掐撮三声three alternating qia and cuo
Pinyin: qiā cuō sān shēng
Right hand, compoundAlso written: 搯撮三声, 掐撮声
Left-hand qia qi alternating with right-hand cuo: one qia and one cuo, then two qia and one cuo. A common final cadence.
How it is played
The left ring finger stops a string while the left thumb, above it (toward the bridge) on the same string, plucks the string to sound it (the left-hand technique qia qi); the right hand immediately plays cuo on two strings. Then the left hand plays two qia in a row and the right hand one more cuo. Qia and cuo alternate, loose at first and tighter at the end.
How it sounds
The left hand's soft qia notes alternate with the right hand's full chords; a fixed formula at the end of many pieces.
In the classical handbooks
左大指爪起（此音註左手指法內），曰搯；兩指同下曰撮；合而用之，名曰搯撮。Gist: The left thumb picks the string up with the nail (this note is listed under left-hand techniques): qia. Two fingers falling together: cuo. Combined, they are called qia-cuo.
假如名指按七絃十徽，大指于九徽開一搯，右即一撮；左大指又二搯（二搯者，一連二搯也），右又一撮，總名曰搯撮三聲。Gist: For example, the ring finger stops string seven at the tenth hui and the thumb plays one qia at the ninth; the right hand at once plays one cuo. The left thumb then plays two qia (two in a row) and the right hand another cuo. The whole is called qia-cuo san sheng.
Where sources disagree
How many sounds in all
- Three qia and two cuo; together with the preceding cuo it is called qia-cuo san sheng (“three sounds”). Source: Chengjiantang Qinpu, “Qinpu Zhifa” section(opens in a new window) · View the original page
- Three qia and two cuo, each qia hiding a yan (damped) note, eight sounds in all, grouped three then five. Source: Qinxue Rumen (Introduction to Qin Studies), vol. 1(opens in a new window) · View the original page
- Yan, qia and cuo in succession, giving three notes. Source: Chinese Wikipedia, “Jianzipu”(opens in a new window)
Written 搯 or 掐
- Qing printed editions write 搯. Source: Chengjiantang Qinpu, “Qinpu Zhifa” section(opens in a new window) · View the original page
- Today it is mostly written 掐. Source: Chinese Wikipedia, “Jianzipu”(opens in a new window)
Easily confused with
- 掐泼剌三声qiā pō là sān shēng· three alternating qia and bo/laQia po-la san sheng replaces the right hand's cuo with one bo and one la.
References
- 管平湖《古指法考》（北京古琴文化研究会 编，中国书店出版社 2019；据 1963 年中国音乐研究所油印本整理，依《琴用指法》《乌丝栏》《太音大全》《琴书大全》考订古指法）Scholarship