Sheng's playing skills are the most abundant of all wind instruments. As the originator of reed instruments, the influence of Sheng's skills not only greatly enriches the expressive power of wind music, but also plays a positive role in promoting world music.

The traditional sheng and the improved sheng have the same playing techniques, and the improved sheng technique is based on the traditional sheng technique.

Sheng's playing skills include: pause, appoggiance, skipping, double spit, triple spit, broken spit, flower tongue, mouthpiece, vibrato, polyphony, various chords, etc. The flower tongue is divided into fine flower tongue, thick flower tongue, pop flower tongue and so on. The most obvious ones, such as cucurbit flute, bawu, bamboo flute and other wind instruments, all use the technique of sheng—double spit, triple spit, etc.

The timbre of Sheng is bright and sweet, the treble is crisp and transparent, the midrange is soft and full, the bass is deep and deep, and the volume is louder. And among the traditional Chinese wind instruments, it is also the only musical instrument that can blow harmony. When playing with other musical instruments, it can harmonize the sound of the band and enrich the sound of the band. In large national orchestras, sheng sometimes uses three kinds of sheng: treble, alto and bass.