How to adjust the erhu bow horse hair 二胡弓的鬆緊調節和運弓秘訣

How to play the erhu and make a good sound, the erhu bow is important. One is how to move the bow, second is how to adjust the bow hair.
If you like my video, please subscribe my channel, I will share more my experience to you.

[@ambiencekeys5100]

Best Erhu Turturials ever 👌🙏 There is no doubt about it! Thank you especially for doing this in English. Hopefully your videos will help make this wonderful instrument more popular in the western world

[@musichong]

Thank you very much, personally I have been playing the erhu more than fifty years, and other traditional Chinese musical instrument including some Western instruments like the oboe, saxophone and flute etc. When I share the experience, not only from the erhu, I also get more experience of learning wind, plucked strings and percussion even singing.

[@dave99887]

Thank you sir. New to the erhu. I am a guitar player and this is my first bow instrument. Great video for beginners!

[@musichong]

I’m a multi-instrumentalist, I know the challenge!😅

[@mobilenerdgames]

thats realy a good one thanks man.

[@calebcavinessmusic]

Love the morin khuur!

[@rosephillips8908]

This is beautiful! I am trying to learn the erhu right now. What piece are you playing with the orchestra? I would love to hear the entire song.

[@musichong]

Your experience is excellent! There are many problems in changing the strings （switching the bow), such as the difference between up the bow or down the bow, the speed of the bow moving, the position of the bow on the resonator, etc. The most important points are: the distance between the string groove of the erhu bridge depends on the horsetail (depends on how many horsehairs) of the bow is adjusted to different bridges; during the performance, the bow hair should always be close to the upper part of the erhu resonator (sound box), especially the speed of slow bowing, and the fast bowing is different. The right wrist plus the thumb and middle finger The cooperation of the ring finger can form the effective tension and fast movement of the bow.

[@litao3014]

I saw the morin khuur, can you play it and compare with Er hu?

[@musichong]

Yes, I could play the Morin Khuur, they are different instruments, but I could make one.

[@litao3014]

@@musichong xiexie master really love to hear the sound of Morin khuur from the master

[@JohnSkender]

Hello mr Hong, i really enjoy your videos! I am still pretty much a beginner erhu player but I have a question on bowing. I tried loosening the bow hair to make my bowing more versatile, its a bit harder but I feel its worth it, I have a problem though when changing from inner to outter string or vice-versa, even though im making a good sound while bowing sometimes when i change string i make a small scratchy sound before i manage to make the bow stroke smooth (this happens mostly from inner to outter string when the bow hair is very loose I have noticed). Are there any tips to make the transition from one string to the other smoother? Like maybe try to change strings when reaching the end of the bow?

[@musichong]

Hi John, your question is common problem to most beginners even some of senior players. It’s your muscle moving memories from the right hand to the whole arm. The tip is keep the horse hair on the resonator (sound box) and carefully transfer the moving from thumb to the mid finger and ring finger smoothly. I may make another video to share more details to the erhu lovers.

[@JohnSkender]

Thank you! This advice helps. Personally, I find it more difficult to transfer from inner to outter, but i feel im getting better with practice, on slow songs its not that hard but when i need to bow faster transfering to outter string without getting even abit of scratchy sound is hard. I also find it easier to transfer from string to string when at the end of the bow instead of the middle part, i dont know if this is common or just my peculiarity. @@musichong

[@Pad929]

Thank you for letting me know about this video! I do appreciate it. I tried your tips yesterday and I was able to improve the sound. I do have another question about making a good sound. Sometimes the open strings seem to be in tune when bowing in one direction, but off when going in the other. Is that a tuning problem, a bowing problem, or both?

[@musichong]

Yes, pulling and pushing may change the pitch little bit, because the Qianjin. I will make another video about it, how to play a beautiful sound.😀

[@Pad929]

@@musichong 🙏🙏🙏

[@ambiencekeys5100]

I have the same Problem! But only with the low String. In other Videos I saw that‘s a Problem with the Qianjin. You have to replace them. Could be happen that‘s to too loose or damaged. Try it out by doing strong vibrato. If the loops shift, it's probably too loose. I had replaced it. Now the string stays in tune in both stroke directions. However, I have the feeling that the strings are too tight? In this video, the distance from the neck to the strings is given with the width of a thumb, which I kept exactly when attaching the Qianjien. Even if I don't really know the playing technique yet, the slight hand vibrato, i.e. moving the hand up / down, no longer works. Perhaps Master Hong will also give us tips on this?

[@Pad929]

@@ambiencekeys5100 Thanks for the suggestion. For me, it's not consistent. One day sounds great, the next day it's off. That's why I initially thought it was a tuning problem as well.

[@joanross9301]

Thank you so much bringing the tonal difference problem--I've been struggling with this issue for months now. I am afraid to even replace or re-do the qianjin--now that I have an actual high quality new erhu--because from past attempts on the crappy erhu, after deconstructing the qianjin, it seems I can never get it back to the regular equalized tightness that the erhu arrived with. So, since I am on a quality erhu now, too scared to mess up the qianjin wrap. Is there any easy way to install the qianjin that you may have learned? Thanks so much all and thank you ShiFu Hong--you have a new subscriber!

[@gatozarin]

thank you so much!!!!