China

Archaeological discoveries date Chinese folk music back 7000 years; it is largely based on the pentatonic scale. Chinese folk music is different from western traditional music, paying more attention to the form expression as well. China has many ethnic groups besides the Han, concentrated in the southeast and northwest. These include Tibetans, Uyghurs, Manchus, Zhuang, Dai, Naxi, Miao, Wa, Yi, and Lisu. Traditional music in China is played on solo instruments or in small ensembles of plucked and bowed stringed instruments, flutes, and various cymbals, gongs, and drums. The scale is pentatonic. Bamboo pipes and qin are among the oldest known musical instruments from China; instruments are traditionally divided into categories based on their material of composition: animal skins, gourd, bamboo, wood, silk, earth/clay, metal, and stone. Chinese orchestras traditionally consist of bowed strings, woodwinds, plucked strings and percussion.

Associated Cultural Styles Of Music: Ethnic Han Music, Chinese Opera, Nanyin, Nanguan, Jiangnan Sizhu, Guangdong Music, Cantonese Music, Tibet, Guangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan, Northeast China, Xinjiang, Hua'er, Kuaiban

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_China#Folk_music