Erhu – the “Chinese violin”

Erhu – The “Chinese violin”

Erhu is a wooden string instrument in the violin family. It had a Chinese origin. The erhu usually is made from rosewood, ebony, and sandalwood. You can play the erhu by special bow, made from bamboo and horsetail hair. But the erhu is not like the other string instruments, because it had only 2 strings, tuned in DA.

The Erhu has some unusual features. First is that its characteristic sound is produced through the vibration of the python skin by bowing. Second, there is no fingerboard; the player stops the strings by pressing their fingertips onto the strings without the strings touching the neck. Third, the horsehair bow is never separated from the strings (today they are usually made of metal); it passes between them as opposed to over them (the latter being the case with western bowed stringed instruments). Lastly, the maximum range of the instrument is three and a half octaves, from D4 up to A7, before a stopping finger reaches the part of the string in contact with the bow hair. The usual playing range is about two and a half octaves.

Here is one perform of erhu :

More interesting things and facts about erhu: