Wu Fei's Music Daily

Happy Friday everyone, The cold temperatures in here in Nashville will soon end. Instrumentalists really don’t do well in the cold. Hopefully this morning will be the last day at freezing level for a while. If you’re somewhere freezing and struggling to practice or exercise today, let’s pull through the cold together! On another subject, I am honored to be featured by Represent Asian . The full ar...

Good morning everyone, Lately, I have been doing Yin yoga in the evening before bedtime. I find it to be helpful for my sleep by adding this night time routine. Having music that is in the right vibe can make a big difference when I practice yoga. To pull myself out of the digital madness these days is essential to maintain a healthy life. This coming week and year will be full of ups and downs in...

Happy Friday everyone, All my friends and relatives in China have started the count down for the year to change to the Snake on January 29th. The traditional celebrations will last for 15 days once the new year starts. I am completely feeling the excitement now. I have also been practicing a fantastic guzheng concerto lately in preparation for the Lunar New Year Concert with the Toronto Symphony O...

Good morning everyone, This solo guzheng piece was recorded in one take an hour ago. It is an exercise on thumb tremolos. I have been thinking about how much convenience brought to us by technology nowadays. One realization is that we don’t use our hands to write any more, except to drive cars and type/swipe digital devices etc.. Maybe one day, we will stop learning how to play an instrument becau...

Hi everyone, I recorded this three-track guzheng composition after hiking in the snow today. I saw many animals’ footprints during the hike including the bobcat’s footprints (photo below). I believe it is a female cat. She has been living in the forest for at least three years. This is my third year in a row seeing this bobcat’s footprints in the snow. Two years ago, I spotted a bobcat kitten in t...

Happy Laba Festival to you all! Today is Laba Festival (臘八節). It is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated on the eighth day of the month of La (or Layue 臘月), the twelfth month of the Chinese calendar. It is the beginning of the Chinese New Year period. The traditional food people eat on this day is Laba congee (臘八粥). The Laba Festival's name represents its date on the Chinese calendar....

Happy Monday everyone, I recorded this solo guzheng piece today when the snow was coming down. What a fun experience it was for me to accompany the dancing snow flakes! I’d like to quote the poet Zhāng Xiàn’s (1341 A.D.) poem for this moment: 听雪斋 The House of Listening to the Snow 张宪 [元代] 万籁入沈冥，坐深窗户明。微于疏竹上，时作碎琼声。 Translation: All sounds are in the deep darkness, I si...

Happy Friday everyone, I recorded this multi-track guzheng piece this morning. I used mostly harmonics on the open strings until the very last tremolo that ended the piece. While my right hand plucked the strings, my left hand lightly touched the half-point on the strings, which created the overtone that was an octave higher than the opening strings. An overtone is any resonant frequency above the...

Happy first day of 2025 everyone! You may have already entered 2025 by now. But it’s always good to keep the celebration going for a bit longer. I woke up this morning feeling excited because I had no agenda. The world is paused from expectations. To be able to recharge myself feels great. I am using this time to connect to friends, and to reflect on the past for the future. However, the only real...

Hi everyone, Hope you are having a peaceful holiday break whether it’s a winter break or a summer break. I took a few days off from posting on Substack to recharge myself. Thank you for being patient with me! Just now, I felt a strong urge to create this piece. Practicing music has become addictive to me. It feels weird not to practice. Even if I was on break from here the last a few days, I have...

Hi everyone, Happy many holidays! Two days ago, on Winter Solstice, my parents made dumplings as the northern Chinese tradition to celebrate this festival. (Over feeding the children is another Chinese tradition 😄). I thought about The Seventeen-Arch Bridge in the Summer Palace in Beijing. The bridge becomes symmetrical around the winter solstice. As the sun’s altitude angle decreases, a “golden...

Yesterday, I received a very sad news that Indian tabla master, composer, producer Zakir Hussain passed away. He was 73 years old. Zakir was known for bringing classical Indian music to a global audience. He was the eldest son of tabla player Alla Rakha, and won four Grammy Awards. Last year, my whole family was invited to see a house concert of the quartet of Zakir Hussain (tabla), Bela Fleck (ba...

Hi everyone, Hope you had a restful weekend. This night three-track night song was composed and recorded two days ago. A month ago, I gave concerts and workshops in Louisville, Kentucky (U.S.) as part of the Festival of Faiths. Dear friend Sara Callaway, director of Louisville Academy of Music (LAM) curated the music artists for the festival. We met at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville Tennessee many...

