Qeej Music Instruction Program

The Qeej is a bamboo pipe instrument known worldwide as the cultural identifier for Hmong people. Hundreds of years old, it plays a pivotal role at Hmong funerals, as the sound of its chords are thought by Hmong to call the soul out of the body and into the afterworld. The Hmong Cultural Center has developed an extensive and rigorous curriculum of songs and correlated dance steps over the past decade to teach the Qeej musical instrument to children and youth. The cultural center’s curriculum teaching Qeej songs includes the use of a unique visible notation system that shows children the holes they must cover with their fingers on the instrument while blowing through the central bamboo pipe. There are fears in the Hmong community that with acculturation in the United States future generations of Hmong Americans will lose the knowledge of and ability to play the Qeej musical instrument and that this essential element of Hmong culture will be lost. Hmong Cultural Center's Qeej program trains children and youth 7-18 years old the core canon of Qeej songs played in the Hmong funeral ceremony. Hmong Cultural Center's Qeej Instruction Program in a very real way serves to help keep Hmong culture alive for the next generation of Hmong living in the United States.