Musical Instruments

DiZi, also called Bamboo Flute, is a Chinese traditional musical instrument. It plays an important role in leading instruments for Chinese ensembles. It was originated from the time of "Yellow Emperor" in China in 5000 years ago. At that time, the Emperor ordered Mr Ling Lun to create a musical note range, i.e. from lower to highest pitch, using a section of bamboo on the Southern Qilian Mountain of Jiou Quan in the Ganshu province in China. It was the earliest bamboo flute in the Chinese history. The Dizi was fairly popular in the Warrior Time (BC 475 - 221) and in the Cultural Revolution between 1968 and 1978.

Chinese bamboo flute has six holes for playing with fingers. On the left, there is a blowing hole. There is also a hole between the blowing hole and finger holes for sticking a thin film from a thinnest bamboo. Therefore, a flautist is able to express his feeling and emotion.

The sound of bamboo flute is haunting, soothing and relaxing. It can imitate bird tweeting. It plays western music with sharp and flat notes by upward, forward and backward moving fingers.

There are many different professional techniques in playing bamboo flute such as single tongue play, double tongue play, triple tongue play, sliding, beating, vibrating, weak vibrato and deep vibrato.

Dulcimer may be originated from Persia of Middle East during the first millennium. It had been brought to Europe from the Middle East during the Crusades into Spain, then into China (AD1368 - 1644). The instrument was developed around the end of the 19th century in Hungary. Dulcimer is a mainstay in the music of the Hungarian gypsies and is used as a concert instrument as well.

Chinese dulcimer Master Mr Yang Jing-Ming brought about a revolution in dulcimer images and structures. He created multiple bridges under the strings, which is different from any other dulcimers with only two string bridges (treble and bass) and therefore has more chromatic octaves. It gives more sound ranges and is played with two thin bamboo sticks, the head of stick covering a thin rubber tube makes stick more flexible and easy to play on the strings of dulcimers. Two sticks taking turns to play on the thinner steel strings on the left side of the dulcimer makes the sound like mandolin, playing in the middle of the instrument makes the sound like harp, right side sounds like piano, and the chords and harmony of it are like zither. It creates an effect that the sound of it is from the sky to human ears.

Dulcimer can be used as a solo instrument as well as an accompany instrument at ensembles. It can be changed to 12 keys, which is the same as piano. In most cases, it plays rhythmic notes, chords or "fill In" for ensembles. There are many techniques to play dulcimers, such as slow and fast vibratos, beating stick ways, turning stick way, rolling sticks, left hand plays theme melodies accompanying with right hand playing rhythm at the same time. There are 145 strings on dulcimer(402), the other types of dulcimers include 403, 404, and 405 etc. There are also new modern dulcimers which can be tuned up through electronic pedals under the sound board. It is believed that there would be more and more newer and incredible creation and renovation for dulcimers in China and around the world.

Erhu is a Chinese violin (fiddle) with two strings. It was originated from China in Tang dynasty (618-907), its earliest name was called "Xiqin". The sound body of the Erhu is a little drum-like box, which reflect the sound of the instrument. Vibrato is made by player's left hand and fingers the instrument is made of ebony or sandalwood and snake skin which covers on the one end of sound box. It has a hexagonal shapes on two side with the length of about 13 cm. The virtical neck of the erhu is approximately 81cm. On the top of the neck, it can be shaped and decorated as a horse head or simply flat one. the two strings of the erhu is usually tuned as Key D & A, the strings are usually made of silver or nylon. The bow is 76 cm long curve shaped which tied horse tail hair in the same way as the bow of violin.