Broken gǔzhèng strings

This post is intended to record what I have learnt about tuning my gǔzhèng (古筝), and sourcing new strings in New Zealand.

When you transport your gǔzhèng, you remove the bridges to prevent the strings from breaking if weight is placed on them.  The next time you want to play it, you replace the bridges and retune each string.

Gǔzhèng bridges

Replacing the bridges and tuning the strings, I snapped three of the higher ones (1, 6 and 7).  These are the thinnest, and are more likely to break.  With my bad tuning technique, I think some of the lower strings are also damaged but are thankfully still usable and whole.

Tuning knobs and strings

The best solution would have been to find suitable strings in local music stores.  I tried two local stores and it became clear this wasn't something they dealt with ever.  The first store was staffed by a Chinese lady who knew what I was talking about, and later called to suggest looking in one of the many local Chinese newspapers for gǔzhèng teachers as they often sell parts or instruments (as teachers also do in China).  The second showed me a selection of strings for other instruments that might be suitable, but we concluded they weren't and they kept my number in case they located any.  When they later called back, they had found a local teacher who would sell individual strings at $5 NZ a piece.

In the meantime, I had ordered and received several sets (a full 21 piece, and two sets of 1-10 strings) from a store in the USA called Sound of Asia.  This came to about $70 NZ including shipping, and was much cheaper than buying from a local teacher would have been given the price above.  It also arrived extremely quickly, within 3-4 days of ordering.

Sound of Asia sourced strings

With the new strings and a desire not to have to order more, I had researched (and learnt in the practice of doing this) some guidelines to follow when replacing the bridges:

• Bridge placement: Use the tuning chart from the Sound of Asia web site, which illustrates best bridge placement for each string.  You can see white tape on the left side of my gǔzhèng, in the first picture.  This is where I've measured and marked each of the distances.
• String fitting: There's a trick to properly winding the new string onto it's tuning knob.  Wind the string around the knob several times before pushing the end of the string through the hole.  If you do not do this, then you'll run out of tightening room before your strings are tightened enough.
• String tuning/tightening: When turning the tuning knob for a given string tighter, take the string off the bridge, tighten and then having done that replace the string on the bridge.

I've included the tuning chart below, as I am unable to locate it on the Sound of Asia site any more.

Good luck!  And here's a YouTube video of someone playing Richard Marx's Right Here Waiting on one of these instruments, just for the sake of it.  I've got to learn more about music so I can try playing some western songs.

Karaka trees

I live nearby Basque park, one of the many small parks littered around Auckland. People usually go there to walk their dogs, water their kids and sunbathe. There's a nice artistic fountain sculpture water feature thing in the center. And there's also this sign.



Interestingly it mentions how the area was known for its karaka trees, which the maori would harvest the fruit from. Sounds quite nice.



Hey, here's a fruit laden karaka tree in front of an apartment.



They're all over the place. There's an old one in a dog exercise area up Mount Eden. They are in front yards of houses.



Very tempting.. but wait!? WTF?

Eating the untreated kernel causes severe muscle cramps that can even rip the muscles off the bone

They don't mention that on the sign, do they? This pdf document gives a pretty good overview about the tree and its fruit.

Foraging nearby

Ever since I first watched the River Cottage television shows with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, I have liked the idea of foraging for food.

A wild fennel plant growing in my backyard:



Several plants in an empty lot down the road:



In this photo there is a giant fennel plant. And below it some kind of berryfruit plant, probably blackberry. Not sure I would bother with the berries though, as this particlar place is where all the rubbish that blows down hill tends to end up. When the time comes I'm thinking of harvesting the fennel seeds and drying them. There are enough wild fennel plants nearby to make it worth my while, for personal use at least.

Foraging isn't without its dangers though. There's the warnings against roadside foraging, which would be the case for the plants shown in the second photo. This is due to heavy metals from car exhausts and street run-off. Then there is the danger of plant misidentification, for fennel for instance, it is common to read warnings against mistaking it with poisonous hemlock. Although as far as I can tell, that seems to be scaremongering which is copied and pasted as people read it elsewhere and write about it on their own web page or blog post.