On the evening of February 4, at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, 9-year-old Zhu Deen blew "My Motherland and Me" with a trumpet, and the shocking melody and affectionate trumpet sound touched everyone. For more than a minute, the trumpeter's calm and confident interpretation left a deep impression.
Born into an artistic family, my father was a guidance teacher
The Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that Zhu Deen, 9 years old this year, is a primary school student in the 4th grade and 4th class of the Future Science and Technology City School of the Experimental Primary School of Beijing Normal University. Coming from a musical family, he has been exposed to trumpets since birth. "The child's grandfather and father are both professional trumpet players. From a very young age, Judean sat on his father's lap to 'taste' the mouth of the trumpet, sometimes making his father press the keys and blowing the trumpet himself. Zhu Deen's mother, Zhang Yanan, said that since he could not speak, he had been with the trumpet every day. Not only that, but Judean has been learning piano with his grandmother since he was 4 years old, and is very familiar with the feelings, understandings and ways of expressing feelings with sound.
Affected by the epidemic in 2020, Zhu Deen's whole family worked and studied from home. Zhu Deen's father, Zhu Guang, began to work as a guidance teacher when he was idle, and began to teach Zhu De'en to learn trumpet playing systematically. In the summer of 2021, after a year of training, Zhu Guang signed up for Zhu Deen to participate in the 4th Singapore Western Music Competition, and he did not expect that this competition Zhu Deen won the first prize in the junior group. "The child's father signed up for the child at that time because he hoped to set a goal for the child to learn trumpet, and only with the goal could the child have the motivation to learn." Zhang Yanan sighed. The Beiqing Daily reporter learned that because of this hobby, Zhu Deen has become the main trumpeter of the school wind orchestra.
From the time the system began to learn trumpet to the invitation of the Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, Zhu Deen learned trumpet for more than a year. "In fact, we received the invitation very accidentally, at that time, the Winter Olympic Organizing Committee had already selected a lot of children, but the director team hoped to find a younger child, and our children were fortunate to be selected." Zhu Guang said. "When I learned I was a candidate trumpeter, I jumped with joy." Speaking of this memory, Judden is still dancing and very excited.
The "plus" on the instrument strictly practices the posture
But Zhu Guang, as Zhu Deen's father and instructor, knew that if he wanted to take on such a heavy responsibility, Zhu Deen still needed to redouble his efforts. After being selected, Zhu Guang trained Zhu Deen more strictly and developed a very meticulous training plan for him, including breath adjustment skills when blowing trumpets, understanding of songs, and postures of trumpet blowing.
"In the past, he used to train for 20 minutes to half an hour a day, but after being selected, Judden's training time per day was extended to 2 to 3 hours, and the weekend training time will be longer." Zhu Guang told the Beiqing Daily reporter that generally Zhu Deen began training every day after class at 3:30 p.m., practicing basic skills and "grinding" songs at home. Trumpet blowing has high requirements for sound quality, in order to find subtle problems, Zhu Guang will record zhu Deen's training scenes into a video, and repeatedly look for problems in the video. Zhu Guang will also let Zhu Deen find his own problems to deepen his impression.
To interpret the song "My Motherland and Me" with heart and affection, you need to have a deep understanding of this piece. Zhu Guang found the lyrics of the song, so that Zhu Deen understood the meaning from the lyrics and learned to sing the song. Not only that, he also took Zhu Deen to watch patriotic movies such as "Chosin Lake" and "On the Cliff" to stimulate patriotic enthusiasm from the bottom of the child's heart.
In addition, the posture of raising the trumpet is also very important. "To show the spirit of Chinese children, raising the height of the trumpeter's arm can increase the momentum of the trumpeter." I asked him to raise his arm from 60 to 70 degrees to 91 to 92 degrees during the exercise, and his eyes had to leave the trumpet of the trumpet and look into the distance. Zhu Guang introduced to the Beiqing Daily reporter that in order to correct Zhu Deen's trumpet blowing posture, Zhu Guang "added weight" to Zhu Deen's trumpet, put on the piano sheet under Zhu Deen's arm, and told him that his arm must not touch the sheet music frame. Zhu Guang also hung a bottle of mineral water on Zhu Deen's trumpet, and constantly added water to the bottle according to the progress of training to increase arm strength. In addition, physical training is also indispensable, jump rope, push-ups and a series of sports to train breath and arm strength are all added. "When you play, you should think that you are using this piece to tell the story of the motherland to friends from afar." When Zhu Guang trained with Zhu Deen, he often inspired him in this way, making him can't help but raise his arm and look ahead.
