All About Guzheng/Pipa

[phankao]

gajidouma:

Many thanks Insider. Yes, I guess that CCA is the best choice... Where can I find a Primary school that offers the course? guess must be those SAP schools...

You can see which schools have COs from last year's SYF competition for primary schools:

http://www.singaporeyouthfestival.sg/images/pdf/SYF_2008_CO_Pri_Results_%28website%29.pdf

And from the awards given, you can see which schools are more serious about that CCA.

Interest is important. If your child wants to advance in it, learning in school CCA is usually not enough.

[gajidouma]

Hi phankao,


You are truly helpful!!!! Can't thank you enough for this!!!
:udaman:

[Poonie]

It’s been about 4 months since I started this forum. Let me update you on what has happened since. Finally I enrolled my 2 girls in guzheng lessons at a CC and they started their 1st lesson last Sunday. After the lesson, they commented that guzheng is easier than piano. After the 10 lessons I would probably like to get them a private tutor as I find it a hassle packing up the instruments for 2 children at the end of the lesson. Does anyone have any good recommendations for private teacher? Someone has quoted me $50 per 45 mins. Is that too expensive


On piano, my girls are still continuing but I am thinking of getting a new teacher who have different teaching methods. Has anyone heard of Prelude Music at Novena? Some feedback will be much appreciated.

[phankao]

Poonie:

It's been about 4 months since I started this forum. Let me update you on what has happened since. Finally I enrolled my 2 girls in guzheng lessons at a CC and they started their 1st lesson last Sunday. After the lesson, they commented that guzheng is easier than piano. After the 10 lessons I would probably like to get them a private tutor as I find it a hassle packing up the instruments for 2 children at the end of the lesson. Does anyone have any good recommendations for private teacher? Someone has quoted me $50 per 45 mins. Is that too expensive

.

You mean a teacher to come to your house? So you don't have to bring instruments?

I know that at music schools, you don't have to bring the guzheng - just use the guzheng at the school. Altho' for exams & performances, you'd need to bring your own guzheng (I've seen the students doing that). YangQin players have to do the same for exams - bring their own YangQin.

S$50 for coming to your house, should be quite reasonable. The really good teachers would charge around S$60 to S$80 for you going to their house.

[Poonie]

The cc provides the instruments but the students have to keep them in the storage cabinet after each lesson which is a hassle for me esp I have 2 kids. Learning at home I will have to buy a guzheng.

[zaxkjcr]

I have a friend whose daughter is teaching guzheng.

if you are interested to find out more I can help to arrange for you to find out more details from her. Maybe just email me at [email protected] and I will let you know how to contact her.

zaxk

[mrswongtuition]

Hi Parents,


Just to share my personal experience with learning musical instruments. I've had formal lessons for piano, guzheng and cello (yes, I have all 3 instruments and they are still at home with me).

From P1 I learnt piano. It started off with interest as I saw my cousin playing. So I asked for lessons. The interest only last till P3. I only took 1 exam which was Grade 2 when I was in P2 and got distinction in both practical and theory. My piano teacher wanted me to continue but I was not interested. Main reason is because my cousins started at 5 and their progress was much faster than mine because they started earlier. My parents kept comparing and asked me to skip grades. The learning became stressful instead of fun, so I told my parents I wanted to learn something else.

So at P3, they enrolled me into gymnastics and ballet instead. Loved the gym teacher, hated the ballet teacher. So I took gym for a yr. Gave up ballet after 2 lessons.

Then at P4 we had to take CCA (compulsory and it was called ECA at tt time). So I went into badminton and atheletics. At P5 I was 'poached' into the school's netball team. At P6 I wanted to focus on studies so changed CCA to art club (only once a week, no intensive training that drains my energy).

Then I moved on to sec sch. Joined Guzheng Ensemble as CCA. Loved the instrument, hate the instructor. He was so fierce (he still is). He'll beat us when we played wrongly and he'll scold us very badly. Thankfully, my skin was thick so I stuck with Guzheng for 4 years. Enjoyed every single performance we had! I participated in the first Grandioso of Hundred Guzheng at Botanic Gardens and it was so much fun! I also performed at SYF and we obtained a Gold award.

