1. Traditional Chinese Instruments
CHINA Music
Traditional Chinese Instruments

2. Chinese Music
Chinese music has a distinctive sound, quite unlike any Western music. This is mainly due to the unique sounds and playing styles of traditional Chinese musical instruments (CPP 2008).
Watch the following clip of people making music with traditional Chinese instruments.

3. Instruments
Instruments are often categorised by the materials they are made of. Chinese instruments can be made of skin, gourd, bamboo, wood, silk, earth/clay, metal or stone.
Eg. The strings on this instrument are
made of silk.

4. Types of Instruments Blown Plucked Bowed, or Struck.
The Chinese also categorised their instruments based on how they were played. For example, their instruments are either;
Blown
Plucked
Bowed, or
Struck.

5. Woodwind, strings and percussion.
Blown instruments are like our woodwind instruments, where sound is created by blowing air into the instrument.
Plucked and bowed instruments are like our string instruments, where either the fingers or a bow are used on the strings to create music.
Struck instruments are like our percussion instruments, where sound is created when instruments are hit with another object, or are sometimes hit together.
Ask students for examples of wind instruments, eg. saxophone, trumpet, flute.
Ask students for examples of string instruments, eg. violin, guitar
Ask students for examples of percussion instruments, eg. drums, cymbals

6. Sorting Activity Blown Plucked Bowed, or Struck.
You will now see images of 16 different traditional Chinese instruments. Your job is to sort them into the four categories that the Chinese use to describe how they are played.
Blown
Plucked
Bowed, or
Struck.
You may wish to provide students with a template (similar to slide 25) for recording their answers.

7. 1. Bangu To hear a sample of bangu music, click here;
Bangu; Ban: (flat board); gu: (drum)
Struck instrument
Made from wood, covered with skin (hide)
To hear a sample of bangu music, click here;

8. 2. Banhu To hear a sample of banhu music, click here;
Banhu; Ban: (flat board); hu: (Barbarian fiddle)
Bowed string instruments.
Strings made of silk and drum made from wood.
To hear a sample of banhu music, click here;

9. 3. Bo To hear a sample of bo music, click here;
Struck instrument (struck together)
Made from metal (high tin bronze)
To hear a sample of bo music, click here;

10. 4. Dizi To hear a sample of dizi music, click here;
The traditional Chinese flute.
Blown instrument
Made from bamboo.
To hear a sample of dizi music, click here;

11. 5. Erhu To hear a sample of erhu music, click here;
Erhu; Er means two
Bowed string instrument.
Strings traditionally made from silk (sometimes metal is used).
Sounds quite like a violin.
Still the most popular bowed instrument in today’s Chinese music.
To hear a sample of erhu music, click here;

12. 6. Luo To hear a sample of luo music, click here;
(Gong) Struck instrument.
Made from metal.
Used in Chinese opera (as is common with percussion instruments).
To hear a sample of luo music, click here;

13. 7. Guan
Blown (wind) instrument.
Made from either bamboo or wood.

14. 8. Jinghu
Bowed string instrument.

15. 9. Muyu Muyu; Mu: (wooden); yu: (fish) Struck instrument
Made from wood.
Used in Buddhist temples to accompany Buddhist chants.

16. 10. Pipa To hear a sample of pipa music, click here;
Plucked string instrument.
The belly is made of wood, and it has 4 silk strings.
To hear a sample of pipa music, click here;

17. 11. Yangqin To hear a sample of yangqin music, click here;
Plucked string instrument
To hear a sample of yangqin music, click here;

18. 12. Souna To hear a sample of souna music, click here;
Wind instrument.
Made from bamboo.
To hear a sample of souna music, click here;

19. 13. Ruan Plucked string instrument. Sometimes called a “moon guitar”.
Wooden soundboard (belly) with 4 strings, played with a plactrum (like a guitar).

20. 14. Zhonghu Bowed string instrument.
Zhonghu (two-stringed viola) is like an Erhu.
It has a wooden drum that is covered with snakeskin on one end.

21. 15. Sheng To hear a sample of sheng music, click here;
Blown (wind) instrument.
Base originally made from gourd with bamboo pipes.
Called a “Chinese mouth organ”.
One of the oldest varieties of Chinese instruments (dating back about 3000 years ago).
To hear a sample of sheng music, click here;

22. 16. Zheng Plucked string instrument.
Played with both hands, using imitation fingernails.
Stings were traditionally made from silk, but metal is more commonly used today.

23. How did you go? Blown Bowed Plucked Struck 4. Dizi 2. Banhu 10. Pipa
1. Bangu
7. Guan
5. Erhu
11. Yangqin
3. Bo
12. Souna
8. Jinghu
13. Ruan
6. Luo
15. Sheng
14. Zhonghu
16. Zheng
9. Muyu

24. Categories by Material
Can you list an instrument that is made from;
Material
Instrument
Silk
Metal
Wood
Bamboo
Skin
Gourd
Earth/Clay
Ocarina
Stone
Pien Ching
As we didn’t see examples of clay or stone, read description from below.
Clay - The ocarina, a small, egg-shaped wind instrument (with six holes for the finger tips) made of clay.
Stone - A good example is the Pien Ching. It is a set of L-shaped stones, of different quantities and sizes, hanging from a stand and struck with a special hammer. They are played only at court and during religious ceremonies.
(Information taken from

25. How did you go? Material Instrument Silk Stringed instruments eg. erhu
Metal
Bo (cymbals), Gong
Wood
Muyu (also xylophones)
Bamboo
Most wind instruments, eg. dizi, souna
Skin
Drums eg. bangu
Gourd
Sheng
Earth/Clay
Ocarina
Stone
Pien Ching
Note that other instruments are partly constructed of wood (eg. the body of the pipa, the drum of the banhu), but that the main group of wood instruments consisted of wooded blocks which were struck, or xylophones with wooden keys.

26. References Information and audio files taken from:
China People Promotions (CPP) 2008, Promoting traditional Chinese arts and culture, retrieved 13 May 2009,
Flogoe1, 2006, Chinese music: flute, banjo, citer and erhu, retrieved 12 May 2009,
Information and images taken from:
Noll, P 2009, Traditional Chinese instruments, retrieved 13 May 2009,