Eastern sacred music is often based on perfect cycles which repeat indefinitely though usually additive (5+3) and not usually divided in half as in (4+4).One article I read said that if one were allowed to make sweeping generalizations, the eastern position comes from a fear of foreign people and ideas or at least negative spiritual influences and a willfull denial of the death of the individual personality wishing it to continue after the death of the body in some imagined magical relationship with geometric perfection. About 1/4 of westerners explored the world in the age of exploration and seem to embrace the alien other/foreign neighbor and ideas or at least are willing to entertain them and therefore must deal with both the positive and negative aspects of admitting the enemy.
However, not all eastern music or easterns fit this generalization and neither do westerners. As if a fine line could ever be drawn. Another point was that symmetry in art and music usually comes only after the establishment of city states. The Mongolian shaman riding on horseback playing his spike fiddle took his aesthetic from the natural environment unconsciously.
Trees, mountains and rocks are not perfectly symmetrical and neither was his musical form. I imagine the Nomadic aesthetic of musicians in the deserts of Africa and Arabia are assymetrical as well.This is also related to Japanese music which was purposefully/consciously assymetrical. This was desirable to Zen Buddhists (those that didn't denounce music entirely) because the surprising changes caused by extreme assymetry represented egolessness to them.
แสดงบทความที่มีป้ายกำกับ Japanese music แสดงบทความทั้งหมด
แสดงบทความที่มีป้ายกำกับ Japanese music แสดงบทความทั้งหมด
วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 9 กรกฎาคม พ.ศ. 2552
On the History of Ethnomusicology through Leading Ethnomusicologists
I seek to answer the question how is the history of ethnomusicology revealed through the progression of famous leading ethnomusicologists. The history of ethnomusicology is problematic because writers on the subject have come from many different places and studied a wide variety of musics and cultures.
The answer to the question of how the history of ethnomusicology is revealed through leading ethnomusicologists is found by looking at changes in the works published by them. This article will use texts published from the beginning of ethnomusicology up to the present.
It is the author of the book Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology, Nettl, on whose shoulders I build my case. The texts specifically to be cited are;
Verschmetzung, tonal fusion, and consonance: Carl Stumpf revisited by Schneider A et al, The Wellsprings of Music by Curt Sachs, Readings in Ethnomusicology, Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology by Bruno Nettl, John Blacking by Suzel Ana Reily et al, Folklorist Alan Lomax's Trove Goes to Library by Linton Weeks, Charles Seeger: a life in American music by Ann M. Pescatello, America's Popular Music Traditions as "Canon-Fodder by Sammie Ann Wicks, Scholarly Authority by Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, and Sound Archive Newsletter by Isobel Clouter.
Ethnomusicologists can be categorized as being early, middle or late.
Early:
A.J. Ellis promulgated the idea of cents and considered to be a founder of ethnomusicology. He looked at the relationship between pitch to speech and song.
Stumpf 1 created the idea of Verschmelzung which is related to but not identical with modern views of tonal fusion. Stumpf also created criteria for integral hearing. Stumpf also held the idea that roughness and dissonance can be conceptualized separately.
The most important early ethnomusicologist, Hornbostel, only wrote a series of publications never attempting to compile everything into one source. Many of his publications were co-authored, most often with Otto Abraham. He wrote studies on the music of Japan, Turkey, India, North America, New Guinea, Sumatra, Africa, Tierra del Fuego and more. He also coauthored a classification of musical instruments that is still used.
Curt Sachs created a few items giving overviews and were important because they were in English and understandable to the average reader as well. He expounds an evolutionary orientation early in his career but later that tendency is somewhat mitigated.
Also, early in his career he held the idea that people’s racial attributes are reflected in their music. He created an encyclopedic list of instruments and worked with Hornbostel on a classification of musical instruments in 1914. Concerning his evolutionary orientation even as late as 1962 he writes, 2 "The prehistorian works in a vertical way:
he excavates the tombs and fireplaces of ages long past-the deeper they lie the older they are. By and large they divide the older parts of pre-history into three Stone Ages. The Older Stone Age or Paleolithic and the Newer Stone Age or Neolithic Era, with a connecting Middle Stone Age or Mesolithic Era."
