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Playing Dan Tranh

Playing Position

Playing Dan Tranh

Dan Tranh is normally placed horizontally on a stand or on the lap of the musician while playing. The wider end (the end with the note indicators), the head of the Dan Tranh, is on the right and the smaller end (the end with the tuning pegs) is on the left.

The player, normally sitting down, plucks the strings on the right side of the bridges using the right hand and control the sound using the left hand touching the strings on the left side of the bridges.

Right Hand

Plucking the strings with the thumb and the index fingers

For a beginner, playing Dan Tranh is as easy as playing a piano: just pluck a string (or press a key) for the corresponding note.

The musician normally plucks the strings at a location between the bridges and the Dan Tranh head using two (or three) of the right hand fingers: thumb, index (and middle) fingers. Normally, the traditional musicians use only two fingers (thumb and index) and the modern musicians use three or more fingers.  The little finger and the ring finger are normally rested on the sound body near the head. For more complex repertoires, an accomplished Dan Tranh musician can also use 4 or even 5 fingers to pluck the string.  The sound is different depending on the location where one plucks the string (e.g., the sound is sharper if one plucks near the head and softer near the center of the bridge and the head), so depend on the mood of the song, the musician plucks the strings at the appropriate places.

Similar to playing a piano or a classical guitar, which finger to use to pluck the string (or press the piano key) is a function of convenience depending on the next or previous sequence of notes.  A piano or classical guitar player should be able to effectively select which finger to pluck the string (depending on the song) after a short period of trying the Dan Tranh.

Metal plectra and plastic plectra

Dan Tranh can be played using fingernails; however, most musician normally wear picks (plectra) made of metal, plastic or tortoise-shell on their fingers when playing. Due to the anatomy of the human hand, the thumb is used on the down-stroke (when the note sequence is going from high to low) and the other fingers are used on the up-stroke (when the note sequence is going low to high).  The sound for the down-stroke and up-stroke are slightly different due to human hand anatomy so some musicians use this fact to add more subtle nuances to the sound.  

Since Dan Tranh is tuned in pentatonic where all the notes go well together, just playing the scale by plucking a series of strings either from high to low (using the thumb) or from low to high (using the index or middle finger) generate a very pleasant sound. This scale running (arpeggio, or normally call "playing the A' " by Dan Tranh musicians) is played fairly frequent in traditional music.

Left Hand

The left hand fingers placed on the string to add ornaments

While the right hand is plucking the strings, the left hand is manipulating the same strings on the other side of the bridges to add ornaments and special effects to the sound: note control, vibration control, resonant control, etc.  Four of the most common techniques are tapping on the string, gliding on the string, pressing or bending on the string and vibrating the string.

For pentatonic music, most of the left hand technique are for ornaments or special effects and any guitar or violin players can get familiar with in almost no time. A beginner playing a pentatonic song using Dan Tranh does not need to use the left hand at all and can practice the right hand techniques first.

While the right hand is important in making the sound, it is the left hand technique that really distinguishes an accomplished Dan Tranh musician.  One of the most important aspect of playing Dan Tranh is the sounds it generates so the left hand techniques need to be constantly practiced and improved by all Dan Tranh musicians.

Playing Western Music

When playing a Western song which has a scale more complex than pentatonic, the musician, must use the left hand to press or bend the strings to achieve the missing notes. For Dan Tranh tuned in C major (A minor), the following notes need to be bended to produce all the 12 notes in western music:

For Dan Tranh tuned in F major (D minor), the following notes need to be bended to produce all the 12 notes in western music:

Similar "note creation" technique applied for Dan Tranh tuned in any other pentatonic scale.

A beginner may want to add labels for the extra notes in the Note Indicator area and also add some markers on the left side of the bridges to facilitate the left hand to find the appropriate strings.

Special Techniques

Some accomplished Dan Tranh musician sometimes pluck the string using both hands.  This would allow a Dan Tranh player to generate as many notes as a piano player. 

However, this technique, while can produce more notes, reduce the quality of the sound as the left hand is no longer there to add ornaments to the sound. So this technique should be only used when necessary or during the very loud part of the song where individual sound quality may not be that important.