急quick
Pinyin: jí
Terms and marksSpeed up: play the marked notes compactly and fast.
How it is played
Written beside the jianzi to call for speed here, the notes following one another closely without gaps. Fast without disorder is the point: Xu Shangying, on “great speed”, asks for haste without confusion and a still-leisurely bearing. Ji is often paired with huan (slow) or man; the preface to Wuzhizhai Qinpu also uses a long vertical stroke to signal “quick and connected”.
In the classical handbooks
急也。急彈也。Gist: Ji: play quickly.
大速貴急。務令急而不亂。依然安閒之氣象。Gist: Great speed prizes haste; it must be hasty yet not disordered, keeping a leisurely bearing.
Easily confused with
- 缓huǎn· slow, at easeHuan is to relax the tempo and play at leisure, the opposite of ji.
- 急吟jí yín· quick vibratoJi yin is a quick left-hand vibrato, an ornament; ji is a tempo mark for a phrase or several notes.