BCCPAM000M29-5-25000000000000

66 CHINESE MUSIC. The whole extent of the p'i-p'ci's scale is therefore the following :- ~ J_ J J ~J ~ #~ ~ # ~ ~ i ~ etc.. But the frets which produce chromatic notes or half tones are never used. Probably in past ages, when music was cultivated as an art, these frets were employed to transpose airs into other keys; but it is nowhere recorded that they ever served to produce clu·omatic runs. • I The p'i -p'a has no special notation. B~mg a popular instrument, and never required at religious ceremonies, it is played mostly by blind P_ersons ),7ho acquire their musical knowledge by rote. There are, however, song-books for th e p'i-p'a in which the ordinary notation (* , llQ , ~ ' etc.) is used. No. 23.-The Shuang-ch'i n (!#! ~ ) is an octagonal guitar with a long neck furnished with frets. It is made of hard wood, and h~s four strings tuned in pairs, with the distance of a fifth between the two pairs. I t is played ':1~h a plectrum; but it is now rarely used, the cost placing it beyond the reach of ordinary musicians. No. 24 .-The San-h~ien C:: ifi), " or t~ree-St ringed_guitar," has a shallow cylindrical body, the top and bottom of which are covered with snake skin. It has a long neck (without frets) and three strings, which are tuned so~etimes C, F, 6 (* , _t , -J;,.), but more frequently C, D. A <* llQ , I). I t is sometimes played with_ the finger, but oftener with a plectrum. I t is on~ of · the' favomite instrumen ts of street bR,llad-smgers. No. 25.-The Yueh-c/i'in (~ ~), or " moon guitar," is so called because the shape of the