Description: The erhu is a bowed-chordophone in which belongs to the "yueqin" family of stringed instruments in Chinese traditional music. Others say the erhu may have originated from the "Huqin" in who associated as the "Barbarian's instrument". Both descriptions and paintings have illustrated the huqin in who closely resembles the modern erhu. There is evidence, which the erhu may have originated in the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 AD). In southern China at that given time-period another name was given to it "Nan-Hu". During the 1920s the form of erhu you see today could be attributed to "1920s by Liu Tianhua (1895-1932)" who in his own right was a pioneering Chinese erhu and pipa player. The erhu is used in both traditional, film music, contemporary, pop-music and now jazz and experimental or avantgarde this use in western and other non-Chinese music is also being widely adapted and re-written for the erhu in both Chinese communities in china and their fellow Diaspora communities and also their non-Chinese North American and other counterparts in what we are calling "world music". The traditional ensemble may include "Yangchin [the Chinese Hammered dulcimer], "ruan", pipa, da-ruan, some occasional percussion (depending on genre). Most players of the erhu have adapted what is widely referred to as the "cipher notation system" in where since originally the erhu did not have its own notation system.
Anatomy: The body of the erhu is stretched over with snake skin (for sound or resonator or skin-head). On professional models of erhu much of them have bone inlay on the tuning pegs many of them are hand carved, some newer models of the tuning pegs are modeled after the “machine gear type tuners” though they are still in the shape and appearance of the old tuning peg. The construction of the bow is also different then the “Western violin bow” here since the bow goes in between the erhu strings the bow is of a good quality high tension bamboo, and similar in construction “the frog” (where the string is attached and or released if need be is held often with the left hand when playing the erhu). The "qianjin" is the loop of string, fishingline or nylon fibre that is used to keep the strings together. The qin-tong is a geometirically shaped sound box in the form of a hexagon. This box is often constructed from staves of wood. The sound box is then stretched over with snake skin.