How do you judge the current number of zither players?

TT: And now I would like to ask the last question for the today’s interview: having given more than 3,500 performances around the world and with your vast knowledge and experience on ethnomusicology that you have acquired over many decades, how do you judge the current number of zither players?

TQH: There are many who want to play or learn how to play the zither, but only a few reach the professional level. Zither students in Vietnam know how to read music, but when paying too much attention to music reading, they no longer have much inspiration to express themselves when playing. Outside Vietnam, there is also a great number of people who want to play the zither, but they play for their own enjoyment or they consider playing the zither as a hobby, without investing more efforts to become true performers or teachers. When doing research on the zither, I only picked out a few books and CDs covering Vietnamese zither music, without touching the books and CDs covering zither music in China, Japan and Korea.

http://thuvien-ebook.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-1485.html

For additional information on traditional musicians in Vietnam and in other countries, please refer to tran quang hai’s blog: http://tranquanghai.multiply.com/links