Because the erhu has no fingerboard and taste, the pitch is completely controlled by hearing. The ability to distinguish the pitch of the auditory and the feedback ability of the fingers constitute the player's sense of intonation. The player's ability to hear and distinguish pitch is called the concept of intonation, which is commonly known as ear tone. The concept of pitch has two forms, one is called the concept of fixed pitch, that is, according to the internationally recognized pitch standard (vibration 440 times per second is a small group of a sound), the pitch feeling is used as a memory material. It is said that most people who are engaged in composition, conductor, piano performance, etc. use this concept of intonation. The other is called the pitch concept of the first tuning, that is, the pitch concept, which uses the pitch feeling between two notes as the memory material; most of the pitch concepts possessed by erhu players are this kind of pitch concept. Some modern musical works already require the player to have a concept of fixed intonation. Therefore, from the perspective of development, erhu players should focus on the concept of first tuning pitch, supplemented by the concept of fixed pitch in the training of ear tone, and it is good to be able to master both.

An interval is the distance and relationship between two notes in pitch. Since the concept of first tuning intonation is based on the feeling of intervals as the basis for judging intonation, the intonation can be distinguished only when there are more than two tones. In the erhu performance, if only a single tone is issued without any sound as a reference, then the sound does not matter whether it is accurate or not, and only when the second sound is issued, the hearing can sense according to the interval between them. Identify whether its pitch is accurate.

Music is a temporal art. In the performance, all the sounds are divided into three time states: past, present and future, just like English verbs have tenses.

The concept of intervals can be associated with various sensations such as distance, unevenness, softness and hardness in the player's mind. The sense of distance mainly plays a role in the pre-hearing of the performer, that is, when the tone is still in the future tone (that is, the tone is about to be issued but not yet issued), there must be a prediction in the mind of the interval distance between the tone and the previous tone. Prediction, the ear seems to be able to hear the sound that will be issued, this hearing is called pre-hearing. Erhu players who have undergone strict training will form a sense of distance in their hearts to the intervals, and they are very regular and clear. This sense of distance may vary in different players' minds, but in each player's mind, this feeling should be constant. When playing, pre-hearing subconsciously predicts future sounds with this sense of distance.

When the sound is in the current sound, that is, after the sound is played, its pitch is immediately compared with the pitch in the previous hearing. If it is too high, it will cause the player's hearing to feel that the sound is too full and bulging. ; If it is too low, the sound will be shriveled and depressed. At this time, the fingers will quickly adjust according to the concave and convex sense of hearing, by kneading the strings, adjusting the touch points of the fingers, changing the pressure of the fingers on the strings, etc., until the hearing obtains a peaceful and comfortable feeling. This is the bump in hearing right now.

When a sound becomes a past sound, the pitch perception of this sound should be retained in hearing for a period of time, so as to serve as an interval reference for predicting the pitch of a future sound, or to become a pitch standard for a homophonic future sound, which retains the past in hearing The memory of pitch is called persistent hearing.

In a melody, if the pitch is often too high, the player's hearing will have a stiff feeling, as if the music playing is lumpy and not very round; if the pitch is often low, it will be felt in the hearing. Music is weak. If you can properly grasp the softness and hardness of this melody when playing, so that it meets the needs of the music content, you will also grasp the accuracy of the pitch objectively.

The sense of intonation can be divided into two levels: high and low. The low-level intonation only grasps the basic accuracy of the pitch, and has not changed according to the different needs of the music. The high-level intonation is to make the intonation rise to the artistic realm of rhythm beauty.

Temperament refers to the absolute exact height of each pitch in a music system and its relationship with each other. Temperament is formed in the long-term development of music practice and becomes the basis of modal pitch. At present, there are generally three kinds of law systems: "pure law", "five degrees of mutual generation law" and "twelve average law". In addition to these three commonly used law systems, there are other law systems such as national law, twelve law (different from the twelve average law, it is a kind of law in ancient my country) and seventh law, which are usually used in special laws. style of music.

Erhu is a kind of polyphonic mixed instrument. It does not have the characteristics of fingerboard and taste, that is, it brings difficulties to the player in terms of intonation, but from another point of view, it gives the player a variety of subtle changes in pitch. possibility, thereby increasing the expressive power of the instrument. To raise the intonation of the erhu to the height of the beauty of the rhythm, it is not simply achieved by making the intonation conform to a certain temperament, but through various subtle pitch changes in the music. This change is the player's musical sense. And the crystallization of artistic accomplishment.

Music always expresses certain emotions and emotions, and the melody also has a corresponding character. The performer should change the rhythm when playing according to different situations, in order to obtain a more moving performance.

Another point to note is the overall tuning of the temperament. Because in addition to the twelve equal temperament, the small pitch changes of other temperament systems will have a problem of error accumulation, especially after several consecutive transpositions, the small pitch changes will accumulate several times, and finally the pitch will be different. A 1/4 note, if there is an open string at this time, or cooperate with the accompaniment, you can obviously feel the error on the intonation. Therefore, when playing, not only should the changes of the rhythm be used in the details of the phrases, but also in a piece of music, attention should be paid to the overall adjustment of the pitch, and the appropriate timing should be selected to eliminate the accumulation of small pitch changes.

Tempo change is based on the player's very mature sense of intonation. First, the player should have the ability to discern subtle changes in pitch. It has been determined that people with good ears can distinguish around 7 cents in long-tone performance, but when the melody is in progress, 10 cents can make people feel it. This kind of change, consciously using this kind of change, can make the pitch rise to the artistic realm of beauty.