What you are actually learning
The pipa is played with picks taped to all five fingers of the right hand, and the foundation technique — 輪指, the rolling tremolo — asks each of those fingers to strike independently and evenly. Building it takes months of deliberate practice, and it is what separates a pipa player from someone holding a pipa.
In exchange you get an instrument with two entirely different characters: the 文曲 literary pieces, delicate and sustained, and the 武曲 martial pieces such as 十面埋伏, where the instrument imitates an army and the technique becomes percussive.
Who it suits
People who are prepared to work. The pipa asks more of the right hand than anything else here, and the first year is genuinely technical. It suits determined adults, children with patient parents, and guitarists — who find the fretted left hand familiar and the right hand a complete reinvention.
Children and adults
Children usually start around seven or eight, when the hand can span the neck and hold the picks. Adults start at any age, but should expect the first months to be technique rather than tunes.
Lesson format
One-to-one. The right-hand technique needs a teacher watching your fingers, not the room.
How the learning is structured
Holding the instrument upright, taping the picks, and single-finger strokes. 彈, 挑 and the beginnings of 輪指.
An even, sustained tremolo. Position work up the neck, and the first 文曲 pieces.
The martial repertoire, 十面埋伏 and 霸王卸甲, and conservatory or grade preparation.
Who teaches it here
See all teachers →
Instruments in the shop
The lessons and the shop are the same building, which means you can try an instrument before you buy one and bring it back to the person who sold it to you if anything is wrong. We are glad to advise without a sale.
Questions people ask
How long before I can play a piece?
Simple melodies come within the first months. The tremolo that the famous pieces depend on takes considerably longer, and any teacher who promises otherwise is not being straight with you.
I play guitar. Does that help?
The left hand, yes — frets are frets. The right hand is entirely new, and guitarists sometimes find that harder than complete beginners, because there is a habit to unlearn.
Do I need my own fingerpicks?
Yes, eventually, and they are personal — sized and taped to your fingers. We stock them and your teacher will help you fit them properly.
Arrange a trial lesson
Tell us your experience so far, who the lessons are for and roughly when you can come. We will suggest a teacher and a time.
Central Taipei, walking distance from Dongmen and Zhongxiao Xinsheng stations. Teaching, the shop and the workshop are all in the same place.