Concerning his idea of radial attributes, he had this to say in 1962 as well, "Most suspicious are we of the slippery and often criminally exploited concept of 'race,' in which biologically transmitted genes are all the time confused with environmental culture...
All these concepts will be rarely found in this book-not from want of daring on the author's part, but from a hard-won insight into the unbelievably complicated and treacherous web of ever-changing cultures, tribal nomadism, and unidentifiable mergers of patterns. Besides, musicologists, as spokesmen of a small, however significant component of culture, can at best be expert witnesses in this lingering lawsuit but hardly judges or jurors."
Bose's works deal with vocal technique, melody, scale and style. He theorizes about the difference between instrumental and vocal style and the connection between a culture's music theory, if it has one, with purely instrumental styles of music, the connection between music and language and what the determining factors are in establishing the existence of a unique style.
Robert Lachman studied the high cultures of the Orient through the observation that they all contained melodic skeletons.
Haydon wrote an introduction to musicology in 1941, a portion of which looks at methods, weaknesses and discrepancies between the different parts of musicology.
Marius Schneider views the creation of world music as a unitary development. He deals with both the function of music within a society's cultural expression and with a musics form.
Danckt of the German Kulturkreis school within anthropology compiled information on European folk songs based on national boundaries.
Herzog wrote an important short overview of European and American folk music. One can see his concern for the American Indian music when he writes, 3 "An inquiry into the relation and stability of musical form and function finds in the Ghost Dance songs of the Plains Indians an excellent example for study."
Middle:
Nettl initially engaged the field by writing about melody, rhythm and form and focused on North America and Africa but also delved in other geographical regions. For example, Nettle says about the scales and melodies of Persia, 4
"The music is organized in twelve modes, called dastgahs (conceptually similar to the Indian raga), each of which is subdivided into sections, or gushehs." He also states of Persian rhythm, “Thus, the increased importance of instrumental metric pieces results not only from the importance of meter in Western music, but also from the convenience of metric structure in the performance of music by ensembles.
" Finally he relates this sentence concerning aspects of form in Persian music, "Dynamics are fairly static, virtuoso technique is restricted, emotion is veiled."
Alan Merriam is known for pushing the study of music from the point of view of anthropology, specifically music within culture broken up into concepts about music, musical behaviors, and the sound of music itself. Later, he changed his idea to music "as" culture opposing the notions of Mantle Hood.
John Blacking 5 came up with the idea of the cultural analysis of music where he attempted to reveal that musical structures are reflected in the societal structures where they come from, as well as the innate musical abilities possessed by people.
Alan Lomax developed a theory that looked at a cultures style of work, the surrounding environment and the amount of sexual and social freedoms in attempting to show how different kinds of folk singing sprout in certain places. 6 Lomax came up with the theory of Canto metrics that attempted to compartmentalize qualities such as tones, beats, and phrases, a concept he also used on dance and storytelling.
Charles Seeger 7 was known for saying that an ethnomusicologist should consider the context of the music integrally with the music itself, regardless of what music it is but that this should be the definition of general musicology and why he considers himself a musicologist.
He is also known for anticipating the anthropological and folklorical approaches regarding music especially folk music and himself espousing functionalism over structuralism.
Late:
David McAllester is known for saying that 8 "Almost any line of human behavior is crossed at some point by music, [and] a discussion of music ... can move ... to almost any other area of cultural investigation" after which ethnomusicologists began to focus on the context of the music as much as its structure.
Leonard B. Meyer proposed that there was a relationship between Game theory and music composition.
Kwabena Nketia changed from duple meter to 6/8 when transcribing African music because the former was inaccurate. His concepts and assessment of tactus and rhythm are revolutionary. He also put forth 9 "The claim of superior scholarship or scholarly authority made in the early days by some of my colleagues and the assumption that greater objectivity resides in the outsider who studies the musical cultures of other people did not always impress me..."
Laurence Picken developed a theory that 10 "relates to Gagaku music in Japan, which he believed was a direct descendent of the music of the Tang court taught to Japanese musicians visiting the court during the Tang period.
