This was originally posted on blogger.

I met a man named Aoyan today playing the pipa, a Chinese instrument. It’s like a guitar, but has a bustier bottom, and has a fabulous sound – the sound of rain drops and a mountain-side view. It reminds me of those old Chinese landscape paintings, the ones where there are people walking along a bridge carrying water for the village, and people dressed up riding horses and the mountains in the background. All from four strings and a block of wood.

Aoyan tells me the pipa’s ancestor is the lute. The design was passed Eastward and, according to Aoyan, is the origin of similar instruments like the Middle Eastern oud and the Indian sitar.

Aoyan goes through a variety of techniques on the pipa. The sound of raindrops, that’s a technique. And so is the heavy vibrato that’s as vibrant as an electric guitar. One can even cross strings on the pipa, and when strum together it gives a terrific crash.

Some pipa from the Qing and Ming dynasties have been preserved, Aoyan tells me. He saw some masters playing them at an academy in Taipei. But you can also buy them on Taobao for a few hundreds US dollars. You seem like you’re interested in learning instruments, Aoyan says to me. It’s true that I am. Having just started learning guitar, I’m realizing the vastness of what you can do with four metal strings.