Then my church started a children's orchestra (my sis plays the violin since she was 3yo). And I liked the cello. I immediately told my parents and they signed me up for trial lesson with the conductor's friend, Mrs. Ilano (she's well-known in the cello industry). I loved it and took group lessons with 3 other friends as the fees were quite exp ($200/hr) and my parents worry that it's another one of my 'passing fancies'.

Having learnt the piano and cello which are western instruments using the 'wu xian pu' and the guzheng which uses the 'jian pu', I would say that each of the instruments have their difficulties in learning.

If budget permits, I would recommend that you let your kids learn BOTH piano and guzheng. It's the exposure that's important and if your child decides to continue with one of the instruments as focus, you know that at least you gave your child a fair chance to experience other instruments.

If budget is tight, I suggest piano first. Guzheng is an instrument that can be picked up rather easily. Imagine I obtained grade 6 grading for guzheng after learning in group setting for 4 years (I have to give full credit to my fierce instructor who pushes this lazy bum bum).

If you do not want to buy a guzheng yet, you can choose to rent one (usually instructors will rent out if need) or buy a 2nd hand one (less than $400).

My parents were the type tt believed in investing in their children even if no results shown, so my guzheng and cello are the high quality ones which my peers were very jealous off. & my parents never ever gave me pressure to continue when I decided to stop.

My main point is, give your child the opportunity to explore. Every child is different and if you want to stretch your child, you must allow your child to try everything you can possibly afford. I'm a very low budget mummy so I give my son experiences by either self-teaching him or bringing him to relatives'/friends' places to let him experience different things. Like I bring my son to my cousin's house to try out the drum set and we realised he loves drums and has very good sense of rhythm!

At the end of the day, you are paying for the experience your child is getting. It does not matter if your child can excel or not. Just keep letting them try different things until they can find something they are good at

[zaxkjcr]

mrswongtuition:

My main point is, give your child the opportunity to explore. Every child is different and if you want to stretch your child, you must allow your child to try everything you can possibly afford.

At the end of the day, you are paying for the experience your child is getting. It does not matter if your child can excel or not. Just keep letting them try different things until they can find something they are good at

Hey well said, mrswongtuition

personally i have two kids, we started them on piano and violin, and in the end one chose piano and the other violin. They were not pressured to take exams, they learn the instruments purely for enjoyment.

[micko07]

I wasn’t from Chinese Orchestra but I did learn the piano and started on yangqin in Sec 2.

Personally, I find jianpu easier on yangqin because of the way the notes are arranged. I can play both instruments on either notation but it’s easier for me to use the jianpu for yq and stave for piano.
The feel of both instruments is really very different but having a background in music definitely helped in terms of basics (eg sightreading, scales, keeping time, dynamics etc). I’d say let them try both if you can but at any rate I will vouch for piano first. IMHO, piano is a basic instrument that all musicians should learn to play to some degree. Like some said, it’s much easier to progress on a Chinese instrument than a Western one (I took 2 years + to obtain a Gr 6 in Yq and 10 years+ to obtain a Gr 8 in piano lol)
Eh I suppose a good teacher will definitely charge more, I paid around $60-70 per lesson for both instruments. I learnt under the Yangqin principal from SCO and she charged me $60. Not too bad, considering my friend, who learns ruan from the SCO Pipa principal paid like $70. As far as I know, most CC teachers aren’t very good so if the kid’s serious, I say go to a specialist.
@phankao Most of us bring our own instruments but there is a yangqin at the NAFA exams if you want to use it. I didn’t use it though. xD

[mrswongtuition]

Micko07, there are some good music instructors at CCs. They go to different CCs to bring convenience to the students who stay too far from the instructor's music school or house.


My instructor used to teach at Mountbatten CC and he frequently organized concerts to let his student have a chance to perform.

It really depends on the instructor at the CC. I've seen instructors who give their students many opportunities to perform in public. I mean, that's the purpose of many parents: to see their kids perform in public