This music was then performed to the Japanese court and over time it developed into a unique form now known as gagaku. "In the course of centuries, the real Tang tunes have become inaudible. In present Togaku they are played 8 to 16 times more slowly than in the original performances."
Willard Rhodes 8 "one of ethnomusicology's founding scholars, wrote in 1956 that ethnomusicology should focus on the 'music of the world's peoples ... whose language, music, and customs [are] different from those of our own.'"
Among the most important ethnomusicologists there are mainstream but opposed tendencies within the field of which 6 primary schools are assumed. The first is that enough understanding exists to justify making theorhetical generalizations. The second is that enough understanding does not exist.
The third is that ethnomusicology needs to be and can be defined. The fourth is that it can't be defined. The fifth is that analysis leads to understanding and the sixth is that music can only be understood on its own terms.
The answer to the question of how the history of ethnomusicology is revealed through leading ethnomusicologists is found by looking at changes in the works published by them. This article will use texts published from the beginning of ethnomusicology up to the present.
It is the author of the book Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology, Nettl, on whose shoulders I build my case. The texts specifically to be cited are;
Verschmetzung, tonal fusion, and consonance: Carl Stumpf revisited by Schneider A et al, The Wellsprings of Music by Curt Sachs, Readings in Ethnomusicology, Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology by Bruno Nettl, John Blacking by Suzel Ana Reily et al, Folklorist Alan Lomax's Trove Goes to Library by Linton Weeks, Charles Seeger: a life in American music by Ann M. Pescatello, America's Popular Music Traditions as "Canon-Fodder by Sammie Ann Wicks, Scholarly Authority by Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, and Sound Archive Newsletter by Isobel Clouter.
Ethnomusicologists can be categorized as being early, middle or late.
Early:
A.J. Ellis promulgated the idea of cents and considered to be a founder of ethnomusicology. He looked at the relationship between pitch to speech and song.
Stumpf 1 created the idea of Verschmelzung which is related to but not identical with modern views of tonal fusion. Stumpf also created criteria for integral hearing. Stumpf also held the idea that roughness and dissonance can be conceptualized separately.
The most important early ethnomusicologist, Hornbostel, only wrote a series of publications never attempting to compile everything into one source. Many of his publications were co-authored, most often with Otto Abraham. He wrote studies on the music of Japan, Turkey, India, North America, New Guinea, Sumatra, Africa, Tierra del Fuego and more. He also coauthored a classification of musical instruments that is still used.
Curt Sachs created a few items giving overviews and were important because they were in English and understandable to the average reader as well. He expounds an evolutionary orientation early in his career but later that tendency is somewhat mitigated.
Also, early in his career he held the idea that people’s racial attributes are reflected in their music. He created an encyclopedic list of instruments and worked with Hornbostel on a classification of musical instruments in 1914. Concerning his evolutionary orientation even as late as 1962 he writes, 2 "The prehistorian works in a vertical way:
he excavates the tombs and fireplaces of ages long past-the deeper they lie the older they are. By and large they divide the older parts of pre-history into three Stone Ages. The Older Stone Age or Paleolithic and the Newer Stone Age or Neolithic Era, with a connecting Middle Stone Age or Mesolithic Era."
Concerning his idea of radial attributes, he had this to say in 1962 as well, "Most suspicious are we of the slippery and often criminally exploited concept of 'race,' in which biologically transmitted genes are all the time confused with environmental culture...
All these concepts will be rarely found in this book-not from want of daring on the author's part, but from a hard-won insight into the unbelievably complicated and treacherous web of ever-changing cultures, tribal nomadism, and unidentifiable mergers of patterns. Besides, musicologists, as spokesmen of a small, however significant component of culture, can at best be expert witnesses in this lingering lawsuit but hardly judges or jurors."
Bose's works deal with vocal technique, melody, scale and style. He theorizes about the difference between instrumental and vocal style and the connection between a culture's music theory, if it has one, with purely instrumental styles of music, the connection between music and language and what the determining factors are in establishing the existence of a unique style.
Robert Lachman studied the high cultures of the Orient through the observation that they all contained melodic skeletons.
Haydon wrote an introduction to musicology in 1941, a portion of which looks at methods, weaknesses and discrepancies between the different parts of musicology.
