Catalpa wood is used for the base and there are two holes to help make the sound. The body is a long and narrow wooden sound box with seven strings stretched along the top of the box. The guqin is also known as the seven-stringed qin. This instrument is typically played by plucking the strings. It is a Chinese zither of 18-23 strings and movable bridges. The guzheng was first made with a bamboo frame and silk strings. The musician holds the instrument upright and plays with plectrums attached to each finger of the right hand. The pipa is a four-stringed lute with 12-26 frets on a pear-shaped body. There can be many pipes, but the first sheng had 17 pipes with a curved mouthpiece. It was used to accompany dancers in their performances and is now used for melody in orchestras. The sheng is a wind instrument made out of bamboo. This flute works on the same principle of blowing air over an empty bottle to make a noise. The melody of this flute reminds the listener of a lonely moon in the autumn night sky. The Xiao is a vertically played bamboo flute with 6-8 finger holes. They also have decorated patterns on them of humans, dragons and beasts. The bells make two high pitch notes depending on where you strike the bell. This helps to make the sound flow faster, making it possible to play them as a rhythmic instrument of several bells together in a group. The chimes are made flat like two tiles pieced together with sharp corners. Now the instrument is made from clay or ceramic to look like an oval stone and the holes are added so music can be made by blowing in the mouthpiece of this flute instrument.Ĭhinese chimes are made from different metals. The stone made a whistling sound as the air flowed through the natural holes on the stone. They would throw these stones at their prey. People first used a type of oval stone or bone to hunt. The xun is one of the oldest musical instruments. These are ten of the most common traditional instruments. The instruments were a string, wind, and percussion. There were around 70 types of traditional musical instruments.

Ancient Chinese believed music cleansed people’s minds.

Traditional chinese music instruments