Vibration properties of the pipa. A Chinese musical instrument
Qinghua Chen, Jien-ping Yang · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1986
The pipa is an ancient Chinese musical instrument similar to a lute. Its origin can be traced back 2000 years. It has been referred to as an Oriental guitar. This paper presents the results of theoretical and experimental studies of the vibration properties of a pipa. The spectrum of the sound produced is shown for different playing techniques, playing angles, and playing positions. Sound spectra are related to vibrational modes of the instrument.