giant agapic axe wound

TAISSA FARMIGA as GLADYS RUSSELL in

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BRIGHT STAR (2009)

I am pretty new to music, and therefore probably years off from being able to start learning to play, especially since I don't think I'll be able so see one in person without buying it myself, but I was wondering if you think there's any western instruments that are a good precursor to learning guqin? something that might teach at least some transferable skills?

I was also wondering, how is the guqin able to play notes when the strings are pressed down without frets underneath? western instruments make it seem like pinching a string between wood and finger would silence the note, but clearly that's not the case with guqin, why is that?

Hi! :D

No western instrument is very similar to the Guqin, whether in playing techniques or the musical score used. The closest I think might be the Zither (at least according to Google). The Guqin is sometimes translated as a Chinese zither. But I've never played the zither, never even seen one in person so I can't speak on personal experience (and even Google states the similarities are sparse aside from the fact they're both stringed instruments played using the fingers).

Honestly, I think if you're end goal is to play the Guqin then just dive right in rather than trying to learn a western instrument first to 'transition'. None of the skills are going to be very transferrable. More than anything, you might have to 'unlearn' some things to go from a western instrument to the Guqin, which is what's happening to me since I learned the piano when I was younger. Western instruments tend to be quite strict in following the score, the Guqin is much more flexible and allows a lot of room for personalization. A lot of people who learned western instruments forget that and will try to follow a Guqin score stringently...which doesn't work well (if you watch my latest video on Youtube or Tiktok you can see why):

If, at the moment, you're unable to get a Guqin, I'd recommend familiarizing yourself with how to read the score, and also listening to Guqin music (traditional Guqin music, not pop music played on the Guqin, a lot of teachers will start you off with traditional Guqin pieces to learn technique so it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with how traditional Guqin pieces tend to sound).

When you learn the Guqin the first big learning curve is going to be reading the score. It's so different than the western music score, and even different than any other Chinese instrument's score. Memorizing 一二三四五六七八九十 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) in Chinese is going to be very useful, as well as the symbols for some of the basic finger structures (again, check my Youtube or Tiktok for more complete videos, I'm slow to update Tumblr sometimes ^^;;).

And if you go on Youtube or Bilibili you can search some introductory Guqin pieces. Get your ear familiar to how the Guqin sounds, how the pieces flow. You can try searching for ; 仙翁操， 秋风词， 凤求凰， 良宵引， 酒狂， 归去来辞， 关山月， 阳关三叠， 高山， 醉渔唱晚， 平沙落雁， 沧海龙吟， 梅花三弄， 流水， 广陵散

These are all popular traditional Guqin pieces (add 古琴/guqin to the end of the name and your top results will be Guqin versions of these pieces). You can also through 卧龙吟 in there, it's not a traditional Guqin piece but a lot of teachers will teach some version of it.

But honestly, the Guqin's not THAT difficult to dive into. I think sometimes there's this...mysterious aura surrounding this instrument because of the history and cultural significance behind it (and also period dramas). People who know about it from its reputation get this idea it must be some amazing, super cultured, incredible instrument that you thrum the strings and waves of heavenly music vibrate out connecting the Earth to the Heavens, causing hearts to skip a beat and breaths to pause. It's not...it's just like any other instrument where the first time you try to play it it sounds like utter cr*p. The first time I played it I was like, "There's no sound...how come there's no sound???" xD

The only time my heart's skipped a beat for the Guqin is when I accidentally dropped one of my teacher's Qin...x__X

I honestly think it's easier than when I learned piano. I had to learn scales and tempo and clefs and all these different types of notes for piano. For Guqin, once I got used to how to read the score, I just dived into playing pieces. My teacher taught finger structures through the pieces, kind of a 'learn as you go' sort of thing, we don't count beats, he plays, I copy whatever melody he's playing. So don't be intimidated to jump in if you get the chance.

Just make sure if you buy a Qin you get what you paid for (as in, don't pay 1K for a Qin only worth $500, there's nothing wrong with a $500 Guqin for a beginner but don't get scammed into overpaying).

As for your second question...pressing the string down to the surface of the Qin isn't any different than a violinist pressing the strings down I think (never played the violin, but I see violinists moving their left hand fingers around on the strings...). It just changes the pitch of the note. At the slender end of the Guqin the strings are pressed against the wood anyway (the strings wrap around the slender end of the Qin, underneath, then wrapped around the little foot stools on the bottom):

So when you press the string down you're just shortening the length of the string that vibrates :D