There are three Chinese music classes taught every Saturday at Cantell School in Southampton. Children aged between five and 14 can learn either the Dizi (Chinese bamboo flute), Pipa (a four stringed lute) or Erhu (a two stringed fiddle, also called Chinese violin). Junlong Zhang teaches the Erhu class. At the moment, his young pupils are learning pieces of traditional music to perform at the Chinese Association's New Year celebrations.  | | The Erhu has two strings and is played with a bow |
The classes only began in September so the children have had to work quickly to learn the songs in time for the big event - and with only two strings and no frets to guide your fingers, it's not as easy as it looks! Like its western cousin, the Chinese violin is one of the hardest instruments to play, but the two fiddles look nothing alike. Junlong describes the differences: "The Erhu only has two strings, whereas a violin has four strings. Also the position we play it in is slightly different. A violin player can stand up but with the Erhu you have to sit on a chair." The children are learning two pieces of peaceful, soothing music for the New Year - one called Purple Bamboo and the other Step Higher and Higher, the latter being a tune to send wishes of good progress to people in the New Year.  | | Junlong leads the group though the music |
Once they have mastered their individual parts they will rehearse with the Phoenix Arts Group, the Chinese Association's music and dance ensemble to get ready for their New Year festival performance. The Phoenix Arts Group uses both Chinese and Western instruments in its orchestra. There's a good reason for this as Junlong explains: "All the Chinese instruments are very high pitched so we borrow western instruments, like a cello, to get a bass sound." Junlong teaches the children in English and in Mandarin as the many of the musical terms can only be explained in the Chinese language. This can cause a few difficulties for Junlong: "I find it very challenging but we try to get along and see how it goes. When we started, one or two of my pupils could not speak Mandarin, they could only speak Cantonese but they did understand English."  | | The children get to grips with the Erhu |
Musical instruments are an integral part of Chinese culture. The beautiful songs and the instruments have been a tradition in Chinese history for more than 1,000 years. Junlong feels that the class he teaches helps the children to learn more about their heritage: "When children watch Chinese film they can see that musical instruments were played by musicians in old times. When they learn how to play them, they get excited and feel that the culture's very close to them. It's one of the benefits of the class, that they can understand part of Chinese culture, not just from the stories but from the music too." The Phoenix Arts Group will be performing at the Chinese Association of Southampton's New Year festival at Bellemoor School on Sunday February 13th.
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