Musical Instruments of the Dai People

The instrumental music of the Dai people includes wind instruments such as the Bi, plucked instruments such as the Ding, and percussion instruments such as drums, cymbals, and sharp-pointed gongs, etc.

The Bi is the common name for wind instruments.

"Bi" is the common name for wind instruments, and the flute-shaped one is called "Bi", which is made of bamboo with seven holes in most of the tubes and copper reeds at the mouthpiece. There are big Bi, small Bi, lonely Bi, pair of Bi, mother and child Bi, etc., the range of different sizes, different tones.

"Gourd sheng" is also an important wind instrument, in the bottom of the gourd inserted into three bamboo tubes, the middle tube has seven holes, according to the seven-tone scale issued by the seven rhythms, and the other two tubes hair and sound. The sound of the gourd sheng is melodious, with a long rhythm, especially when played in the quiet of the night, it makes people think more quietly, as if they were in a heavenly realm on earth.

Instruments with strings are called "ding" in Dai. One for the string pull, similar to the huqin; one for plucking, similar to the three-stringed (but also four-stringed). Ding type of instrument, often used by young men to play solo to entertain themselves.

In percussion instruments, the elephant foot drum is the most famous. Every village of the Dai people, almost all have different sizes and shapes of several sets of elephant foot drums. Elephant's foot drum Dai language called "light", because it looks like an elephant's foot and named, the drum body with a section of round wood hollowed out and become, the larger five or six feet long, the smaller also have two or three feet long. The drums are played with fists, palms, fingers and feet, striking the surface of the drum alternately. The elephant foot drum is usually matched with cymbals and sharp point gongs, constituting the percussion group of Dai music. The rhythm of the drums determines the mood and speed of the performance, and the gongs master the beat, and the cymbals regulate the atmosphere of the ensemble with their special timbre and pitch, and the three are integrated to make the Dai percussion music of a rich national style.