 The Clarinet BBoard
|
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)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
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
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
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.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
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
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
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.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Tony F
Date: 2014-02-22 08:57
Probably circular breathing. Didgeridoo players should find this quite familiar.
Tony F.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
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)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
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.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
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
Retired, playing more sax than clarinet, but still playing clarinet and still loving it!
Post Edited (2014-02-22 19:52)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
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.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
