 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Not logged in - | |
| Moderated by: Richard Hefner | Page: 1 2   |
|
|||||||||||||
| A left-hander, need major help urgently! - Erhu - Other Instruments - ezFolk Forums | |||||||||||||||
| Author | Post | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||
|
StarEnix Approved
|
Hi all, I've made this account to ask questions on erhu-related things. First off, I'm a left-hander, and have been playing the erhu for the 3rd year as my part of my CCA. There's where the problem lies. I think I used up two years just to get a little bit adaptable to the Erhu, as I'm learning it the right-hander way. Lately, for a certain score, I have problems with going fast on the bow in a certain area. My current speed is 1/5 of what is required. I feel that these two years I have been wasting my time because I can't really improve or anything even if I'm putting in effort. My instructor is also a left-hander as he've said to me(but he uses his right hand for writing so he's considered ambidextrous(or ambisinistral since he's originally a left-hander). I think he became like that because in the past left-handers were very much disliked, and most of them were forced to convert to right-handed. My guess is that he only started learning the Erhu when he had already mastered both hands, so he doesn't encounter a problem similiar to mine. The main focus is here, there's a major competition next year, and with my current skills, it will definitely drag the whole orchestra down. I've gotten several scoldings and insults from my instructor saying that I learnt for so long, and still so lousy, etc. I have been bearing this for a very long time. I can't stand it any longer. So, can anybody give me suggestions/advice? I'm not going to play the left-handed way as all my fellow mates in the erhu section are right-handers, and I would be blocking them if I go left-handed way. I hope to improve drastically in the upcoming weeks/months. This became a problem to me since 2 years ago, and only recently did I realised that my handed-ness also affects a lot. I get sad everytime the instructor scolds/insults me. That is because I have put in a lot of effort, and it doesn't seem to work... Sorry if that sounded repeative, but I would appreciate greatly if someone offers me verbal help or something. Thanks in advance.
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
|
tansungwah Approved 
|
StarEnix, from the sound of it, you must be a Singapore student. That's one of the problems of the Singapore educational system with regards to musical groups in school. The competitions makes the instructors and teachers in charge focus too much on the result rather than the process. In the process, students are force fed songs and being presurrised to improve. Joining a music group should be about having fun rather than stress. You can't do anything about your instructor or the system. But you can change your mindset and not be bothered by what your instructor says. You don't need to play well to live. What's the most that can happen to you? You probably be asked to sit at the back, play the easiest Erhu part. The worst that can happen is probably your instructor might ask you to take MC during the competition. haha. That's no skin off your back, maybe just a bruised ego, but egos are useless things to begin with. Maybe your left handedness is your psychological barrier to playing well. There should be no reason why a left handed player cannot play fast since you need your left hand fingers to be dextous, not the right. So maybe you are telling yourself all the while that you can't do it because you are a left hander and putting a mental block in the process. If you really still can't play well don't worry about it. Playing the Erhu well has no relation to being successful in life.
____________________ Chinese Music Instruments Online store: http://www.eason.com.sg Chinese Music Instruments Blog: http://TanSungWah.blogspot.com Online Erhu Course: http://LearnErhu.wordpress.com |
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
StarEnix Approved
|
Thank you, but are there any methods that can help me improve on my speed? I also don't think that my left-handedness is a psychological barrier to me. I have been progressing very slowly since Secondary One and Two. I didn't know about all these handed-ness stuff until this year. My progress was always slower than the normal right-handers. There was this junior who was left-handed as well and he quitted because he could not cope with it. I think he faced the same problem as me. I'm still fed up with a point though. I don't get why most right-handers have to assume that he/she can do the same thing if he/she was a left-hander. It's really making me despise that attitude. There are some things...that one cannot understand unless he/she has experienced it before. The plain and simple reason why there are people like me is because almost everything on Earth being made are solely for the right-handers. In the end, most of the left-handers cannot use the scissors unless they are of a certain kind. I really regretted switching over to Erhu during Secondary One. I was in Suona in the beginning though, and the good thing about that is that for the holes, right-handers would cover the top with their right hands and left hand for the bottom holes. For my case, I just switched over to using left hand for the top and right hand for the bottom. But, I can't do the same for the Erhu... Last edited on Tue Jun 24th, 2008 10:34 am by StarEnix |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
|
tansungwah Approved
|
just relax and practise with a metronome. SW
____________________ Chinese Music Instruments Online store: http://www.eason.com.sg Chinese Music Instruments Blog: http://TanSungWah.blogspot.com Online Erhu Course: http://LearnErhu.wordpress.com |
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
StarEnix Approved
|
I have editted my above post, please read again, thanks...
