As for water chanty, Nghe region is full of love, expressing the inner feelings as the desire for sending individual love into the singing sentences. The mixture of lifestyles in ho, vi, giam in the water environment show that the tunes of this region is united, and have the deep impacts of the system of 5 tunes ( without fall sound). Quang Binh is outstanding with the component of 6 melodies of chanty of Le Thuy which is full of tunes and love when performing, from greetings, discovering at the beginning of the appointment to the exciting and fascinating rhythm of Nen chanty, Le Ho chanty. Water chanties Tri Thien are profound, thoughtful, the most typical one is Mai Day ( played when an overloaded boat crosses a waterfall, a very fast flow or strong waves with very lively parallel sentences, Mai Ruoi ( which is of people working as carriers, and catching fishes in a large lagoon.

The chanty of Ma river of Thanh is deep in the mark of cheo, chong, vac, lai controlled by 5 male boatmen with 5 chanty stages: roi ben, sang do nguoc, vac thuyen ( when the boat goes around, in the sand beach at the center of the river), down streaming, mooring, reflecting honestly the life of people being close to the river. Ma River chanties receive many changeable melodies  under the style of suite of chanties. Otherwise, with going by boat to many countryside, rivers, markets in many places in the entire valley of Ma river delta so we feel normal when seeing people of Thanh region could perform chanties.

Ma river chanty- the musical art which is full of local characters

Ma river chanty has thousands of sentences summarized from oral transmitted treasure reflecting physical life and spiritual life of people of Thanh region  in Ma river. Water labor and the daily life in the boat producing melodies of chanties adapting to the work and statuses of performers, forming the folk musical art full of local characters. Despite hardworking operation, coming to anywhere, boatmen always sing which is aimed at supporting working group when needed combining forces and expressing inmist feelings. 

People say that Ma river chanties are performed following the genre of six eight meter to express inner feelings. Despite being poor labors, and not having chance to study at school, male boatmen are talented at singing, and responding, clever at taking love stories into sentences to passionate people and depending on the inner feelings and family conditions of guests to reciting Kieu, Luc Van Tien, Tong Chan Cuc Hoa with many other unknown works. Meeting and loving each other through chanties, then missing – the guests miss boatmen,the boatmen miss the guests. ( Vang com mot bua chang sao, Vang em mot bua lao dao ca ngay, Vang em chi mot phien do, Trau an chang co chuyen do thi khong) ( it does not matter when not having a meal but without  you a time is full of hardships …)

As well as labor chanties in many other places, most of melodies of Ma river are performed to the style of  Xuong – Xo ( it means that the telling sentence of the first people( the person taking the wheel) is rotated with the imitation singing of boatmen.

Diversity in the melody so Ma river chanties is plentiful in tunes

 It seems that the system of 5 tunes od Vietnamese ethnic groups which are applied in here. It can be seen that from the third, forth and fifth tune, even 6 tunes thanks to the combination of two different tunes, and having the presence of 4 tunes which are typical of Vietnam: Bac, Nam, Xuan, Oan. 

River Ma chanties, with over dozens of melodies, having structures and procedures attached to the process of working of boatmen. The first sentence is the chanty of leaving port ( called inviting chanty). This is the single rhythm chanty. When it is windy, the boat swims upstream, boatmen use the perch to both perform chanties and support, it is called Chong sao chanty or sang nuoc nguoc chanty). When it is going smoothly, boatmen perform downstream chanties consisting many melodies: Ho bac cai, ho nhip doi, ho duong truong(or dong Gia chanty or dung da chanty) , Niem Phat chanty, Lan ai chanty, Lan van chanty, ru ngu chanty. When it is unfortunate that the boat goes around the underground sand beach, boatmen both wade into the river and take the boat out of the canal. Around-going chanty has two melodies: when the water level is two dry, the boat is deep into the sand, they must carry the boat if they can, if possible, they bind and pull  strings until the boat is out of the canal.

The most unique feature of Ma river chanty is the flexible melody which is always close to the stamping sound of the feet on the surface of the boat plank following the changed rhythm which seems to be as the accompanying foundation of wooden musical instruments. It can be seen that the movements of the two feet  in one rhythm: one feet stamps the first castanets combining with the movement of taking the whole body upwards to pull the perch behind. When developing the nuclear castanets, it is only added more castanets in the behind feet. The melodies: leaving port, leo 2 chanty(downstream), leo 3 chanty (downstream), Niem phat chanty, lan ai chanty, cap ben chanty will become soulless if  separating the melody from the rhythm of the feet. 

Protecting and developing the melody of Ma river Chanties in current life

Also the water, but not like the water in a large space of the Cochin China, the water here is considered having many layers of waves concentrating and the salty taste of the sea, like containing the strong will of people of the Central who often face with disasters and wars. However, all the things could not defeat the soul of creating the art of the artists. Therefore, Ma river chanties still exist for a long time and develop plentifully. 

To save the folk art style which could have not ability to exist in daily life currently, some state agencies and localities with the folk musical researchers try great efforts to collect melodies of Ma river chanties, mainly collecting sounds, using musical notation by musical notes on 5 lines, publishing the part of musical notation and reference documents on the genre of this unique water chanties. 

Implementing the project “surviving, protecting, and developing the typical traditional art culture in Ma river region in 1999, the musical institute continuously organize visits to the countryside   and interviewing artists, surviving the memories in the old time of people in Ma river, linking and restoring the partial memories which are gradually fainted to the time. Seeing the role of the boat in the old time in reproducing the performing environment for Ma river chanty, the project has made “one historic event” for the land that used to be the father ship in the industry of making boats: making a boat to the right process in the previous time, starting from the ritual of Phat moc ( worshipping for the starting work), making boat bottom, the side of the boat, then making the plank of the above layer, spreading the sails, and spreading the mast, making hoods, wheels, stretching perch…..

The current urgent problems in the plan of restoring the folk art is to try how to make Ma river chanties not only develop but also we can protect this genre and protect in the documents as well as in real life?

From water labor and daily life on boat, the boat creates the melodies of chanties which can adapt to the work and statuses of performers, forming a traditional musical folk art full of local characters: Ma river chanty.