Jetigen

Jetigen

String instrument
Other names	A Kazakh jetigen on display in the Kazakhstan National Museum of Instruments.
Classification	String instruments Box zither
Developed	Antiquity
Related instruments
yatga koto guzheng gayageum zither Kanun (instrument) Jadagan Đàn tranh Kacapi Se

The jetigen (Kazakh: жетіген, pronounced [ʒetɪˈɡen], or dzhetigan or zhetygen) is a Kazakh plucked zither. Similar to Chinese guzheng, yazheng and se, Japanese koto, Korean gayageum and ajaeng, Mongolian yatga, Vietnamese đàn tranh, and Sundanese kacapi. The strings were sometimes made of horsehair.^[1] The jetigen is played by plucking, in a similar manner to the gusli, tube zither or box zither.

The most ancient type of zhetygen had seven strings over a box shape hollowed out of a block of wood. Such zhetygen did not have the upper sounding board and pins. The strings were stretched by hand from the outer side of the instrument.

In later version of the instrument, the upper part of the zhetygen was covered with the wooden sounding board. Assyks were out under each string from two sides. Moving them it was possible to tune the string. If assyks were drawn closer to each other the tune was rising, and if drawn apart the tune was falling. String tuning was made by the pins and by moving the supports.

Early instruments took the form of a rectangular box, carved from wood, with strings stretched over the top. Later, a separate sounding board was added, and moveable supports were used to raise each string from the sounding board; the position of each support along its string determined the pitch of that string's note.^[2]

The jetigen is distinguished by its soft, melodious sound.