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
|
Den Approved
|
StarEnix this might not be a very helpful thought, but I was wondering what the future outcome would look like if you were to place an ad in the newspaper asking for left-handed erhu players to contact you. there might be a lot more of them out there than you think.! maybe you could form a lefties group for learning and practicing from each others experiences. schedule weekly or monthly get-togethers for your own new group to develop (for left-handed players only) I would not be surprised if word would spread about it and you had a success from it. If you are in an area where there are plenty of erhu players, there should be quite a few lefties who tried and dropped out ( as did your friend) and plenty who never signed up for a right handed school at all but would have joined up with a left-handed group. As for those who already play left-handed, there you would find a lot of natural talent available to you. they maybe play for their own enjoyment or join up with small bands? and would love to start up something new . I bet you would get as much personal satisfaction from haveing developed such a thing , the trick would be "finding" them , and an ad in the paper is the only thing I can think of at the moment, maybe posts on school bulliton boards or something, word of mouth etc. get creative. You could end up with a rather large gathering if you and those you find, persevere with the idea. serendipity: a pleasant discovery while originally in search of something else. You already have plenty of experiences and talent to contribute to the group with your foreground education. Just a thought. others???? Den Last edited on Fri Jun 27th, 2008 09:15 am by Den |
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
davidmdahl Approved
|
Hello StarEnix, I do not know how it is to be left-handed, but maybe some general comments will help. I am sorry to hear about all of the ill-treatment from your teacher. I hope that you can find other ways to feed yourself spiritually and emotionally. The ability to relax and be patient with yourself is really important. There are ways of practicing that have helped me a lot over the years. When trying to learn a passage that must be played fast, break it down into very short sections, even as short as two notes, but usually no more than four notes. Play the "chunk" up to speed as one gesture, or as fast as can be done perfectly. Once you can play the passage in seperate chunks or groups of notes, string the chunks together. It's okay to stop between each chunk to become mentally ready for the next one. I also like to vary the rhythm of the notes within the chunk. The above assumes that you can play a passage slowly. If you can't play something slowly, you can't really play it fast. As Sung Wah recommended, a metronome can be very helpful. I hope you can stay positive and enjoy the process. Don't worry about plateaus when it seems that progress is slow. Just keep on going. Learning music should over time feel good. If it feels more like a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, then make changes. I avoid people and situations that drag me down whenever possible. Best wishes, David Last edited on Tue Jun 24th, 2008 10:30 pm by davidmdahl |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
|
StarEnix Approved
|
Thank you for all the help. I express my gratitude from deep within my heart.
|
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
dsouthwood Approved 
|
David's advice about practicing "chunks" is excellent. I'd like to add to that some advice I got from a friend. When you start putting all the chunks together, start from the end of the piece and work toward the beginning. If you start at the beginning and practice playing the first section of the piece and then stop, you are actually practicing stopping at that point. Your brain will remember that and want to do it every time. So start by playing the last segment of the tune and play it through to the end. Then when you add each new section to the beginning of that, continue playing through to the end. When you have added in all the sections of the piece, your brain will not be trained to stop anywhere except the end, which is proper. Interestingly, the friend who suggested that is not a musician. She's just a very smart person. Dennis
____________________ Music contains all of life. |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
|
StarEnix Approved
|
Thanks people, those tips helped me. But, the thing is, my progress will always be slower than the right-handers. Oh well, at least I could improve. 
