The Chinese dulcimer, originally called "Yangqin", is a percussion instrument with a wide range of global and distinctive national characteristics. It is widely distributed and spreads in dozens of countries and regions in Europe, Asia, America, Africa and Oceania.

In the second volume of "Macao Chronicles" (1751 edition) written by Yin Guangren and Zhang Rushuang, it is recorded that "bronze silk qin, cut bamboo buckle, and clank Cong Cong." This is one of the major changes in the nationalization of China's dulcimer. Since then, the dulcimer's stringing tool has been changed from a wooden "hammer" to a bamboo "bamboo".

From the 1920s to the 1940s, the dulcimer solo performance art was pioneered, and a traditional style of dulcimer performance art featuring local phonology and unique performance skills was gradually formed.

Basic skills are the basis of performance, and only on the basis of mastering basic skills can we better interpret musical works. In the process of learning dulcimer, I think the basic skills that should be mastered are single bamboo skills and round bamboo skills, which are the key to playing.

1. Two basic skills of dulcimer performance

To learn dulcimer, you should first maintain the correct playing posture, that is, the whole body is naturally relaxed, the feet are naturally shoulder-width apart, the sitting posture is correct, the chest and back are slightly held, the shoulders and upper arms are naturally drooping, and the forearms are bent and elbows flat. Holding the piano and bamboo, looking at the face of the piano, the expression should be natural and generous.

(1) Single bamboo skills

The single bamboo technique refers to the playing of the piano and bamboo on a single tone. First of all, you should master the method of holding the piano and bamboo. First of all, the hands are in a relaxed state with half fists, palms facing each other. Secondly, the holding point of the bamboo should be placed at one-fifth of the whole length of the bamboo, that is, the holding point should be placed at the first joint of the index finger, the thumb should be pressed on the holding point in a natural state, and the tail of the bamboo should be Stick it on the belly of the middle finger, the ring finger and the little finger are in a natural bending state, so that the qin bamboo is held firmly in the hand. Second in the single bamboo technique, you should master the method of hitting the strings. The hammering process of the dulcimer is also the process of the whole arm movement, which relies on the overall cooperation of these movement organs from the shoulder joint to the bamboo-holding points of the fingers to complete the hammering.

1. Monophonic single bamboo: refers to the single-handed playing of the piano and bamboo on a single note. Monophonic is an important part of musical language. When playing, we can try to play a single tone in four different forms: long, short, strong and weak to practice repeatedly. In this way, you can not only feel the strength of the strings, but also consciously relax your arms.

2. Monophonic double bamboo: It means that each hand holds a piano and bamboo in order to play alternately and in turn on the monophonic. When playing, the cooperation of both hands should be coordinated, the speed should be relatively uniform, and the strength should be uniform and uniform.

The difficulty of the single bamboo technique is: to master the correct method of holding the bamboo and the strength of the strings, the emphasis should be placed on the practice of skills from slow to fast. When holding the bamboo, it should be noted that the three fingers of the bamboo should be relaxed, and it is best to hold the bamboo firmly and not too tight or loose. When hitting the strings, pay attention to the change of intensity, and use the appropriate strength for each note in the high, middle and low ranges, and keep the bamboo keys that can quickly return to the original position by rebounding after hitting the string point. The natural relaxed state before hitting the strings. In this way, a perfect stroke is successfully completed. This sentence is easy to say, but it is really difficult to do. This requires our players to use both hands and brains, practice diligently, and practice hard in the usual practice process, and experience the correct method of holding the bamboo and the strings.

(2) Wheel bamboo skills

The so-called wheel bamboo is what we usually call wheel tone, wheel beat, roll beat, and wheel, which refers to one hand or two hands using piano bamboo to make dense, uniform and continuous sounds on one note or several notes in turn. And the coherent rotation gives people a feeling of continuation. Wheel bamboo is mainly completed through the cooperation of shoulders, arms, elbows, wrists and fingers under the premise of natural relaxation.

1. Single Bamboo Wheel: It refers to the intensive, even and coherent playing of one or more tones with the left or right hand using a bamboo bamboo. The practice of single bamboo wheel is to lay the foundation for double bamboo wheel. Players can unify the rhythm, volume, timbre and dynamics of the left and right hands through slow practice, so as to achieve the best effect of round bamboo.

2. Double Bamboo Wheel: It refers to the rapid alternate rotation of double bamboo on one or several notes, which is a very common technique used in wheel sound techniques. Double bamboo can be divided into three types: single-tone bamboo, double-tone bamboo and continuous bamboo.

