Wu Fei's Music Daily

Happy Monday everyone, I composed this two-track guzheng night song yesterday. Hope it helps you to have a good night’s sleep tonight. As I’m getting ready to head to London in a week, I would like to tell you about an exciting concert residency I’ll be doing in Louisville, Kentucky in November . If you are in and near in Louisville, I would love to see you at my performances below: * November 13,...

Hi everyone, I composed and recorded this three-track guzheng piece yesterday. Experimenting with tone colors and timbres is one of my favorite things to do when I create music. I make a sound bath for my ear drums to enjoy all the mysterious “bubbles.” Hope this piece brings you the same experience. If you are in London, I hope to see you at my solo performance on October 28th at the British Libr...

Hi everyone, I composed this three-track guzheng waltz yesterday wondering about a mushroom that I saw in Nashville, Tennessee (photo below). I am not sure if it is a Caesar’s mushroom. I would appreciate your help identifying it. Thank you in advance! Wu Fei 吴非 My albums A Distant Youth and Pluck are available for purchase on Bandcamp: https://wufeimusic.bandcamp.com/ Wufeimusic.com | hellogold...

Good morning everyone, Time is an interesting concept. When did we start using Monday to mark the beginning of another stressful cycle in human society? I would imagine it hasn’t been long compared to the existence of human civilization. Will this way of shaping our natural system last? I don’t think so even if I won’t see its end during my life time. As I embrace this artificial time, I am glad a...

Happy Friday everyone, I composed and recorded this multi-track guzheng étude yesterday. I did not intend to write such an intense piece. It just came out of my chest as I was warming up my fingers more. While I was creating the music, my mind jumped back to the experience when I was on a cable car coming down from the Monserrate mountain in Bogotá, Colombia in August this year. It was above 10,00...

Hi everyone, This solo guzheng composition was recorded yesterday. I was thinking about the gorgeous fall in the southeast of U.S. where my state of Tennessee is. It has been a heavy time for eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida because of the destruction of hurricane Helene. In the next 24 hours, Hurricane Milton will land on Florida. I have many friends who live...

Hi everyone, I recorded this two-track guzheng night song yesterday. It is in the middle of the Jewish Rosh Hashanah new year celebration. I was moved and enlightened by my dear friend Rabba Daniella’s writing: “ The word love comes with pain. It comes with disappointment and loss but it also comes with a deep sense of purpose and a desire to continue to bravely choose life, to continue to bring g...

Shana Tova and happy Friday! This week has been so busy that my recording schedule was interrupted a little bit. Thank you for your patience! My fingers were craving to play this morning. I just recorded this piece and hope it will take you into a calm weekend. On October 28 at 7:15pm, I am debuting my solo performance in the UK in the British Library (photo below). I’m excited to have my composit...

Happy Monday everyone, It took a few takes for me to power through this song, singing and playing. It is inspired by a Sani people’s folk song from Yunnan province in China. And then my original song Ping Tan jumped in my head. Hope this song gives you energy to start the week! For friends in London: Hope to see you at one of my upcoming performances in October: * October 28 The British Library Pi...

Hi everyone, I composed and recorded this four-track guzheng piece yesterday. I used a bandanna in the lower register of my guzheng to half mute the strings to have less sustained effect. No finger picks were used in this piece to have a softer sound. I was thinking of the hike I had on the Simatai Great Wall three weeks ago in Beijing, and the nearby Mandarin Duck Lake (photo below). The fog made...

Hi everyone, I am very excited to share with you about my upcoming two performances in London. It will be my solo debut in the U.K.. I know some of my subscribers are in London. Hope to see you at one of the performances below: * October 28, Monday 2024 The British Library Pigott Theatre Join us for an enchanting evening as three renowned artists present a repertoire inspired by the ancient tradit...

Hi everyone, How have you all been? I have missed you. Thank you for being so patient with me. A special thank to the new paid subscribers while I was on leave from Substack. It meant a lot to me when I received your support when I was away! It has been an amazing trip back in China with my family though it is good to be back home in Nashville! While I was in Beijing, I got to climb the Simatai Gr...

Hi everyone, This solo guzheng improvisation was recorded yesterday, inspired by the amazing clouds above mountain Monserrate. I was on my way to Valledupar from Bogotá on August 7 this year. My plane was climbing through the thick clouds on top of Bogotá. I was stunned by the view from my window - the sun, the sky, the clouds and the mountain (photo below). How much I cherish these magnificent mo...

