© The London Youlan Qin Society 2003-2010



Guqin Summer School, 24-28 August 2016



Introduction

The London Youlan Qin Society held a 5 day course on the qin at the China Exchange in Chinatown, London.

Classes

Two parallel classes were held, one for people will little or no previous experience of the guqin, and one for people who already had some experience of playing it. The beginners were taught by Charles Tsua, and were led through the basic fingering techniques, building a foundation on which they would be able to progress. By the end of the 5 days, they were able to play a simple piece. Cheng Yu taught the more experienced people. This class was organised as a set of 1:1 sessions ands small groups, so that each student could work at their own level on pieces they wished to learn. On the last afternoon, informal student performances were held, to enable participants to show each other what they had learned.

On the first day of the summer school and the day of the concert, a team from Xinhua News International came to interview participants and concert rehearsals. This was a rare privilege for us, as Xinhua is China'''s largest news agency. THe programe they made was broadcast in China, and can be seen at this link: v.gdtv.cn/news/zdbd/2016-08-28/505596.html.

Talks

Two illustrated talks were held in the afternoons. On the second day, Charles Tsua gave an talk entitled "“The Pedagogy of the Guqin”", in which he talked about the history of guqin teaching and study, and compared traditional and modern methods of qin study. On the last day, he gave a demonstration of showed how to mount and tune the strings.

Concert

On the afternoon of the second day a concert was held. It was performed by the Silk String Quartet and members of the London Youlan Qin Society. For details and photo gallery see LYQS Chinese Music Concert.

Acknowledgements

The London Youlan Qin Society would like to thank everybody who gave their time and worked hard to make the events a success.