Huangnigu (pinyin: Huáng ní gǔ) belongs to a kind of long drum, and is a folk musical instrument loved by the Yao people living on Dayao Mountain. The most special thing about this kind of drum is to use the yellow mud unique to Dayao Mountain to paste the drum surface to set the drum sound, so people call it yellow mud drum. The drum surface that has been pasted with yellow mud is thicker and thicker due to its wetness. When struck, it emits a double-sounding sound of "empty center, empty center", which is particularly loud and beautiful, and the sound travels miles away. The yellow mud drum is made of soft, tough and lightweight paulownia wood with hollow ends. There are male and female drums. The male drum has a long waist, the female drum has a short waist, and both ends of the drum head are trumpet-shaped.
The body of the drum is excavated from a whole section of neem and tung trees, and the two ends are covered with goat skin or cowhide. taut. There are two kinds of yellow mud drums, male and female, with different drum shapes and sizes. The male drum is 170 cm in length. It is small in the middle of the drum body and thick at both ends. It is shaped like two inverted trumpets. The diameter of the drum waist is 6 cm. The diameter of both ends is 23 cm. Wall thickness 1 cm. Female drum, full length 100 cm, the drum body is like a barrel at both ends, the middle waist is short, shaped like two inverted cups, the diameter of the drum waist is 11 cm, the diameter of both ends is 22 cm, the diameter of the two aprons 26 cm, drum body wall thickness 2 cm. The drum body is plain or painted with dragon and phoenix patterns.
When playing, the holding method and playing method of male and female drums are different. When playing the male drum, hold the drum waist with the left hand, hold the drum in front of the chest, dance up and down, left and right, and slap the drum faces at both ends alternately with the right hand; when playing the female drum, hang the drum tie in front of the abdomen, and slap with both hands respectively. Drums at both ends. The performance of the yellow mud drum is often combined with dance, mostly beating and dancing, which is called the yellow mud drum by folks. Two people can also play a drum together, often played by a female drum and several male drums. The yellow mud drum has no fixed pitch, and all drums participating in the ensemble need to be coated with wet yellow mud to make the pitch consistent and the sound sonorous and bright. For ensemble or to accompany song and dance.
On occasions such as festivals, teacher's activities, festive harvests, sacrificial prayers or funerals, the Yao people will play the yellow mud drum. In Liuxiang and other places in Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County, there is a "Langping" in the forest next to each village. During the Spring Festival, young men and women come here to sing and dance, talk about love, dance yellow mud drums, and many happy marriages are concluded in this way. of. The yellow mud drum is not only an accompaniment instrument for singing and dancing, but also a dance prop.