The gourd flute is a very distinctive musical instrument with unique shape and structure. It consists of a complete gourd, 3 bamboo tubes and flat metal reeds, and the whole body is about 30 cm long. At the handle end of the gourd, a bamboo pipe is inserted as the mouthpiece, the whole gourd is used as an air box, and three bamboo pipes with different thicknesses are inserted into the bottom of the gourd. Each bamboo pipe inserted into the gourd is set with a copper or silver spring piece.

Portamento is an important traditional technique in cucurbit flute playing. Appropriate use of portamento can make the melody of the cucurbit flute more sung and the expression more delicate. The performance of portamento is accomplished by the speed of the tone and the speed of the finger movements. It is the effect of using the fingers to gradually open or close the sound hole (slowly move up or down to the desired sound position), and you can play up and down from the beginning of the barrel to the last sound hole.

Portamento: From a lower note to another higher note, the method of playing is to wipe the fingers from the lower sound hole to the higher sound hole sequentially from right to left, gradually opening each hole . When playing the upper portamento, the breath should be matched, the mouth strength should increase from small to large, the air door from large to small, the tone from slow to sharp, and from thick to thin. Glide: From a higher note down to a lower note, the playing method is to wipe the fingers from the higher sound hole from left to right in sequence, gradually closing each sound hole, and gliding down when playing During the sound, the coordination of breath is that the air door increases from small to large, the force of the mouth increases from large to small, the tone of the mouth increases from sharp to slow, and from thin to thick. The gourd flute is often used to play folk tunes such as folk songs. It is most suitable for playing music or dance music with a smooth melody. Generally, there are many long notes in the tune, the chorus is rich, and the music is soft and harmonious, which can better express the players' thoughts and feelings.