the left hand should not be stuck to the string, and the fingers of the right hand should not make a fist and lean against the edge. Although the little fingers of both hands are not allowed to be used, they should be straightened. Unbendable.
(10) Although the posture should be serious, it should not be extremely nervous, with eyes open and mouth open. Although the movements should be lively, they should not be slick and flattering.
4. The choice of a new guqin
People who play the guqin are different from those who only collect them. They must first buy a usable guqin. Especially if the newly made Guqin cannot be used, it is the biggest regret for the piano player. So what are the minimum conditions for a usable piano?
(1) First of all, the strings must be able to be pointed down, which means that the strings should not be too high from the surface of the piano. Too high is called finger resistance. , which will affect the way you play the piano and even tire your fingers. Generally speaking, based on the position of Qi Hui, the distance between the strings and the surface of the piano should be 0.5 cm. If it is too low, it will easily produce a bad sound (or sand sound), and the open strings may slap the piano surface. For Yueshan, it is most ideal if the instrument is 1.5 centimeters high and the instrument is not resistant to fingers. Some pianos have a downward curve in the middle, commonly known as a bent waist. Such pianos also need to be resistant to fingering (on the contrary, if the back is arched, there will be problems such as damped strings and sandy sounds).
(2) The surface of the piano should not be too flat. If it is too flat, it will not be difficult for the left hand to press the seventh string, but it will be difficult to press the first, second, third and fourth strings at or above the seventh emblem. The flatness of the piano surface means that the curvature of the string path between the first string and the seventh string is too small. Some pianos are almost flat on the string path at the fourth and fifth emblems, so such instruments cannot be used. Although some pianos are flat, this problem can still be ignored because the arcs on both sides outside the strings are very large, or they are only flat above the four emblems.
(3) The string distance should not be too wide or too narrow. The width of the string pitch refers to the distance between the strings at the top of the mountain. Some pianos have a very narrow distance between the two strings due to insufficient materials, which can cause the player's fingers to become rigid and flat.
If it is too wide, it will be difficult to control. It should be 1.7 centimeters. Most ancient pianos have similar string spacing. The playing habits developed in this way can be adapted to the piano encountered in most situations. The distance between the strings at the end of the piano is 3.5 centimeters, which is common and appropriate between the first string and the seventh string.
(4) The effective string length of the qin refers to the length from Mount Yue to Dragon Gum at the tail, with 110cm to 111cm being the normal length. If the string is shorter than 108 centimeters, the string will be too loose, have insufficient tension, and will not vibrate enough, and will not be able to produce the desired sound quality and volume. If the string is longer than the above index, the pitch will be difficult to meet the standard requirements (even if the pitch reaches the standard, it may be difficult to finger or the string may break easily).
(5) The piano surface should be smooth. Some piano surfaces are not finely made. In addition to the uneven and smooth paint, there are also uneven surfaces, which will produce a scratchy sound (or sandy sound). When selecting, you can slowly deflect the piano surface back, forth, left, and right towards the light. If the piano surface reflects light, any unevenness will be clearly visible. If you pluck the strings there and move your left hand left and right, there may be a sand sound. If there is no sand sound, it can be ignored.