have frets tuned in semitones. Strings Most yueqin have four strings, although others have two or three. Yueqin used for Beijing opera have two strings, only one of which is actually used, the lower string being there purely for sympathetic resonance. In Taiwan, the yueqin has a longer neck, and two or three strings. The strings on the traditional form of the instrument were made of silk, though nylon is generally used today. The anchor on a modern yueqin may have up to five holes, so it can be strung and tuned as a three or four-stringed instrument. The nut, at the peghead end of the instrument, is filed with notches appropriate to the number and position of the strings. There is no bridge or saddle; the strings are simply attached to the anchor at the base of the instrument. Tuning The strings are tuned in courses of two (each pair of strings is tuned to a single pitch), generally tuned to the interval of a perfect fifth. Three-string instruments are often tuned A D Four-string instruments are often tuned to A D a d; However, in recent practice, the instrument is tuned G D g d so modern liuqin and ruan players can easily double on yueqin. Plectrum and picks A long, sharp plectrum is often used to play the yueqin, which is sometimes attached to the instrument with a piece of cord. In Beijing opera, the player uses a small wooden dowel instead of a plectrum to perform, and only plays in first position; this requires the performer to use octave displacement in order to play all the pitches within a given melody. Modern yueqin are often played with a guitar pick. Compared with the ruan While both instruments have a moon-shaped soundboard, the modern ruan uses a bridge, whereas the yueqin simply attaches the strings the frame, similar to the design of the pipa. In addition, most yueqin do not have the obvious double soundholes, like the ruan, instead they have the single small soundhole located under where the strings are attached (also similar to pipa). Both features gives the Yueqin a sound quality in between ruan and pipa. While the ruan is used mostly for its lower range instruments (i.e., zhongruan and daruan), yueqin is primarily a treble tuned instrument, even though the size of its soundboard is larger than the zhongruan. Southern yueqin have a