A chanzy or Chanzi, Tyanzi is a three-stringed

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

instrument from the Tuvan Republic. It looks like a long-necked

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

with a skin head (goat or snake skin) glued over a heart or kidney-shaped wooden hoop body. The neck is (660 mm) long and made of pine wood. Some models have frets, others not or only drawn on. Usually it has two similar sound-holes and some painted decoration. It is most commonly used to accompany

throat singing Throat singing refers to several vocal practices found in different cultures worldwide. These vocal practices are generally associated with a certain type of guttural voice that contrasts with the most common types of voices employed in singing, wh ...

. Like on the ''doshpuluur'' the three (nylon) strings are tuned by modern guitar tuners, the extra long tuning pegs, on some instruments, are just for decoration. Often the peg-head has a carving of a horse head (very common on instruments around Mongolia). It produces a louder tone than the

doshpuluur The doshpuluur ( Tuvan: дошпулуур, , ) is a long-necked Tuvan lute made from wood, usually pine or larch. The doshpuluur is played by plucking and strumming. There are two different versions of the doshpuluur. One version has a trapezo ...

, and is commonly used throughout Central Asia. The 3 guitar-strings run over a rather large loose bridge on the skin to a wooden string-holder, which is fixed with a rope to a pin on the bottom of the body. It has nylon strings and it can be tuned F2, C3, F3 or D2, A2, D3, or C2, G2, C3; from the top string to the bottom one. The top and the middle strings have a fifth between them. The middle and bottom strings have a fourth between them. Therefore, the top and bottom strings have an octave between them. The ''chanzy'' is played strumming - by sweeping the thumb or a plectrum up or down across the strings - (usually only the first string is fingered, the other string(s) are drones), to accompany

Overtone singing Overtone singing, also known as overtone chanting, harmonic singing, polyphonic overtone singing, or diphonic singing, is a set of singing techniques in which the vocalist manipulates the resonances of the vocal tract to arouse the perception ...

. Kongar-ool Borisovich Ondar was a master Soviet and Russian Tuvan throat singer who also played the chanzy.

References

{{Authority control Lutes Mongolian musical instruments Tuvan musical instruments

See also

References