Hello Everyone, I know some of you visit my site to find out more about the instrument Erhu so I’ve organized some information on Erhu and wrote the following article. If you have any more questions about the Erhu, please feel free to send me an e-mail anytime you want and I’ll be glad to answer them.
A Brief Introduction
l First described in Song Dynasty(A.D. 420-479), erhu is an ancient musical instrument which is extremely popular in China today as a medium for both traditional and contemporary music.
l It has a drum-like mahogany sound box that has one side covered in snake skin (don’t worry, it’s fake =).
l Unlike the western violin, Erhu only has two steel strings. Its bridge is tiny compared to a violin’s.
l Unlike wooden violin bows, Erhu bows are made out of bamboo so they are lighter in weight.
l The range of erhu spans about four octaves, and while the sound is very similar to a Western violin, it differs by being much more nasal in quality. (Did you know…We can play the famous and extremely challenging violin piece <Carmen> on Erhu?! ^^)
l Since there is no fingerboard against which the player can press, therefore finger pressure is a critical part of erhu technique. If this aspect of erhu playing is mastered, the lack of a finger board actually allows for a tremendous flexibility for the erhu player in controlling the sound and expressiveness of this instrument - a flexibility approaching that of the human voice.
How do you play the Erhu?
To learn to play erhu is like learning to play any other musical instruments, a good teacher is preferred. With a good teacher, you will be able to avoid to form bad posture and bad playing habits, a good teacher is also able to enhance your learning experience and motivate your creativity. If you are interested, you can contact me anytime.
Other names of erhu
Erhu has many names. It can also be called the Huqin, the Nanhu, the Chinese violin, or the Chinese fiddle. In Japan, it is called "nigo"
What does “Erhu” mean in Chinese?
In Chinese, Er means two, this suggests that there are two strings on the instrument. The character Hu came from the Northern nations, it used to imply the meaning of Northern Barbarians, a word of evidence of years of border conflicts between the Chinese and nations from the North. Hu suggests that the Erhu could be imported from the North
History
There is no archeological discovery of erhu to support it's history, but there is written evidence of the earliest appearance of the Erhu. There’s a poem written by Shen Kuo during Song Dynasty (A.D. 420-479) about an instrument called the Huqin. Huqin is another name for Erhu. Most people believe that the Erhu had evolved from some plucking string instruments.
Chinese erhu notations
Although most of the modern erhu players have mastered the standard Western notation, many of the erhu repertoire are still printed in a kind of Chinese notation called Simplified Notation, or Jianpu. In Jianpu, all the notes are represented by numbers, this system is built on so called the movable DO system, which means the DO, or the tonic note of a Major scale can be assigned to any pitch. The key signature is written as, for instance, 1=D, which means the DO is D on a piano keyboard, thus, 1=D indicates a D major or it's relative modes, such as B minor, or 1=G as a G major or it's relative modes such as E minor, and so on. Here is a chart for you to identify the notes on some of the most common erhu keys:
The erhu bow
The bow is made out of bamboo and horsehair. Unlike the violin, the Erhu bow runs in between the two strings of the erhu, therefore, you have to apply rosin on both sides of the horsehair. Also, you can not lift up the Erhu bow like a violin since the Erhu bow is always attached to the body of the erhu.