Guqin

I had this great opportunity to talk with this person who is so passionate and knowledgeable about Asian music. He also has a guqin, and he was super nice to teach me how to play and let me try it.

This was such a great experience because things are so different from koto. The string was silk, so it creates whole different sound. I can understand that this was more intimate, private music rather than sort of "performing art." It doesn't have bridges nor pics. So my fingers touch the strings and the body of the instrument directly. This made me feel closer and more intimate relationship with the instrument, which we are losing with the development of technology.

Technique is different. I used whole different finger muscles and parts. Of course this means that there are different sounds and effects. Sometimes this actually reminded me of Shamisen technique because these techniques are about fingers, strings and the instrument body, which is the same as Shamisen.

This instrument has scores from old times. this is

Anyways this was a whole new learning and sensation that I enjoyed a lot.