Saw u
Encyclopedia
The saw u is a Thai
bowed string instrument
. It has a lower pitch than the saw duang
and is the lowest sounding of the saw family. It has two strings and can produce 8 notes.
The soundbox is made from a coconut
shell that is covered on the open front by cowskin. The saw u is held vertically and has two silk strings that are played with a bow. The bow is between the strings and the player tilts the bow to play each string. The bridge nowadays is usually made of rolled cardboard paper. The saw u is a very fragile instrument. The morn (pillow) that rests at the bottom is extremely sensitive and drifts over time, causing changes in tone. The saw u is similar to the Cambodian tro u
and the Chinese yehu
.
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
bowed string instrument
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
. It has a lower pitch than the saw duang
Saw duang
The saw duang is a bowed string instrument used in traditional Thai music. it has a higher pitch than a saw u. It has a hardwood soundbox covered on the playing end with python skin. It is held vertically and has two silk strings that are played with a bow. Like the saw u, the bow is between the...
and is the lowest sounding of the saw family. It has two strings and can produce 8 notes.
The soundbox is made from a coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
shell that is covered on the open front by cowskin. The saw u is held vertically and has two silk strings that are played with a bow. The bow is between the strings and the player tilts the bow to play each string. The bridge nowadays is usually made of rolled cardboard paper. The saw u is a very fragile instrument. The morn (pillow) that rests at the bottom is extremely sensitive and drifts over time, causing changes in tone. The saw u is similar to the Cambodian tro u
Tro u
The tro u is a traditional instrument from Cambodia. It is a low-pitched, two-stringed vertical fiddle with a coconut shell body that has one end covered with animal skin...
and the Chinese yehu
Yehu
The instrument comes in various sizes. In Chaozhou music it is a leading instrument, and is tuned quite high. In Cantonese music it can be quite large and is often tuned to a relatively low pitch, lower than the erhu...
.