Marius Schneider views the creation of world music as a unitary development. He deals with both the function of music within a society's cultural expression and with a musics form.
Danckt of the German Kulturkreis school within anthropology compiled information on European folk songs based on national boundaries.
Herzog wrote an important short overview of European and American folk music. One can see his concern for the American Indian music when he writes, 3 "An inquiry into the relation and stability of musical form and function finds in the Ghost Dance songs of the Plains Indians an excellent example for study."
Middle:
Nettl initially engaged the field by writing about melody, rhythm and form and focused on North America and Africa but also delved in other geographical regions. For example, Nettle says about the scales and melodies of Persia, 4
"The music is organized in twelve modes, called dastgahs (conceptually similar to the Indian raga), each of which is subdivided into sections, or gushehs." He also states of Persian rhythm, “Thus, the increased importance of instrumental metric pieces results not only from the importance of meter in Western music, but also from the convenience of metric structure in the performance of music by ensembles.
" Finally he relates this sentence concerning aspects of form in Persian music, "Dynamics are fairly static, virtuoso technique is restricted, emotion is veiled."
Alan Merriam is known for pushing the study of music from the point of view of anthropology, specifically music within culture broken up into concepts about music, musical behaviors, and the sound of music itself. Later, he changed his idea to music "as" culture opposing the notions of Mantle Hood.
John Blacking 5 came up with the idea of the cultural analysis of music where he attempted to reveal that musical structures are reflected in the societal structures where they come from, as well as the innate musical abilities possessed by people.
Alan Lomax developed a theory that looked at a cultures style of work, the surrounding environment and the amount of sexual and social freedoms in attempting to show how different kinds of folk singing sprout in certain places. 6 Lomax came up with the theory of Canto metrics that attempted to compartmentalize qualities such as tones, beats, and phrases, a concept he also used on dance and storytelling.
Charles Seeger 7 was known for saying that an ethnomusicologist should consider the context of the music integrally with the music itself, regardless of what music it is but that this should be the definition of general musicology and why he considers himself a musicologist.
He is also known for anticipating the anthropological and folklorical approaches regarding music especially folk music and himself espousing functionalism over structuralism.
Late:
David McAllester is known for saying that 8 "Almost any line of human behavior is crossed at some point by music, [and] a discussion of music ... can move ... to almost any other area of cultural investigation" after which ethnomusicologists began to focus on the context of the music as much as its structure.
Leonard B. Meyer proposed that there was a relationship between Game theory and music composition.
Kwabena Nketia changed from duple meter to 6/8 when transcribing African music because the former was inaccurate. His concepts and assessment of tactus and rhythm are revolutionary. He also put forth 9 "The claim of superior scholarship or scholarly authority made in the early days by some of my colleagues and the assumption that greater objectivity resides in the outsider who studies the musical cultures of other people did not always impress me..."
Laurence Picken developed a theory that 10 "relates to Gagaku music in Japan, which he believed was a direct descendent of the music of the Tang court taught to Japanese musicians visiting the court during the Tang period.
This music was then performed to the Japanese court and over time it developed into a unique form now known as gagaku. "In the course of centuries, the real Tang tunes have become inaudible. In present Togaku they are played 8 to 16 times more slowly than in the original performances."
Willard Rhodes 8 "one of ethnomusicology's founding scholars, wrote in 1956 that ethnomusicology should focus on the 'music of the world's peoples ... whose language, music, and customs [are] different from those of our own.'"
Among the most important ethnomusicologists there are mainstream but opposed tendencies within the field of which 6 primary schools are assumed. The first is that enough understanding exists to justify making theorhetical generalizations. The second is that enough understanding does not exist.
The third is that ethnomusicology needs to be and can be defined. The fourth is that it can't be defined. The fifth is that analysis leads to understanding and the sixth is that music can only be understood on its own terms.
Japanese Gagaku Court Music
If you're thinking you would really hate Japanese Gagaku music and that you've never heard it before, think again. Ever hear that beautiful Shakuhachi flute music played by Samurai warriors and Buddhist monks? Its part of the same tradition. What could be cooler than that? It also sometimes has the beautiful silk stringed zither known as koto.
