ø ERHU

The Erhu (Chinese: 二胡; pinyin: èrhú), also called nanhu (南胡, "southern fiddle"), and sometimes known in the West as the "Chinese violin" or "Chinese two-string fiddle," is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, introduced into China a thousand years ago.

Not debating on how the name came about as it is obvious (二, èr, two) refers to the two strings and some states that it comes from the second highest pitch. The second character (胡, hú) has a high possibility in relation to a member of the huqin family originated from a Mongolian tribe.  

The shape of erhu is like a drum like usually  hexagonal  and 13cm in length which is covered with python snake skin at the front and the back is left open. It function as a music box amplifying the vibrations of the strings. The same material of ebony or sandalwood is used for the drum and the neck measuring about 81cm with two tuning pegs at the end of the stem. There is no frets or touching board, the player creates different pitches by touching the strings at various positions along the neck of the instrument.

The bow is 81 cm long arched with horse hair in the same way as the bow of violin and runs between the two strings which were usually silk or nylon but nowadays metal is getting popular. In another word, one cannot take off the bow from the instrument unless one of the two strings is taken off or broken. Professional players were using purpose made D and A steel erhu strings as standard. The cost of a set of erhu ranges from U$144 - U$800.