![]() The most famous Guqin player was Yu Boya, an exceptionally gifted instrumentalist, referred to as “a musician of flowing water and lofty mountains.” At the time, the Guqin was known as Qin, but in the 20th century, the name was changed. ![]() It was treasured and prized by emperors, court officials, and scholars. The final instrument on my list of traditional Chinese string instruments is called the Guqin, which has been played for about three millennia. Guqin is a Chinese ancient musical instrument, it has a history of several thousand years. It is perfect in expressing the mood or feelings of the player/artist, be it somber or glee, making it worthy of solo performances or as part of an ensemble. This Chinese musical instrument produces a sound similar to that of the violin’s, but the pitch is higher. The whole action is not so different from that of the violin or the cello. It is moved horizontally in a crosswise style across the strings. The bow of the Erhu is usually mounted between the two strings. Nowadays, some Erhu resonators use synthetic skin as a cover instead of traditional python skin because of modern technology and animal rights advocacy.ĭespite the high quality of these synthetic covers, the sound they create is inferior to that of the python skin traditional version. The elasticity of the python skin enables the Erhu to create its remarkable sound. The front portion of the resonator, called the soundbox, is covered with python skin. The Erhu consists of a wood body, two tuning pegs, two strings, the nut, a resonator, and a bow. It is a bowed musical instrument with great renown that it is still being used in China today. The simplest among all Chinese string instruments, the Erhu has existed for more than a thousand years. From the lowest voice to the highest, there are Ruan variants for contrabass, bass, tenor, alto, and soprano. The Ruan also comes in different sizes depending on the sound desired. The main dissimilarity between the two variants is that the metal makes a distinct, higher-pitched, and louder sound. ![]() In the same manner, the original ivory frets were replaced by metal counterparts in the modern versions of the Ruan. It originally had silk strings, but steel strings replaced them in the 20th century. The Ruan is one of the most recognizable Chinese string instruments due to its moon-shaped body. It comprises a neck with 24 frets, a wooden body, four strings, four tuning pegs, and a pick for plucking the strings. Sometimes referred to as the ‘Ruanqin’ particularly in Taiwan, the Ruan is another member of the plucked instrument group and is also part of the lute family. Harry Liu performs “Suite of Ruan” an original suite of music on the ruan, a traditional Chinese musical instrument 1000s of years old. Want to learn more about this Chinese musical instrument? Check out my article on the Guzheng here! 2. Incidentally, eight fingers are needed to play this Chinese string instrument, usually four on one side. Because of that, most, if not all, Zheng players wear the fingerpicks during performances. The Guzheng comes with eight optional fingerpicks that create highly audible sounds. There are 21 bridges and 21 strings across the soundboard. It has a mainly rectangular body 64 inches in length, with a soundboard, a tail, and a head that houses the tuning pegs. The Guzheng produces compelling melodies and is usually tuned to the pentatonic scale or commonly known as the five-note scale. The Guzheng is deemed as the progenitor of several Asian stringed instruments like the Mongolian Yatga, the Korean Gayageum, the Vietnamese dan tranh, and the Japanese Koto. The best example is the number of the instruments’ strings, which gradually increased from the original five to thirteen up to twenty-one in modern times. The Guzheng has undergone significant revisions throughout those years, and some were due to the cultural interactions among the other Asian nations. A number of the first variants were made of bamboo frames and silk strings. The 2,000-year-old Guzheng is commonly referred to by the Chinese as a Zheng.
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