The scales of Japanese Gagaku court music are derived from building blocks known as fourth chords. Similar to tetra chords, they are not really chords at all but an interval relationship between scale steps. The difference between a fourth chord and a tetra chord is that the fourth chord is usually in the interval of a fourth and there are commonly only three notes contained within it, not four. So, the possible fourth chord combinations where the lower tetrachord usually goes would be CDbF, CDF, CEbF, CEF. The upper fourth chord may be conjunct or disjunct. This means that the upper tetrachord may start adjacent to the last scale step which is F, so the upper fourth chord would start on F#.
The possible combinations in that case would be F#GB, F#G#B, F#AB, F#A#B.
The disjunct tetra chord would start on G not F# in which case we have GAbC, GAC, GBbC, GBC.
There is a decided preference for the interval of a fourth and tritone in Japanese music. The fifth not being nearly as important as it is in western and India's music.
The other feature is that the other notes not spelled out in the scale may still be used as grace notes, passing tones or embellishments and there may be changing tones similar to the different forms of the ascending and descending melodic minor scale in western music or the different forms of the raga in India's music. This often creates a feeling of bitonality in traditional Japanese music.
Bitonality isn't completely off the map in popular music practice. Its right on the fringes which is where I am and like to be. I"ve read that Dionne Warwick's composer, I can't rememer his name, uses bitonality on several songs which made the charts so don't just write it off as irrelevant to what you are doing automatically.
Bitonality is an exciting arena which has not been explored fully in the popular music genre.
Also, if the scale does not have the fifth, G, the koto player may still play it anyway as part of a drone or "chord." My Indian vocalist tells me that even though a raga does not have a Perfect fifth the tamboura drone will still play it because it would be strongly present in the overtone series of the fundamental anyway. Japaese musicians are probably thinking along the same lines.
Another point is that the reed mouth organ, which can only be described as a globular clay/bamboo harmonica, usually plays the notes of the fourth chord/scales. The lowest note usually being the melody. The music does not have a chord progression since it only keeps playing the same chord only the lowest note usually changes to match the melody.
Japanese Gagaku music is the oldest continuously existing ensemble tradition in the world. They must be doing something right.
The scales of Japanese Gagaku court music are derived from building blocks known as fourth chords. Similar to tetra chords, they are not really chords at all but an interval relationship between scale steps. The difference between a fourth chord and a tetra chord is that the fourth chord is usually in the interval of a fourth and there are commonly only three notes contained within it, not four. So, the possible fourth chord combinations where the lower tetrachord usually goes would be CDbF, CDF, CEbF, CEF. The upper fourth chord may be conjunct or disjunct. This means that the upper tetrachord may start adjacent to the last scale step which is F, so the upper fourth chord would start on F#.
The possible combinations in that case would be F#GB, F#G#B, F#AB, F#A#B.
The disjunct tetra chord would start on G not F# in which case we have GAbC, GAC, GBbC, GBC.
There is a decided preference for the interval of a fourth and tritone in Japanese music. The fifth not being nearly as important as it is in western and India's music.
The other feature is that the other notes not spelled out in the scale may still be used as grace notes, passing tones or embellishments and there may be changing tones similar to the different forms of the ascending and descending melodic minor scale in western music or the different forms of the raga in India's music. This often creates a feeling of bitonality in traditional Japanese music.
Bitonality isn't completely off the map in popular music practice. Its right on the fringes which is where I am and like to be. I"ve read that Dionne Warwick's composer, I can't rememer his name, uses bitonality on several songs which made the charts so don't just write it off as irrelevant to what you are doing automatically.
Bitonality is an exciting arena which has not been explored fully in the popular music genre.
Also, if the scale does not have the fifth, G, the koto player may still play it anyway as part of a drone or "chord." My Indian vocalist tells me that even though a raga does not have a Perfect fifth the tamboura drone will still play it because it would be strongly present in the overtone series of the fundamental anyway. Japaese musicians are probably thinking along the same lines.
Another point is that the reed mouth organ, which can only be described as a globular clay/bamboo harmonica, usually plays the notes of the fourth chord/scales. The lowest note usually being the melody. The music does not have a chord progression since it only keeps playing the same chord only the lowest note usually changes to match the melody.
