SHENG

Manual

　　　1) Fingering Charts of 21-reed and 36-reed Sheng

2) Traditional chordal fingering, Modern chordal fingering and Hu Tianquan chordal fingering

3) Abbreviation

Loo Sze Wang

Updated on Oct 2002

Foreword

Sheng is one of the oldest wind instruments in China. The instrument is made up with independent tubes and reeds (free reeds), double stops, harmonic chords and even tone clusters are thus possible to be produced by the instrument.

The number of tubes, reeds and their arrangements of Sheng are varied from different parts of China. During the last few decades, there have been a lot of changes on the instrument due to the historical factors. The fingering system of the instrument is still not standardized nowadays.

Some of the misunderstanding and confusion may happen because of the above situation. Many composers may have great ideas on the instrument but sometimes; unfortunately, their ideas may not be possible on it. It is worth introducing two types of Sheng that seems to be the most common fingerings in the field. They are traditional Sheng (21-reed) and 36-reed Sheng.

The harmonic function of the instrument seems also to be its hallmark in lots of composer｡ﾇs mind. In the second half of the menu, nevertheless, I would like to introduce three types of fingering, mainly on the traditional Sheng, that people can have better understanding on its performance practice.

Fingering Chart

Traditional Sheng (21-reed)

Left Hand Area　　　　Right Hand Area

From the picture above, the range of the 21-reed traditional Sheng is as follows:

Diagram 1

The arrows from the above diagram precisely indicate the position of the fingers that used to cover the tubes[1] Each finger can cover at most 2 consecutive holes in the Right Hand Area, double stops by one finger like tubes 10, 11 and tubes 6,7[2] are also possible in theLeft Hand Area.

　[2] Double stops of tubes 5,6 / tubes 7,8 / tubes 8,9 / tubes 9,10 are also possible but they are difficult due to the hand position.

36-reed Sheng

The range of the 36-reed (Chromatic) Sheng is as follows: Diagram 2

From the above diagram, the arrangement of the tubes could be divided into three rows ? Row 1,2,3 and two halves ? Left and Right.

For Row 1 and 2, the keys[3] are mainly controlled by the fingertips except the two arrows indicated in row 2.

The row 3 is comparatively more complicated. Three fingers (middle, fourth and last) are being used to control this row[4]

Each finger is large enough to press two consecutive keys. Since three fingers are used for row 3, more combinations could be made there. The fingers in row 3 can press not only the consecutive keys but also double-stop (within one row) or even triple-stop (within one row) with key(s) in between.

Double-stop

Take on the right side from the 36-reed Sheng chart diagram as an example, the middle and fourth fingers are able to able to press those keys to make the Major 7^th.

Triple-stop

Take  on the left side from the 36-reed Sheng chart diagram as the other example, triple-stop like this is also possible but, in that case, the performer will use different fingering to make it happen.[5]
Situation like this happens all the times especially in the newly composed works. The previous charts for 21-reed and 36-reed Shengs are just the general descriptions of the instrument, it would be fantastic if composer could have a better communication with the performer because it is worth for both sides.

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　[3] Each tube of this instrument is manufactured by means of keys rather than holes in the 21-reed Sheng.

　[4] The 4^th fingers in both sizes are overlapped just because of the limitation of the drawing.

[5] In that case, middle and fourth fingers will be used for  and  respectively which is just the opposite of the general fingering as indicated in the 36-reed Sheng chart.

Traditional chordal fingering, Modern chordal fingering and

Hu Tianquan chordal fingering

Three types of chordal fingerings could be concluded for a better understanding of the performing practice of the instrument.[6]

 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Traditional chordal fingering

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　[6] The chordal fingerings are restricted for the 21-reed traditional Sheng only.

The traditional chordal fingering of traditional Sheng is constructed under a perfect 5^th relationship while the lower note within the fifth dominates the chord. Takes D as an example, D plus an A (fifth) forms the fundamental and, no matter how many D and A in the chord, the outcome will only be D in the performer｡ﾇs mind.

There is no octave-concept in the traditional Sheng playing (please see the first and last chord from diagram 3), performers might always play the chord AD｡ﾇA｡ﾇD｡ﾉ for any octaves of D and so the others.

Diagram 3

The traditional chordal fingering is not a rigid scheme for the performer; they may vary the number of note in the chord according to the repertoire.

　[6] The chordal fingerings are restricted for the 21-reed traditional Sheng only.