US brothers in tune with traditional Chinese culture

Colin Pinney plays the dulcimer at a traditional Chinese folk music concert. — Tan Yueda

Two American teenagers surprised an audience at a recent traditional Chinese folk music concert by playing the Chinese lute and dulcimer.

Lachlan Pinney, 16, and his 14-year-old brother Colin wore the same traditional outfits as their Chinese fellow musicians at the event in the Children's Palace in Yangpu District.

The children's palace is recognized by the Shanghai education commission as a training center of traditional Chinese musical instruments for local teenagers.

But this was not the first public performance by the brothers, who moved to Shanghai in 2007 with their father's job.

Lachlan has been learning the Chinese lute — pipa in Chinese — for more than four years, while Colin has been studying the dulcimer — yang qin — for nearly three years.

They have taken part in about 20 shows around China.

The brothers learned these traditional instruments through one-to-one lessons in Shanghai.

Their mother had been home schooling the boys until last year, which resulted in them having more free time.

She decided four years ago that her sons should learn to play instruments besides the piano.

Lachlan admits that he fell in love with the pipa at a traditional Chinese folk music concert.

"I found it was a little bit like a guitar and the sound it made was so pleasant," Lachlan told Shanghai Daily in fluent Chinese, which he and his brother had been learning even before they came to Shanghai.

"It's not a big problem for me to play the melodies, but it is really challenging to play it beautifully with the right fingering," he said.

Colin also decided to learn a Chinese folk musical instrument and picked the yang qin, saying it seemed simple to play and the sound is crisp and melodic.

But he soon found out he was totally wrong about it being simple as the yang qin has more than 100 strings and he has to tune it every time.

They are now planning to perform at the Spring Festival party at their school, the Concordia International School Shanghai.

"I love playing a traditional Chinese folk instrument. It helps me learn traditional Chinese culture that is so different from America's," Lachlan said.