The folk music troupe where Ying Wenlin belongs is a national art troupe directly under the Ministry of Culture, and has its own training venues and performance halls.
When Xu Qiao followed him, he walked through the rehearsal rooms. When he passed a rehearsal room with an open door, Ying Wenlin stuck his head in to take a look.
"Hey, Xiao Tang, play the flute."
The young man who was playing the flute put it down, his face filled with grief and indignation: "Teacher Ying, what are you doing?"
Can you please not use that tone, what about playing the flute? How come those who learn the flute can't escape being attacked by dirty jokes
Ying Wenlin snorted, "I've told you several times, close the door during training and don't disturb others. If you don't close the door next time, I'll punish you by making you perform under the overpass to earn money."
"I know, I know." Xiao Tang touched his nose and looked at Xu Qiao behind Ying Wenlin, "Hey, isn't this—"
Before he could finish, Ying Wenlin slammed the door of the rehearsal room for him.
Xiao Tang: “…”
"Isn't this Xu Qiao?" Xiao Tang stood on tiptoe and looked at Xu Qiao's back curiously through the window.
Although they had never met him before, everyone in the folk music band was familiar with Xu Qiao.
Previously, Xu Qiao and Ying Wenlin participated in a traditional Chinese music variety show. After returning, Ying Wenlin cut out the part where he played the sanxian and played it over and over again for everyone in the orchestra.
His level is truly amazing. Just looking at his skills in playing the sanxian, no one among the younger generation in the folk music orchestra can compare to him.
Xiao Tang followed the two people's backs with his eyes until they were out of sight, then he picked up the flute again.
I was quite excited when I saw him in person.
Ying Wenlin dragged Xu Qiao to continue walking inside, and soon they arrived at the rehearsal hall. The band members were doing ensemble training, and the two stopped and stood aside to watch for a while.
The folk music band is divided into four groups: wind instruments, string instruments, plucked instruments and percussion instruments. The members are generally young and look quite young.
Xu Qiao looked around and saw Xiaochun in the plucking group, holding the pipa and playing it. Judging from where she was sitting, Xiaochun was the core of the group.
During a break in training, Xiaochun flexed his wrists and looked up to see his uncle and Xu Qiao standing there. He was stunned at first, then excitedly waved to them.
The people around noticed her movements and began to look over in the direction she was looking.
"Teacher Ying!"
"Xu Qiao??"
"Wow, Teacher Ying, you actually invited Xu Qiao here."
Seeing everyone's excitement, Ying Wenlin coughed and pressed his palm down to signal everyone to be quiet: "Alright, calm down, you will have a long time to spend with Xu Qiao in the future."
After hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up. What did this mean? It meant that Xu Qiao would go with them to the exchange meeting in the second half of the year!
Ying Wenlin: "Today I just brought Xu Qiao here to have a look and get to know everyone. I will discuss the training time with Xu Qiao later."
After that, he asked Xu Qiao to briefly introduce himself.
Regardless of the fact that everyone was eagerly waiting for Xu Qiao to play another piece on the spot, Ying Wenlin had already taken him to the lounge.
For a moment, everyone lost interest in training and started discussing.
“I really want to hear him play the sanxian live.”
"Didn't Xiaochun say that he was also very good at playing the pipa? Xiaochun, how is he so good?"
Xiaochun held her own pipa and said proudly, "That day, Brother Xu Qiao played the song with my pipa! You don't know, the whole teahouse fell silent when Brother Xu Qiao played, I just stood by and listened, and he played the song "Song of the Frontier" so well..."
After thinking for a long time and not being able to come up with a suitable adjective, Xiaochun finally came up with two words: "Amazing!"
…
In the lounge, Ying Wenlin took out the folk music band's brochure and placed it in front of Xu Qiao. As he flipped through it, he asked, "You just listened to everyone's training. How did you feel about it?"
Xu Qiao hesitated for a moment and said, "Technically they are all pretty good."
After all, they are all carefully selected talents and they have all the basic skills.
Ying Wenlin nodded: "Yes, the youngest in the band is Xiaochun, and he has been playing the instrument for thirteen years, and the others have basically been playing for fifteen years or more."
With more than ten years of experience and good talent, his performance is naturally impeccable.
"But there are still few who can handle big events. The older generation has retired, and there is a gap in the middle. These younger generations are still a little short of maturity." Ying Wenlin watched Xu Qiao slowly flipping through the brochure, sitting on a chair, listening to the faint music, and sighed, "As I told you before, the Chinese folk music group's performance in the international arena is a step behind."
"My teacher used to perform in concert halls in various countries as a soloist. Wow, he was as good as an entire orchestra. It was really an honor."
"Now that the teachers have all retired, we are starting to do some kind of national symphony."
Ying Wenlin shook his head: "You can play the sanxian and pipa, so you must know that our folk music is at a disadvantage in ensemble."
"Folk music is an individual highlight." Xu Qiao added.
"Yes, in our traditional music system, there is no such thing as 'symphony'? National symphony music? Oh, the symphony itself is a product of Western music, and it is based on Western aesthetic standards. Participating in this exchange meeting..." Ying Wenlin pressed his temple, "It is not easy for these young people in all aspects."
