Getting To Know Chinese Musical Instruments

The Chinese musical instruments are generally divided into four basic families based on the method by which they are played: “blown”, “bowed” , “plucked” and “stroked”. Most of them play a standard western scale, but some play in a haunting pentatonic scale. Unlike the western instruments, Chinese instruments raise timbre to an enormous importance as compared to harmony emphasis. This is mainly due to the distinctive ethnic tone color each instruments possessed.

Click on the numbers below to enjoy Chinese Traditional tunes in MIDI format.
	Wind Instruments
1 2 3 4 5			Dizi (Chinese transverse flute) is perhaps the most popular Chinese wind instrument used in the orchestra. It is made of bamboo, with one hole for blowing and six holes for fingering. It produces a clear, sharp, and pure tone. It has been suggested that the instrument originated in Central Asia over 2000 years ago. Often dizi players carry around several flutes for all the different keys.
			Sheng (Chinese mouth organ) came into use during late Shang Dynasty (C.16th-11th century B.C.). It is one of the very few instruments in the orchestra that could produce both melody and choral accompaniment at the same time. Sheng uses the technology of metal reeds that vibrate as air passes through them. Hence, it possesses a rich and penetrating tone color which sounds much like the harmonica.
			Suona is a reed instrument with a conical metal bell. It has a nasal penetrating sound and comes in various sizes.
			Guan is a cylinder fitted with a reed mouthpiece. It has a nasal sound quality and generally comes in a variety of sizes.
TOP	BLOWN	BOWED		PLUCKED	STROKED

Some of the images and MIDI music in this page are collected from the following sites:

The Music of China
If you enjoy beautiful traditional Chinese music and Chinese comedy, this is your site.