Hmong music

Music is an important part of Hmong life, played for entertainment, for welcoming guests, and at weddings and funerals.

In the 16th century Hmong leaders formed a kingdom in the central Chinese provinces of Hunan, Hubei, and Henan.

[2] The Hmong people have used melodic poetry (kwv txhiaj/lug txaj) and traditional textiles/story cloths (paj ntaub) to pass down their history and culture to successive generations.

[6] The most well-known instrument is the qeej, a type of reed pipe, in which each tone corresponds to a Hmong spoken word.

It consists of a wooden wind chest, with a long horizontal tapering neck ending in a mouth hole.

The six bamboo tubes are variously curving or straight and can also change in length from quite small for a child's instrument to about two meters long for a more experience player.

When the player exhales or inhales and covers one or more holes for fingering, this allows air in the tube in motion to create a musical tone.

Both genres are played successively in rituals, including funerals, ancestral rites, offerings to vital spirits, sacrifices to the drum, and marriages.

It is most often played at funerals and its purpose is to communicate with the spiritual world by leading the deceased person to its rightful place.

It is played by sealing one's lips around the reed or by putting the top of the instrument in one's mouth and blowing to make the different pitches.

The varying pitches are made by pulling on the leaf and blowing to make certain tones that relate to words in the Hmong language.

This instrument can be made from almost any nearby plant or tree, making it easily accessible for Hmong children.

The nplooj was traditionally used during times of war, where they were used to send signals in combat and secret messages communicated with words played as melodies.