I try REAL silk strings on guzheng

My first two days playing guzheng with silk kayagum strings.
(Still much room for improvement.)
Silk strings are soft on bare fingers, but they require a little extra tuning and replacing.
They are not as loud but they definitely create a very unique and subtle sound.
Please listen closely with quality speakers or headphones.

(Recorded May 20 and 21, 2011)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• silk
• strings
• string
• real
• guzheng
• kayagum
• yatga
• improvise
• improvisation
• trance
• hypnotic
• soothing
• different
• unusual
• sound
• music

[bluetongueboy]

@copperleaves Much thanks for sharing the info. Do you happen to know how someone can make his own decent quality silk strings from raw materials? I really think the world needs more silk strings, and I'm not sure why it has to be such a secret to make such a basic and fundamental musical item . . .

I've been thinking about obtaining a white mulberry tree and raising silkworms in my backyard.

[copperleaves]

Great experiment! The kayagum silk strings are softer than what is required by the guzheng, and do not have the same resonance and strength, so the instrument has more of a koto sound. Many people use genuine silk strings for the guqin but they are hard to find and must be specially ordered. The secret of the silk string is in the kinds of binders used to fuse the monofilaments so that the natural acoustic properties of silk can be heard and the string will not fray or break under high tension.

[bluetongueboy]

@heavy0metal

Yes, none of the strings broke from the tension.

And yes the harmonics are similar to other strings. . . . And the strings were kept at a slightly low tension hopefully causing them to last longer . . . . . . And after a few days the strings began to sound a little more dull. (Yet still quite nice)

Thanks for your comment.

[heavy0metal]

Wow, and none of them broke? I've noticed that playing guzheng (with regular strings) with harmonics sounds close to silk strings.