Dear all,

Would like to create a new topic on piano playing for Chinese Pop Songs. On the sharing of techniques, improvising chords, play the tune after hearing in on Radio / TV and so on with and without scores.

I am an Adult Beginner/Intermediate. I read scores and improvise some through hearing new songs on TV or Radio, coming out with my own chords playing method, making it easier to play. And even compose a few tune...

I play music like:
Fairy-tale 童话 by Michael Wong 光良
JJ Lin Jun Jie, 林俊杰 - Killa, Sha Shou (杀手)
Tanya Chua/Stefanie Sun 孫燕姿 - Yuan Dian
Jolin Tsai 蔡依林 Ning Meng Cao De Wei Dao
and so on...

So, hope to meet people with the same interest as me in this forum.

Cheers,
Bihua

Welcome to the forum, Bihua! I'm not familiar with much Chinese music. I don't know if this one counts as Chinese pop music, but my favorite Chinese song I can play is "The moon, my heart" (by Teresa Tang). (Of course, it's the ONLY Chinese song I can play! But it's a pretty one.)

I was introduced to it by our own PW member Axtremus, who posted a recording of it along with his transcription of it:

Ax\'s recordings web site, including "The moon, my heart"

I'd be interested to hear some examples of the music you're talking about. Do you have any links to YouTube videos or the like we can listen to?

Oh, I didn't realize that there are also people out there like me...... only that my skills aren't that good..... I can play mostly Jay Chou's songs and also some english songs......

Wow! Monica, that is very nice!
Yes, I consider this as Chinese Pop Songs as well.

Haha, my standards are not so high, but I can do some recording this weekend and share with you both. Can't do it during weekdays, these few days very busy at work And I welcome all feedbacks.

Starfire, I want to hear what you play as well, can share? Then we can brush up our piano skills together...

Cheers

I need to clarify that the recording I linked to was of Axtremus playing, not me. For some reason my version of that piece has a lot more hesitations and wrong notes, and the tempo is slower by 25%...

I really like a lot of Asian music and have quite a few CDs of anime/video game music and several by Yiruma. But I'd like to hear more examples of Chinese music specifically.

I managed to record some pieces in .wav file. But I cannot upload into my Blog. The Blog only allows videos or images. How can I share the files?

Cool, I also play Chinese Pop Song and I play a lot of them.
I myself feel that I somehow got the hold on it and am able to play them quite easily.
All you need is by improvising your chords again and again to get the sound you want as your right hand/melody generally can't have big changes other than some short running notes added.

Anyway, some of the songs I am very good at includes...
Tong Hua
lots of Jay Chou songs (particularly old one)
some popular pop songs like Mouse love Rice etc.
Some older songs.
Songs that appear in One Million Star 超级星光大道
etc. etc. etc.

The list goes on very long as I play them for long years already.

Ready to share any ways to improve and also to learn!!

regards,

my Jay's medley!
enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5OFhVaUzZE

Bihua, most of us in AB forum use boxnet to upload our recordings, found here:

http://www.box.net/

You have to register to get an account, but it's free, and they don't have all those annoying ads you can get with other free file-hosting services.

However, .wav files are pretty big, and may exceed the boxnet limits. It's best if you can convert the .wav files to .mp3's. Audacity can do that for you; it's a free recording program, though make sure you also download the (equally free) Lame utility, because you need that for the mp3 conversion.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq

Good luck!

tanjinjack, that was a wonderful video. Am I understanding you correctly that you improvised all those? Very nice.

Monica,

Indeed, I improvise all of that. The scores that I obtain (may not be the actual piano transcription) do not involve that much variations on the left hand. They usually come in broken chord which is somehow boring. Anyway, broken chords can be nice too and also many variations in it.
For example, for C major chord I, or just C maj chord, CEG,
You might play C G (higher C) the back to G and then the higher C and then back and forth until the next chord. Why don't you try with E instead of higher C, and also after the G, and you fall back to the lower C or E at your own choice.
There's many variations!!

Those are songs that I play for years and slowly add in one by one by grouping them to similar keys and linking all groups up by their key relationship (either to their dominant or one step up/down).

In fact, there is not something like ACTUAL score for Chinese pop song. You got the melody line, you got the right chords, there you go. And, this makes me really like Chinese Pop song as you can make a song lively or sad by manipulating the chords. (although not it can't be applied to all songs)

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to finish the whole video that's about 9 minutes long!

I have recordings on some other songs like Tong Hua and will upload it when I get a decent connection.

Regards,
-jin jack-

Jin Jack, That was very nice of putting all the songs together into one piece.
Very smooth transition from one song to another. Did you convert them to the same key signature? Or how did you do the transition? I haven't did that before. Maybe I should try...

Monica, thanks! I will try to convert the files and upload when I get home. Hehe, now in office. Not convenient. :p

Jin Jack, for Tong Hua, I did a different chords variation. Say for C chord, I play it as C, G, Higher C, Higher D, Higher E. (Think is called the Broken Ballad 2nd, something that I learnt from Yoke Wong : http://www.playpianotips.com, I didn't register, but some stuff are free there :p ). Sounded quite ok. How did you do for yours?

Argh...Can't wait to go home and convert the files to share with you all.

