06 February 2011

Urhu 2

Hi,

I have a granddaughter that has this instrument and is very interested in learning to play it. We live in Ohio and wonder how we would find someone to teach it? Is there some easy lesson books that she could learn from on her own? I would love to get her lessons...any suggestions? thank you,

Linda


Dear Linda

I have absolutely no idea as to where you would find a teacher in Ohio. I have to keep remembering the US is a large place. As there would definitely be somebody in NY or SF China town who'd know. I know of a bloke in Manchester China town who teaches sometimes. Maybe look at local schools of music? As although they will most probably be using traditional instruments you find in an orchestra sometimes they may run courses on other instruments. For example. The Royal Academy of Music in London (UK) runs summer schools in Chinese instruments. Chets in Manchester has been known to run a few courses

The alternative approach is I suppose what many guitarists do and learn by themselves. The problem with this is that the guitar is common the Urhu is not

http://www.georgegao.com/erhu-store.html

He sells a DVD or something which teaches you how to do the basics for $15.

You can see pirated versions of his videos here

This guy had some success learning (and practicing an awful lot) with the DVD.



But the problem with this is many of the videos are in Mandarin or Cantonese meaning they are of little help too. Look at this 'beginner class'



I do not recommend using a book however, there are free ebooks if you want but the good ones are as again in Chinese yet again. I can actually play the piano and pluck a few sad strings on a guitar but it took me a very long time and was demotivating. My rate of learning increased markedly with a real teacher.


1 comment:

  1. http://www.youtube.com/user/tansungwah#p/a

    This guy can give you some very helpful tips for learning the basics

    ReplyDelete