This three-stringed lute is used by several ethnic groups in Viet Nam. The Viet call it dan tam, whereas the Ha Nhi calls it ta in. This instrument exists in three sizes: large, medium, and small. The small is the most popular.  The sound box is oval-shaped, and the soundboard is pierced with sound holes. A bridge is fixed on the soundboard. The neck made of hard wood is fairly long and bears no frets, only three wooden pegs for tuning. The three strings are traditionally made of twisted silk, but are now more commonly made of plastic. They are tuned to the notes G, D1, and G1. The range is fairly wide, nearly three octaves, from G to F3. The player uses a plastic plectrum, which he uses for plucking downward or upward in quick intervals. The tones of the dan tam are bright and cheerful and they carry far. The techniques for the left hand include tremolos, trills, picking, stopping and especially sliding, which are played in combination with the quick plucking of...

It is impossible to be without this kind of traditional music at a Khmer wedding reception in the South of Viet Nam.  Though there has been much change in the wedding customs of the Khmer, traditional wedding music has been well preserved by its people. Researchers have collected some ten ceremonial songs and folk songs which used to be sung at wedding receptions. The traditional songs sang at the wedding are expressions of the feelings and characteristics of the people's lives in the Khmer community. Each song is equivalent to a specific rite in the wedding, such as leading the bridegroom to the bride's house, asking for the breaking of the fence to get into the house, and the beginning of the ceremony. The ceremony incorporates the rituals of the hair cut, the pounding solution for dying teeth, the cutting of betel flowers into pieces in order to scatter them on heads of the young couple, the drawing of a sword out of its sheath, the binding of thread around the wrist, the...

The tinh tau is an original musical instrument very popular among the Tay, Thai and Nung minorities of the northern highlands.  It is also called the then lute because it is played in rituals performed on the occasion of then ceremonies. Its name describes how it is made: tinhmeans musical instrument, tau means gourd. Tinh tau means "lute made with a gourd". A tinh tau comprises a sound box made of the dried half of a gourd shell pierced with sound holes. The sound board is made of light unvarnished wood and is about 25cm across. The neck is a tapered rod about 80cm in length, with no frets. The bigger end of the rod goes through the shell of the gourd; the other end is curved backward. It has small bells attached to it and two or three pegs for turning. The strings, two or five in number depending on the ethnic minority using the instrument, are made of silk. The player rests the neck of the tinh tau on her thumb...