Traditional Vietnamese musical instruments

Traditional Vietnamese musical instruments are the musical instrument

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...

s used in the traditional and classical musics of Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

. They comprise a wide range of string, wind, and percussion instruments, used by both the Viet

Vietnamese people

The Vietnamese people are an ethnic group originating from present-day northern Vietnam and southern China. They are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population as of the 1999 census, and are officially known as Kinh to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Vietnam...

(Kinh) majority as well as the nation's ethnic minorities.

Plucked

Đàn bầu - monochord zither
Đàn đáy - long-necked three-stringed lute with trapezoidal body
Đàn nguyệt (also called nguyệt cầm or đàn kìm) - moon-shaped two-string lute
Đàn sến - two-string lute
Đàn tam - fretless lute with snakeskin-covered body and three strings^photo
Đàn tranh - long zither
Đàn tỳ bà - pear-shaped lute with four strings
Đàn đoản (also called đàn tứ) - moon-shaped lute with short neck; little used
Đàn ghi-ta (also called lục huyền cầm or ghi-ta phím lõm) - "Vietnamized" acoustic or electric guitar with scalloped fretboard; used primarily in cải lương
Cai luong
Tuồng cải lương or cải lương in short, which can be roughly translated as "reformed theater" or "renovated theater" in English, is a form of modern folk opera in Vietnam...
Đàn tứ dây - bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

in the shape of a đàn đáy
Cầm
Cam
A cam is a rotating or sliding piece in a mechanical linkage used especially in transforming rotary motion into linear motion or vice-versa. It is often a part of a rotating wheel or shaft that strikes a lever at one or more points on its circular path...

- 7-stringed zither equivalent to the Chinese guqin
Guqin
The guqin is the modern name for a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family...

; no longer used
Sắt
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...

- zither with 25 strings equivalent to the Chinese se
Se (instrument)
The se is an ancient Chinese plucked zither . It is the ancestor of many Asian zithers, including the Chinese guzheng, the Korean gayageum and the Japanese koto. It has 25 strings with moveable bridges and has a range of up to five octaves.-History:The history of the se extends back to early...

; no longer used
Đàn tính - long-necked lute with a gourd body and two or three silk strings; used by the Tay
Tay people
The Tày people speak a language of the Central Tai language group, and live in northern Vietnam. They are sometimes also called Thô, T'o, Tai Tho, Ngan, Phen, Thu Lao, or Pa Di....

, Nung
Nung people
The Nùng are an ethnic minority in Vietnam. In China, the Nùng, together with the Tày, are classified as Zhuang people.-Description:The population of the Nùng is estimated to be more than 700,000...

, and Thai
Thai people
The Thai people, or Siamese, are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Kradai family of...

ethnic groups
Bro - fretted zither with a body made of bamboo and a gourd resonator; used by minority ethnic groups in the Central Highlands
Goong - tube zither with a bamboo body; used by minority ethnic groups in the Central Highlands

Bowed

Đàn gáo - two-stringed vertical violin with coconut resonator
Đàn hồ - two-stringed vertical violin with wooden resonator; hồ derives from Chinese hu, as in huqin
Huqin
Huqin is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes upwards...

)
Đàn nhị - two-stringed vertical violin*K'ni
K'ni
The K'ni is a Vietnamese Traditional Instrument. It is the only Violin of Jarai people. It is a bowed chordophone which uses the musician's mouth as a resonator which enables the instrument to imitate certain qualities found in vocal music.- Description :...

(also spelled k'ny or k'ný) - one-string vertical violin; played by the Jarai people of the Central Highlands
Tây Nguyên
Tây Nguyên, translated as Western Highlands and sometimes also called Central Highlands, is one of the regions of Vietnam. It contains the provinces of Đắk Lắk, Đắk Nông, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Lâm Đồng....

Oboes

Kèn
Kèn (musical instrument)
The kèn is an instrument used in traditional Vietnamese music. It has a double reed and a conical wooden body. It produces a powerful and penetrating high-pitched sound, similar to the Chinese suona, the Korean taepyeongso, and the Persian/Indian shehnai.The best-known player of the kèn is perhaps...

- class of double reed
Double reed
A double reed is a type of reed used to produce sound in various wind instruments. The term double reed comes from the fact that there are two pieces of cane vibrating against each other. A single reed consists of one piece of cane which vibrates against a mouthpiece made of metal, hardened...

instruments similar to the oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...

and shehnai
Shehnai
The shehnai, shahnai, shenai or mangal vadya, is an aerophonic instrument, a double reed conical oboe, common in North India, West India and Pakistan, made out of wood, with a metal flare bell at the end...
- Kèn bầu - conical oboe with gourd-shaped wooden bell
- Kèn đám ma - conical oboe with metal bell; used for funeral music in northern Vietnam

Free reed mouth organs

Đing nǎm
Gourd mouth organ
A gourd mouth organ is a traditional wind instrument found in many nations of East and Southeast Asia. It is a free reed mouth organ similar to the Chinese sheng but with a windchest made from a dried bottle gourd rather than metal or wood...

- free-reed mouth organ with gourd body and bamboo pipes; played by upland minorities
M'buot
Gourd mouth organ
A gourd mouth organ is a traditional wind instrument found in many nations of East and Southeast Asia. It is a free reed mouth organ similar to the Chinese sheng but with a windchest made from a dried bottle gourd rather than metal or wood...

- free-reed mouth organ with gourd body and bamboo pipes; played by upland minorities

Drums

Trống - drum played with sticks
Nruas tuag (also called Ư chua - drum used by the Hmông ethnic group for funeral music
Trống đồng (also called trống đồng Đông Sơn) - bronze drum played by the Dong Son culture
Dong Son culture
The Đông Sơn culture was a prehistoric Bronze Age age in Vietnam centered at the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam. At this time the first Vietnamese kingdoms of Văn Lang and Âu Lạc appeared...

in ancient times

Tuned percussion

Cồng chiêng - tuned gong (comes in both flat and knobbed varieties)
Tam âm la - three small, high-pitched flat gongs in a frame; used primarily in nhã nhạc music
T'rưng - bamboo xylophone
Đàn đá - lithophone, commonly having 9+ stone bars, 65cm-102cm in length. It is believed the instrument dates back to 1000 BC. Also called Goong Lú (M’nong people), Kologolo (M’nong people), Gôông Luk (Mạ people).

Other

Đàn môi
Đàn môi
Đàn môi is the Vietnamese name of a traditional musical instrument widely used in minority ethnic groups in Vietnam. This instrument is somewhat similar to the jaw harp but there are some differences. Most Đàn môi are crafted out of a single piece of brass and attached with a string to a...

- jaw harp
Klông pút - set of bamboo tubes; hands are clapped near ends of tubes to produce musical tones
Dao long - singing bowl
Đàn tre - A hybrid form of the Vietnamese plucked string instrument similar to a Đàn tính – called a Đàn tre – was created by Minh Tam Nguyen, who escaped from Vietnam in 1982 and ultimately settled in Australia. The instrument has twenty-three 800mm-long wire strings attached to a bamboo tube with a metal hose-clamp around the top rim. A four-litre, rectangular olive oil tin, which acts as a resonator, is clamped to the base of the tube. The instrument is capable of playing both Vietnamese and Western music. The instrument can be seen and recordings of it being played by its creator can be heard at the National Museum of Australia
National Museum of Australia
The National Museum of Australia was formally established by the National Museum of Australia Act 1980. The National Museum preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation....

.