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| A Young Girl Playing Dan Nhi |
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Dan NhiDan Nhi (or Dan Co) is the most versatile musical instrument in the South East Asia region. It is very popular in Viet Nam and the Southern part of China (Erhu in Chinese).
Dan Nhi is has a long neck of around 75 cm (30 inches). At the top of the neck are two tuning pegs for its two strings and at the other end is the resonant box in the shape of a pipe around 15 cm in length and 5 cm in diameter. The resonant box and the neck is normally beautifully decorated with mother-of-pearl shell. There is a bow (similar to a violin bow) whose bow-hair is "trapped" between the two strings. Similar to a violin, the player glides the bow-hair on one of the two strings to make a sound.
If one has to compare Dan Nhi with a Western musical instrument, one can say that Dan Nhi is basically a 2 string violin. But that is where the similarity ends. Dan Nhi, with its unique characteristics and different playing style, offers great flexibility in range, tone and dynamics for such a simple instrument. Following are the characteristics unique to Dan Nhi compared to those of a violin:
- The bow-hair (the part of the bow that touches the strings) is permanently installed between the two strings give the musician great flexibility and dynamics while playing (the bow-hair is "trapped" between the 2 strings and you cannot separate the bow from the rest of the instrument). Due to this flexibility, a musician can play the Dan Nhi in various holding positions.
- There is a moveable String Adjuster (normally made of silk) that pulls the string toward the neck to adjust the fret length of the Dan Nhi to either assist the tuning of the strings or change the playing dynamics.
- The pipe-shaped sound box of Dan Nhi provides a sound which is shaper and has more dynamics than that of a violin.
- To get a new sound, simply change the shape of the sound box. For example, Dan Gao (or the similar Chinese's Erhu, Dan Ho in Vietnamese), equipped with a bowl-shaped sound box instead of a pipe-shaped sound box, is more or less identical to Dan Nhi except for the fuller, warmer sound characteristics.
- While the notes produced in a violin is mainly a function of string length, the notes produced in Dan Nhi is a function of string length and string tension. This provides more expressive capability to the player.
Having only 2 strings, Dan Nhi is probably the most simple fiddle in the world yet offers great versatility and playing dynamics than the others.
Similar to Dan Tranh and Dan Bau, Dan Nhi is beautifully made and frequently used as a decorative ornament by non-musicians.
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