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I posted to youtube.com
Yangtze Gorges - Intrumental Andy Roberts Chinese Lute Ruan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEnYmlYs-vg&feature=youtube_gdata
October 10 2010, 10:04am | Comments »
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I posted to youtube.com
Big Eyed Beans From Venus - Captain Beefheart Cover by Andy Roberts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stTtCNn8h_I&feature=youtube_gdata
June 30 2010, 7:28am | Comments »
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I posted to youtube.com
Yangtze Gorges - Andy Roberts Chinese Lute or Ruan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WfoR3VlJ_U&feature=youtube_gdata
June 30 2010, 7:15am | Comments »
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I posted to youtube.com
Andy Roberts Dead Skunk Havering Folk Club
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GCoGJ4ujcY
February 26 2009, 8:02am | Comments »
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I posted to andyrobertsmusic.blogspot.com
Chinese Lute at Havering Folk Club
http://andyrobertsmusic.blogspot.com/2009/02/chinese-lute-at-havering-folk-club.html
I took my Chinese Lute or Ruan along to Havering Folk club this week for a change, as you may have guessed from yesterday's post about it. I had some trouble fitting it into the guitar bag, but managed to improvise with the zip. I thought it as a particularly good night last night. There were some new performers to me, and I also noticed that several of the regulars had noticeably come on in and demonstrated considerable improvement. It must be the accumulated effect of weekly providing an attentive audience for each other. All levels are appreciated, but I think the overall level had gone up a notch or two. Well that's how it seemed to me anyway. I played a tune that I always play on the chinese lute and now it has a name "Yangtse Gorges". There's a video of me playing it in the back garden a few years ago somewhere, I'll have to root around on various old computers.Then I did Dead Skunk by Loudon Wainwright, an old singalong favourite recently mentioned by Karen. Linda was sitting near the front so we have an instant video take: Andy Roberts plays Dead Skunk at Havering Folk Club
February 26 2009, 6:17am | Comments »
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I posted to andyrobertsmusic.blogspot.com
Chinese Lute or Ruan
http://andyrobertsmusic.blogspot.com/2009/02/chinese-lute-or-ruan.html
The Ruan is a moon shaped short necked lute, related to the Pipa.It was once called the qin pipa, dating from the Qin dynasty between 221-207 BC or the yueqin which means a moon shaped short necked lute. The name is a shortened form of Ruan Xian, a musician and one of the "seven Sages of Bamboo Grove" of the 3rd century from the Six Dynasties. Pictorial evidence, excavated from a tomb of his time in Nanjing, depicting Ruan Xian's performance of this instrument, confirms that its construction was roughly the same as that of today.The ruan is a Chinese plucked string instrument. It is a lute with a fretted neck, a circular body, and four strings. Its strings were formerly made of silk but since the 20th century they have been made of steel (flatwound for the lower strings). The modern ruan has 24 frets with 12 semitones on each string, which has greatly expanded its range from a previous 13 frets. The frets are commonly made of ivory. Or in recent times, metal mounted on wood. The metal frets produce a brighter tone as compared to the ivory frets.The ruan is now constructed as a family of soprano, alto, tenor and bass, a development intended to increases its range and effectiveness in the modern Chinese orchestra. The alto and the tenor are commonly used. A plectrum is needed in performance. Mellow in tone quality, it is often seen in ensembles or in accompaniments, and as a solo instrument in recent years.Zhong ruan (alto) tuning: A-d-a-d1 or G-d-a-e1 Range: A-a2Daruan (tenor) tuning: D-A-d-a or C-G-d-a Range: D-e1So anyway, I have one of these instruments that I brought back from China.I made a Flash widget thingy that has sound, you can listen to here:http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/rob/video/china-lute.htmland even have a go at playing it for yourself.
- Tags:
- ruan
- chinese lute
February 25 2009, 8:21am | Comments »
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