Today, let's talk about some special playing methods of erhu.

double string

The erhu is a single-part musical instrument. Therefore, the double-string playing method is not a conventional bowing technique. However, in order to enrich the expression of the erhu, many composers and performers often boldly try to apply them in the music. For example, "War Horse Galloping", "The Red Army Brother is Back" and other pieces of music have large sections of double-string playing. There are three ways to play double strings: the first one is to lift the bow rod, press down the bow hair on the piano barrel with the middle finger and ring finger of the right hand, and make it touch and rub the two strings at the same time. This method has better pronunciation. , but the volume is low. The second method is to use the bow hair to rub the inner string and at the same time use the bow rod to rub the outer string to produce sound. This method can only be played with a short bow or a trembling bow under strong force, and the sound is also relatively noisy, so it is often used in In the passage of the song to render the atmosphere or some special effects. The third method of playing is to use the bow hair to quickly alternate between the two strings, using the human ear's delayed hearing to create a double-string effect.  but the pronunciation is rough when playing strong. The three playing methods have their own characteristics, and the performer needs to choose flexibly according to the needs of the music.

percussion bow

Strike the bow, that is, strike the harp with the bow rod to make a sound, the symbol is

in the conventional playing method, hitting the qin barrel with a bow should be avoided as much as possible, but sometimes for the needs of the music, it can also be used as a technique, plus the early work of erhu Chu Shizhu’s "Don't Want Him" , and the recent new work Wang Jianmin's "The First Erhu Rhapsody" has been used. When hitting the qin barrel, the right hand can slightly raise the root of the bow, and use the up and down movements of the forearm to make the bow up and down. Hit the back of the piano barrel (that is, the part near the sound window) with the bow, because the sound of this part is full of resonance, and its effect is better than hitting the front of the piano barrel (that is, the part near the python skin). When playing, pay attention to the beat. Accuracy, as well as the tacit coordination with the pulling sound; in addition, in the process of moving the bow up and down, be careful not to rub the strings and make noises

inverted bow

The inverted bow is also called the back bow, that is, in order to adjust the bow sequence, the bow is silently returned to the bowing position of the previous bow. When playing, lift the bow up quickly (about 5 to 10 cm away from the qin barrel), and then take advantage of the momentum to rewind the bow. In order to reduce the noise of the bow hair rubbing against the string, the left can be gently pressed on the string. In addition, the bow should also move vertically up and down as much as possible to make the inverted bow light and clean.

Bending column method

The lowest range of the erhu is the hollow string sound. When there are notes lower than the hollow string note in the music, it cannot be played by conventional playing methods, but the bending method can be used to play a note that is at most one minor third lower than the hollow string sound. , so as to satisfy the occasional bass in some compositions. If these basses are played by changing the pitch or turning the octave higher, the original flavor of the music will be lost, and playing with the curved column method can not only maintain the true color of the music, but also make the music rich in a rich opera flavor, which is very moving. This method is used in the ballad "Pipa Resentment" composed by Mr. Wang Shuliang and the Erhu Concerto "Concubine Love" composed by the Taiwanese composer Lu Lianghui. This method of playing was pioneered by Mr. Wang Shuliang from the Hebei Provincial Art School. Its playing method is as follows: four fingers of the left hand hold the piano bar, and the left arm presses down as much as possible, so that the piano tube is close to the leg and will not slide; At the same time, the piano bar is forced to the left to form a lever effect, forcing the piano bar to bend slightly to the right, so as to reduce the tension of the strings and produce lower notes. The degree of force is completely controlled by hearing. In addition, the thumb can also be used to press the strings: bend to the French symbol on the score

to indicate; the subcolumn slide is right in 

with a small arrow for

means; the chant (that is, the vibrato) played by the curved column method is marked with above the note

 to indicate; sometimes the thumb is used to press the strings, and "big" is used on the score to indicate.

How to play the Shuangqianjin Erhu

Ordinary erhu usually only has one thousand jin, which is the upper cut point of the effective string length of the erhu. That is to say, the effective playing area is below the thousand jin, while the section of the string length above the thousand jin to the peg is invalid and wasted in vain. . For this reason, many musical instrument reformers, such as Xiong Zhenglin from the Fujian Provincial Art School, have finally succeeded in inventing the double-jin structure of the erhu after years of research. It makes full use of the chord length that has been abandoned for a long time, so that the sound range of the erhu is extended down to a pure fourth interval, which effectively solves the defect of the erhu's lack of bass.

