Chinese Music Instruments

Semester 1 - Chinese Music (Instruments)

Bowed Strings

革胡 Gehu

Plucked Strings

中阮 Zhongruan

古箏 Guzheng

二胡 Erhu

琵琶 Pipa

Keyboard + Ruan + Guzheng

Winds

笛子 Dizi

笙 Sheng

嗩吶 Suona

Percussion

鼓 Gu

鑼 Luo

Cymbals + Drum + Gong - Lion Dance

Strings + Percussion

揚琴 Yangqin

Gehu is a low sounding instrument. It can be describe as a mixture between the Cello and the Erhu.

Erhu has two strings. It produces mostly high pitch sound. It normally plays the main melody of the music.

Zhongruan is a low sounding instrument like the Gehu. It is created to add a deeper sound for the plucked instruments.

The Sheng creates sound like an organ. It has reeds that vibrate in the instrument when blown into. It is the only wind instrument that can sound multiple notes at once.

Dizi is also called the bamboo flute. It is one of the oldest chinese instruments and has a very distinct resonant sound.

Pipa is one of the more well-known chinese instrument. It produces higher pitch sound than Zhongruan.

Guzheng is a box with plucked string attached to it. It operates similarly to the other plucked-string instruments except that it is placed on a stand and have one string for each note.

A popular english song played by Zhongruan, Guzheng and the western keyboard.

The dagu or big drum is that most commonly seen chinese drum. It has a deeper and bigger sound, which is suitable for many festive occasions.

The Suana is a very bright sounding instrument. It creates sound through a double reed mouthpiece, like a western oboe.

The luo is a gong. There are many different types of gong that is it difficult to name all of them. They come in different materials and sizes to create different sound and pitch.

Watch the various chinese percussive instrument being used for lion dance.

Yangqin is similar to a Guzheng in the sense that it is placed on a stand and have a string for each note. The difference is that Yangqin is played using a hammer instead of plucking the strings.