What Instrument is this?

[damien]

I love the sound of this instrument which has only one string and has a bendy thing for the pitch.

It is played in one of 12 Girls Band pieces.

Check it out......

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbhR3VAoKU4

Can anyone tell me what this is called?

[davidmdahl]

That is a monochord. The Chinese call it duxianqin and to the Vietnamese it is the dan bau. It is not very important in Chinese music, but in Vietnamese music is quite central to the tradition. I have played Vietnamese music on the dan bau for over three years. There are a few photos and low quality sound files on my website (needs Internet Explorer). One of the tunes I play is Liu San Jie, the tune in the 12 Girls Band video.

home.comcast.net/~davidmdahl

You will find better playing in videos on www.youtube.com. Search on "dan bau" with the quotes for some lovely music. I particularly like the ones with Le Giang.

I am playing a few tunes on dan bau at a Harvest celebration at Intel in Hillsboro (Portland) in a few hours. That should be interesting.

Best wishes,

David

[damien]

Ohhhw David of course, that is what you are playing in your picture. It was staring me in the face.
Unfortunatly im not getting any sound from your songs and im using internet explorer have quicktime and speaker settings are fine so im not sure what the problem is there.

This instrument reminds me of the ghostly sound you used to get from the American group 'The shadows in the 60's even if they did use a guitar and also Peter Frampton played what i call wobbly sounds like this too.

Are they expensive? or even where would i get one? I guess i can have a browse on the internet to find any deals. I can imagine it looks easy to play but not and maybe you can break the string easy.

When i hear it from 12 Girls Band it sounds nicer because most of there music is not true sound as it is digitial.

Just checking out some vids on youtube

Hope your performance goes nice and smooth at Portland David and thankyou so much for the information.

[davidmdahl]

I have seen dan bau's on Ebay from time to time, but of course it is difficult to judge the quality. My favorite dan bau is wonderful and comes from Pham Duc Thanh (www.phamducthanh.com), one of the more famous and better artists. His CDs are available from Amazon I think.

You may also get a dan bau from www.dantranh.com. One of my teacher's other students got one from them, and it is quite good.

Sorry you can't hear my MP3's. Maybe you could download one and use a different program to play than Quicktime. Windows Media Player should work. If you can hear the the videos on You Tube, that is better anyway.

Best wishes,

David

[damien]

I have done a little research and thought i'd type some information about it here for anyone else that wants to know:

The dan bau is one-string zither specifically native to Vietnam. It is constructed of a long narrow sound box, with a tall curved stem made from water buffalo horn inserted at one end. The single string runs between the sound box and a small wooden gourd (in Vietnamese, it is called "Bau") attached to the stem, or "whammy bar", called a niipper (known as "Voi Dan" in Vietnamese).
The stem is bent to change the pitch of the string. The player touches the string lightly with the heel of the hand at harmonic-producing nodal points while plucking with the fingers or plectrum. This produces the dan bau characteristic high clear sound.

Historically the dan bau was played by blind street musicians, and along the streets of Ho Chi Minh City and Ha Noi, one can still hear these sweet sounds. Legend has it the dan bau should be solely for the pleasure of its player, or for poetry, and young women are warned not to listen to it. This warning, probably coming from vigilant parents of a by-gone era, wishing to protect their daughters from the emotionally seductive appeal of love songs played on this instrument; this gives an idea of the power and charm of its sound.

It really is an attractive sound but from what i read there you better lock up your daughters and keep them away from David hahaha only joking.

Here is one i might be interested in from ebay (it's electric)

cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vietnamese-Fold-Up-Electric-Dan-Bau-NEW_W0QQitemZ260043083040QQihZ016QQcategoryZ623QQssPageNameZWD2VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[davidmdahl]

damien said:

<snip>The dan bau is one-string zither specifically native to Vietnam. It is constructed of a long narrow sound box, with a tall curved stem made from water buffalo horn inserted at one end. The single string runs between the sound box and a small wooden gourd (in Vietnamese, it is called "Bau") attached to the stem, or "whammy bar", called a niipper (known as "Voi Dan" in Vietnamese).
<snip>

The description is essentially correct. The "niipper" is a misspelling of "nipper". A better technical translation of Voi Dan would be "spout", although I don't really like either. I simply call the Voi Dan the "stick". <g> The bau gourd of the original acoustic dan bau has devolved in the electric version to a wooden decoration with no role in the sound.

I am sad to say that even though I have played the dan bau for over three years, no young women have thrown themselves at my feet. Of course, since I am a middle-aged well-married man, that is just as well, and no fault of the dan bau. <g>

The Ebay monochord might be fine. The most important part of the electric dan bau that affects sound is the pickup. After that, the stick (voi dan) needs to have the right amount of stiffness. My favorite dan bau is from Pham Duc Thanh (www.phamducthanh.com), one of the top players in the world. A student of my teacher purchased a dan bau from www.dantranh.com, and it is quite good as well. Beware of ornamental dan bau's made for the tourist industry and to hang on the wall. Some of these do not have pickups.

Best wishes,

David

[kuduchi]

Oct 17, 2006 19:50:48 GMT davidmdahl said:

It is not very important in Chinese music, but in Vietnamese music is quite central to the tradition.

In Japan, a similar instrument exists, called Ichi-gen-koto, which literally means "One string koto". Unfortunately, like it's Chinese counterpart, this instrument does not even see the light of day anymore.

[davidmdahl]

Feb 18, 2009 20:20:25 GMT kuduchi said:

In Japan, a similar instrument exists, called Ichi-gen-koto, which literally means "One string koto". Unfortunately, like it's Chinese counterpart, this instrument does not even see the light of day anymore.

As I wrote in the other thread, the ichigenkin is more like a single-string guqin. It seems to me a "Zen" instrument better suited to one's own enjoyment than public performance.

Best wishes,

David

[xindi]

Some other instruments:

[kyokuhon]

I'm no expert, but according to my information people are both essentially right and quite misinformed about the ichigenkoto. It is similar to the guqin (and disimilar to the dan bau) in that it's single string is plucked and the pitch changed by fingering the string. However, in the recordings I've heard it is played with a slide(!). My impression is that it is (was?) mostly an amateur instrument used to accompany vocal performances of art, rather than folk, songs (if I can impose that distinction!). Also nothing to do with Zen except in the most general, metacultural kind of way, like almost anything having to do with Japanese culture.
Best to all, and keep playing,
K.

[holdencaufield]

The characters for duxianqin are read "doc huyen cam" (single string instrument) in Han-Viet. It is a less popular, but more formal sounding, name for the dan bau (dan bau = "gourd instrument").

David, is this dan bau good?

http://www.dantranh.com./buy.html

[davidmdahl]

I don't have any personal experience with the instruments at www.dantranh.com. Several years ago, another student of my teacher bought a bau from them, but I don't remember trying it myself. My teacher thought it was pretty good.

The dan bau looks fine from the photo, but it is not possible to get clues about the workmanship without more closeups. The pickup will affect the sound the most. You want the stick (voi dan) to be not too stiff nor too easily bent. These things cannot be judged without being there.

Carol Chang at Sound of Asia stocks excellent dan tranhs and had some dan baus at one time.

Best wishes,

David