The Erhu and Chinese Music

by Aiken Cheung (5B)

Chinese music is famous for its erhu, pipa, dizi and other good instruments. Erhu uses its strings to let out music. The players use their left hand to control the pitch. Erhu sheet music may not look familiar because it uses numbers to show the pitch, for example: 1155|665-|4433|221-|etc.

If you are confused about how to read this as music, don’t worry, I can translate.

1 = do = C

2 = re = D

3 = mi = E

4 = fa = F

5 = so = G

6 = la = A

7 = ti = B

The Chinese musical notation uses “ - " to show how fast the song is:

11 = a beat 

1 = a beat

1- = 2 beats

1- - = 3 beats

1 - - - = 4 beats

In Chinese music, “ . ” refers to what octave the music is in.

In Chinese music, the left top of the the song will show the time signature just like western musical notation.

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I played erhu before and it isn't hard to play. I have been playing erhu for 5 years. I practice it 3 times a week. I play piano too, but I think playing erhu is easier.