(1) Monophonic Wheel Bamboo: It refers to the rapid alternating rotation of double bamboos on a single note in turn. The monophonic wheel bamboo requires that the left and right hands should be coordinated when the wheel is rotated, and the rhythm, strength and timbre should be unified. When practicing the monophonic wheel bamboo, the speed can be slow first and then fast, and the strength is first weak and then strong, so as to achieve the best effect of wheel bamboo.

(2) Double-tone wheel bamboo: refers to the double-tone bamboo that rotates rapidly and alternately on two tones at the same time. Since the two-tone wheel bamboo makes rapid alternate rotation on the two tones, it is required that the process of the wheel bamboo cannot be interrupted, and at the same time, it is necessary to maintain the unity of the strength and timbre of the two tones. Two-tone round bamboo plays an important role in the technique of dulcimer playing.

(3) Consecutive rounds: that is, continuous round bamboos, which refer to the rapid alternating rotation of double bamboos in one section or even more than a few sections. It is suitable to appear in the soulful and beautiful tunes. It requires the player to keep the strength of both hands evenly and uniformly, so that the primary and secondary are distinct and there are ups and downs. When Lian Lun interleaves the phonemes, try to make the alternate two tones coherent and compact, and the smaller the gap, the better. The basic requirements are: the player should move quickly when playing legato, and maintain the best coherence of the phrase.

In the art of dulcimer performance, the round tone not only reflects the technical level of the performer, but also is an important expression technique for the style and image of the music. Therefore, this requires the performer to play a round tone that suits the style and emotion through different round tone methods, strengths and speeds according to the different styles and emotions of the music, adding the color of the melody and strengthening the singing of the music. , to give the original vitality of the music, to achieve a pleasing effect, thus moving the audience.

When playing the round tone, pay attention to:

1. The problem that the left hand is light and the right hand is heavy, and the left hand is slow and the right hand is fast is most likely to occur. This is caused by most people's usual hand habits and the distance between the hands and the strings when playing. At this time, the player should concentrate on strengthening the practice of the left hand and exercise the flexibility of the left hand, so as to achieve the sameness of the left and right hands.

2. It is also prone to forearm soreness, which is caused by muscle tension caused by nervousness during performance. The world-renowned cellist Kasas once said: "When I think of giving a public concert, I always have nightmares." When someone asked the Polish violinist Wilko Mierska: "Do you also have a little bit of a bit when you play? Nervous," he replied, "A little nervous? I'm so nervous. If you're not nervous, you'd be lying. I get nervous before every concert. Especially when it comes to my career. Big city." It can be seen that nervousness is a human instinct, and even these masters who often perform in public places have experienced nervousness, let alone us. World-renowned clarinetist James Campbell said: "I've found that the reason musicians get nervous to the point of detracting from the performance is because they pay too much attention to what other people think of them. If you can really immerse yourself in the music you're playing , and in turn think 'what can I give them?', then it becomes a question of giving rather than evaluation. That's when you can play at your best." "Playing on stage For those few minutes, you have to convince yourself that you are the best in the world, and congratulate yourself at the same time, which is what athletes do in order to maintain a good mental state.”

The Symbolist poet Baudelaire said: "If you concentrate on looking at foreign objects, you will forget your own existence, and soon you will become one with the foreign objects."

Therefore, our players are required to concentrate on the usual round tone training, immerse themselves in the beautiful melody of the music, pay attention to adjusting their mentality, encourage themselves often, and believe that they are the best. Players can slowly increase the speed on the basis of single bamboo. They can practice the "fixed number of rounds" first, and play a specified number of rounds in a specified unit beat; slowly practice on the basis of the former. "Indefinite number of rounds", in the specified unit beat, play an indefinite number of rounds. In this way, the performer gradually increases his self-confidence in the usual training, adjusts his mentality, and eliminates the nervous heart disease, thereby also practicing the wheel bamboo skills to perfection, laying a solid foundation for the future wheel sound performance. .

The difficulty of the round bamboo technique lies in the practice of the speed and volume of the hands. The speed practice of both hands should follow the principle of step-by-step. At first, gradually master the rhythm and strength of the hands through the practice of the fixed number of rounds. After fully grasping the speed and rhythm of the hands, practice the indefinite number of rounds to achieve the speed of the hands. unity. Volume exercises can be divided into weak rounds and strong rounds. When the wheel is weak, the hand position is required to be low, and when the wrist is rotated, the wrist joint is used as the fulcrum, so that the radius of the wheel bamboo movement is small, and the volume of the sound produced by the rotation is weaker. When the wheel is strong, the hand position is required to be moderate. When turning, the elbow joint is used as the fulcrum, and the power of the forearm is used to drive the wrist to turn. This kind of wheel has a larger radius of activity than that of the weak wheel, and the generated volume is naturally stronger.

