Since the dawn of human invention, our opposable-thumb-weilding ancestors have been stretching animal skins and innards over wood and shells to create different kinds of sounds. It’s easy to forget that our modern western culture of guitars, pianos, drums, and orchestral instruments are all, relatively speaking, quite new inventions to the human population. Eastern culture has been cultivating musical instruments for a striking amount of time, and the **[Guzheng](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guzheng)**, with a history of more than *2,500 years,* is one of the most beautiful, and my personal favorite from the region now known as China. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/wekhlhedaqa37ff/steemit%20guzheng.jpeg?dl=0 *From bellaran.wordpress.com* The **guzheng** is the Chinese version of a **[zither](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zither)**, which is the precursor to the modern day guitar. A zither is, technically, any instrument with strings stretched across wood, but our modern understanding makes it out to be a stringed instrument that doesn’t have a neck or a **[chromatic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_scale)** pitch shifting mechanism like **frets**. Instead, the strings are plucked on one side of a wooden **bridge** and affected on the other side to create **pitch bending** and **vibrato**. The **guezheng** is usually played by the fingers of the right hand, which are taped with picks on each finger. The attack of these picks from a skilled player is quite beautiful to watch, actually *Check out this gorgeous piece of music. It gives me the feels.* *If you’ve got the patience, this one will haunt your socks off.* *Of course, if you want something more recognizable, there are tons of guzheng covers of popular songs on YouTube.* ___ _Don’t forget to explore. With a history of multiple millennia, there’s no end to the variations of **guzheng** playing. You’ll inevitably discover fresh instruments along the away. **Thanks for reading, Steemit!**_ https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/uleei14bkcg9pqz/Heart%20Soundwave%20icon%20small.png?dl=0