Happy Friday everyone, This video is from April 2024 filmed in New York City. I invited my long time collaborator double bassist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz as my guest musician to perform at the Lincoln Center. The full concert on April 11, 2024 video is below on Lincoln Center’s YouTube channel. I always have a lot of fun playing with Shanir who is also an oud master. The oud is a Middle Eastern sho...

Hi everyone, This solo guzheng piece was recorded yesterday, inspired by a 1425 year-old poem from China by Chen Shubao 陳叔寶 (553-604), who was an emperor of the short-lived Chen Dynasty (557-589). The poem is called 玉树后庭花, which has been translated as “A Jade Tree Blossoms in the Back Garden,” but just I call it “Jade Tree.” It’s about a beautiful woman—the “back garden”—or more accurately...

Hi everyone, This three-voice guzheng piece was composed and recorded yesterday. I used all opening string harmonics in this song. On Monday, I saw a small smooth green snake in the forest (photo below). I nearly stepped on it when I jumped over a tree trunk. The snake was angry and turned its head to be ready to defend itself, which you can see in the photo. That night, a little snow fell on Nash...

Happy Monday everyone, I hope you all had a restful weekend. This four-voice counterpoint guzheng piece was composed and recorded yesterday, inspired by the ancient Hurrian Hymn No. 6 , from the area that is now Syria and Turkey (where there is currently a terrible war happening). The final notes of the piece are from a chirping bird outside my window. It is the earliest known song to be recorded...

Good morning everyone, Yesterday, I woke up to a bright pink sky. The sky was lit up. I rushed out to the balcony and stood in the chilly air not wanting to miss any second of this moment. As I looked up higher, the moon was shining quietly above the forest (photo below). Hope this piece brings you peace into your Monday. Wu Fei 吴非 You can buy my album Yuan from Tzadik records or from Amazon . M...

Hi everyone, I have returned home from Louisville. Thank you for being patient with me again while I was on tour! In Louisville, I saw some dear old friends and made many new friends during the Festival of Faiths. It was an inspiring experience for me to meet festival goers who came to Louisville to connect and share their life stories in the most vulnerable way. Music helped everyone to become co...

Good morning everyone, Hope you all had a restful weekend. Two days ago, I was woken up by a touch of warm air on my face in the morning. I slowly opened my eyes to seek where the warmth came from. I saw the sky full of colors outside of my window (photo below). I was overjoyed. This three-track guzheng composition is my memory of this breathtaking experience. It reminded me a poem from the Weijin...

Hi everyone, I recorded this solo guzheng night song yesterday thinking about my children. I used to put them to bed every night singing lullabies to them when they were babies. And then, I started to play Chopin’s piano nocturnes from a music player for their bedtime. Lately, I started singing lullabies to them again. Today, I realized that I have composed and recorded many guzheng night songs fo...

Hi everyone, This three-track guzheng étude was composed and recorded yesterday. An étude or study is an instrumental musical composition, usually short, designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular musical skill. Yesterday, my music studio was cold because I forgot to turn the heater on the night before. I needed to quickly warm my fingers up. Therefore, I came up with this p...

Hi everyone, I have returned home from London. Thank you for your patience while I was absent from my daily music newsletter. However, each trip I make, I always come back with full of new energy and inspiration. The concerts I gave at the British Library and SOAS University of London were both mesmerizing. I met a musician / composer name Shohret Nur (photo below). He is a master on the dutar and...

Hi everyone, Hope you are all enjoying a beautiful autumn if it is the season for you right now. The colors in middle Tennessee are glorious. Hiking on the top of the west Nashville hill has given me immense joy to appreciate the fall colors in all settings. It reminds me of one of the Autumn Poems by one of my favorite Tang poets - Liu Yuxi 刘禹锡 (772 - 842 AD): 自古逢秋悲寂寥，我言秋日胜春朝。...

Hi everyone, If you are in London, hope you can join me at my performance on October 28 at the British Library Pigott Theatre at 7:15pm. The concert will be opened by two amazing Ngawang Lodup (mandolin & dranyen), Shohret Nur (dutar & rawap). There will be a grand jamming finale by the three of us, and it will be my first time playing with them. I am utterly psyched! Tickets & detail are availabl...