"Rong Drift" musician Shao Shuai turns vegetables and fruits into musical instruments

Can water pipes, syringes and fruits and vegetables also be used as musical instruments? This can become a reality in the hands of "Rong Drift" musician Shao Shuai. During this year's Spring Festival, CCTV's 7 sets of "JiaQi Youyou, Focus on The Three Rural Areas" column broadcast the performance of the "Wuzhou Singing Orchestra" Nigerian singer Hao Di and Shao Shuai in Qingshen County, Sichuan, and the instrument in Shao Shuai's hand was actually a mandarin orange!

Tinkering with water pipes to develop living instruments

"Post-85" Shao Shuai, is a native of Heilongjiang. He began to learn trombone and saxophone as a teenager, and in 2005 he was admitted to the Shandong Provincial Academy of Arts majoring in saxophone performance. After graduation, he and his classmates formed an orchestra to perform around, and the concept of "no pressure on the body" allowed him to learn xiao, flute, clarinet and other instruments one after another. On New Year's Day 2011, because of a performance, Shao Shuai "drifted" into Chengdu and became a "Rong Drift".

Can you turn common objects in your life into musical instruments? "According to the principle of music, everything that vibrates can make a sound, and it has the possibility of becoming an instrument." In 2013, when the performance was leisure, Shao Shuai was tinkering with water pipes at home, and since then, he has become a regular customer of nearby hardware stores, 3 meters, 5 meters, and buy PVC water pipes again and again.

Shao Shuai constantly tested the sound hole of the PVC water pipe, the size, how much, the length, and the pitch pitch, and after more than half a month, the water pipe instrument was finally developed, and the sound emitted was ethereal and long as a flute. Use it to perform some lyrical tracks, which are widely popular with the audience.

After that, Shao Shuai successively developed syringes, cola bottles, wine glasses and other life musical instruments.

Carrots can also blow smoothly

In 2016, in a performance, the reporter of Sichuan Television Station "News Scene" discovered Shao Shuai's special talent and did a character interview, and "Rong Drift" Shao Shuai was concerned by many people. Later, CCTV 7 sets of "Beautiful Countryside Happy Trip" column issued an invitation to him to participate in performances in various places.

In October 2017, "Beautiful Countryside Happy Walk" came to Liangshan Prefecture to perform in Huili County. Before the trip, the director gave Shao Shuai a question: Can we develop a living object familiar to the peasant masses as an instrument? Shao Shuai thought about it, found a carrot, hollowed it out in a special way to make a hole, and then used the vibration generated by the blowing of the mouth to play the repertoire. It was another half a month of obsession, and the carrots used a few baskets of waste, and finally blew smoothly.

On the stage of the meeting, the host took the background music and let Shao Shuai play it on the spot. After the song, he gently folded, and the carrot broke into two pieces. The scene erupted into warm applause.

Later, Shao Shuai continued to experiment and developed apple and orange instruments. "Fruit and vegetable musical instruments are greatly affected by the seasons, and can generally be used for a week in winter, and not for one day in summer."

Dream of discovering minority musical instruments

In fact, in Shao Shuai's heart, there is also a dream of discovering ethnic minority musical instruments full of feelings. An instrument called the "Reed" was the first voyage of his dream.

The flute-like flute has disappeared from the list of contemporary instruments. In the famous late Tang Dynasty court music and dance "24 Tricks and Music Diagrams" engraved on the sarcophagus of Wang Jian's tomb in Chengdu, there is the figure of a reed. The Chengdu Yongling Museum and the Shanghai ancient musical instrument restoration master Shen Zhengguo restored the reeds, which were completed by going to South Korea with the help of local folk artists.

Shao Shuai's relationship with Yan Yan began with the introduction of Yan Yan in a documentary broadcast by CCTV in 2012. "At that time, the TV was only forty or fifty seconds long, but it suddenly tugged at my heartstrings." Shao Shuai searched on the Internet, and none of the domestic conservatories of music set up relevant majors, nor did anyone specialize in research. He picked up his backpack and went to Yanbian, Jilin Province, where he went through several twists and turns to find a master who made the reeds. "Although he did not study music theory, but only made it with the craftsmanship of inheritance, the pitch of the reed is incredibly accurate, and it is not bad when measured with modern tuners." Shao Shuai was stunned.

Shao Shuai thought from this, "There are many musical instruments with national characteristics in China that are not understood, and many are drowned in history, can we excavate them all and form a complete study of ethnic minority musical instruments?" ”

This was a grand wish, and Shao Shuai decided to take 10 years of searching, excavating, and sorting. At present, in addition to the yanyi, he has mastered the gourd silk of the Dai people in Yunnan. This year, we plan to travel to Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia in search of cheerful rewafu and melodious horse-headed organs. Zhang Hongxia