Guqin has a long history and is a self-cultivating musical instrument, but its popularity does not seem to be too high. Because it has been denied for a period of time in history, this has led to the relative backwardness of this art in contemporary teaching research. Now a large part of Guqin teachers are still using some traditional teaching methods to teach Guqin art.

It gives the impression that an old gentleman in ancient times taught Sinology by rote. Obviously, this teaching method is inconsistent with the education method accepted by modern people, which makes people feel incomprehensible and unacceptable, mysterious and without rules. , giving people a feeling of being unable to start. Beginners inevitably develop a great fear and even lose interest in learning this elegant art.

In fact, at the beginning of the school, whether it is liberal arts, science or art, today's people basically learn gradually in accordance with Western teaching methods. In any subject, they first talk about the basic principles, and then gradually deepen their learning. In my personal opinion, the process of learning does not necessarily require many results. The important thing is to master the learning methods and rules. Teach a man to fish. Only in this way, after we understand certain rules and the teacher teaches us to get started, can we use the learned rules to draw inferences from other facts and learn the guqin by ourselves to achieve the best results.

Therefore, I think it is best to follow the teaching methods of modern music when learning Guqin by yourself. It can be very beneficial to learn a little bit of music theory first and then to learn how to play. If you don't understand the music theory and the laws of sound changes, even if you memorize a lot of guqin scores, you don't know why, let alone improvisation. It's impossible to achieve a state just by rote memorization.

You also don't need to be very knowledgeable about music theory, as long as you can identify simple staves and what are the tones of F, B and C, and what is the equal temperament.

Although the guqin does not have several frets like the guitar, it has the emblem position, which is equivalent to the frets, which can be used as a reference. Compared with other instruments such as the erhu, it is much easier to have no reference. To learn an instrument is to become familiar with its sound changes, to understand its laws, and then to learn it, especially for self-taught people, they will find it very interesting.

1. The relative phoneme of the guqin walking sound

Although the guqin has seven strings, in fact, the sound changes of each string are the same.

• The pitch changes from left to right, and the higher it goes to the right.
• There are three groups of incremental octaves on each string, corresponding to the emblems, such as: the 7 emblems of the scattered tone correspond to the 4 emblems and the 1 emblem.
• Find out the phoneme according to the law of 12 equal temperament, and the chromatic relationship corresponds to the emblem position:

Major Octave 1: Let's talk about the scattered sound first - outside the emblem (referring to the 2 cm below the 13 emblem) corresponds to the thirteen emblems, corresponds to the twelve emblems, corresponds to the eighth points of the ten emblems, corresponds to the ten emblems, corresponds to Nine emblems and half points (rarely used in playing here), corresponding to nine emblems, corresponding to eight emblems and a half, corresponding to seven emblems, nine points, corresponding to seven emblems, six points, corresponding to seven emblems, three points, corresponding to Seven emblems.

The second major octave: the seventh emblem corresponds to the sixth emblem, the fourth emblem, the sixth emblem, the sixth emblem, the sixth emblem, the fifth emblem, and the fifth emblem (here It is rarely used in playing), corresponding to the five emblems, corresponding to the eighth place of the four emblems, corresponding to the sixth place of the four emblems, corresponding to the four emblems of the four emblems, corresponding to the two emblems of the four emblems, and corresponding to the four emblems.

Major octave 3: The fourth emblem corresponds to the third emblem, the third emblem corresponds to the third emblem, the third emblem corresponds to the second emblem, the third emblem corresponds to the third emblem, the second emblem corresponds to the sixth emblem, the second emblem corresponds to the third emblem, and the second emblem corresponds to the third emblem. The emblem, corresponding to the eighth point of the emblem, corresponding to the six point of the emblem, corresponding to the fourth point of the one emblem, corresponding to the second point of the one emblem, and corresponding to the one emblem.

The above is basically the emblem position corresponding to the semitone relationship. Usually in the notation, 3-4 and 7-1 are semitone relationships, and the others are whole-tone relationships. Adding up two semitones is equivalent to a whole tone. A semitone is moved up by a minor second interval according to the emblem, and a whole tone is moved up by a minor third interval, which is two minor second degrees.

2. Changes in the characteristics of the overtones of the Guqin

Guqin overtones and press tones have one thing in common, that the pitch at the position of the seven emblems is an octave higher than the same-named pitch of the scattered sound.

• The characteristic of the overtone change of the guqin is that the pitch rises symmetrically to both sides from one-half of the effective string spacing (the position of the 7 emblem).
• Guqin has many overtones, especially in some special emblem positions, we usually know the overtone characteristics of the thirteen emblem positions first.
• A major third is raised between each emblem position, and one direction is two octaves.
• In special cases, the overtones of the 6 and 8 emblems on both sides of the middle seven emblem should be raised by one octave.

For example, when the key is set to F, the harmonics of the whole string are: 5, 2, 7, 5, 2, 7, 5, 7, 2, 5, 7, 2, 5. When we master these characteristics, we will understand that no matter what tone it becomes, it is just a change in the scatter name of each string, and the changing characteristics of its sound remain the same.

If you practice more fingerings and scales each time, you will gradually be able to control the intonation skillfully. On this basis, mastering the rhythm of music, etc., expressing the changes and handling of musical feelings, is already an introduction.