Hi everyone, I recorded this guzheng night song reconnecting to the night I played a concert in Riohacha two weeks ago. Riohacha is a city in northern Colombia, where the Ranchería River meets the Caribbean Sea. It’s known for its native Wayúu people and for the colorful birds in the Flamingo Sanctuary southwest of the city. Central Padilla Square is home to 19th-century Cathedral of Our Lady of t...

Hi everyone, This three-track guzheng composition was created and recorded yesterday, inspired by my visit earlier this month in the historical city of Cartagena in Colombia. Strolling in the colorful and narrow streets of Cartagena on a steamy lady afternoon felt like being in an old movie (photo below). Every site I looked at was a song, a story, a book to me. May this piece bring an old or a ne...

Hola everyone, How have you all been? Hope you all have had a fun and restful summer or winter break! I just got back home to Nashville from a tour in Colombia. It was my first visit to the South American continent ever. Before I went, I had zero idea what to expect. All I really knew about Colombia were two famous Colombian soccer stars from the 1990s from watching the World Cup on Chinese televi...

Good morning everyone, I just recorded this morning improvisation on solo guzheng inspired by the beautiful beach spider lily (photo below). Yesterday, I had a four-hour hike in the Montgomery Bell State Park in Tennessee where I saw these delicate flowers. The beach spider lily is native to warmer coastal regions of Latin America, Southeastern U.S. and a widely cultivated and naturalized plant in...

Hi everyone, This two-track guzheng waltz was composed and recorded today during a rainy day. Earlier, the sweet humming bird was drinking the sugar water from the feeder. It is always meditative for me to watch them come and go as if they dance a waltz in the air. Hope this piece brings a moment of calmness into your weekend! Wu Fei 吴非 Wufeimusic.com | hellogoldmountain.com | wufeimusic.substac...

Hi everyone, I composed and recorded this new song with voice and on the valiha yesterday. The valiha is a traditional 21-string tube zither from Madagascar (photo below). I want to thank my dear friends Tasha and David for bringing me this beautiful gift from Madagascar to Nashville, Tennessee. Playing it makes me miss Africa and the Indian Ocean, where I have spent some very happy times. I will...

Hi everyone, I recorded this solo guzheng improvisation yesterday. It is named after this elegant southeastern five-lined skink (photo below) that I saw during my hike in west Nashville. Southeastern five-lined skinks have five characteristic narrow stripes along their bodies that become lighter with age. The middle stripe tends to be narrower than the others, and the dark areas between stripes ar...

Hi everyone, This guzheng improvisation was recorded yesterday. I named the piece after encountering the mountain mint in Edwin Warner Park in Nashville (photo below). Other common names included wild basil or hoary basil. It is a herbaceous perennial in the mint family. The plant is widespread across Eastern United States and into Ontario, Canada. White blooms appear from July to September. Some...

Hi everyone, I composed and recorded two-track guzheng song yesterday in the middle a very hot day. Before I went into the studio, I had just finished making a promotional video for my upcoming tour Colombia. In the video, I spoke in Spanish entirely for the first time in my life. You can hear my joy in this track :) Hope this piece brings you joy too! Wu Fei 吴非 Wufeimusic.com | hellogoldmountai...

Hi everyone, I composed and recorded this three-track guzheng night song this morning. It is mostly played on open string harmonics. In physics, a harmonic is a sinusoidal wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the fundamental frequency of a periodic signal. The fundamental frequency is also called the 1st harmonic; the other harmonics are known as higher harmonics. On the gu...

Hi everyone, This fast étude was created and recorded on two-track guzheng yesterday. The wild blackberries are turning dark purple now all over the hills near my home in Nashville. They taste amazing (photo below). I don’t think I can ever eat store bought blackberries any more. They gave me great energy. Also, I had a great interview by Daniela Jaramillo Peña (baroque guitarist) from the world r...

Hi everyone, I composed this two-voice guzheng minuet yesterday. The wild rosepink flowers are blossoming all over the hills of west Nashville (photos below). It always amazes me how many wild flowers blossom almost all year long in middle Tennessee. That explains why I have allergy all year long. The rosepink is native to central and eastern North America. They are usually pink with occasionally...