The ruan (Chinese: 阮; pinyin: ruǎn) is a traditional Chinese plucked string instrument. It is a lute with a fretted neck, a circular body, and four strings. Its four strings were formerly made of silk but since the 20th century they have been made of steel (flatwound for the lower strings).
The ruan comes in multiple sizes but the most popular of which is the zhongruan (medium/middle ruan) and daruan (large ruan). The zhongruan is typically tuned to G-D-G-D and the daruan to D-A-D-A. The zhongruan and daruan are typically used in the orchestra to fill in the lower sound sections of the orchestra.
The ruan is an indigenous Chinese plucked string instrument with over 2000 years of history. In the ancient time, ruan was also called qin pipa. The instrument received its present name after the famous player Ruan Xian.
While both instruments have a moon-shaped soundboard, the modern ruan uses a bridge, whereas the yueqin simply attaches the strings the frame, similar to the design of the pipa.
The Ruan is a lute with four strings, a fretted neck, 23 frets and is similar to the Pipa. The Ruan existed about 2000 years ago in the Western Jin Dynasty. It produces a sound just like the Pipa.
The strings are plucked by either the fingers or a small plectrum. The instrument's characteristic sound is produced when a metal plate that is hung inside the body vibrates against it when the instrument is played.
“Ruan“ has over 2000 years of history. It was first named ruanxian, after a famous musician Ruan Xian, one of the reputed “Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove” of the Six Dynasties period in ancient China. In its hirtory, ruan was also termed as “qin pipa” and “yueqin” (moon-shaped lute).
In ancient China, the ruan was called Qin pipa (Qin [Dynasty] pipa, 秦琵琶) or Ruan xian (阮咸). Now the ruan has expanded to different sizes and the zhongruan is the "medium" one.
Ruan - Chinese Plucked String Instrument
Once one of China's most ancient but extinct plucked string instruments, the Chinese ruan (moon guitar) as we know of today was developed for the modern Chinese orchestra in the 1970s. This occurred as a result of a deficiency in lower registers among plucked string instruments.
Chinese
Ruan (Chinese: 阮; pinyin: Ruǎn; Wade–Giles: Juan, [ʐwàn]) is a Chinese surname.
yueqin, Wade-Giles romanization yüeh-ch'in also called moon guitar, Chinese lute, one of a family of flat, round-bodied lutes found in Central and East Asia.
Best String Instruments
Violin. The violin is a wooden string instrument and is the smallest and highest-pitched instrument in the violin family in regular use.
Guitar. The guitar belongs to the string instrument family which is played by plucking the strings.
Leave a Reply