The yatga is a traditional Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

n plucked zither

Zither

The zither is a musical string instrument, most commonly found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary citera, northwestern Croatia, the southern regions of Germany, alpine Europe and East Asian cultures, including China...

, related to the Chinese

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 guzheng

Guzheng

The guzheng or "gu zheng", also called zheng is a Chinese plucked zither. It has 18-23 or more strings and movable bridges....

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Yatga may vary widely in size, tuning, and number of bridges and strings; The body is a long wooden box, one end of which is angled downward. The performer plucks the strings with the fingernails

Nail (anatomy)

A nail is a horn-like envelope covering the dorsal aspect of the terminal phalanges of fingers and toes in humans, most non-human primates, and a few other mammals. Nails are similar to claws, which are found on numerous other animals....

 of the right hand; the left hand is used to put pressure on the strings, varying the note. The left hand can also be used to play the base strings without plucks. Depending on style the higher strings are picked by fingers or by picks.

Similar instruments include the Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

n gayageum

Gayageum

The gayageum or kayagum is a traditional Korean zither-like string instrument, with 12 strings, although more recently variants have been constructed with 21 or other numbers of strings. It is probably the best known traditional Korean musical instrument...

, the vietnamese Dan Tranh, the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese koto

Koto (musical instrument)

The koto is a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument, similar to the Chinese guzheng, the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum and the Vietnamese đàn tranh. The koto is the national instrument of Japan. Koto are about length, and made from kiri wood...

, and the Kazakh

Kazakhs

The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....

 jetigen

Jetigen

The jetigen is a Kazakh seven-stringed zither similar to the Mongolian yatga....

.

The most common type of yatga in contemporary use is the twenty one-stringed version. This type of yatga is also called "Master Yatga." The length of a full-size instrument is 1.62m or 63 inches. Shorter versions are pitched higher. A 13-stringed version is called "Gariin Yatga" (Hand Yatga).

The strings are made either from silk, horse hair or goose gut.

Usually the strings are tuned pentatonic. The most common tune is C D E G A (Do Re Mi So La) or different tunes. Most asian music is based on the Fa major or Si Bemole major, other common tunes are the Es Major.

History

Historically, the twelve-stringed version was used at the royal court for symbolic reasons; the twelve strings corresponded to twelve levels of palace hierarchy.. The commoners had to play on a 10-stringed yatga. The usage of the 12 or more stringed version was reserved for the court and monasteries.

The traditional Mongolian epic Janggar tells the story of a young princess who once played upon an 800-string yatga with 82 bridges; she is supposed to have only played on the seven lower bridges.

Playing technique

One end of the yatga is placed on the knees of the performer, the other end will be on the floor or will be put on a stand. Some performers prefer to place the yatga on two stands. The instrument will be placed in a position that the higher strings are on the right and front side, and will be played only on the right side of the bridges.

The pitch of a string can also be varied by moving the bridges. Because two notes are missing there should be some space between the brigges of the E and G string, and also some space between the A and C string.

The instrument is tuned by mechanics hidden on the right side of the yatga. After basic tuning the instrument is tuned by the bridges. The player can vary the pitch or a note by one half tone when pressing down the left part of the string by half of the way.

Besides western style musical scores, a number-based notation is in use in China and other countries. The highest note string gets the number 1, the following are numbered in an ascending order. The tune of string 1 should be D or Re if the CDEGA scheme is in use.

Usually the green strings are the A notes. It is also possible to tune the yatga in 7 notes per octave or 7 notes and 3 half notes (diatonic scale).