There are a wide variety of Chinese instruments ranging from gongs, flutes, drums to mouth organs, and clappers etc. The silk instruments whose material silk is the favorite had strings that could be struck, plucked, or bowed. Pipa, Liuqin, Duxianqin, Se, Guin, and Saxin are some of the silk string instruments that had to be plucked. Erhu, a fiddle with two strings, is one of the most popular bowed silk string Chinese musical instruments.

Wooden musical instruments were equally popular in ancient China. Wood was used for making the Bangzi, Guban, Yu, Muyu, and Zhu. With their years of tried and tested expertise they were successful in creating distinct melodious tunes with the help of these musical instruments.

The Chinese used stone to manufacture the Bianqin. It was a group of stones hung with a rope from a wooden structure. Metals were mostly used to make percussion instruments, like gongs, cymbals, and bells. Bronze was the most frequently used metal in making musical instruments. Laba, Chun, bronze drum, Luo, Bo, Nao, and Bianzhong are some of the famous metal made instruments. Fou and Xun were made from baked clay.

Gourd was used to make mouth organs like Yu, Hukusheng, Sheng, and He. Animal skin was utilized to make some of the finest ancient Chinese musical instruments like Tao, Bofu, Yaogu, Tanggu, Bangu, Biangu, Huzuo Wujia Gu, and Daigu.