This book is written as a guide for people who know the western staff notation and want to know about writing music that sounds like traditional Chinese music. This book is split into two parts. The first part describes the techniques needed to create Chinese style music. The second part is about the underling theory of the notation systems and pitch selection. The Chinese music system is quite prescriptive. Of course, you do not need to follow it. But if you do, you will be on the path to have music that sounds like traditional Chinese music. I have used simplified Chinese characters in the main book. The table of terms gives the complex Chinese character equivalents. WHAT IS CHINESE MUSIC? What you think of as to being Chinese music is very personal. Chinese music could be a folk song; it could be the music for a court ritual; it could be an elaborate operatic piece; it could be a group participating in a lion dance. Chinese music has a history of over six thousand years of
