Wu Fei's Music Daily

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...

Good morning everyone. Hope you are all enjoying a relaxing summer holiday if you are from the northern hemisphere. By the time you hear this piece, which was recorded two days ago, I have left Nashville to New Zealand. I have family in New Zealand. We have been separated by the pandemic for more than three years. It will be a very long travel. After Covid, the new requirements for entering New Ze...

Greetings from Nashville again! This piece was created and recorded yesterday after I came home with much excitement and honored from Chicago. I gave my solo concert at the historical Arts Club of Chicago on June 8th. I was in awe to learn that the club presented Pablo Picasso's first United States showing in 1923. The 1951 exhibition by Jean Dubuffet and his "Anti-cultural Positions" lecture at t...

This solo guzheng improvisation was recorded yesterday. I was inspired by this pair of damselflies (photo below) I saw by the pond. This type damselfly is called the marsh bluet. Their colors changed from sparkly to soft depending the angles where I looked at them from above the water or under the sunlight. They flew like this in the air too. They are similar to dragonflies. Most species fold the...

This night song was recorded yesterday after I read a poem by Xiang Hong Zuo (1798 - 1835), a poet from the Qing Dynasty of China. When I was reading this poem, I could hear birds singing non-stop in the forest. It helped me to focus again since I was awake a lot last night from a loud thunder storm. Hope this piece can help you too to fall asleep tonight. I believe you can hear the birds in the r...

Summer has arrived! The forest is incredibly vivid full of fragrance from the countless kinds of living creatures. I spotted this male slaty skimmer dragonfly (photo below) by the pond yesterday. It was flying on top of the water for a while, and then landed on a tree branch in front of me as if he was striking a pose for me. What a handsome dragonfly it is! Wish I could balance on a stick like th...

I composed and recorded this multitrack guzheng composition yesterday. The weather in Nashville has been going back and forth between sunny and storms in the last twenty four hours. Sometimes the sun and the rain were both out at the same time. Everything is growing in the forest. It looks like a jungle now — lush with dark green leaves everywhere. It is very smoothing on the eyes. Older generatio...

I composed and recorded this piece after seeing a hummingbird drinking at my feeder yesterday. The hummingbird flapped its wings so fast that I couldn’t really see the wings. Later, I learned that hummingbirds flapped their wings from about 10 to more than 80 times per second while hovering. They flap their wings even faster during the courtship display dives used by the males of some species. Mor...

This nearly 10-minute solo vocal and guzheng piece as recorded yesterday. After weeks of following the news of the lockdown in China due to the new breakout of covid, especially after a heavy news of my dear friend’s father passing away, my heart had a confrontation with my brain when I sat down to create this recording. I have known this friend since I was sixteen years old in Beijing. She is one...

Good morning, afternoon or evening everyone. This solo guzheng improvisation piece was recorded yesterday. During my hike, I noticed these little bumps on a leaf (see photo blow) in the forest. I had to look them up on the internet and learned that they were gall wasp eggs. What a fun day to begin my day to discover something I had never heard of in my life! According to Quogue Wildlife Refuge : “...

I composed this piece yesterday and recorded it on multitrack guzheng. It was inspired by a fantastic new harp composition I heard on Classical 91.5 Nashville radio when I was driving. I am still searching the name of the piece and the composer. All I remembered was the harpist was from Paris Conservatory. I will share the information with you as soon as I find that out. Hope this piece brings you...

I composed this piece yesterday after hiking in the forest. I was amused by the tadpoles in the creek (see photo below). The ripples from the tiny movement from the tadpoles’ tales looked magical under the sunlight and the shadows of the trees. It was meditative to stare at them while listening to the sound of the water floating and the birds. And then I recorded this piece as a Mother’s Day prese...

I created this piece yesterday inspired by all the bird calls I heard in the forest. All the sounds in this track are produced on the guzheng and my vocals. Hope it brings you a fun moment into the weekend! Wu Fei 吴非 Wufeimusic.comTwitter @wufeiInstagram @wufeimusicYouTube @wufeimusicufei This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episod...

A week ago, the very few blossoms that came out on our crabapple tree felt off. This one in the photo was the last one. Every year for two weeks, usually in the beginning of April, the tree would be covered by bright pink blossoms. My lack of knowledge about nature made me believe that the blossoms would just arrive later when the temperature became warmer. Of course it did not happen. I am patien...

Greetings from Washington D.C. everyone. This solo piece was recorded a week ago in Nashville. The wild azalea finally blossomed. I had been waiting for them for weeks. I hope there will be more when I get back home in a few days. If you are in D.C., I am playing a solo concert at The Kennedy Center on April 30th, Saturday. Hope there is still ticket available. Would love to see you there! Info &...

This piece was recorded on prepared-guzheng on April 22nd, last Friday. I decided to put all the keychain rings I could find in the house on the strings. After laying down all the plucking sound clusters, I used my tuning fork like a mallet to hit the high strings to create a short melody. Hope it brings a moment of fun to your Monday. Wu Fei 吴非 Wufeimusic.comTwitter @wufeiInstagram @wufeimusicY...

This multitrack guzheng composition was created and recorded yesterday. I have missed playing gamelan. I started learning how to play Balinese gamelan music when I was at Mills College in California. My teacher and classmate Pak Windha taught me every instrument in a gamelan ensemble. It was one of the most amazing music experiences in my life. This piece is inspired by gamelan and the time I spen...