Strings that Bind Us: Music and Connection in AANHPI Month
I was 15 years old when I bought my first acoustic guitar. As a drummer walking into a guitar store for the first time, I was far from qualified to select the “best” model. Instead, I was chasing a feeling—looking for the one that felt just right. I scanned the seemingly endless array of stringed instruments until I found it. It was a Yamaha, with a simple amber finish and a dark wood neck. I picked it up along with a leather strap and my very first set of steel strings. Somehow, it felt perfect. It connected with me.
After nearly a decade with that same guitar, I never stopped to think about where it came from, or how stringed instruments developed in other musical traditions. That question opened up a broader look at how strings became musical, and specifically across different instruments in Asia and beyond.
In musical traditions across Asia and the Pacific, stringed instruments appear in many forms, shaped by different regions, histories, and musical practices. Some, like the sitar, use multiple strings to build extended melodic systems. Others, like the erhu, rely on bowing to produce continuous, expressive tones. The guzheng is played horizontally, with strings stretched across its surface and plucked to create layered resonance. Each one connected through stringed sound, yet distinctly situated in different times and places.
When we engage in music, we are engaging with connection. We might use a playlist to feel connected with ourselves, or we might serendipitously connect with someone new through a shared familiar song. Connection also shows up in the music itself, each instrument carrying a unique history in sound.
Works Cited & Resources:
https://www.britannica.com/art/stringed-instrument/The-development-of-stringed-instruments
https://asianamericanmusic.org/encyclopedia/
https://hub.yamaha.com/brand/b-history/musical-instruments-across-asia-and-the-pacific-islands/
https://www.minneapolis.org/calendar/holidays/aapi-heritage-month/
