'It is okay to not be okay; follow your own flow' Posted : 2020-12-16 14:16 Young musician challenges gugak tradition By Jung Da-min Kim Yong-seong, 28, is a young musician who plays a Korean string instrument called "ajaeng," and challenges old practices in the country's traditional gugak music circles by presenting his own musical compositions. Kim surprised the gugak industry in 2018 when he presented his own sanjo, a type of traditional Korean music involving an instrumental solo. He gave the performance the title, "Kim Yong Seong Ryu," ― his own name plus the suffix "ryu" meaning style. Sanjo, a word of Sino-Korean origin, is made up of Chinese characters that translate to "scattered melodies," but the style is perhaps better described simply as a freestyle melodic form. It is an important genre for Korean traditional musicians through which they are able to demonstrate their technical skills and the individual characteristics of their style while playing spontaneous solo music on their instruments, accompanied only by a percussionist playing the janggu, an hourglass-shaped drum.