|
Being close to a farm in China's central Anhui province has its upside, giving 43-year-old Nan Weidong and 41-year-old Nan Weiping direct access to a variety of vegetables. Although their music teacher father encouraged them to learn conventional instruments from a young age, the two decided to get creative with carrots, sweet potatoes and more. After joining a local theatrical troupe, the duo came up with the idea of playing music with fresh produce two year ago, and they have fallen in love with it ever since. Their daily routines involve shaving and drilling holes in carrots, marrows, lotus roots and Chinese yams to create the perfect pitch for their music, which is tested with an electronic tuner.Big brother Nan Weidong shares the secret of picking the right vegetable, adding that besides selecting the precise size and shape of it, they must all be fresh. "If the water content in vegetables evaporates, the tune will become higher than the basic tune or out of tune. Therefore we choose the vegetables with as much water content as possible. The vegetables have to be solid and hard. We can't use those vegetables left over for days. They are too soft to be played," The brothers also emphasize that different vegetables have different scales, therefore, they are suited for different songs.In their small Beijing apartment, every vegetable has its purpose. The sweet potato becomes an ocarina; a bamboo shoot becomes a flute, while the yam is used as a whistle.Younger brother Nan Weiping explains how he is able to play a tune using a set of panpipes made of carrots and leeks. "The deeper the hole, the lower the pitch. The shallower the hole, the high the pitch. Besides, the size of the hole also matters to guarantee the quality of the sound. The leeks only serve as decoration. I made it based on the principles of how Chinese panpipes work," Nan Weiping also says that controlling the pitch is not an easy task because the change of weather, including the air temperature, and humidity can put the notes out of tune. The Nan brothers have appeared on talent shows in China and have made about 30,000 to 50,000 yuan (4,800 to 7,900 U.S. Dollars) for a performance, in which they amuse the audience with a diverse mix of songs, ranging from traditional Chinese music to modern pop to western folk songs. It may sound lucrative but the offer doesn't come very often, not to mention that the brothers will have to make new instruments each time they introduce their skills.But undaunted, the Nan brothers say that the show will go on and they are looking to create more vegetable instruments so they can expand their playlist. ◆ 追蹤更多華視影音及圖文新聞：
1.用Plurk追蹤華視影音及圖文新聞：追蹤
2.用Twitter追蹤華視影音及圖文新聞：追蹤
| 
相關新聞