The mud wah whole body is kneaded with yellow clay, and its shape, size, number and position of sound holes are different.

The bigger ones are similar to goose eggs, and the smaller ones are like walnuts. The shapes are oval, jujube, fish, peach, doll head, bull head, bull horn, butterfly and flat square, and so on.

The mud wah generally has a blow hole in the middle of the upper end, and a number of sound holes in the front and rear.

For example, the walnut-shaped mud wah has a sound hole in the front; the oval-shaped mud wah has five sound holes (the first four and the other one); the fish-shaped mud wah has five holes in the front, and the bull-head-shaped mud wah has a width on the upper side. The bottom is pointed, the blow hole is in the upper middle, and the sound holes are mostly four holes (front three and one back) or six holes (front four and back two). The horn-shaped mud wah, the sound holes are mostly three holes (the first two and the last one) or six holes (the first five and the last one). Butterfly-shaped mud wah, the sound holes are mostly four holes (the first three and the last one). There is also a mud wah made of leather or tissue paper, which is flat and square, and mostly has three sound holes.

Although the shape and sound hole of the mud wah are different, they all have small holes on both sides or at the bottom, which are tied with silk ears or colorful beads of different colors as decoration.