Besides this and fiddling around on guitar, I decided to take the chance to learn local music as well. Seeing song as a great way to practice language I've been learning some local folk songs in Chinese. "The grapes of Turpan are ripe" and "Why is the rose so red?" or "Where is my girl?" are some of my favorites. Then, just over a month ago I started studying dutar. Dutar is a two-stringed long-necked lute found across Central Asia, Iran, and South Asia. Its similar to guitar in that quite a few can play even a little bit as they've grown with the dutar.
Admittedly it has been a bit of a jolt to start from scratch on a new instrument. Scales. Exercises. Scrutinizing my technique now to lay a good foundation. Not only that but the style and rhythm of music are completely different. I've spend my whole life studying Western music, years of classical training is not easily changed in one lesson. It's taken several weeks to internalize just the rhythm, let alone put it together with the finger work of the left hand. Ripping out a basic scale at one lesson, I looked with pride at my teacher. "Now add the rhythm", was his immediate reply. "123, 123, 12, 123, 123, 12, 123 123, 12" he tapped on my shoulder as he spoke the beat. It took several days to put a simple scale and this rhythm together.
I am proud to say I can play my first song all the way through as of yesterday. The going is slow but it is great fun. I'm finding it rewarding to have some goals other than language. I'm preparing for a standardized proficiency test for foreign students so this gives a much welcomed break from studies. Being excited at my new found skills I popped into a dutar shop where I have gone to get my dutar restrung. I excitedly picked up one his beautiful hand-made dutars and stumbled through my little diddy, proud to show off my hard work since I had been telling them I had started studying. Looking up I found a blank stare. After a few seconds, the guy turned back to the dutar he was working on with no comment. Guess I'll have to keep practicing to impress this guy.
Interested in hearing/seeing dutar? Check it out here.