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.

Similar instruments include the Chinese se and yazheng, Korean gayageum and ajaeng, the Vietnamese đàn tranh, the Japanese koto,[1] the Kazakh jetigen, and the Sundanese kacapi.

The most common type of yatga in contemporary use is the twenty one-stringed version.

The player can vary the pitch or a note by one half tone or more when pressing down on the strings to the left of the bridges.

Besides western style musical scores, a number-based notation is in use in China and other countries.

Some contemporary players yatga prefer to use an actual horsehair bow rather than a stick, believing the sound to be smoother.