Wu Fei's Music Daily

There has been many spiderwebs in the forest. In the last two weeks, I had been bitten by spiders while hiking. I thought it was chiggers first. And then I realized I was bitten by spiders because there were always two biting marks next to each other. After doing more research, I came to peace with the spiders in the forest because I was walking through their webs. In their defense, I was an invad...

I improvised this piece on guzheng and my vocal yesterday. It is dedicated to our youth and the young loves. We all have grown, and hopefully have grown wiser. Everything we experienced made who we are today. There is only appreciation for those experiences in my heart. I want to send my thank you to all the new paid subscribers in the last few days. Our life paths have joined from this moment. Th...

I have never loved a bandana so much until I discovered its best use — to mute the sustained sound of my guzheng strings. The compositional possibilities from adding one bandana to my strings are infinite! Wu Fei 吴非 Wufeimusic.comTwitter @wufeiInstagram @wufeimusicYouTube @wufeimusic This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, v...

I improvised this solo guzheng piece yesterday after reading Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1048 - 1311), was a polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and Persian poetry. He was born in Nishapur, the initial capital of the Seljuk Empire. As a scholar, he was contemporary with the rule of the Seljuk dynasty around the time of the First Crusade. “ Whether at Naishápú...

Yesterday, I received a dear subscriber’s email asking tips about how to work on counterpoint music. He watched the video (below) that I made for self-counterpoint practice. I must say that counterpoint music is one of the more complex music forms in terms of composition and practice. The foundation to play/sing/compose counterpoint is ear training from my own experience. Being able to hear what i...

I wrote this single melody piece on guzheng yesterday. After being with many children at a back to school party this weekend, I felt like writing something with only one line of melody to celebrate simplicity. As adults, we often forget how beautiful being simple can be. It is full of imagination, possibility and nobility, which children are. Hope you all have a wonderful week! Wu Fei 吴非 Wufeimu...

This guzheng improvisation was created yesterday. I was thinking about my mother when I was playing. Since she and my father moved to Nashville from Beijing in 2019, their health has improved tremendously. As their daughter, I feel happy, lucky and proud that I can take good care of them when they are old. We do argue like all families (less and less :). My mother can only say sweet things to me,...

This multitrack guzheng piece was created and recorded yesterday. I was driving my children to their school Sunday picnic yesterday, and I heard my 7-year old son say “…The waterfall of trees I see in the reflection…” I thought it was an interesting sentence, and decided to write a piece with that impression. Meanwhile, I continue orchestrating my symphony score for Hello Gold Mountain . Yesterday...

This three-track counterpoint guzheng piece was composed and recorded yesterday. After two hours of working on the orchestral score of Hello Gold Mountain , I needed a change of brain. Then I remembered my old composition professor’s home phone number back in Beijing. I used to memorize all my professors’ phone numbers in music pitches. Most of my music lessons at the China Conservatory of Music w...

I composed and recorded this three-track guzheng piece yesterday. The lower strings were half muted by a bandana. That is why the sustain of the strings is no longer there. I also didn’t wear finger picks, so I plucked the guzheng in the way harpists play., which adds a more muted sound effect. Hope you enjoy it! I have some work news: I have started orchestrating a symphony composition of mine: H...

This love song was recorded yesterday. This last weekend, we had a 3-year anniversary celebration for my parents moving to the U.S.. It has been an amazing three years for all of us, especially for my parents to move to a country they had never been. Yesterday, I realized that I had never seen them this peaceful around each other. They looked like a loving couple that I always hoped they could be...

This piece was created and recorded yesterday to celebrate Qixi Festival. The Qixi Festival (七夕), is a Chinese festival celebrating the annual meeting of Zhinü and Niulang in Chinese mythology. The festival is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh lunisolar month on the Lunar calendar. It is also known as the Chinese Valentine’s Day. According to Wikipedia, the festival was derived from w...

After nearly two weeks of recovering from Covid, yesterday was the first day I felt I was getting close to be 100% again. I made a video of an improvisation to celebrate (see below). After making the video, I recorded this audio track in one take as the sequel. Hope it brings a moment of peace to your new week. I’d like to thank Substack for interviewing me for What to Read , its series of newslet...

