This guzheng étude was recorded yesterday at 165 beats per minute (BPM). BPM measures how fast or slow the music is. A song with a BPM of 120 would be considered relatively fast, while a song with a BPM of 60 would be considered relatively slow.
In this track, I plucked four times per beat in the tempo of 165 BPM throughout the piece, with occasional pauses. It means I plucked 660 times every minute on average. That is why I named the piece an étude, which means a musical composition written to be an exercise in technique.
In 2011, I went to the breathtaking Hanging Temple 悬空寺 in China (photos below). The temple was built into a cliff (75 m or 246 ft above the ground) near Mount Heng in Shanxi Province, more than 1,500 years ago. The Hanging Temple is rare, perhaps unique, as it is dedicated to three different philosophies or religions: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism.
Wu Fei 吴非
Wufeimusic.com
