The first connection between Chinese Erhu music and Scottish fiddle music is the instrument used to make the music. The Chinese erhu is an ancient musical instrument which is extremely popular in China today as a medium for both traditional and contemporary music. It has a drum like mahogany sound box covered with a snake skin head. Its two strings are generally tuned D and A. Sound is generated by a horse hair bamboo bow which is located between the two strings. Scottish fiddle music is created using a violin or ‘fiddle’. The violin is an extremely popular western stringed instrument whose strings are tuned G, D, A and E. The violinist uses a horse hair bow to draw the sound from the violin. The physical differences between the violin and the erhu are that the erhu is much longer and has a small body. Also the bow of a violin is not attached to the body of the instrument. Tone wise, an erhu sounds slightly more nasal than its western counterpart. The erhu is often called a Chinese fiddle as it belongs to the fiddle family along with the violin.

The physical action of playing the erhu is much the same as that of playing the violin. The bow is drawn across the strings to produce sounds and the fingers on the player's left hand control the pitch. Many left and right hand techniques are used in both Chinese erhu and Scottish fiddle music.

Similar left hand techniques include:

• The placing of fingers to control pitch
• Shifting
• Vibrato
• Pizzicato

Similar right hand techniques include:

• Legato
• Staccato
• Spicatto
• Tremolo
• Bow division

Though many of the similarities above are due to the fact that both instruments belong to the string family, the techniques listed contribute extensively to the musical characteristics of the musical cultures.