 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-02-22 02:43
Remarkable instrument! I heard a busker playing a sheng in Worthing and what a haunting sound he made.
I've just been watching some special techniques demonstrated by this sheng player: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn45L7Sebjw
There was a sho (Japanese version of a sheng) player at the BBC Proms a few years back.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2014-02-21 21:45)
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2014-02-21 22:01
We played a concerto for sheng and orchestra last fall. I had never heard of it before. I had a close up of it and asked the Korean soloist if he could explain the basics on how it works. "Aaah, too compuricated, too rittere time!"
Alphie
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-02-22 03:26
They have a single free reed per note that works when exhaling and inhaling as opposed to Western free reed instruments that need a separate reed for both air directions (two reeds for the same note).
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-02-21 22:52
How soon we forget
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZmkWv5ApvM
It don't mean a theng, if it ain't got that sheng.
.........................Paul Aviles
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Author: alto gether
Date: 2014-02-22 08:49
Sheng is extraordinarily irritating to play for anybody who plays a pressure-based instrument (like any reed or brass). You need to move a lot of air, because it flows through all the pipes, all the time. Covering a hole causes that pipe to sound because the pipe resonance then matches the reed frequency (says Wikipedia), but how good players get decent volume I really can't understand. Perhaps the fancy ones are different in some important respect from the cheap bamboo ones I've messed with.
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2014-02-22 08:57
Probably circular breathing. Didgeridoo players should find this quite familiar.
Tony F.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2014-02-22 19:55
Yeah, circular breathing makes sense, or maybe some sort of air-chamber that functions similarly to a bagpipe bag. The young female player looked comfortable. She didn't seem to be breathing any harder than we do on clarinet. I like the sound of that sheng a whole lot better than my two extra-shrill suo na double reeds! (I have to blow like the Big Bad Wolf to get a tone out of the suo na and then it sounds like an oboe in a temper-tantrum.)
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
Post Edited (2014-02-22 14:56)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-02-22 23:02
They're not circular breathing - as I've already said, the reeds work with both exhaling and inhaling so breathing is natural.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2014-02-23 00:51
Chris,
So this instrument (from looking and from your description) is essentially a tiny pipe organ where we supply air pressure and simply "open" the stops of those pipes with those series of keys?
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
Post Edited (2014-02-22 19:52)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-02-22 20:06
That seems to be the principle - it's far more sophisticated than a lot of modern free reed instruments.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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