Genka was originally only used for the accompaniment of the classical song and dance "Nangma" and was not popular in the folk. In the 1950s, it was reformed into a series of high, medium and bass cards. The timbre has a strong plateau flavor and has been used for solo, ensemble, ensemble or as accompaniment to folk songs and dances. It is deeply loved by the Tibetan people and popular in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region and other places.

In Tibetan folk bands, a series of Genka instruments have been used, including three types of high pitch, alto and bass Genka, which have become the main stringed instruments in Tibetan folk bands.

treble root card
In 1958, Yao Wenlin, director of the Beijing Musical Instrument Research Institute, reformed the high-pitched root card based on the traditional root card. The total length is 67 cm. The piano box and the piano rod are made of colored wood. The piano box is made of 16 wooden slats spliced and glued, and then turned by car. The piano bar is shortened, the fingerboard is added, the front of the piano box is changed to be covered with python skin, and the inner membrane is set at the inner cavity of the piano box near the rear mouth. increase. Zhang three steel strings, with a violin bow on the outside of the strings to play. Since the piano seat is changed to a crescent shape, it can be rotated left and right, which is conducive to placing the piano on the legs and playing in a sitting position. It maintains the traditional Genka national style and timbre characteristics. flavor.

alto root card
In the 1960s, Chinese musicians reformed the root card, and made a 3-string alto root card. The middle tone root card tuning is: g, d1, a1, and the range is g-a2. The midrange root card is soft and rich. The sound box is hemispherical and covered with sheepskin. The headstock and the stem are in a straight line, and the headstock is carved with a tower decoration. The pegs are the same as the violin pegs. The front of the piano bar is the fingerboard, with violin strings.

Bass root card
Following the reform in 1958 to make a treble sound box, Yao Wenlin, on the basis of maintaining the style of the sound box, enlarged the size and reformed the structural design of the resonance box, and successfully developed two types of bass sound box, leather surface and wood surface.

Leather bass root card, the resonance box is the same as the treble root card, the difference is that a membrane controller is installed inside the front mouth membrane, which can reduce or eliminate noise and adjust the tone; there is a pad between the bridge and the membrane. The round paulownia wood sheet is used to expand the pressure area of the bridge and increase the elasticity of the film to prevent the film from softening and collapsing when the weather is humid; a round wooden ball is inserted between the tailpiece and the film to enhance the elasticity of the film; in the resonance chamber There are 4 to 6 flower-shaped sound holes around the surrounding and the rear sound window respectively to open the volume and reduce the muffled sound. The wood surface bass root card, the front mouth of the resonance box is covered with sycamore wood or white pine veneer, the board surface is arched, the center is slightly thicker, and the surrounding is thinner. In order to make it easy to vibrate and pronounce, there are annular grooves around the board. The bass root card is 150 cm long, the headstock is 24 cm long, the piano bar is 60 cm long, the piano box is 26 cm long, the maximum outer diameter is 46 cm, the front port diameter is 34 cm, the rear sound hole diameter is 22 cm, and there are four strings.