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Tuning Dan Tranh

Dan Tranh is normally tuned in pentatonic scales. If you are not familiar with pentatonic, please read our Pentatonic section in this web site.

There are a number of pentatonic scales used in the Far East and the most popular ones are:

1. The C major (A minor) pentatonic (Folk songs): C, D, E, G, A
2. The F major (D minor) pentatonic (Bac Modal): F, G, A, C, D
3. The Bb major (G minor) pentatonic (Ngu Cung Dao): Bb, C, D, F, G
4. The Eb major (C minor) pentatonic (Nam Modal): Eb, F, G, Bb, C

For those who are not familiar with the A-G notation here are the equivalents:

A is La
B is Si
C is Do
D is Re
E is Mi
F is Fa
G is Sol

There are also other more exotic pentatonic scales used by Dan Tranh but they may be of limited use to modern musicians (as they don't follow the "standard pentatonic scale" and may not be easily adapted to Western music). 

Tuning Pegs and Tuning Aid (larger keys to turn easier)

Dan Tranh is tuned with the help of the tuning pegs and tuning bridges. The tuning pegs (one for each string) are used to provide the necessary tensions on the string. Normally, the tuning pegs are used to provide somewhat similar tension on all string and the tuning bridges are used to adjust the length of each string to provide the desirable notes. Remember that the tune of a string is dependent on the thickness of the string, the tension on the string and the length of the string (or more precisely, the length of the portion of the string that vibrates).

Moveable Bridges

Dan Tranh is normally tuned only once with the tuning peg, after that, the player normally moves the bridges to retune whenever necessary.

When playing, the player is sitting down with the Dan Tranh in front on a stand or on the player's lap.  The wider end of Dan Tranh (the head) is on the right and the narrower end is on the left.

A Dan Tranh normally has the "default" note indicators on the right hand side of the moveable bridges (near where one plucks the strings) near the head of the Dan Tranh.  The default note indicators are normally in the C major pentatonic scale: C, D, E, G, A (or some other pentatonic scale depending on where the instrument was made).  In the beginning, you can tune your Dan Tranh to the default pentatonic scale and change it later when you are more comfortable with the instrument and also with pentatonic.

Note Indicators at the Head of Dan Tranh

For modern Dan Tranh, the note indicators are the first letters of the notes:

D for Do (or C)
R for Re (or D)
M for Mi (or E)
F for Fa (or F)
S for Sol (or G)
L for La (or A)
S for Si (or B)
 

The lowest note on the modern Dan Tranh (17 strings) is usually tuned to the G just below the middle C on a piano (or the lowest G on a guitar). With 17 strings, Dan Tranh can provide a tonal range of approximately 3.5 octaves, a range more than adequate for most musical pieces.  There are Dan Tranhs with more strings (up to 21, 22 or even 24).  Those lower strings are normally used to extend the lower tonal range.

The player plucks the string with the right hand fingers (normally with the thumb, index or middle fingers) near the note indicators. The string having the highest note is closet to the musician (the tuning bridge is closet to the note indicator; the part of the string that vibrates is shortest) and the string having the lowest note is farthest (the tuning bridge is also the farthest from the note indicator; the part of the string that vibrates is longest).

One can easily tune a Dan Tranh with the help of a piano or with a modern electronic chromatic tuner. There are two ways to tune Dan Tranh:

1. Change the tension on the strings using the tuning pegs (normally with a tuning aid which is a larger key placed on top of the tuning peg) and then adjust the moveable bridges to get the correct note as indicated by the default note indicator for that string. 
2. Set the desired pattern for the bridges first and then finalize the tunes using the tuning pegs.  Normally, the bridge is around 10cm away from the head of the string for the highest note and gradually increase to around 60cm for the lowest note.  Actually the increase is proportional: the longer the distance, the higher the increase.

Once a Dan Tranh is properly tuned, all subsequent adjustments should be made using the bridges unless the bridges get too close to each other.

In the beginning it is recommended to tune your Dan Tranh as indicated by the note indicators.  When you are familiar with your Dan Tranh and want to tune it to a different pentatonic scale rather than the default, just do so and re-label the note indicators using some stickers. The two most popular pentatonic scales are the C major and the F major scale. For those 2 scales, the lowest note on Dan Tranh is tuned to the same G just below middle C for both scales.

For an experience pentatonic player using Dan Tranh in modern music, it may be wise to lower the first string to E instead of G and adjust all other strings accordingly to make sure that Dan Tranh can play the same lowest note that a guitar can play.

Standard modern Dan Tranh has 17 metallic strings and the thickness of the strings are normally:

• The first 2 lowest note strings are around .25 mm to .30 mm
• The 3rd, 4th and 5th lowest note strings are around .25 mm
• The rest are .20 mm

For Dan Tranh with more than 17 strings, the lower note strings should be .30 mm and larger (up to .45mm or even .50mm).

Those are the approximated thickness of the strings.  Similar to guitar, there is no exact rule.  It is fine as long as you can tune the strings properly and still have enough room to bend the notes.  So when you become more familiar with Dan Tranh, experiment with different string thicknesses and find the best combinations for your taste.

If you cannot find the replacement strings for your Dan Tranh locally, you can use the standard electric guitar strings (as long as they are long enough and of the same thickness). Note that the standard electric guitar high E string is .25 mm (.01 inch) and the thinner high E string is .20 mm (.008 inch).  The guitar B string thickness is from .30mm to .35mm and the guitar G string is normally from .43mm to .46mm.