The band has issued a wide variety of instruments into their music that are not traditionally associated with use in rock music, including a djembe, sitar, didgeridoo, and bongos on many of their earlier tracks and during live performances, and with the use of a pipa given to the band by rock musician Steve Vai which is played by Einziger n the song " Aqueous Transmission ".

The pipa, a kind of lute, believed to have been introduced from the Arabian Peninsula area during the 6th century and adopted to suit Chinese tastes, is most popular in Shanghai and surrounding areas.

Pipa from the Han Dynasty is referred to as Han pipa, however, depictions of the pear-shaped pipas in China only appeared after the Han Dynasty during the Jin Dynasty in the late fourth to early fifth century.

Kuchean music was very popular in China during the Tang Dynasty, particularly the lute which became known in Chinese as pipa.

Another suggestion is that it was descended from an instrument called xiantao ( 弦鼗 ) which was constructed by labourers on the Great Wall of China during the late Qin Dynasty ( hence Qin pipa ) using strings stretched over a pellet drum.

Since Ruan Xian was an expert and famous in playing an instrument that looked like the Qin pipa, the instrument was named after him when the copper Qin pipa was found in a tomb during the Tang Dynasty.

The guqin and pipa are some of the first instruments used during shidaiqu's early mandopop era.

The pipa, a kind of lute, believing introduced from Arab areas during 6th century and improved, is most popular in Shanghai and surrounding areas.

Based on Shakespeare ’ s “ King Lear ,” the work presented an Asian-inspired interpretation of the drama that culminated in two sold-out world premiere performances during the 2012 Singapore Arts Festival, and required Wu Man to both act and play the pipa.

A five-stringed pipa ( wuxian ) from the Tang Dynasty

The word pipa, however, was used in the ancient texts to describe a variety of plucked chordophones from the Qin to the Tang Dynasty, as a result, there are still considerable confusion and disagreements about its history.

Depictions of the pear-shaped pipas appeared in abundance from the Southern and Northern Dynasties onwards, and pipas from this time to the Tang Dynasty were given various names, such as Hu pipa ( 胡琵琶 ), bent-neck pipa ( 曲項琵琶 ) and Kuchean pipa ( 龜茲琵琶 ), some of these terms however may refer to the same pipa.

The five-stringed pipa however had fallen from use by the Song Dynasty, although attempts have been made to revive this instrument in the early 21st century with a modernized five-string pipa modeled on the Tang Dynasty instrument.

There are many references to pipa in Tang literary works, for example, in A Music Conservatory Miscellany Duan Anjie related many anecdotes associated with pipa.

The pipa is mentioned frequently in Tang Dynasty poetry, where it is often praised for its refinement and delicacy of tone, with poems dedicated to well-known players describing their performances.

The design of the building is said to be based on a verse of the Tang Dynasty poem Pipa Song by Bai Juyi about the wonderful sprinkling sound of a pipa instrument, like pearls, big and small falling on a jade plate ( 大珠小珠落玉盘 / 大珠小珠落玉盤 / dà zhū xiǎo zhū luò yù pán ).

However, it was common in Tang China for women to play pipa, as it was also common for courtly women from the Heian through Muromachi periods to learn biwa in childhood.

The present name of the Qin pipa, which is " ruan ", was not given until the Tang Dynasty ( 8th century ).

The earliest mention of pipa in Chinese texts appeared late in the Han Dynasty around 2nd century CE.

According to Liu Xi's Eastern Han Dynasty Dictionary of Names, the word pipa may have an onomatopoeic origin ( the word being similar to the sounds the instrument makes ) although modern scholarship suggests a possible derivation from the Persian word " barbat " ( the two theories however are not necessarily mutually exclusive ).

These Han Dynasty texts also indicate that, at that time, pipa was a recent arrival, although later third century texts from the Jin Dynasty suggest that pipa existed in China as early as the Qin Dynasty ( 221 BCE – 206 BCE ).

There are therefore differing opinions about the form of the Han Dynasty pipa.

By the Song Dynasty the word pipa was used to refer exclusively to the pear-shaped instrument.

The biwa ( 琵琶-Chinese: pipa ), a form of short-necked lute, was played by a group of itinerant performers ( biwa hōshi ) ( 琵琶法師 ) who used it to accompany stories.

She was also adept in pipa and master all the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar – Guqin, Weiqi, Calligraphy and Chinese painting.

Qin pipa later became the instrument known today as the ruan which was named after Ruan Xian, one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove.

Yet another term used in ancient text was Qinhanzi ( 秦漢子 ), perhaps related to Qin pipa, but modern opinions differ as to what it may be.

The pear-shaped pipa was likely to have been introduced to China from Central Asia, Gandhara, and / or India.

Wang Zhaojun in particular was frequently referenced in later literary works, as well as in music pieces such as " Zhaojun's Lament " ( 昭君怨 ), and in paintings where she was often depicted holding a pipa.

The biwa came to Japan in the 7th century and it was evolved from the instrument pipa, while the pipa itself was derived from similar instruments in Western Asia.

In colonial Hong Kong, pipa was one of the instruments played by the Chinese, and was mainly used for ceremonial purposes.

In ancient China, the ruan was called Qin pipa ( Qin Dynasty, 221 BC-206 BC ).

Before the Song Dynasty, pipa was a generic term for a number plucked chordophones, and what distinguished Qin pipa from other pipas is that the Qin pipa had a long, straight neck with a round sound box while the pipa is pear-shaped.

There are many musical instruments that are integral to Chinese culture, such as the Xun ( Ocarina-type instrument that is also integral in Native American cultures ), Guzheng ( zither with movable bridges ), guqin ( bridgeless zither ), sheng and xiao ( vertical flute ), the erhu ( alto fiddle or bowed lute ), pipa ( pear-shaped plucked lute ), and many others.

The pipa (, ) is a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments.

It is small in size, almost a miniature copy of another Chinese plucked musical instrument, the pipa.

The wood is also important in China, Korea, and Japan for making the soundboards of stringed musical instruments such as the guqin, guzheng, pipa, koto, and kayagum.

The pipa, kompang, veena and violin represent the musical instruments for different cultures in Singapore.

Through numerous trips to her native China, Wu Man has premiered hundreds of new works for the pipa, while spearheading multimedia projects to both preserve and create awareness of China ’ s ancient musical traditions.

The result is a DVD and sound recording of folk musicians who would not otherwise be heard outside these regions, and who represent the very beginnings of the pipa ’ s musical tradition.

Liu Xi also stated that the instrument called " pipa ", though written differently ( 枇杷 or " piba " 批把 ) in the earliest texts, originated from amongst the Hu ( meaning foreigners or barbarians ).

The position of the instrument is lower than the pipa, being held diagonally like the Chinese ruan and yueqin.

Finally, the instrument is played with a pick with similar technique to both ruan and yueqin, whereas the pipa is played with the fingers.

From simple plucking with the thumb and index finger and saoxian ( sweeping one's fingers across all strings with gusto ) to yaozhi ( tilting the instrument and using the middle finger to continuously cut across the strings ) and lunzou ( by plucking with all five fingers, one after another in a wavelike motion ), the playing techniques of the pipa are visibly dimensionless.

The name of " pipa " is associated with " tantiao " ( 彈挑 ), a right hand techniques of playing a plucked string instrument.

During the reign of Empress Wu Zetian ( 武則天 ) ( about 684-704 AD ), a copper instrument that looked like the Qin pipa was discovered in an ancient tomb in Sichuan ( 四川 ).