Hey everybody!
Time for some Breaking News!
So yesterday I had my first Guzheng Class. A Guzheng is a traditional Chinese string instrument in the Zither family and kind of looks like a small harp that lies down. It has 21 tones all in all, but if you compare the tones to the pianos do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti, the fa and ti are missing (til dem, som ved lid tom musik, vil det sige, at Guzhengen benytter en pentation durskala – atlså en skala uden halvtonetrin og dermed uden ledetoner). But if necessary, you can make the missing tones by pressing on the string you play so the sound changes – kind of like on a guitar.
To play it you have to tape something similar to fake nails or plectra onto your thumb, index finger, middle finger and ring finger on your right hand. Left hand can have several functions. You can use it for plucking the strings or for changing the tones made by your right hand.
So… The absolute Breaking News are, that I’ve bought a Guzheng that was brought to my house today. A Guzheng can cost everything from 8.000-150.000 TWD (ca. 1.500-30.000DKK) so I did definitely not have enough money to buy the most expensive one, but I am very satisfied with the one I got. Here it is:
The green(ish) strings indicate g/sol/5
In addition I can tell, that I Monday afternoon did a Kong Fu and following calligraphy performance at my school with the two other exchange students Jane (Canada) and Chelsea (USA). It is our beloved school counsellors who now are about to leave us, who have taught us these skills. We’ve had a great time practising as well as performing, cause a lot (a lot!!!) of our Taiwanese friends from all classes showed up at our performance to support us, although they are busy with important tests right now. Here are some photos from a photo shoot we did with the schools live technology teacher before the performance J
From the left: Jane (Canada), Chelsea (USA), me
HUA!
I LOVE TAIWAN!
Julia