Japanese Gagaku music is the oldest continuously existing ensemble tradition in the world. They must be doing something right.
Buddhist Melody
Music of the Buddhist world, especially Japan and also Native American music, often has a descending melodic line (not an ascending one that ends higher than it began with a climax 3/4 of the way through like western music does). In the Buddhist world, many times, scales are practiced in the descending direction unlike in the west where we practice everything ascending first. In the west, which was highly influenced by Christianity, we place hell in the center of the earth and heaven in the sky. Consequently we denegrate the earth and our bodies with its attendant sexuality and are trying to escape toward the intellectual spheres of heaven. This also relates to dance. Native American dance often have dancers crouched lower to the ground but in a comfortable way that will allow everyone to participate at a public pow wow. However, in Ballet people contort their bodies in a way that can damage it permanently such as walking around on their toes and they jump into the air in ways that only virtuosos can perfect in an attempt to escape the bonds of earth where only the wealthiest can attend. This perpetuates the idea that heaven is a very exclusive country club. Much of this has resulted from the fact Greek translators of the early biblical texts didn't know what they were doing. They projected their philosophical idea that spirit is separate from matter onto their translations. This was not an idea which the early jews ever had. In fact quite the opposite.
Guzheng Instruction
Guzheng is a Chinese Zither that lead to the development of both the Japanese Koto and Korean Kayageum among others
Body Position:
You may sit cross leged on the floor with the end block resting on your right knee/thigh with the Guzheng extending toward your left if you're right handed. The other possibility is to sit in a chair and to place the Guzheng on a table which is low enough so that your arms don't have to reach down too far in order play it or force you to extend your arms too far directly out in front of you. You should be able to reach the lowest sounding string on the opposite side of the instrument without leaning your torso in order to access it.
Tuning:
The lowest sounding string is usually tuned to a C and the next string after that is usually tuned a fourth up to an F. The next subsequent string is most often tuned to a G. These three strings can be considered the bass strings. They are using the notes which correspond to the I, IV and V chords in western music and various patterns of alternating between them will produce "progressions" related to western blues and popular music. This is just a coincidence though because traditionally Chinese, Japanese and Korean music were not conceived as utilizing chord progressions per se. Chinese and Korean music in particular, traditionally have no instrument that plays in the bass register. These "bass" notes on the Guzheng also correspond to the drone in Styles of Traditional Indian Music most often played by the Tamboura. Anyway, the remaining strings can be tuned to various scales, the most common Chinese one being CDFGA and it's modes such as : CDFGBb, CEbFGA, CEbFGBb. Japan has an elaborate tuning system using fourth chords which can be found in one of my other articles and Korea usually follows the Chinese example. If you're fortunate enough to have a children's Guzheng then it will probably have guitar type tuning pegs. Most people don't have children's instruments in which case you have to grab the string with one hand and pull on it firmly enough so that the loop can be loosened and pulled tight again with the other hand. This takes a bit of practice but isn't too difficult to accomplish with persistence. Fine tuning is then accomplished by adjusting the moveable bridges located somewhere along the length of the string underneath them.
Hand Position;
The blade on the side of the right palm is placed resting where the stationary bridge meets the sound board. The fingers are inserted between the strings so that much of the pad of the last phallange of the finger is grabbing the string. This is a bit different from guitar. If you were a guitarist before picking up the Guzheng, you will have a habit of not plucking the string with enough of your finger and having a thin tone as a result. To work on being more ambidextrous, it's possible to pluck out bass lines on the 4 low sounding strings usually with the left hand. The right hand may also be suspended above the strings especially when trying to get a warmer tone by playing farther up the strings away from the bridge. You can get more control if you plant all the fingers first before beginning to pluck the strings. This means inserting all your fingers individually between neighboring strings simultaneously and have them resting in a position in which they are ready to play when called upon either separately or simultaneoulsy depending on the circumstance.
Exercises;
Exercises on any instrument tend to be fairly universal. I'll assign numbers to the notes of the strings CDFGAcdfga in two octaves as 1 2 34 5 6 7 8 9 10 respectively like this;
1234,2345,3456,etc...