Lol, I don't really transpose them to the same key signature. Nonetheless, a few of the pieces I did make them a semitone higher or lower to fit them in more nicely.
In fact, if you play a lot of Jay Chou's song, you will find most of it is in A major, followed by D major, C major and B flat major. Thus, as I start my medley with A major's songs, then to G major by suddenly introducing 'Xing Qing' 星晴 to get it tranposed so that it does not sound awkward.

Anyway, I have to say is I am not able to do the exactly identical piece for the second time for almost all pieces. My left hands are up to itself to create the chords. I don't fix my left hand, nor my right hand. Sometimes, my right hand are sixth apart, sometimes third apart or octave apart, depending on the feel and mood when playing it.

I will upload my Tong Hua soon. Stay tuned!

tanjinjack,

Thanks for the video, it is wonderful especially you improvised the chords! you can occasionally checked out the camera and not missing a key, at least I can't . By the way, can you play 'The Moon, My Heart' that Monica K mentioned ? It is my favourite song !

Yes I can. If you like, give me some time (probably after my term exam) and I'll improvise on it. Perhaps beside a romantic version, I could come up with something blue and jazzy! Who knows.

Thanks, if you want the sheetmusic for the melody part, Ax's site(Axtremus) mentioned in Monica K's message has the link.

Double post.

My Tong Hua!!

Took some time on configuring the box.net.
It does not seem to be easy to upload or maybe is the weak connection I have.

Anyway, enjoy!!

http://www.box.net/shared/aeqroriwws

Thanks for sharing, you played very well, I can imagine the little fairies flying around from the music.

Here are some of my recordings, very badly played, still brushing up, hopefully it will be better as time pass... They are in .wav file, coz when I try to convert it into .mp3, the file size is 4x bigger...

Tong Hua: http://www.box.net/shared/cc8vomtc04
Sha Shou: http://www.box.net/shared/7vupvm2o00

Haha, hope you enjoy it and give some comments.

Well, Bihua, a nicely done Tong Hua.

Anyway, why don't you try F major or G major instead of the C major. They have one key signature only and shouldn't be very hard to practise on.
As far as I know, the CD version is of G major, but the story in the MV, he actually practise on F major.
Mine is in F major because I get to play it very much as the score I got is in F major. Anyway, I can play in G major as well.

Anyway, I find your use of pedals at some time is not really suitable. Try to change your pedals more frequent. This is very important as most Chinses pop music change chords fairly frequent.
For Tong Hua as example, they start out with 1 chord per bar and in the chorus it's 2 chords per bar. At every chord, you have to change pedals.
Also, you might consider adding some extra notes on your right hands, like playing in thirds apart or sixth aparts or even octave apart!

One more extra experience on playing chinese pop songs, I usually will try to build up the affection of the piece. Try to seperate your piece in sections, and try to make difference between the sections if they are repeating themselves. In Tong Hua, it is very easy as there's modulation. In addition to the modulation, use more complex chords and larger range of dynamics.

Anyway, it requires experiences and lots of practices.
I am willing to share anything with every of you!!

I will upload more of my pop songs soon!

JinJack,

Wow! I am very impressed that you can hear which major it is. Salute! Hehe, I cannot tell the difference actually. But I know I should when I reach a more advanced level.

Oh, the score which I have (guitar one) starts with D major. But because when it move to the second section, it changed key signature to E major, where I need to manage 4 sharps keys. I found it too challenging for me. So, I went to change it to C major :p , so that when it moved to the 2nd section, I only need to manage 2 sharp keys (taking the easier way out). Maybe I try out the G major / F major, to see if it is better.

Ok, will work on my pedalling and adding notes on my right hand.

Btw, what other chords method do you play?

When you say "larger dynamics", does it mean making it softer during certain parts of the song and louder for other parts to bring out the impact?

Let me rework on it first, will share it again when I am ready.

Thank you soo soo much!!! Really appreciate it.

Indeed, since Tong Hua intro is not something marvelous or anywhere near grand, there's no need for it to start in louder way. You can have it, like around mp just to catch the attention, and when the melody line goes in, you have it in p and then slowly build up.
In your very first chorus, there's no need to go to f, keep it around mf will do.
Anyway, my version has 2 modulations. I start with F major, then to G major, then again to A major.
In the original songs, there's 2 modulations as well.
The modulations+dynamics+chords+some techniques will certianly bring out more impact.

Give it a try!

Bihua, to be honest, I listened to your music clips again and I still couldn't detect which major they were ! tanjinjack, are you a robot

Kidding aside, tanjinjack, how did you learn on the recognisation of the pitch ?

Well, by experience I say. I by far, can only recognise the notes/keys if it is in piano sound.

As you play a lot of music, your hearing becomes better. In my ABRSM syllabus, there are listening test as well and it is usually the part that I did well at!

Anyway, by playing more music, and slowly learn the difference between them. You will know it!

But, there's still chance that I get it wrong by half a semitone, especially those white to black or black to white.

Hehe..

Happen to find this in one of the thread (forgot where), which has some scores available for free. Haha, which you might be interested as well...

http://www.gangqinpu.com/

But so sorry, the website is in Chinese...

Hey hey,

I wanna influence my brother in playing piano and my 1st project oh him, i'm thinking in is Jay Chou piece. I'm thinking of the movie "Secret" main theme where can i get them?

opps double post

Very impressive Jay Chou and NQMM's 宇豪 Yu Hao Piano Duet....inspiring?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhXNMcl9Et0

Is this what you are looking for?

http://www.gangqinpu.com/html/3743.htm