FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Here at Eight Tones Music, we offer a wide range of Chinese instrumental lessons. We offer lessons at our music school (click here for more information) and also online lessons  conducted on video calling platforms such as Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp video call or Facetime. Kindly contact us to arrange for a trial lesson with our teachers.

Instructional videos are helpful to a certain extent, however do not cover the finer details in playing, and do not address your personal issues when learning. During lessons with our teacher, each lesson is tailored to address your individual issues that are unique to each person.

Visit our contact us page for more information.

Eight tones store is located here in Singapore, at 465 North Bridge Rd, #02-5039, Singapore 191465. We have an extensive selection of instruments that may not be featured on the online store. If you are unable to find what you are looking for, kindly contact us at +65 9836 2072 and our Eight Tones representatives will assist you accordingly.

Yes, upon request, we will send you a short video/audio recording from the instrument of your choice. We also do instrument consultations via live video calls, where our consultants will assist you in making an informed decision on your favourite piece. Contact us to make a request.

Each and every instrument has been, and will be checked several times before we send them out to you. That said, we also provide a 1 year manufacturing defect warranty, on structural damages for all our instruments.

Instruments should be placed in an environment that you would feel comfortable, extreme heat/cold/moisture/dryness should be avoided. Avoid cleaning your instrument with water, oil, alcohol products, and waxes. It is recommended that you only clean your instrument with a dry cloth.

In the past, Guqin and Guzheng were known as Qin and Zheng, and they are two completely different instruments. While they do share some commonalities, some of the differences include:

Guzheng players wear artificial fingernails on both hands. On the other hand, the Guqin does not require the player to wear artificial fingernails, but they are required to grow natural fingernails on the right hand.

The Guzheng has 21 strings, whereas the Guqin has 7 strings. While this does not affect the dynamicity of the instrument, this results in a vast difference in terms of the playing techniques for these two instruments. The tone colour for these two instruments is in direct contrast, where the Guzheng is generally brighter, whereas the Guqin is mellower.

Of the various Chinese instruments, the Guzheng is the easiest plucked instrument to pick, the Erhu is the easiest bowed instrument to pick up, and the Hulusi is the easiest wind instrument to pick up.

Instruments such as the Erhu, Ruan, and Liuqin, would require you to have fingernails that aren’t too long on the left hand, as long as fingernails will inhibit playing them properly.

The Pipa and Guzheng would require you to wear artificial fingernails to play them, you can maintain long fingernails as long as it does not protrude past the artificial fingernails.

The Guqin is played using your own fingernails on the right hand. As such, you would need to have some additional fingernail length, approximately 3mm past your fingertips.

To know more about which instrument suitable for you, contact us now. Our experts will be able to assist you.