The first cool things I wanted to talk about are Chinese Instruments. Some instruments I found are the Pipa, Huquin, and the Dizi. The pipa is a 4-stringed instrument that is similar to a lute. A lot of times, it is called the Chinese lute. It has a pear-shaped wooden body, and has many frets. It is one of the most popular instrument in China, and has been around for over 2,000 years! It is a plucked instrument. The Huquin is a family of bowed string instruments, or a spike fiddle. These instruments have 2 strings, soundboxes usually covered in snake skin, and 2 tuning pegs. The Dizi is a Chinese flute. It is used in many Chinese folk music and opera. It is a classical woodwind made from bamboo. They are very popular in China and are also very easy to carry. Below, I am attaching videos of all 3 instruments being played.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksiM1wRcutQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fdFGEg-9R8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G_pgEML17A
The second cool thing I wanted to talk about is the Indonesian instrument Kacapi. It is a resonance box, and it can be 2 types. Either the Kacapi Parahu, which is resonance box with an uncovered underside to allow the sound out. The Kacapi Siter is plan-parallel resonance box with a hole in the bottom. It has 15 strings. The person playing it usually sits criss-cross. Below, I will share a video of someone playing the Kacapi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF09DHWZ9VI
The last cool thing I wanted to share is the Nepalese instrument Sarangi. The Sarangi is a short necked, bowed string instrument. It is said to sound a lot like the human voice. It has a box-liked shape with 3 chambers (stomach, chest, and brain). It gets its name from the lord Vishnu. Here below is a video of someone playing the Sarangi. I really liked this one!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_yMf_Ra9XM
I loved all the Chinese instruments, especially the Dizi (I'm a flute player, so I'm rightfully biased). The Sarangi also sounded really amazing and it's cool that the name came from Vishnu. I also like that they call the 3 chambers Stomach, Chest, and Brain...because why not call it body parts!
ReplyDelete-Katie Edge
Instruments are always fun to learn about. I am really glad I got to learn about the Dizi. I like the sounds that flutes make so I feel like I would like that one
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ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed learning about China and its instruments. My favorite by a long shot was the huqin. I actually did some research about Vietnamese instruments and they have a very similar instrument called the Đàn nhị. I just love the timbre of it so much. It makes me think of a violin.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of the Sarangi before, and I found it very interesting. It is so resonant, and the musician doesn't try to avoid that at all. In Western music, we usually do not allow sounds to sustain for that long.
ReplyDeleteThe Kacapi video is really interesting. It's almost the same instrument as the Chinese zheng and the Japanese koto. She music it's playing and that the woman is singing, though, makes me think more of Arabic music in some way, though. I wonder if it's the Islamic influence? I'll have to go explore further.
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