Full-Time Fiddler

When this old troubador noticed that we were interested he invited us to sit down beside him to listen to his song. His fingers were wrapped in tape and his fiddle was completely caked in rossin dust which made me think that music must be his full-time occupation. His two stringed fiddle is called a 'ban hu' and is a regional instrument of Shaanxi. It is smaller than the 'Erhu' and its sound box is bowl shaped rather than cylindrical. He sang in the raspy, guttural style common to Shaanxi Opera (Qin Qiang). Variations of throat singing can also be found in Tibet, Mongolia, and the Circumpolar regions. As he improvised lyrics I could pick out enough words to know that he was singing about a girl's beautiful hair.