The Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles (Wijin Park, Director) and Korean traditional music (Gugak) artist, Seo-Yoon Jang present a special online project, English Gugak Series 'Korean Traditional Music 101 : Sound of Korea' Ep 3. Cheolhyeongeum on Wednesday, October 13, 2021 on the KCCLA YouTube channel.

The third episode is 'Cheolhyeongeum' which is the youngest gugak instrument which was created in the 20th century. Geomungo and Guitar became the root of this new instrument. It is played with a stick like Geomungo and uses 8 metal strings. Nongok meaning ‘vibrato stone’ is held on the left hand and placed on the strings to create vibration and ornaments. Because it does not have any frets, the player has to memorize the distance between every note to stay in pitch. Kim YoungCheol who invented the instrument and wrote Cheolhyeongeum sanjo was designated as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity in the category of tightrope walking. He had both an amazing talent for himself on the rope and on the strings of Cheolhyeongeum.

'Sound of Korea' is a new series made by KTM101 to introduce Korean traditional instruments and vocal genres. Subscribe for more episodes to be brought to you every other week.

Please enjoy the special online English Gugak Series 'Korean Traditional Music 101 : Sound of Korea' and please press the 'like' button and 'subscribe' to KCCLA.