123,234,345,etc...
121,232,343 etc...
321,432,543, etc...
4321,5432,6543,7654 etc...
You should also play these backwards and with both hands first separately then together. Later, you should make the other hand melodicallly and rhythmically independent from each other.
Patterns:
Melodies:
Effects:
One effect is to produce harmonics. It's the same concept as on guitar or harp. Just place your index finger on the point exactly half way between the stationary bridge and the moveable bridges the pluck the string with the finger then quickly moving the index finger off of the string to let it ring. This places a node in the strings vibration raising it an octave. There are other places along the strings length that will produce other divisions of the string but don't ring as well on the much shorter strings in the high register.
Another effect is string dampening. Sometimes you don't want a note to continue ringing after you've plucked it so it doesn't interfere with a new note you're going to pluck or that you've already plucked. In that case you have to strop the initial string from vibrating by placing your hand on it effectively muting it's sound.
If you move your plucking hand up and down the strings you'll hear that playing closer to the stationary bridge creates a thing tone and playing farther along the string creates a warmer and fuller sound.
Vibrato is accomplished by placing the left hand on a string at the opposite side of the moveable bridge from where you plucked it and then pushing quite firmly up and down. This creates the Guzheng's characteristic wide vibrato which can be slow or fast.
You may also prebend the string with the left hand before you pluck it creating a downward slide in the tone.
One final technique is that of flicking one of the fingers, usually the index at a string in a direction away from your body with the back of your finger nail.
Good luck and I hope that helps.
Southern Issan
The Jakae is a plucked zither and plays in the Mahori Khamen ensemble. It probably descended from the Indian Vina. It is played while it rests flat on the ground like the Japanese Koto but has frets like the Korean Komungo. The left hand frets while the right hand plucks.
The Krachappi is a Thailandized word taken from Japan which was originally taken from Indian Pali/Sanskrit which means turtle. It is a plucked lute. The body is a large circle like a big banjo. It is made of wood and has frets.
The Saw-Kantrum is a fiddle
with a body made of wood and a snakeskin soundboard. It has two metal strings. A loop is attached between the bridge and the nut to take up the slack on the string. It comes in three sizes.
วันพุธที่ 8 กรกฎาคม พ.ศ. 2552
World Music Project with Robert Plant's guitarist wants me to play on their next world music CD
Some people making a world music project that has Led Zeppelin's singer's guitarist wants me to play on their next world music CD but it's not possible without a computer. My computer got a short and a small fire and is still in Ubud. The reason they want me to do it is because my music on Myspace sounds great and other examples like this.
It's composed to sound like Japanese folk music. I've got other examples in Thai, Chinese, Indonesian and Middle Eastern Styles.
I sent a message to Mark Slaughter asking him to endorse my music composition course. In the message to Mark it mentioned the opportunity with Robert Plant's guitarist emphasizing why they would want me and it also said,
"I was wondering if you'd be interested in having a look at the music composition course I'm currently marketing. It has the tools I used to put together all of my compositions. It's at www.thewritesongcourse.com. I could really use someone with your credentials to give their endorsement.
Free copies are below.
http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/the-write-song-course-ebook/6607644
http://www.lulu.com/content/multimedia/the-write-song-course-audio/6633066
Just listen to the audio while you passively scan the text. What could be easier?
I think we could both make a decent amount of money."
Best regards,
Greg Turner
It's composed to sound like Japanese folk music. I've got other examples in Thai, Chinese, Indonesian and Middle Eastern Styles.
I sent a message to Mark Slaughter asking him to endorse my music composition course. In the message to Mark it mentioned the opportunity with Robert Plant's guitarist emphasizing why they would want me and it also said,
"I was wondering if you'd be interested in having a look at the music composition course I'm currently marketing. It has the tools I used to put together all of my compositions. It's at www.thewritesongcourse.com. I could really use someone with your credentials to give their endorsement.
Free copies are below.
http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/the-write-song-course-ebook/6607644
http://www.lulu.com/content/multimedia/the-write-song-course-audio/6633066
Just listen to the audio while you passively scan the text. What could be easier?
I think we could both make a decent amount of money."
Best regards,
Greg Turner
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