This is how the ashtray looks like....he got a good laugh for about 5 minutes when I was figuring out how the hell am I supposed to put this ashtray into good use and wondering why this ashtray comes with an instruction sheet which is written in Chinese writings...
Actually this egg shaped black pottery is called Xun, an ancient Chinese musical instrument which is almost 5000 years old. TC thinks that I should better spend my time learning how to play this instrument rather than spend money to buy an accordion (if you've read my previous entries, you would learn about the acordion story). So practical of TC to get me this, just because I'm the one who blow into things....I'm a trombone player la...I don't blow into things...
These are the info I found about Xun from Wikipedia:
The xun (simplified: 埙; traditional: 塤; pinyin: xūn) is a Chinese vessel flute made of clay or ceramic, similar to an ocarina but without a fipple. It is one of the oldest Chinese instruments. The xun is made in several sizes and is in the shape of an egg. It has a blowing hole on top and generally eight smaller finger holes (three each for the index, middle, and ring fingers of each hand, and one for each thumb).
The Korean equivalent is the hun (hangul: 훈; hanja: 塤). In Japan, the same type of instrument is called tsuchibue (hiragana: つちぶえ ; kanji: 土笛, lit. "earthen flute").
A similar looking Chinese instrument, called the Wudu, has a fipple and is the Chinese equivalent of the ocarina.
It sounds like a flute. I managed to play the lower notes, but still need to find the way to reach higher notes...need to find my flutist friend for some pointers....and since it's made of black pottery, after I'm done with my 'practice', my fingers, lips and mouth turn black as well.
ewwww
P/S: was trying to blog about my high school reunion weekend, but no words can describe the excitement that I felt....huhu
No comments:
Post a Comment