Mabu is a single-reed air-sounding instrument unique to the Yi people. In Yi language, "horse" means bamboo, and "cloth" means reed pipe, which means a bamboo air-sounding instrument with a reed pipe inserted.

During festivals, festivities or spare time from labor, the boys of the Yi family will play Mabu and have a set of self-composed solo repertoires, most of which reflect the daily labor situation and life experience.

Mabuqu is often developed from basic tunes, and the performer can create a variety of tunes by touching the scene and feeling the emotion. In the music, long tones with varying strengths, rapid homophonic repetition, rapid fingering, and frequent appoggiance, glissando and ornamental tones are widely used, and Mabu is often used in music to simulate the singing of various birds and beasts.

The traditional Mabu solos include "Tiger Out of the Hole", "Cuckoo Crossing the Mountain", "Morning Wind Shaking Bamboo", "Ten Thousand Horses Running to the Beach", etc. Ganluo's popular Mabu songs include "Sheep Sheep Tune", "Leaving the Dog". Expelling the Mountain", "Harvest Tune" and "Happy Tune", etc. Ninglang's popular music includes "Buja Tune" and so on.

Among the Yi people in Liangshan, the mabu is also used for funerals, and there is a popular custom among the people: when their parents die, the married daughter must invite the best musicians in the village to play the mabu at her parents' house to express their deep remembrance.