|
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
davidmdahl Approved
|
No matter how good you are as a musician, there is always someone better. There is always someone who learns faster, plays faster, and is more popular. But no one else plays like you, and the world is richer for your unique voice. Comparing yourself with better musicians can be discouraging, but you can choose to be inspired instead. I learn much faster when I play music with good musicians. In yesterday's paper (The Oregonian), there was an article about trumpet maker Dave Monette. Dave recently made the first true left-hand trumpet. http://www.oregonlive.com/living/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/living/1214344512143940.xml&coll=7 I wonder if an erhu maker could be persuaded to go that route. Best wishes, David
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
|
Jeen Approved 
|
Starenix I work in music school . Everyday, I mix with music teachers, students, musicians, music professors etc... Everyday, our conversation topics are all music related . I do come across students asking me whether we provide the special musical instruments for students who are left handed. The answer is always "no". They have to learn the normal way. This is not because we are unable to provide the instruments, but it is not easy for the teacher to teach if it is a group lesson. If the person insists of using a left handed instrument, it is fine to play it when you are a soloist. But if you are to play it in an orchestra group, you can imagine there will be a great mess. eg , for volin, the bows will tend to hit each other. I ever discuss this topic with some of my guitar & piano teachers some years back. They told me that it is not difficult for a left handed person to learn any of the musical instruments .In fact, they will benefit the most because, usually, when a person use left hand to play the chords, it need some strength and left handed person can do it better than a right handed person. And some of my teachers who are also left handed , they play the volin, cello, flute, guitar ,keyboards etc. I think your problem lies with your learning abilty, but this does not mean that you can't play the instrument well, maybe you need to take longer time to master it well. For me, I have been learning erhu for more than 10 years , I am still not very good at it, I do not have any exam grades , although I play the diploma pieces, but I still find myself not up to the standard. Esp,when I compared it with my nephew who has just learnt the cello for only 2 1/2years , he has already achieved his grade 6 exam with a high distinction, and he is going to do his grade 8 by the 4th year. My nephew has music talent, but he works very hard for it also. He practise his instruments everyday without fail, and sometimes can spend almost 5-6 hours of practise. Ha ha.. I don't think I can do it . So be a little bit patient, think positive and practise it more often. You sure can achieve it . My teacher always tell me: " you want to be like me？ sorry, no short cut, just Practise, practise and practise..... " but always bear in mind, "practise hard & practise smart", don't practise blindly. Last edited on Sun Jun 29th, 2008 02:41 am by Jeen ____________________ ()""() (,'o') (,("  (" Jeen Ooi
|
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
Clyde Approved 
|
God Bless Last edited on Sun Jul 6th, 2008 07:53 pm by Clyde |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
|
StarEnix Approved
|
Jeen wrote: Starenix Yeah, for the chords part you're right. But you left out the bowing part. And, try getting a guitar, put your right hand on the chords instead of the left, and use your left hand to play. You will see that it's pretty difficult. I've also mentioned that I do not have the time to slowly learn...What I need is to improve drastically in a short period of time as I have a major competition next year. But the thing is, the only way to improve is to keep practising and practising. The downpoint of this is that I'm still schooling, and that CCAs are after school, so I don't have the time in the world to practise... Like I've mentioned in the first post, left-hander erhu or playing erhu left-handed will not help me as my sectional group is made up of only right-handers, and I'm the only left-hander, so by doing so I would be hindering their performance. I'm learning erhu as a CCA, not full-time, so my time with erhu is quite limited at home since I still need to do homework and stuff. And for stuff like the keyboard, there's not really any barrier, as all of them are the same motion, so it's easy to adapt. Flute is the same too. For guitars, in order to play it the left-handed way, you have to flip it over to the other side. For violin, it would be the same case as erhu. You'll have to play it right-handed way unless your whole section consists of all left-handers. Also bear in mind that left-handers are not a mirror image of right-handers. Right handers write from left to right. Left handers also write from left to right, not right to left. Still, thanks for trying to help anyway.
