Getting Ready to Play

Place one non-slip pad on the right edge of the table, place the other non-slip pad on the table underneath the two goose feet. This will keep your qin stable as you’re playing. 

Place your qin on the table with your tuning pegs about 2 inches away from the right edge of the table, resting the goose feet on the non-slip pad. Adjust the position of the non-slip pads as necessary. 

Standard advice is to place your chair so that you sit between the 4th and 5th hui. You want to sit straight, so that visually if the qin is a horizontal line, your body forms a line perpendicular. Your feet should naturally rest flat on the floor, the feet should be roughly your body’s width apart. Sit about the width of two fists away from your instrument, such that if you were to rest your right hand on the strings of the qin, the angle formed by your elbow is about 90°. You may need to add a cushion to your seat in order to achieve the correct angle. 

This may be considered controversial by some qin players, but my personal recommendation is to not place too much emphasis on sitting between the 4th and 5th hui. It is more important for you to maintain the proper posture and to be comfortable. I have seen videos of qin players properly seated at the 4th and 5th hui, but are spending the majority of the song leaned significantly over to the side, as that player’s arms were short and that is the only way they can reach the hui positions that are closer to the tail of the qin. It is incredibly tiring to maintain this leaned over position. Instead, it would be better for that player to sit between the 5th and 6th hui, or even closer to the 7th hui, if by doing so they would be able to better maintain the desired posture. I would recommend that you sit in a position where your right hand can easily reach the area between the 1st hui and the bridge, your right arm can form that 90 degree angle, and where your left hand has the greatest comfortable range before you have to lean your body. It is okay to lean over to reach for a far away hui position, but you want to spend the majority of your time sitting upright, if you find yourself leaned over for most of the song, consider changing your sitting position. 

It is generally recommended for the nails to be about 3-4mm longer than your fingertip, however to a certain extent this is personal preference, you can play with nails longer than that, and you can also play with nails shorter. However, at at certain length, you may find the nails are too long and get in the way of playing, and when too short (or nonexistent), you will find certain plucks do not provide the correct sound, as the strings make a very different type of sound when plucked with a nail vs the flesh of your finger.