Standards of the Guqin

This book contains essential knowledge for beginners of guqin, namely the Chinese notation system in written music (jianzipu). It also contains very high level music theory information, which might go over the heads of less knowledgeable musicians (myself included). Though I have played multiple instruments, this is the most music theory I have read, so it presents a new challenge, just like the instrument itself. However, this book shows a great opportunity to grow as a musician with guqin. Repertoire songs have a short section after that aids in increasing the lessons you will learn from each piece. It is very unfortunate that my copy has blank musical staffs for Shang Motif (p174), Celestial Air (p176), and Hidden Virtues (p178). Despite that, I still believe this book is fundamental (and more!) to a guqin learner who is not fluent in Mandarin.

The author claims that it’s written at the high school level, but even then, all the complex and abstract musical theory and mathematics makes it a rather dense read. At best, I think that most of the reading is suited at the college level. I just wish that the author could have included detailed and easy to understand info on how to play it. It goes from score symbols, to complex and dense reading, and then straight to the music scores; also, I wish that the author could have written the accompanying musical scores in jianpu rather than western musical theory. At best, it is better suited for college level reading and academia; and I highly regret saying that because I personally stay away from tedious academic writing. I also wonder why the author chose to use numbers to mark tones in Mandarin (e.x. mo3, gou1, ti1), instead of pinyin? Anyway, it is a good introduction to the guqin that is written in English; this is perhaps the only English written manual for the guqin as it is extremely rare to find anything else in English. Use it as a supplement for your lessons and as a review. I highly suggest that you find a teacher and use this manual to supplement your learning.

As a beginner, this was very helpful in understanding jianzipu notation, and the included western notation was somewhat helpful in understanding what each part did. it is also quite informative as almost the entire first half of the book is about guqin's history, music theory, notation, and maintenance. Almost the rest of the other half are the music sheets and their introductory pages of their context. I don't really have a teacher to assist with my learning so there was a considerable learning curve the first time around when I moved onto the 2nd introductory piece and had to break it down piece by piece slowly. The 1st introductory piece was perfect for a beginner to learn though. It is a given that you study the notation charts although some of the notation won't be relevant until later pieces a few months down the book's recommended curriculum. It would be nice if there was an additional page/section for each piece detailing what jianzipu that is needed to be learnt before attempting the piece instead of having to find the notation in the charts 52+ pages back, but we will have to make do with manually making personal notes on the music sheets and book tabs. I possess the normal 4th Edition book and the ring-binded 5th edition. The ring-binded book sits easier on my music stand and there's no spine that requires excessive stressing to keep the book open. The 5th Edition is a rewrite that corrects the deficiencies and inaccuracies of the 4th Edition. Overall, definitely would recommend this resource to anyone starting out with guqin.

This book describes the guqin so well and in such detail, that although I have not received the instrument in the mail yet I already feel like I I know everything I need to know to start playing the instrument. It has very well illustrated instructions, detailed explanations, and goes very in-depth about everything it needs to. The book even includes various practice pieces in the back, which is not something I was expecting! Absolutely fantastic, I can't wait to start using it when I get the instrument in! :-)

This has the best finding chart I have found and good info. I'm really glad that the book that came with my guqin has simple learning bars though, since this one skips to more advanced music. I will use the charts and explanations in this book to help notate my book that is in Chinese. The pair of books should get me a good base knowledge.

Got my new guqin and started looking for resources. Got a nice book in Chinese from the shop, got lots of explanations for the notation online and from the Abiding in Antiquity translation. This book brings it all together in one place, in English. Seems to be the only source for learning guqin in English, so five stars for that.

The only book of it's kind in English. Now in it's third edition, "Standards of the Guchin" provides the quintessential introduction to China's most mysterious, celestial music and it's history. Everything is here with references to on line instructional videos and full length performances by the author. Aesthetics, notation, tuning systems, technique and lessons with many pieces serve as a complete beginning curriculum for private and group instruction. This comprehensive volume addresses a world of specific knowledge never before available to English readers and fosters a love and appreciation of the Guchin and it's music,from the most ancient times up until today.

too hard of a book to understand, it was written in another language and some is translated but not all, very hard to teach yourself and understand.

The book is finely written and describes clearly the way to start playing the Guquin. Grips on the strings, how to hold your fingers, how to read the tabulature for the songs you want to play on the instrument, etc etc... Plus it goes into depth on the culural and historical context of the instrument and how it was played through the ages. A wonderful book if you want to just know about the instrument itself and especially if you want to start learn playing it.

Un libro muy completo y facil de entender

Very good.

I usually never write reviews before having gone through at least a month with the products. There are just a few English Qin book around (you learn to remove “Gu” in front of “Qin” in the book) and this one is clearly the most complete. It has one little drawback, it is a little dense and you have to read 40 pages (don’t cheat) before starting to get a grasp of playing really basic Qin. Still, it is like going to school, the first two classes, you simply listen and accept what the teacher says. Then you get this “ah yeah” moment, and things start to fall into place. I play the trumpet, guitar, and now I’m learning Qin. You can take my word, don’t ever settle for the “learn to play quickly” books that cost half the price if you’re serious about learning anything.

It's a very informative book, very good for beginners. It explains everything necessary in detail and has spaces for your own notes and interpretations. I wasn't exactly sure what contents the book had when I bought it, but I'm more than happy with the purchase. I was especially glad when I discovered the repertoire pieces section at the end, as well as the Jianzipu (減字譜) notation explanations (which is what I was most interested in).