How to Play Guzheng, the Chinese Zither: The Basic Skills: How to Play Guzheng, the Chinese Zither, #1

By H.H. Lee

This book will teach you to play guzheng, the Chinese zither, at the beginner level. No prior knowledge in Chinese music is needed. In addition, you will know the guzheng structure, ways to choose a guzheng, as well as the numbered music notation. A number of sheet music are also provided for practices. After reading the whole book, you should have a basic understanding of the guzheng and can play some simple songs by yourself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: H.H. Lee
• Release date: Jan 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386837275

H.H. Lee

H.H. Lee is a Chinese who has played the erhu for around 20 years. Having joined the Chinese orchestra for long, he knows various Chinese musical instruments well and hopes to introduce their elegance to people outside China.

Book preview

How to Play Guzheng, the Chinese Zither

– the Basic Skills

By H.H. Lee

How to Play Guzheng, the Chinese Zither – the Basic Skills

Copyright © 2018 by H.H. Lee

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

First published on 29 January 2018

Edition 1.3 on 17 December 2020

Table of Contents

Preface

The Structure of the Guzheng

How to Choose a Guzheng

How to Play the Guzheng

The Numbered Music Notation

The Key Signatures of the Guzheng

Selected Songs

Online Materials

Preface

Guzheng, or simply Zheng, is a Chinese plucked string instrument with a history of more than 2 500 years.  Guzheng literally means ancient zheng, in which the word zheng either is onomatopoeia or derives from a tale of two brothers who fought for it[1].  According to Chinese myths, the Yellow Emperor listened to a woman playing a 50-stringed instrument called Se, and he was so touched by her performance that he broke it into half, leaving the Se only 25 strings.  Later in the Qin Dynasty, the two brothers in the aforesaid tale fought for the 25-stringed Se, and further broke it into half, which gave birth to the 12-stringed zheng.

Yellow Emperor

Se

The zheng might have a common origin with the zhu, another plucked string instrument in one of the seven warrior states, the State of Chu, because their bodies shared the same design but just differed in the number of strings (the zhu had 13 strings).

Zhu

Legend also has it that the zheng was invented by the famous military general Meng Tian of the Qin Dynasty, but it was skeptical about whether he was the real inventor because the zheng already existed 16 years prior to his rise of power, though it is possible that he personally reformed its structure.

Meng Tian

All in all, it is believable that the zheng was once used as a weapon in the Warring States Period of ancient China, but later developed into a musical instrument after strings were attached to it.  As time passed, wood replaced bamboo as the material for making the body, whereas the number of strings increased from 5 to 12 (the end of the Warrior States Period), 13 (the Tang Dynasty), 14 and 15 (the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties), 16 (Republic of China), and 21 (modern times).  The materials for making strings also changed from silk/ crane’s tendon