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| Dan Nhi Playing Position (Sound Box Between Knees) |
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Playing Dan Nhi, Dan Co, Dan Gao and Dan Ho (Erhu)
Playing PositionDan
Nhi family (Dan Co, Dan Gao or Erhu) is more or less a vertical fiddle
and this means that the instrument is played with the neck more or less
vertical as opposed to horizontal as in the case of a violin.
Dan Nhi is normally played using the following positions:
- The musician stands up or walks with the sound box of Dan Nhi above his/her left hip
- The musician sits down on a chair and the sound box is on his/her left thigh or between his/her knees
- The musician sits down on a mat and the sound box is between his/her feet
In the sitting down position,
the musician can muffle the sound of Dan Nhi slightly by pressing
his/her knee (or toe) against bridge on the sound box.
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| Dan Nhi Right Hand (Front View) |
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Right HandThe musician holds the bow with the right hand and normally with the palm slightly upwards. Since there are only 2 strings, the
inside string (lower pitch) and the
outside string (higher pitch), to play the inside string, the musician
just pressures the bow-hair
inside and to play the outside string, he/she just pressures the
bow-hair
outside. The player normally holds the bow-stick with the thumb and the
index finger. The middle and ring finger is between the bow-stick and
bow-hair. The player normally presses the middle and ring fingers on
the bow hair when playing the inside string.
This simple two dimensional hand movement provides very flexible playing dynamics and
allow greater expressive freedom to the player.
While
playing, the bow-hair normally touches the top of the sound box where
one can put some resin there (violin rosin) to ensure that the bow-hair
is well "lubricated" continuously while playing (also to prevent the
direct friction between the bow-hair and the top of the sound box).
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| Dan Nhi Right Hand (Top View) |
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Left HandThe
musician holds the neck of the Dan Nhi with the left hand near the
String Adjuster and the fingers pressing on the strings. The left hand
technique shows the fundamental difference between playing a Dan Nhi
and playing a violin. A violin has a fingerboard where the player
presses on the strings to get the corresponding note. A Dan Nhi has no
fingerboard; the strings just "float" in space and the player presses
on the strings to get the desired length and pressure to obtain a note.
So for a violin, it is the length of the effective string which
determines the pitch while on a Dan Nhi, it is the combination of the
effective length and the pressure on the string that determines the
pitch.
The difference in left hand technique means that with a
violin, one can get more precise pitch at the expense of a lot of left
hand movement and thus need more strings (4 strings for a violin) while
for a Dan Nhi, it needs more practice to get a precise, exact pitch but
the player can get more sounds with less movement of the left hand
fingers (simply adjust the pressure for half note or full note
movement).
Without
a fingerboard, it definitely needs more practice to get the exact pitch
of a note; however, this
provides lots of expressive freedom to a competent Dan Nhi player. A
note can be bent up or down easily by simply exerting more or less
tension on the string with the fingers. This ease of manipulating the
pitch of a note is ideal in expressive sessions as frequently demanded
in modern music (especially in rock where most rock lead guitarist
prefer bending of the notes on the guitar more than the regular sound).
Traditionally,
the musicians used finger joints to press on the strings and exert more
or less tension to get the desire notes. Modern players use finger tips
to press the string (instead of the finger joints) allowing more
reaches. So traditional musicians use more tension technique and modern
musicians use more fingering technique. In both case, one normally uses
more tension technique than when playing a violin.
Note that the
String Adjuster is a very convenient device. It allows the player to
adjust the effective string length thus the fingering space to the most
comfortable arrangement at the most desirable string tension. A child
can grow up with the same Dan Nhi by simply adjusting the effective
string length from 25 cm to 35 cm instead of having to purchase a 1/4,
1/2, 3/4 and 4/4 or full size violin.
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| Dan Nhi Left Hand |
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Playing Western MusicSince
Dan Nhi is fretless, playing western music is pretty straight forward,
just glide the bow-hair and the appropriate string and use the left
hand fingers to press the appropriate positions with the appropriate
pressures.
Since notes can be easily bent of move up and down
with little left hand movement, Dan Nhi is ideal for improvising type
of music where the player can freely express himself or herself (such
as solo in rock or modern music).
On the other hand, more
practice will be needed where series of precise pitch notes are
required. Even in such case, a competent Dan Nhi player can perform in
a more natural style than a regular violin player.
In the
beginning, try to apply same pressure for all fingers to play the Dan
Nhi the same way as a violin. Once you feel comfortable, start apply
different pressure and feel the music.
In the beginning, it is
wise to put stickers on the neck at various note positions along the
neck to help memorizing the notes for both strings and eventually
develop a fingering table (fingering map). Following is a sample note and fingering chart for a Dan Nhi tuned in G3-D4:
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Dan Nhi Note and Fingering Chart (G3-D4)
There
are normally 5 Fingering Positions (a Fingering Position is a position
of the neck that the left hand move down and up the neck) which can
cover up to 3 octaves (as color coded in the diagrams above). The above
is the basic fingering chart for a Dan Nhi tuned in G3-D4 and the below is a similar chart for a Dan Nhi tuned in D4-A4. Similarly, another chart can be developed for Dan Nhi tuned A4-E5. The charts show
the note locations without any sharp or flat (for C major and A minor).
To play any other scales, you can use the above and below charts as the base and
add the various sharp and flat notes as required.
Using the charts, it is recommended to put a sticker at each Finger Position along the neck:
- 1st Position: Initial left hand position (from G3 to A4 for G3-D4 tuning; from D4 to E5 for D4-A4 tuning)
- 2nd Position: Where one can
move up to second octave with the outside string (from C4 to C5 for
G3-D4 tuning; from G4 to G5 for D4-A4 tuning)
- 3rd Position: Where one can access the whole second octave (from G4 to G5 for G3-D4 tuning; from D5 to D6 for D4-A4)
- 4th Position: Where one can
move up to the third octave with the outside string (from C5 to C6 for
G3-D4 tuning; from G5 to G6 for D4-A4 tuning)
- 5th Position: Where one can access the whole third octave (from G5 to G6 for G3-D4 tuning; from D6 to D7 for D4-A4 tuning)
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Dan Nhi Note and Fingering Chart (D4-A4)
Special techniques
All
special techniques used in violin can be used in Dan Nhi (glissando,
trill, tremolo, etc.). The only exception is the double string technique which is not normally used in Dan Nhi due to the bow-hair position.
On the other hand, the pressure
technique is unique to Dan Nhi as the player can easily increase or
decrease the tension of the string to change the pitch.
SummaryTo
sum up, having only 2 freely floating strings together with the
convenient placement of the bow-hair, Dan Nhi offers a more versatile,
dynamic and flexible playing style than any other instruments in the
world with similar simplicity.
Play the Dan Nhi the way it should be and you may wonder why one would ever need more than 2 strings on a fiddle.
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