6 instruments · 4 families

🪕 Folk Instruments

Six Vietnamese instruments drawn as the real thing and played right on the picture: pluck a string and that very string shakes and sounds its own pitch.

Turn the volume on: every sound is built by the browser at the moment your finger lands.

Plucked strings A fingernail pick or a bamboo plectrum lifts the string and lets go.

Đàn bầu one string

Press and hold anywhere on the picture, then slide sideways: the rod leans with your hand and bends the pitch, exactly the way a player bends the horn rod.

—slide to bend

Untick to bend with no steps at all.

Where it comes from

A one-string zither found only in Vietnam, recorded in writing from the 18th century and long tied to xẩm street singing and poetry chanting in the northern delta. Its Sino-Vietnamese name is độc huyền cầm, the single-string lute.

How it is built

A shallow wooden box about 110 cm long, one metal string running its whole length, and a flexible rod of buffalo horn planted at one end through half a dried gourd. Modern instruments add an electromagnetic pickup, because the acoustic voice alone is very soft.

How it is played

The right hand rests its edge on a harmonic node and plucks with a bamboo pick, so the đàn bầu speaks almost entirely in harmonics. The left hand pushes and pulls the rod to bend, slide and shake the note, which is why the instrument can imitate the tones of spoken Vietnamese.

Range
C3–C5 · bent by the rod
Materials
Wood body, buffalo horn, dried gourd
Voice here
Fundamental + octave partial, 5.5 Hz vibrato

Đàn tranh 16 strings

Touch a string to pluck it, or press and sweep across several to play the á glide, the signature run of the instrument. The stretch to the right of the bridge is the part you pluck.

—touch a string

Where it comes from

Vietnam's member of the East Asian zither family. The Vietnamese form settled at 16 strings, hence the name thập lục, and it plays in Huế court music, ca Huế chamber song and southern đờn ca tài tử. Newer instruments carry 17, 19 or 21 strings.

How it is built

A long box 100 to 120 cm, arched soundboard of ngô đồng wood over a hardwood frame inlaid with mother of pearl. Each of the 16 metal strings rides its own movable bridge called a nhạn, a wild goose, and the row of them curves across the board.

How it is played

Three fingers of the right hand wear picks of tortoiseshell or metal and pluck to the right of the bridges. The left hand presses, shakes and taps the string on the other side to bend a note after it has sounded, which is where the singing quality comes from.

Range
C3–C6 · pentatonic, 3 octaves
Materials
Ngô đồng soundboard, hardwood frame, metal strings
Voice here
Karplus–Strong string model
Bowed strings Horsehair drags across the string and keeps it moving as long as the bow moves.

Đàn nhị two strings

Press on the left half for the inner string, the right half for the outer one, then keep sliding sideways to keep bowing: the faster the bow, the louder and brighter the tone. Slide down toward the bridge for higher notes.

—press and bow

Where it comes from

Vietnam's two-string fiddle, called đàn cò in the south after the heron its neck resembles. It carries the melody in chèo and tuồng theatre, in hát văn ritual song and in funeral and festival bands.

How it is built

A short tube of wood or bamboo with python skin stretched over one end, a slim neck driven straight through it, two pegs, two strings usually tuned a perfect fifth apart, D–A. The bow passes between the two strings and cannot be taken off the instrument.

How it is played

There is no fingerboard: the fingers touch the string in mid air, so every pitch is found by ear alone. Tilting the bow changes string, and pressure on the string bends and shakes the note the way a singing voice does.

Tuning
Usually tuned a perfect fifth apart, D–A
Materials
Wood tube, python skin, horsehair bow
Voice here
Two detuned saws, 1.15 kHz skin formant, bow noise
Wind A column of air inside the tube does the singing; the fingers only decide how long it is.

Sáo trúc 6 holes, key of C

Touch a hole to cover it and every hole to its left; the lit part of the tube is the air column that sounds. Slide sideways to move between notes on one breath.

—touch a hole

Where it comes from

The plain bamboo transverse flute of the northern countryside, cut from trúc or nứa cane. Village players name a flute by its lowest note, so a sáo đô is a flute in C and a sáo sol a flute in G.

How it is built

One length of cane closed at the head by a natural node, one blow hole and six finger holes. The Vietnamese flute has no buzzing membrane, unlike the Chinese dizi, which is why its tone stays clear and dry.

How it is played

The lower lip covers part of the blow hole and the breath is aimed at its far edge. Blowing harder jumps the whole scale up an octave; sharps and flats need half-covered holes, and the tongue and breath add flutter, slur and trill.

Range
C5–C6 · two octaves on a real flute
Materials
One length of trúc or nứa cane
Voice here
Soft triangle tone + band-passed breath noise
Struck One strike, one sound: where you hit decides the colour of it.

Trống cơm two heads

Slap either head with a fingertip. The centre gives the round ringing tùng; out near the rim the sound turns short and dry, just as on a real skin.

—slap a head

Where it comes from

A long two-headed drum worn at the waist, known in ritual bands and in chèo and tuồng theatre. Most people meet it first through the northern folk song that carries its name.

How it is built

A wooden barrel with a skin at each end, the two heads different in size so they answer each other. The name comes from the tuning: a lump of pounded sticky rice is pressed at the centre of each head, and its weight pulls the pitch down until the two heads agree.

How it is played

Both hands play with bare palms and fingers, one head each. The palm in the middle gives the deep note, fingers near the rim give the sharp one, and the two heads alternate to make the rocking pattern the song imitates.

Two heads
122 Hz big head · 178 Hz small head
Materials
Wood shell, hide heads, sticky rice tuning paste
Voice here
Circular membrane modes 1 / 1.59 / 2.14 / 2.30 / 2.65

Đàn đá 12 slabs

Tap a slab, or press and sweep to run down the set. The mallet jumps to whichever slab you strike; big slabs ring low and long, small ones ring bright like metal.

—strike a slab

Where it comes from

The Ndut Liêng Krak set, dug up in Đắk Lắk in 1949 and about 3,000 years old, sits today in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. More sets have since come to light in Khánh Sơn, Bác Ái and Tuy An, which puts the đàn đá among the oldest instruments still able to make a sound.

How it is built

Slabs of hornfels or rhyolite chipped to shape by hand, then trimmed until each one sounds right. A long thick slab gives a low note, a short thin one a high note, and a set runs from three slabs to a dozen.

How it is played

Struck with a wooden mallet, either laid on a frame or hung on cords. Stone does not ring in tidy harmonics the way a string does, so the sound carries a metallic edge and each slab keeps a voice of its own.

Range
C4–D6 · pentatonic, 12 slabs
Materials
Knapped hornfels or rhyolite slabs
Voice here
Bar partials 1 / 2.76 / 5.4 + stone click