5 Reasons NOT to Learn the Chinese Pipa
July 22, 20145 Reasons to Learn Chinese Guzheng
August 18, 2014Why learn the Erhu?
The Chinese Erhu is one of the most popular Chinese musical instruments. Not only has it captured the hearts of Chinese all over the world, non Chinese are also very enamored by it. If you are considering to take up this fantastic instrument, here’s 5 reasons why you should:
1) It has a tone like the voice of a human being
The expressiveness of the erhu is second to none. Many have liken the tone of the erhu to that of a human being.
2) It is light and easy to carry around
Weighing just around 1.5kg, it is very lightweight compared to other instruments. (Yes I am talking about you Yangqin!)
3) It can produce a lot of different sound effects
Entertain your friends by mimicking birds chirping, horse neighing, frogs croaking and even a race car driver with the erhu!
4) Two strings good, 4 strings bad….
Well, unless the violin piece is out of range, you can play any violin piece on the erhu, but not vice versa. Try playing Jiang He Shui on the violin and you will know what I mean.
Check out Sun Huang playing “Niccolò Paganini’s 24th Caprice” on the Erhu:
5) Add some guitar distortion effects and you can rock it!
Like the legendary George Gao:
or this dude:
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If you are feeling inspired already, click here for more information on our erhu lessons.
If you are thinking of buying an erhu, click here for our erhu store.
If you are somewhere without an erhu instructor within a hundred miles, click here for our online erhu learning portal.
(Stay tuned for 5 reasons why not to learn the erhu)
1 Comment
I liked the guitar distortion effects. Sometimes here in Taiwan, some young erhu players will jam with a rock band and just play some freestyle. Its very cool to see how versatile the sound and range of play an erhu can achieve.