Pipa Facts for Kids

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Pipa
Related instruments

Classification	Necked bowl lutes String instruments
List Angélique Archlute Balalaika Barbat Bağlama Baglamas Bipa Biwa Bouzouki Charango Chitarra Italiana Çifteli Đàn tỳ bà Dombra Domra Dutar Komuz Irish bouzouki Liuqin Lute Mandocello Mandola Mandolin Oud Pandura Rubab Setar Sitar Surbahar Tambouras Tanbur Tambur Tembûr Theorbo Tiorbino Topshur Veena

The pipa (Chinese: 琵琶) is a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the Chinese lute, the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 26. Another Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa. The pear-shaped instrument may have existed in China as early as the Han dynasty, and although historically the term pipa was once used to refer to a variety of plucked chordophones, its usage since the Song dynasty refers exclusively to the pear-shaped instrument.

The pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for almost two thousand years in China. Several related instruments in East and Southeast Asia are derived from the pipa; these include the Japanese biwa, the Vietnamese đàn tỳ bà, and the Korean bipa. The Korean instrument is the only one of the three that is no longer widely used; examples survive in museums, as attempts to revive the Korean instrument have been partially successful in recent years.

Images for kids

Musicians in a scene from paradise, Yulin Cave 25, Tang dynasty
Relief sculpture from Gandhara showing a lute being played by a musician (right), 1st–2nd century AD
Lute detail from a Tang dynasty painting on silk, 897 A.D.
Ladies in palace enjoying an informal concert, Tang dynasty
Decorated back of a pipa from the Ming dynasty
A mural from the tomb of Xu Xianxiu in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, dated 571 CE during the Northern Qi Dynasty, showing male court musicians playing the pipa and liuqin, and a woman playing a konghou
10th century tablature for pipa from Dunhuang Mogao Caves.
Scene from a Ming dynasty painting, Tao Gu Presents a Poem, c. 1515, by Tang Yin.
A page of music notation from the Li Collection by Li Fangyuan.
A Sui Dynasty (581–618) terracotta pipa-player in a suit of armor
Wu Man playing pipa at WOMEX 15
An electric pipa
Djang San
Sandstone carving, showing the typical way a pipa was held when played with plectrum in the early period. Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534 AD).
Painted panel of the sarcophagus of Yü Hung, depicts one of the Persian or Sogdian figures playing pipa. 592 AD, Sui dynasty.
An apsara (feitian) playing pipa, using fingers with the pipa held in near upright position. Mural from Kizil, estimated Five Dynasties to Yuan Dynasty, 10th to 13th century.
Modern pipa player, with the pipa held in near upright position
A pipa player playing with the pipa behind his back. Dunhuang, Mogao Caves.
An early depiction of pipa player in a group of musicians. From the Dingjiazha Tomb No. 5, period of the Northern Wei (384-441 A.D.)
A Song dynasty fresco depicts a female pipa player among a group of musicians
Group of female musician from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907-960 AD)
A mural from a Yuan dynasty tomb found in Hengshan County, Shaanxi, showing a man playing the pipa
A Chinese woman playing a pipa, 1870
A group of Qing dynasty musicians from Fuzhou

Pipa facts for kids

Images for kids

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