The ''sueng'' (, Burmese: ၄ကြိုးထပ်ပို (ဆီုင်), , also spelled ''seung'' or ''süng'') Lanna(ᨪᩧ᩠ᨦ)is a plucked fretted lute from the northern (

Lanna The Lan Na kingdom or the Kingdom of Lanna (, , "Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields"; , , ), also known as Lannathai, was an Indianized state centered in present-day Northern Thailand from the 13th to the 18th centuries. The cultural developme ...

) region of

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

.
The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music
'. N.p., Taylor & Francis, 2011. 462. The instrument is made from hardwood and its strings (numbering either four or six and arranged in courses of two) are most often made of steel wire. It has nine bamboo

frets A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the Neck (music), neck or Fingerboard, fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the Neck ( ...

. The ''sueng'' is part of a northern Thai traditional ensemble called the ''salo''-''so (saw)''-''sueng'' ensemble, along with the ''

salo Salo or Salò may refer to: Places Finland *Salo, Finland, a town in Western Finland **Salo sub-region, a subdivision of Finland Proper and one of the Sub-regions of Finland since 2009 *An old name of Saloinen, a former municipality in Ostroboth ...

'' (3-string spike fiddle) and ''pi so'' (free reed pipe). The ''sueng'' is similar to the ''

grajabpi The ''krachappi'' (Thai: กระจับปี่, pronounced ra.tɕàp.pìː, also spelled ''grajabpi'', is plucked, fretted lute of Thailand, used in central Thai classical music. It has four strings in two courses that are plucked w ...

'' (กระจับปี่), an ancient Thai instrument that is used in the classical music of

central Thailand Central Thailand (Central Plain) (historically also known as Siam or Dvaravati) is one of the regions of Thailand, covering the broad alluvial plain of the Chao Phraya River. It is separated from northeast Thailand (Isan) by the Phetchabun Mount ...

Construction

Most suengs are made from a single piece of

Jackfruit The jackfruit or ''nangka'' (''Artocarpus heterophyllus'') is a species of tree in the Common fig, fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family (Moraceae). The jackfruit is the largest tree fruit, reaching as much as in weight, in length, and in d ...

wood, carved into shape by the artisan. Once carved, a round sound board of the same wood is glued to the instrument. Trapezoid shaped sticks are cut form a

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

stem and installed as

. The tuning pegs are then installed: this pegs only have an aesthetic function nowadays, as many modern suengs rely on guitar

machine heads A machine head (also referred to as a tuning machine, tuner, or gear head) is a geared apparatus for tuning stringed musical instruments by adjusting string tension. Machine heads are used on mandolins, guitars, double basses, and others, and ...

for tuning. Eventually the instrument is painted and sometimes decorated with Lai Thai motifs. The bridge can be made from either bone or hardwood. Other woods used for the construction of the sueng are

Rosewood Rosewood is any of a number of richly hued hardwoods, often brownish with darker veining, but found in other colours. It is hard, tough, strong, and dense. True rosewoods come from trees of the genus '' Dalbergia'', but other woods are often ca ...

and

Teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panic ...

Sound

The

on the sueng are spaced differently than western fretted instruments. In fact, with such arrangement of frets, the instrument plays in the

7-TET An equal temperament is a musical temperament or tuning system that approximates just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into steps such that the ratio of the frequencies of any adjacent pair of notes is the same. This system y ...

temperament, meaning that in one octave the instrument plays seven tones, as opposed to the twelve tones of western music. This temperament is found in

traditional Thai music The music of Thailand includes a wide array of distinct genres, both traditional and modern. Traditional Thai musical instruments are varied and reflect ancient influence from far afield – including the '' klong thap'' and ''khim'' (Persian o ...

and in other instruments like

Ranat ''Ranat'' (, , also spelled ''ranad'' or ''ranaat'') is the generic name for keyboard percussion instruments used in the music of Thailand. The bars of the various types of ''ranat'' may be made from hardwood or bamboo (''ranat ek'' and ''ranat t ...

. The playing technique resembles that of the oud where the two strings in the course are tuned to unison and played together as one, with a long soft pick most often made of plastic.

References

{{Authority control Thai musical instruments Necked lutes

Construction

Sound

See also

References