I'll try to be brief here and spare you a LOT of other questions I have by just asking this one for now... but in short, I'm planning on moving to Kunming sometime in the new year, probably around early March. I'm living in Canada right now and tired of working an uninspiring office job, but my GF is from Kunming and suggested maybe we go live there where we could stay for free, save costs, travel/have new experiences and all that good stuff. I have plenty of other questions, but I'll save those for other posts.

Today I was wondering about the music scene in Kunming. I'm a classically trained guitarist and have played other styles in a lot of bands, and I want to keep playing once I move, but I'm just wondering how many other people there are out there to jam with and work with seriously? It doesn't have to be foreigners only or anything, I'll play with anyone, but I'm limited to speaking English pretty much (and French if I have to). Is it realistic to be able to start up some kind of band or project?

Also, are there a good number of used instruments around? I can't bring much with me, so I'm going to have to get some new gear once I get there. I imagine I'll want an acoustic, a classical and an electric guitar/amp. None of them have to be high end instruments, but just something for writing/practicing for the most part. Are things expensive in the local music stores? I usually prefer to buy used... anyway, I don't want to spend a fortune just to be able to play music.

Last thing - are there jobs or paying opportunities for musicians? I've seen some stuff about playing in bars, and it doesn't great. It's not necessary, but again, the point of moving to Kunming is to get away from the rat race here and do things I actually enjoy on a daily basis... and of course new experience/culture.

Any tips or info is greatly appreciated. I'm sure I'll have a lot more questions over the next few months too.

It is realistic to be able to start up a band, for there are a lot of people fond of music here, as far as I know. Actually, I'm in a band at present and our band is quite different from all the others in Kunming or even in China. The band consists of a piano, a quartet along with the electroacoustic part: keyboard, guitar, and bass. If interested, you may come and meet us.

As for the guitar or gear, I'm not so clear about the price of them. But most of my musical friends have one, so I guess it may not be so expensive to buy one here.

One more interesting thing, three of the our band members speak English, and the band leader speaks French for he majored in music as a conductor in France three years ago.

Generally, it's not difficult for foreigners to find a job here only if you are willing to be a teacher. There are lots of language training schools here.

Lots of musicians. It should be easy to hook up. May be a paying hobby, but not a career option.

Hello jopasny and fountain,

Regarding musical instruments, there are some shops in downtown and scattered around the city.
You can also try the Luosiwan International Trade city's wholesale market (South Kunming). I know for a fact there are a number of stores in there who have a range of musical (string) instruments. As they get stuff straight from manufacturers and wholesale distributors they could be cheaper there.
Also do most shops often have catalogs with which they use to order things in for you if you want something they don't have in stock.

About playing in a bar, I hear ya. Still, maybe we can set up something at our place. (we just opened and are located directly opposite Luosiwan Trade City). We have a very stylish environment (American Wine Bar) with space and seating. We are considering creating a regular night / venue, or more than one, with various music styles as an option (acoustic, classic, jazz, Rythm & Blues, Western, modern covers whatever can be managed). Of course this won't pay your bills, for that you need a job, but every little helps and Kunming isn't expensive (except gas and avocados).

We can always set up a meet & greet. There are a number of foreigners (mostly English teachers) living in this area too.

Good luck on your move!
-Silvio

PS: you can always PM me with any questions you have and I'll try to get them answered.

For NEW or USED musical instruments and accessories - checkout taobao.com. As your significant other is from Kunming, they should be able to help you navigate the site while searching for your heart's desire (in musical instruments and accessories).

I second that. Definitely go to taobao.com.
You can also use google translate to find the Chinese character words and thus the items you look for in your search.

Awesome, thanks for the responses guys! Definitely helpful. I imagine there's a lot of aspects about moving to KM that I'll just have to adapt to once I get there, but I definitely wanted to know about the music scene first.

It doesn't look there will be any problem though, so I'm glad to hear there are other foreigner musicians and opportunities to play. I'm not sure how things will go, but I'm not expecting to make lots of $ and live off of gigging (can't do that here either), mostly just want to have fun. I'll definitely be in touch closer to when I'm getting there and looking for people to jam with.

As for the gear, browsing toaboa.com definitely had some interesting results! There's definitely no problem finding cheap instruments, although I'm sure the range of quality is fairly wide too... I've had some experience with Chinese "Gibsons", which I saw on there, and actually didn't mind them too much. Just glad to know I won't have to break the bank necessarily in order to find something to play. Also having my GF be able to translate and help with the searches will help. A lot.

Again, thanks for the info. I've been cruising this site for a bit now ever since we decided to move to KM, and each time I get more excited about it. I'll definitely PM some of you when I move, but we'll actually be visiting for 3 weeks in October so hopefully I'll see some of you then when we go out. There was actually a big article in a local paper here (Montreal) about the Quebec Redneck Bluegrass Project, which is based in KM, which was interesting to see. Anything's possible I guess. Anyway, I'll probably be back asking more random questions here over the next few months.