|
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
kennylhk85 Approved
|
Er Hu u can switch if u are Solo cause if u are a group u would have hited other mates LOL cause u can switch the 2 string and the tune and the bow by un screw and turn other way But do remember ur playing other side u ned to be alone cause u will hit other er hu player everthing u go are the opps way that y
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
|
StarEnix Approved
|
...I am in awe. Did you even read my first post? I'm playing in an orchestra. Playing in an orchestra=/=solo And, I've heard that by changing it the other way round it makes the sound quality go down. My question is "How to improve if I'm a left-hander playing Erhu the normal way", and not "How do I adjust the Erhu to fit me, a left-hander".
|
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
Moeagaru Approved
|
Some of my friends are left-handed, and have encountered the same problem. Because I'm a right handed player, I can't sympathize, but they told me that building up dexterity in both hands helped them with speed. Do you need to improve your bowing speed or your fingering speed?
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
|
huqiner Approved
|
This is just my personal opinion, I think right handed people should play right handed and left handed should play left handed. Forcing people who are left handed to play right handed is unnatural and is now out-dated. As for the problem of playing in group, surely that can be sorted out by re-arranging the seating positions of the players. As far as I can see, the erhu is completely symmetrical. If it's set up for left handed playing, it should sound the same as if it was set up the "normal" way.
|
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
Moeagaru Approved
|
I just tried restringing the erhu and flipping it. The sound quality did go down marginally, but I presume that it was caused by my awkwardness around the new fingering. You can experiment - and also, if you are playing in an orchestra, as long as the notes are on tune, nobody's going to mind a few weaker sounds in the background. I do think that if you aren't comfortable with it, you shouldn't try this. You might save this in the back of your mind for a last-ditch resort. Like huqiner said, the problem of the bowing in a group can be solved by seating rearrangements, or you can learn the reverse bowing. (i.e., pushing instead of pulling and vice versa) Try not to treat the music like a chore - there's no shortcut, no secret path, no magical enlightenment. Slow down and enjoy it. Make your own style of playing, don't try to imitate your instructor.
|
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
|
bn82999 Approved
|
I'm a left hander too, but i'm in the same situation as yr teacher, i write with my right hand, so i've never had any problem and i learn pretty fast.I have a suggestion though, you can try like playing scales with fast bowing, eg.: 1=D 15 25 35 45 55 45 35 25 16 26 36 46 56 46 36 26 17 27 37 ...etc.etc (didn't ype the html for undelining the other notes, but u get the gist right?), then you practise reverse bowing, meaning you pull the outer string and you push back on the nei xuan (inner string), so it'll be like that: 1=D 51 61 71 1(high)1(low) 2(high)1(low) 11 71 61 52 62 72 12 etcetc. if you want the scores for that practice bowing thing (i typed part of it abv)give a shout here and i'll scan it in ^^ but i think you should get the gist. My bowing wasn't very good either esp when the speed is high and practicing that helped me alot, hope it works out for you too ^^ its hard when you first start (as in hard to play super fast) so start slow and when you get the hang of it you can slowly increase the speed, keep practicing with your max speed and u'll find that u can increase yr max speed too (that worked for me) btw, i'm also fr singapore, sec 3 and i agree that the importance of results is very much obliged here >.< like, they don't ask you to 'enjoy the music' as long as the beats and notes are accurate the teachers are happy>.< but i thk to love and enjoy the music is much more impt ^^
|
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| Current time is 04:24 am | Page: 1 2 |
| ezFolk Forums > Other Instruments > Erhu > A left-hander, need major help urgently! | |
