Hold your finger on a string and the bow starts to move; slide along it and the note glides like a voice; keep still and the vibrato comes in. The erhu has no fingerboard and no frets, so every pitch is yours to shape. Play Jasmine Flower, or your own melody, in number notation.
Most online instruments are struck or plucked. The erhu needs a note that lasts, swells and bends: this one keeps sounding as long as you hold it.
Press a string and the bow moves; lift your finger and the note stops. Change notes without lifting and they connect, as when the bow keeps moving while the left hand changes position. The bow on screen moves back and forth, between the two strings, as on the real erhu.
The erhu sounds like a voice because its notes slide into each other. Drag along the string to glide, or hold Shift on the keyboard. Keep a note still and a slow vibrato grows on it, the rolling finger technique players call rou xian.
Erhu music is written in jianpu, with the tuning given as 1 = D or 1 = G. Choose the key and the markers renumber: in 1 = D the open strings are 1 and 5, in 1 = G they are 5 and 2. The tonic markers are red.
With Snap to scale, your finger lands on the nearest note of the key, which helps you play in tune from the start. Turn it off and the string is free: every shade of pitch between the markers, as on a real erhu.
Jasmine Flower, the Chinese folk song, and two originals written for the erhu, Night Ferry and Willow by the River. Listen to them bowed with their slides, then play along: the next marker glows until you play it.
Hold a note with a finger on a phone or with the mouse on a computer. On the keyboard, the middle row plays the scale from the low D, the top row continues; hold several keys and release them to go back to the previous note, like a trill.
Press and hold at the left end of the lower string: that is the open D, number 1.
Hold the markers from left to right: 1 2 3 5 6 on the D string, then move to the A string.
Drag from one marker to the next without lifting, then keep still for vibrato.
Choose Jasmine Flower, press Listen, then Play along and follow the glowing marker.
| Type | Erhu (Chinese two-string fiddle, of the huqin family), playable on this page, free |
|---|---|
| Strings | Inner string D4, outer string A4; 17 semitones along each, D4 to D6 |
| Keys | 1 = D (strings 1-5), 1 = G (5-2), 1 = F (6-3), 1 = C (2-6) |
| Playing | Bow while held, slides, vibrato after a moment, snap to the scale or free pitch |
| Labels | Jianpu numbers with octave dots, note names, computer keys, or none |
| Sound | Bowed string synthesis: sawtooth string, bow noise, resonator formants, vibrato, room reverb |
| Songs | Jasmine Flower (traditional) and two GOONS originals; listen and play-along modes |
| Requirements | Any modern browser with Web Audio - Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari |
The erhu is the best known of the huqin, the Chinese bowed fiddles. A small resonator, traditionally covered with python skin, sits at the bottom of a long neck; two strings run from the tuning pegs down to a bridge on the skin, and the hair of the bow passes between them, so the player chooses a string by leaning the hair against one or the other. There is no fingerboard: the fingers press the strings in the air, which lets the pitch slide freely. Its ancestors reached China from Central Asia more than a thousand years ago.
The player sits with the erhu upright on the left thigh. The strings are usually tuned a fifth apart, D and A, and a piece names the key by what the open strings mean: 1 = D makes them 1 and 5. Slides, vibrato and changes of bow pressure give the erhu its singing, sometimes weeping quality, heard in solo pieces such as Erquan Yingyue by the blind musician Hua Yanjun, known as Abing.
Play the guzheng, the zither that often accompanies the erhu, or try another instrument without frets, the Arabic oud. The world music studio puts every instrument on one map.
Yes. The erhu at the top of this page is free, with no account and nothing to install. It runs in your browser with the Web Audio API.
Usually D4 for the inner string and A4 for the outer string, a fifth apart. The key of a piece is written as 1 = D, 1 = G and so on, which tells you which numbers the open strings play.
The fingers press the strings without touching the neck, so the pitch can slide continuously. That is what gives the erhu its slides and its expressive vibrato. On this page, Snap to scale helps you land on the right notes; turn it off to play free.
Keep holding: the bow keeps moving as long as your finger, mouse button or key is down, and the note gets a vibrato after a moment.
Yes. Jasmine Flower is a traditional Chinese folk song in the public domain; Night Ferry and Willow by the River are originals written by GOONS.
The erhu is free, with no account. GOONS Studio adds a looper, synths, drum machines and a sequencer that play together - free for 7 days, no card required.
Free on this page, no account. Play the online guzheng →