Our fourth workshop of this series was an introduction to Chinese music and musical instruments, hosted by one of our teachers, Li Yijie. This workshop was held on Thursday 23 of February and more than 40 people joined to learn about this interesting topic.
The workshop was divided into three mina parts; an introduction to the history of traditional music, introduction to traditional musical instruments and a short musical performance.
In the first part, Yijie introduced the important role of music in ancient Chinese history, and explained how traditional Chinese music was influenced by the philosophes and concepts of important historical figures.
Yijie also explained the ancient five tones, as well as similarities and differences to modern music.
Yijie continued on to introduce the different types of musical instruments; bowed string instruments, plucked instruments, woodwind instruments and percussion instruments.
Yijie then detailed the four stringed and plucked instruments, the guqin, pipa, zheng and the erhu. Among them, the guqin, the “tool of the saint” is favoured by many audiences due to it’s a long history, unique sound and style.
Towards end the workshop, Yijie demonstrated how to play the pipa, as well as the skills required to hit certain notes. At the end of the workshop, many participants eagerly asked if they could share the workshop recording with their family members.
Feedback from participants:
Thank you for a wonderful talk
Participant
Chinese New Year Traditional Chinese Music & Musical Instruments workshop
非常有意思，谢谢！
Participant
Chinese New Year Traditional Chinese Music & Musical Instruments workshop
Thank you so much, that was amazing!
Participant
Chinese New Year Traditional Chinese Music & Musical Instruments workshop