2.  the use of two basic skills

(1) Single-bamboo technique: The single-bamboo technique is the most basic of all the dulcimer techniques. It is mainly used for elementary scale practice and playing some simple songs, such as "Little Star", "Birthday Song", "The Tractor Comes" "La", "Purple Bamboo Tunes", etc. These pieces are all elementary performance pieces. The tunes are more lively and cheerful, and are often used for single bamboo practice. "The Tractor is Coming" is composed by Zhang Xiaofeng. The whole song creates a jubilant atmosphere and expresses the joy of the working people when they have a bumper harvest with a joyful and lively melody. The whole piece is divided into three sections, the first section is the theme, the second section expresses the music briskly, and the third section is slightly faster than the first section, which enhances the level of the music, which makes the three sections of music more expressive. distinct. "Purple Bamboo Tunes" is composed by Xiang Zuhua according to Shanghai Opera tunes. This piece is widely circulated in Shanghai. This piece is soft, beautiful and smooth. It is played with a single bamboo. Graininess, especially when playing sixteenth notes, should be uniform in rhythm and uniform in speed and velocity. When playing scales, it is just to let the learner be familiar with the position of each note, without any emotion and emotion. When playing, it is necessary to grasp the rhythm speed and the law of strength and weakness!

(2) Wheel-bamboo technique: Wheel-tone is an important expression technique of musical style and musical image. It is the most widely used and the most difficult technique among various dulcimer performance techniques. According to the different styles and emotions of the music, the player can play the wheel tones that are suitable for the style and emotion through different wheel tones methods, strengths and speeds. Such as:

(1) "The Sun That Never Sets on the Grassland", adapted by Zhang Xiaofeng based on the song of the same name, is a 4/4 lyrical piece, the author depicts a grassland with blue sky, white clouds, horses and birds Great view. The round tone part of the music adopts the dense, broad and melodious round bamboo technique and the rhythm of strong, weak, sub-strong and weak in 4/4 time, showing a beautiful scenery on the vast grassland, expressing the love for the hometown and the greatness. The praise of the leader Chairman Mao!

The piece starts out in the high register and then moves to the low register. The beginning of the performance changes from the wide board to the allegro variation, with a cadenza in the middle, and finally returns to the theme of the wide board. The whole song is composed of three kinds of round bamboos, single-tone round bamboo, double-tone round bamboo and octave round bamboo.

(2) The Love of the Loess, composed by the Yellow River, is divided into five parts: the introduction, the theme, the fugue, the allegro and the ending, which fully demonstrates the natural features of the Loess Plateau and the simple enthusiasm of the people of the northwest. When playing this piece, the requirements for the round tones are very strict. Not only do you need to use the double round tones that are mainly thought-provoking and dignified to highlight the contrast between movement and stillness, and show the author's complex mood and emotional changes, but also use large The double-wheel method of amplitude and fast frequency expresses the connotation of the music vividly and vividly.

(3) The piece "Azalea" is a 4/4 piece in C major. It is a dulcimer piece based on the theme piece of a beautiful revolutionary song "The Sparkling Red Star". The song is full of longing for relatives in the hometown, and the hope for a day when the mountains are full of azaleas is also a kind of yearning for a better life in the future. The mood of the music is broad, powerful and free at the beginning. After the introduction is the soulful adagio music, which is the theme music of the song Azalea. In the soulful and beautiful song, the round tone is used to teach a lot. In this round tone, attention should be paid to the continuity, and there should be no staccato between different tones, and the music should be maintained. Soft and smooth. Immediately after the high-spirited allegro and appear from C to F key. After this passage, it will be returned to the original key of C, and the passage should be accompanied by free and passionate Andante performances. Back to the original speed at the end.

3. Summary

The above are some of my experiences and experiences that I have summed up in my usual study and performances, hoping to attract the attention of dulcimer learners and performers. In today's society, there are more and more people who study and love dulcimer. We should pay full attention to and master two basic skills in our study, and strive to apply the scientific methods we have learned to our ordinary performances, so that our performance level will be better. Go up the floor and play more beautiful music.