"Sometimes it really hurts the child, tired is really tired, often after training, I don't want to say anything." Zhu Deen's mother, Zhang Yanan, told the Beiqing Daily reporter that sometimes the child's training does not achieve the effect, and he will cry his nose in a hurry. Zhu Guang revealed to the Beiqing Daily reporter that in the past two months or so, Zhu Deen has repeatedly practiced the song "My Motherland and Me" thousands of times.
In just two months, under Dad's devil training, Judden's trumpet level has improved a lot. The Beiqing Daily reporter learned that in order to ensure that the performance was foolproof on the opening day of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Zhu Guang also asked his friends to specially find antifreeze oil to smear on Zhu Deen's trumpet in advance. "My friend sent several kinds of oil, and I applied each one to the other trumpets in advance, and put the trumpets outside below zero for experimentation. Find the best one for Juddell. ”
As a 9-year-old, Judean is also nervous. "The first time I went into the nest for rehearsals, my legs were shaking with nervousness." Judean described his state at that time in this way, especially afraid that he would not be able to act well. But Judean has his own way to regulate tension, that is, to keep breathing deeply, and then blow better than once, and the more he blows, the more confident he becomes. Before the official start, In order to let his son stand on the stage in a better state, Zhu Guang adopted the psychological counseling method of "first tighten and then loose". "We must let the child get nervous first, let him pay full attention to this performance, I will first tell him that this opening ceremony will have many national leaders to the scene, and the whole world is watching this opening ceremony." After seeing his expression gradually freeze and tense up, I felt that he realized the importance of this time. Then I started to relax and tell him that his technique was already great and we believed he could take on the responsibility of this time. ”
Ahead of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, as one of the three candidates in the trumpeter's hands, it was not until the last day that it was not finally determined who could actually come to power. Zhu Guang also did not forget to make sufficient psychological preparations for children in this regard. "I told my children that you are a participant in this activity, and if you end up performing on stage to win glory for the motherland, but if you don't go on stage, you should also bless other children." Zhu Guang said.
"I will share this different experience with my classmates"
Recalling the scene of the day, Zhu Deen said that he was shocked by the whole performance, and he really felt the feeling of loving the motherland from the heart. "I think this is the biggest gain of the child, let him know what is true patriotism, and truly proud of the strength of the motherland." Zhang Yanan sighed that more than two months of training and rehearsals allowed Zhu Deen to meet many teachers who brought him positive guidance.
A director teacher especially liked Zhu Deen and sent a message to Zhu De'en after the official performance, encouraging him to continue to study hard and serve the motherland in the future. We are also very grateful to director Zhang Yimou and his director group for this idea, it is really amazing, many details of the whole ceremony really touched us, and he has become a big hero in the minds of children. Zhu Guang said.
The Beiqing Daily reporter also learned that Zhu Deen is usually a lively and cute child, likes football, skiing, and once shined in the school's English dubbing competition, and the results of various subjects are also very good. After the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Zhu Deen received many congratulations from teachers, classmates and children. Zhu Deen said that the performance at the Beijing Winter Olympics was very memorable and very proud, and he would share his experience with his classmates and good friends, so that they could also feel this different experience.
Now Juddell has also become a role model for his younger brother. "As soon as we saw my brother finish performing on TV, my brother quickly ran to the house and took out the trumpet, saying that he wanted to play the trumpet like his brother. And the song "My Motherland and Me" is under the influence of my brother, and my brother has become familiar with it. Zhang Yanan said. Zhu Deen revealed that he is a sports fan, during the Beijing Winter Olympics, he has paid attention to curling competitions, short track speed skating competitions, but also pay attention to alpine skiing and other sports. "I want our Olympic athletes to be able to beat their best."
Article/Reporter Wu Wenjuan
Photography and videography/ Reporter Guo Qian