The Yangqin comes in a variety of sizes. The Yangqin is a dulcimer played with bamboo mallets, with the size of a chopstick, and one held in each hand, are used to hit strings in pairs. This produces a high and tinkling timbre in its top registers, a soft and beautiful tone in the middle and a strong rich sound in the lower registers. The metallic tone resembles the harpsichord. It has the widest range of scale amongst the Chinese plucked-strings instruments (about 5 octaves). It is rather new instrument by Chinese standards, first appearing in 1368 from the Middle East, during the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644). We purchased this instrument in Xiamen in 1999.
The yangqin was traditionally fitted with bronze strings (though older Chinese stringed instruments used silk strings. Since the 1950s, however, steel alloy strings have been used, in order to give the instrument a brighter, and louder tone. The modern yangqin can have as many as five courses of bridges. Traditional instruments, with three or more courses of bridges, are also still widely in use. The instrument's strings are struck with two lightweight bamboo beaters (also known as hammers) with rubber tips.