Shuangqianjin is a set of mechanical system. It sets a fixed jinjin below the outer peg as the upper tangent point of the effective chord length of the erhu; a pair of movable jins that can be opened and closed is installed under the fixed chord, which is moved by the thumb of the left hand. A control panel on the inner side of the piano rod controls its movement. The thumb pushes the control panel upwards, and it opens when it moves. At this time, the fixed chord is used as the upper cut point of the effective string length. Compared with the ordinary erhu, the sound range extends downward by a pure fourth. ; The thumb pulls down the control panel, and when you move it, it lifts up against the strings and becomes the lower cut point of the effective string length. At this time, it is the same as the ordinary erhu. This movable jin can also be moved up and down arbitrarily to meet the needs of different chord methods of the music. If you encounter some commonly used tones in the accompaniment of the band, you can use the regular chord method to play by moving the movable jin a little, which is very convenient to use. :

On the musical score, the opening and closing of the activity is represented by the symbols "↑" and "↓". The former means that the thumb pushes the control panel up to open the movement; the latter means that the thumb pulls down the control panel and closes the movement; the symbols are both Write above the bar line. To play the double-pound erhu, in addition to practicing the movements of the thumb to control the control panel, it is also necessary to pay attention to the fact that the fingers should be separated as far as possible due to the relatively wide finger spacing when playing the handle position that is active above the pound. If the player's left hand is small, they can also use the method of finger-separation, that is, the adjacent fingers are all semitone intervals, and a whole-tone interval is pressed out with one, three or two or four fingers, and is closed when moving. At the time, its performance is exactly the same as that of ordinary erhu. In recent years, there have also been music specially composed for Shuangqianjin Erhu, such as Mr. Su Anguo's "Unfinished Song of Happiness" and so on.

How to play the neighing of the horse

In the music describing the galloping horse in the grassland, there are often passages that simulate the neighing of horses, such as "War Horse Galloping", "Riding on a Thousand Miles of Grassland", "New Herdsmen on the Grassland" and so on. There are two ways to simulate the neighing of a horse: one is the double-string trembling method. The playing method is: put the middle finger of the right hand on the outside of the bow, and hook the bow rod together with the index finger to make the bow rod rub against the outer string, and at the same time use the ring finger to hook inward. The bow hair is rubbed against the inner string to play the double strings; or the middle finger and ring finger are bent, and the bow hair is pressed downward (toward the direction of the piano barrel), and the bow hair is pressed into a flat shape so that it can rub the inside and outside at the same time. Two strings, in order to play two strings, these two playing methods are chosen by the player. When playing, use the right hand to play the double strings, the left hand is in the extremely high position, and the first and third fingers are used to make a third-degree tremolo glissando. The things to pay attention to in this method are:

①It is important to stick the bow hair to the string, and the pronunciation must be slightly noisy;

② The left hand should not be too fast and the amplitude should not be too large. The fingers can also shake up and down quickly while the left hand is shaking. This method is generally used to simulate the neighing of horses. The other is the continuous sliding method of the inner string.

The playing method is: the second or third finger of the left hand slides from the high position to a very high pitch, the middle finger and ring finger of the right hand tightly hook the bow hair, stick to the inner string, and slide the left hand from the middle bow to the bow at the same time. Point; then the left hand makes a small glissando, and the right hand cooperates with the fast continuous bow of the inner string to push the bow. When playing, pay attention to the need to keep the right arm in a relatively tense state, and the bow hair must be close to the strings, so as to make a "grid, grid, grid..." noise, so as to play a realistic effect, this method is usually used to simulate The neigh of a single horse. In the music, these two playing methods can be used alone or in combination, and the stage performance effect is very good.

Right-hand drumming

In Wang Jianmin's "The First Erhu Rhapsody", there is a piece of music that imitates the sound of the drum, which is produced by hitting the erhu skin with the right finger. When playing, place the bow on the right leg, and use the index finger, middle finger and ring finger of the right hand to elastically strike the piano skin with the fingertips. If the fingernails are in contact with the piano skin when playing, the sound will be crisper.

Several different tunings

The erhu generally adopts the fifth tuning method, that is, the relationship between the inner and outer strings is a pure fifth interval. The pitch of the modern erhu tuning is based on the internationally recognized standard. The inner string vibrates 293.66 times per second. A sound that vibrates 440 times per second. However, there are also some songs with special tunings, and the differences are mainly reflected in the following two points:

①The interval relationship between the inner and outer strings is different. In addition to the fifth-degree tuning method, the erhu also has a fourth-degree tuning method, that is, the relationship between the inner and outer strings is a pure fourth interval. The "Psalm" and so on all adopted the fourth-degree tuning method. This tuning method is evolved by absorbing the characteristics of local special instruments such as Zuohu, so it has a very local flavor to play. In Sun Wenming's works, there are also pieces that use the octave tuning method, such as "Send Listening", "People Quiet and Peaceful", etc. When played with this tuning method, it sounds like two erhu ensembles, one high and one low. It has a special effect and fully demonstrates the author's unique creativity, but this tuning method is extremely rare in other music.

②The pitch of the tuning is different. For example, the tuning pitch of the three erhu songs "Erquan Yingyue", "Listening to the Song" and "Cold Spring Wind" by the famous folk musician Hua Yanjun, the inner strings vibrate every second. 196 times the g sound, the outer string is the d sound that vibrates 293.66 times per second: the tuning pitch of Liu Wenjin's "The Great Wall", the inner string is the c sound that vibrates 261.63 times per second, and the outer string is 392 times per second. The g sound, and so on.