Xu Qiao understood what Ying Wenlin meant.
Compared with the neat and orderly ensemble of Western music in the concert hall, folk music mostly gives people the impression of being independent.
Western music has a unified pattern and fixed paradigm in the configuration of ensemble instruments. From a small orchestra of about 20 people to a symphony orchestra of more than 100 people, all have their standardized arrangements.
In terms of performance, there is no need to explain the momentum and resonance.
However, traditional Chinese musical instruments are mainly composed of high and medium pitches and lack bass. This requires the introduction of Western cellos, double basses and basses to strengthen the bass part, including the invention of bass-key sheng, bass suona, etc. to improve it.
"In recent years, folk music troupes have undergone many reforms, claiming to be on par with international standards, but after so many changes, they have become more like a copycat symphony orchestra." Ying Wenlin laughed at himself, "It's not without reason that our folk music troupe is sometimes called a grass-roots opera troupe."
The advantages of folk music are obvious. The instruments have strong personalities and a single instrument has extremely strong expressiveness. The pipa, sanxian, erhu, etc. can all create rich and bizarre melodies.
But this is also its disadvantage. The stronger the personality, the weaker the tolerance.
Most folk musical instruments were not originally created for ensemble performance, and they are certainly much less competitive than Western symphony orchestras in ensemble performance. Both the rhythm and artistic conception need to be honed in over time.
It is hard to tell whether Ying Wenlin is happy or regretful. "In the past, folk music did not emphasize harmony, and overall it was not as structured as Western music. Traditional music was also passed down orally, and there was no concept of dedicated composer. Now we have borrowed from the arrangement of Western music and commissioned composers to compose. Now, a product that combines Chinese and Western music has emerged!"
"A few days ago, I asked a kid who came to study in our folk music band, and I was teasing her, what instrument do you think is the most important in our folk music band? And she told me the cello." He shook his head, "Oh, cello. If you say she is wrong, she does have a point. The cello is very important in terms of harmony."
Xu Qiao was amused by Ying Wenlin's speechless expression.
Ying Wenlin looked at him and smiled helplessly: "With your level, whether it's the sanxian or the pipa, you can dominate the scene with a solo. As for the ensemble, I think you should also play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses. When the time comes, you can communicate with us and see how we can perform."
Xu Qiao had a lot of ideas in his mind. His eyes fell on the brochure that Ying Wenlin gave him. Looking at the composition of the folk music band, Xu Qiao thought for a while and looked at Ying Wenlin: "Teacher Ying, do you have paper and pen?"
Ying Wenlin didn't know what he was going to do, so he nodded, stood up, took a stack of paper and pen and handed it to him.
Xu Qiao held the pen, paused, and began to write.
Blindly referring to the Western instrument theory will cause too many problems for the national orchestra, such as timbre harmony, etc.
The few words Xu Qiao wrote were: Theory of Harmony of Folk Music.
When Ying Wenlin saw him put pen to paper, he sincerely admired the good handwriting in his heart, and then his eyes froze.
What Xu Qiao wrote were his own opinions, not perfect theories, and could only be used as a reference. But Ying Wenlin was shocked beyond words when he saw what he wrote.
He felt that the difficulties encountered in promoting the development of folk music orchestras in recent years, those bottlenecks that were vaguely visible but unbreakable, seemed to have loosened a little.
After an unknown amount of time, Xu Qiao stopped writing and handed the paper to Ying Wenlin: "Teacher Ying, these are just some unformed theories. Can you take a look and see if you can come up with some ideas?"
Rubbing his sore wrist, Xu Qiao heard Ying Wenlin ask, "You just gave it to me like this, aren't you afraid that I will plagiarize your work?"
Xu Qiao smiled. These were just his own experiences and understandings. They were not a system at all, so how could they be considered achievements
If Ying Wenlin could really come up with some ideas and push folk music to a higher level, that would be a good thing. But this cannot be done in a hurry, and he will have to spend half his life slowly pondering and perfecting it.
"It can't be considered an achievement, just some ideas." Xu Qiao poured himself a glass of water and moistened his dry throat.
"You've given me some advice." Ying Wenlin shook his head and smiled, "Maybe one day this stack of your manuscripts will be collected in a museum. I'll have to frame them properly when I get home."
Xu Qiao was helpless: "Teacher Ying, you are joking. It's not that exaggerated."
Ying Wenlin patted him on the shoulder and said nothing.
Xu Qiao took the sanxian given by Ying Wenlin back home. After returning home, he went to the studio gym every day to train with Kang Wei as usual. He also went to the folk music orchestra every few days to train with everyone.
Mo Chenghong got him a few more interviews, and when he had free time he had to use his secondary account to cooperate with Gao Ming in promoting the doomsday game. Xu Qiao felt that his schedule was becoming more and more full.
After such a fulfilling period, the second season of "Survival" finally began amid the audience's anticipation.
The author has something to say: I have learned the guzheng for a few years, but it is just an amateur, and my understanding of folk music is very limited. If there are any mistakes, please forgive me (.