1. Different concepts

Pipa is the first plucked instrument and a plucked string instrument. When playing, hold it vertically, press the strings with your left hand, and play with the five fingers of your right hand. It is an important national instrument that can be used as a solo, accompaniment, ensemble, or ensemble. Pipa is a traditional East Asian plucked instrument with a history of more than 2,000 years.

The "珏" in the word "Pipa" means "two jade jade collide, making a pleasant collision sound", indicating that this is an instrument that produces sound by playing the strings. The names "Pi" and "Pa" come from the right-hand technique of playing these instruments. In other words, Pi and Pa are originally the names of two playing techniques. Pi is played forward with the right hand, while Pi is played backward with the right hand.

Guzheng, also known as Han Zheng, Qin Zheng, Yao Zheng, and Luan Zheng, is a zither instrument among the traditional musical instruments of the Han nationality in China. It is a plucked instrument. It is one of China's unique and important national musical instruments. Now there are also small guzheng, portable guzheng, mini guzheng, half guzheng, new guzheng, and twelve equal temperament modified guzheng.

2. Different timbre characteristics

The timbre characteristics of Pipa: crisp and bright; the sound is relatively high, and the ring finger technique is used more in the performance technique, which usually improves the feel of the notes in the music. Relatively dense.

The timbre characteristics of the guzheng are: elegant and subtle; it is relatively deep and subtle, with thick bass and crisp and sweet treble, which reflects the slow rhythm of the music. The dense notes express the smoothness of mountain spring water and the ripples of lake water.

3. There are different ways to wear fake nails

Pipa is worn at the same position as the original nail (the effect is to extend the nail).

The guzheng is worn on the fingertips [the function is to facilitate plucking the strings without scratching the hand and scraping the strings (the sound of flowing water)].

4. Different structural compositions

The structure of Pipa: consists of three parts: head, neck and abdomen: Head: including headstock, string groove and peg; Neck: Including the Yamaguchi, phase, nut and neck; Abdomen: including frets, panel, backhand, back and strings (4).

The guzheng structure consists of: panel, wild goose pillars (also called qinma in some areas), strings, front yueshan, string nails, tuning box, piano feet, back yueshan, side panels, and out It consists of sound port, bottom plate and string hole.

The shape of the zither is a rectangular wooden speaker. The string frame "zither pillar" (i.e. the wild goose pillar) can be moved freely. One string and one note are arranged according to the pentatonic scale. At the earliest, the 25-string zither was the most (divided). In the Tang and Song dynasties, it had thirteen strings, and later it increased to sixteen, eighteen, twenty-one strings, etc.

At present, the most commonly used specification is twenty-one strings; usually the guzheng model is preceded by S163-21, S represents the S-shaped Yueshan, which was jointly invented by Wang Xunzhi and Miao Jinlin, and 163 represents the length of the guzheng. About centimeters, 21 represents the number of guzheng strings, 21.

5. Different materials used

The materials used for Pipa: the head and neck are mostly made of mahogany or horn, ivory, jade and other raw materials; the abdominal panel is mostly made of paulownia or cypress. , the frets are mostly made of bamboo or horn, and the strings are steel strings or nylon strings.

The materials used for the guzheng: the body, the sound box, and the sound box are generally made of paulownia wood, and the brackets are made of wood. The texture of the strings used to be mostly silk, but now they are mostly made of metal; the front beam, back beam and sound column are mostly made of bamboo.

6. Different musical instrument characteristics

Pipa musical instrument characteristics: One of the most important Chinese national musical instruments, it belongs to the plucked instrument category within the string instrument family. Since the pipa was basically finalized during the Tang Dynasty, it has continued to undergo some minor changes, and its timbre, volume and range have also changed accordingly. The timbre of the pipa is clear and bright. The famous poem "Big beads and small beads fall on the jade plate" by Bai Juyi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty in China, vividly illustrates the timbre characteristics of the pipa.

The playing technique is quite complex, and different playing techniques can imitate many sound effects (such as gurgling water or even people shouting horses neighing on the battlefield, etc.), which is very realistic.

Usually a solo instrument. In the Chinese folk band, the pipa is also an extremely important melody instrument and accompaniment instrument. In addition, the pipa is also the main accompaniment instrument in many local Chinese folk arts represented by Suzhou Pingtan.

Characteristics of the guzheng musical instrument: It is one of China’s traditional national musical instruments and is widely distributed. It is a plucked stringed instrument belonging to the stringed instrument family. It has a long history and has undergone evolution. Its pronunciation is crisp and sweet, as smooth as a mountain spring. Because it is tuned according to the pentatonic scale, it has Chinese national characteristics.

Whether it is used for solo, ensemble, ensemble or accompaniment (singing), it is a unique instrument. It is also often used as a vocal part in Chinese folk bands. In addition, Zheng is also widely used in many local folk art forms in China, such as Shandong Qinshu, Chaozhou Xianshi, etc.