The forest I live in is full of colors in the summer. Because of the warm climate in middle Tennessee in the United States, plants grow all year long. All kinds of flowers blossom in different seasons. The Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly is back (photo below). This peaceful creature is nearly as big as my palm. I hope it realizes how beautiful it is! Wish you all a wonderful weekend! Wu Fei 吴...

Happy Monday everyone. Hope you’ve had a restful weekend. Yesterday, I tuned my guzheng in D minor. Lately I have been drawn to minor sounding scales. Maybe it’s because the half-sized guzheng I played for more than a month in Auckland was in major scale. I couldn’t change the tuning because I brought the wrong tuning hammer with me from the U.S. to New Zealand. Now I have all the right gears agai...

When I was Auckland two weeks ago, I was amazed by how large the penguins I saw in an aquarium. They were standing so quiet and still as if they were taking a nap together. Some had their heads up like proud singers when some had their heads down like thinkers. They all had their wings open like orchestral conductors bowing to the audience after a concert. I wrote this piece yesterday to reconnect...

Greetings from Nashville, Tennessee everyone. After a long travel trip, my family and I have made it home safely from New Zealand. The very first day after being back, we discovered that there were four baby house sparrows in the flower pot on the front porch. What a lovely surprise! About two months ago, before we left for New Zealand, there had been a mama bird bringing a lot of sticks into the...

Dear subscribers, thank you for your support and patience. I am back in Auckland. Yesterday, we went to the aquarium. Although it was a small aquarium, we were still amazed by all the sea lives that were rare to see from where we lived in the U.S.. It was peaceful and beautiful. The sounds of the sea lives were very smoothing to hear. I recorded this piece after I came home. Hope it helps you to h...

I created this piece a few hours ago inspired by a wooden cow statue from Mission Bay in Auckland. It belongs to a restaurant. I pass by this restaurant everyday when I walk to the beach. If the wooden cow is out on the sidewalk, then I know the restaurant is open. I used the guzheng as a percussion instrument by hitting the strings like a drum on both sides of the bridges. And then I created the...

I didn’t grow up near the ocean. Marine lives or life style by the sea has always been foreign to me. Two days ago, I saw a small island out of the water near the beach where I had been walking by everyday in Auckland. “How interesting!” I thought. “It was always water, but now it’s an island.” I walked on the island to take a look what was on it. I felt like I was standing in the middle of the oc...

Happy Friday everyone! I composed this piece today after seeing a kite festival in Takaparawha Regional Park in the neighborhood of Orakei in Auckland. Both my children and I recognized the characters from our own childhoods. It was a special moment to me that we were able to enjoy the same fun memories on this one big kite from two generations! I wrote this piece to celebrate this day. Wish you a...

Yesterday, I saw three orcas, from Mission Bay, Auckland, New Zealand. They were chasing a stingray. I was surprised how close they were swimming to the shore. The locals told me that it was rare to see orcas and stingray together like that. Everyone I know in Auckland have not seen anything like that. I was extremely lucky to have such an experience! Wu Fei 吴非 Wufeimusic.comTwitter @wufeiInstag...

Hi everyone, greetings from Auckland. I created and recorded this piece today on my half sized guzheng that my parent-in-laws have kept in their home in New Zealand for nearly a decade. It was my first time recording this guzheng for my daily music newsletter. I am still in the process of finding the best sound since I only brought one microphone with me on this trip. When I was doing sound check,...

Greetings from Rarotonga of the Cook Islands! It has been a restful week spending time with family here. Our host told us that we were the first American family returning to the Cook Islands since the pandemic started. No wonder the immigration officer was excited to see us when he processed our arrival cards. The internet is very slow on the island. I will have to wait until I return to Auckland...

Greetings from Auckland! It has been so wonderful, almost surreal to be with my New Zealand family again. For a while, I feared we may never see each other again. Some parts of Auckland have changed quite a bit since the last time I was here. Many new houses are being built. However, some parts are exactly the same, like the ocean. My children are much bigger than the last time when they played in...