The Morin Khurr or Horsehead Fiddle

It’s wonderful if you can travel with your children to beautiful and exotic places around the world. But, if you can’t, you can always spend time reading about other countries, discovering their cultures and listening to their unique and beautiful traditional music.

Can you imagine a trip to Mongolia? Known as the “Land of the Eternal Blue Sky, it’s the birthplace of Ghengis Khan and home to camels and reindeer. It’s a place of extreme temperatures and equally striking beauty. It’s the birthplace of “throat-singing” and the home of an instrument called morin khuur.

The morin khurr or horsehead fiddle is the national instrument of Mongolia and is often said to symbolize the deep and connected relationship between horses and people in this region of the world. Similar to the erhu from China, it has only 2 string and is played with a bow. You can hear it’s unique sound and playing style in this video of a song titled “My Father. My Hero”.

We’ve just created a morin khurr poster and freebie coloring page as part of our “Stringed Instruments of The World” series. You can find a link to them below. If you’d like to visit other regions of the world through music, you can also check out some of our other music mini-courses below.

Links and Resources

Morin Khuur -Freebie coloring page - https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mongolian-Horsehead-Fiddle-Free-Coloring-Page-3578368

Morin Khuur – poster and coloring page - https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Morin-Khuur-Mongolian-Fiddle-3578353

Visit Australia – Music Mini-Series - https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Australian-Aboriginal-Instruments-Music-Mini-Course-2816723

Visit India – Music Mini-Series – https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Instruments-of-India-Mini-Course-2682389