Since as early as over 2500 years ago (China’s Qin Dynasty,) guzheng has been popular in Shanxi (China’s western region,) hence the musical instruments was also called “ Qin zheng”. During the Tang Dynasty, guzheng was introduced to Japan, Korea and other countries and regions. With a tradition of thousands of years, guzheng is marked with crystal-like acoustic quality, nobleness, elegance and euphemistic. It produces captivating and rich tones, and it is full of romantic expressions.

Traditionally, guzheng has many different playing styles from various regions of China such as Shandong, Henan, Zhejiang, Chaozhou, Kejia, and Shanxi. Nowadays, the guzheng are played in the style of traditional, classical, Jazz, Fusion, Pop, Hip-Hop and more. guzheng players also adapted techniques from the Piano and the Harp. The most common modern guzheng has 21 strings that are traditionally tuned into four pentatonic scales.

The history of Pipa dates back at least 2,000 years. This instrument has extremely wide dynamic range and is remarkably rich and expressive.

The original Pipa comes to us from the second century BC. Poetry and drawings depict an instrument held horizontally and named for the forward (pi) and backwards (pa) plucking of the strands.

Course Type: One-to-One

Instructor: Baorong Wu

Instructor Baorong Wu has over 25 years of teaching Pipa music experience. She graduated from the most prestigious music college ---The Central Conservatory of Music in China. She studied under famous pipa master and educator professor Lin Shi Chen. After she graduated, she accepted a faculty position at the Central Conservatory of music and taught pipa performance for 5 years, until she came to the USA.  

Instructor Wu published a Pipa instructional book titled, “Pipa Method for beginners” the book was published by one of the most influential companies in southern China. In the book, she uses new concepts to simplify the complicated pipa techniques and use modern staff notation so people from different countries will find it easier to learn. It is written in both English and Chinese and combines basic music theory and playing techniques all into one.

The Gu Qin is a very quiet instrument, with a range of about four octaves, and its open strings are tuned in the bass register. Its lowest pitch is about two octaves below middle C, or the lowest note on the cello. Sounds are produced by plucking open strings, stopped strings, and harmonics. The use of glissando—sliding tones—gives it a sound reminiscent of a pizzicato cello, fretless double bass or a slide guitar. The qin is also capable of many harmonics, of which 91 are most commonly used and indicated by the dotted positions. By tradition the qin originally had five strings, but ancient qin-like instruments with 10 or more strings have been found. The modern form has been standardized for about two millennia.