Erhu and me.

The Chinese erhu, or Chinese fiddle is an interesting musical intrument. It has 2 strings, is played with a bow and has a most unusual sound box. The erhu has a heritage going back some thousand or so years. A similar instrument came to China around the 10th century that had 2 strings and was either plucked or bowed. Its possible that the erhu was derived from this instrument called a xiqin, from the Xi tribe of Central Asia. Anyways, the Chinese liked the vibe and developed a whole family of intruments called huqin. Theres even a big version, bass size, thats evolved to play the more modern compositions.

The overall look of the intrument is fragile. The neck is thin, the tuning pegs mere pencils and the soundbox, well thats another story. Traditionally it has been either hexagonal, liu jiao, indicating a southern Chinese intrument, or ba jiao, form the North, and just to be different, 8 sided. Made from hardwoods it is capped on the ends by python skin. Things get a little odder the more we examine the erhu. The skin has to be python skin. Period. Its what gives the erhu its distinctive twang and can't be duplicated with, say, polyester.

Now as for playing, the bow is placed between the two strings. The musician moves the bow back and forth alternating between the strings or by placing the bow at more extreme angles, catching both strings simultaneously. Finally, to give this device an even steeper learning curve, the player does not press the string to the neck, which is common with many bowed intruments. Instead they merely press their finger on the string where they want the note to be. Combined with its unique sound box, this gives the erhu its distant, haunting quality.