Described as "serene and elegant", the music reflects a bygone age when the pace of life was unhurried, with two types: instrumental ensemble music to be played or sung, and songs. A typical piece may be as brief as two minutes or as long as forty minutes.

The main pitched instruments used in Nanyin music are the dongxiao (a vertical flute), the nanpa (a bent-neck lute), the erxian (a two-stringed vertical instrument), the sanxian (a three-stringed plucked instrument and the paiban (clappers). Featuring wind and string instruments such as the lute and the vertical flute, it has close ties with ancient imperial music,Buddhist music, poetic rhythm, and drama tunes.

For hundreds of years it has been handed down through oral instruction and has spread from Quanzhou to other parts of Fujian,TaiwanProvince, and among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and Europe.