sections by a set of movable wooden bridges. At one end they are fastened to pegs and on the other knotted below the tail-piece.
The musician, wearing tortoiseshell or steel finger-stalls on the thumb and forefinger of his right hand plucks the strings close to the tail-piece; the first, middle and fourth fingers of the left hand stop the strings between the bridges and the pegs to alter the pitch. The dan tranh can be played by either men or women, either solo or with other stringed instruments, or in larger ensembles to accompany stage performances. "The Song of the Blackbird," a piece from the traditional Vietnamese repertoire, played by Tran Quang Hai, was recorded in the studio of the Department of Ethnomusicology of the Musée de l'Homme.