Guzheng

    The Guzheng also spelled gu zheng or gu-zheng (古箏) is an ancient (古) plucked Chinese instrument and came from a traditional instrument called zheng (箏) and it belongs to the Zither family. It is also an ancestor of the Japanese koto and the Korean kayagum. 

    The guzheng has been developed from a small instrument made from bamboo, originally used by herdsmen. It was very popular during the ancient times, as early as the Chinese Warring States times and the Chinese Qin Dynasty (255BC-206BC and earlier). Therefore another commonly used name of zheng is guzheng ("ancient" prounced "Gu" in Chinese).

    The GuZheng has a horizontal wooden box resonator. The resonator has an arched surface and is elongated-trapezoidal with 16 to 26 strings stretched over individual moveable bridges.  A 21 strings guzheng is commonly used by most of today's professional Guzheng performers.  

    The guzheng is tuned to a pentatonic scale,  Do, Re, Mi, So, and La, but Fa and Ti can also be produced by pressing the strings to the left of the bridges, The 16-string zheng is tuned to give three complete octaves, while the 21-string zheng has four complete octaves.   Although metal strings and Nylon wound metal strings are common today, the strings of guzheng were of silk in the ancient days.  

    There are many techniques used in the playing of the guzheng, including basic plucking actions (right or both hands) at the right portion and pressing actions at the left portion (by the left hand to produce pitch ornamentations and vibrato) as well as tremolo (right hand). These techniques of playing the Guzheng can create sounds that can evoke the sense of a cascading waterfall, thunder, horses' hooves, and even the scenic countryside. Plucking is done mainly by the right hand with four plectra (picks) attached to the fingers. Some players may use picks attached to the fingers of both hands. In more traditional performances however, plectra are used solely on the right hand, reflecting its use for melodic purposes and its relative importance in comparison to the left hand which is used solely for purposes of ornamentation. Ancient picks were made of ivory and later also from tortoise shell. Ornamentation includes a tremolo involving the right thumb and index finger rapidly and repeatedly plucking the same note. Another commonly used ornamentation is a wide vibrato, achieved by repeatedly pressing with the left hand on the left side of the bridge. This technique is used liberally in Chinese music, as well as in Korean gayageum music but is used only rarely in the music of the Japanese koto. 

    GuZheng is a distinguished solo instrument and an accompaniment instrument for ballad singing.  In the Chinese orchestra, the Guzheng is employed when an special effect such as the descending strains of cascading water is required. Its attraction lies on a water-rippling sound produced when its strings are plucked by fingers in a sweeping manner from the highest note to the lowest note or vice versa.