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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Dang, that's probably one of the fanciest single pieces of gear a goon has bought in this thread. 48 button? Got any cool pics? It is a 48 key. I don't have a real camera, so here are some cellphone photos.   Right now I'm mainly looking at easy pieces for first violin. I find the keyboard both really intuitive and easy to get lost on at the same time. One day I hope I am able to make arrangements for concertina from baroque music. I think it would also be fun to mess around with the music which was written for the instrument. Here's another classical piece which was written specifically for the concertina: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GS0Hrfnq0s Another possibility is that classical guitar seems to convert to concertina reasonably well. The composer of the above piece was both a guitar and a concertina virtuoso. Here are some classical guitar pieces arranged for concertina: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyEAXmkNThI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvh8O6X7Pa0
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Oct 21, 2012 05:00
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SecretSquirrel posted:balalaika chat I am in a similar situation, for months an old balalaika has been sitting untouched in a thrift store I visit regularily. I have never been a huge balalaika fan, despite my obsession with Russian music, so I have resisted buying it, but your post might put me over the edge ... what do you do for strings, can you use guitar strings on it?
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Oct 22, 2012 13:33
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I'm currently using the steel strings that came with my balalaika, which I'm pretty sure are just really thin guitar strings. Once I replace them, I'll probably go with a .011 steel guitar string for the A tuned string and two G nylon guitar strings for the two E tuned strings. I've also ordered the Mel Bay balalaika book, and if you decide to get your balalaika, I'll tell you if it's any good.
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Oct 23, 2012 05:53
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:@ sans pants: can you snap a pic of the bar/tines assembly on your thumb-piano? There are a couple ways they can be set up, and I'm just curious to see what about yours was causing trouble. Some kinds are easier than others. I just tested the tuning - it was a little off, but not hard to fix (using the AP tuner I downloaded). I tuned according to this chart; I have 10 tines, so I focused on the purple part. And here is my kalimba  So, you can see when it is (more or less) in tune how the top of the tines are all different lengths... I think that is what was throwing me off. I originally tried starting from G, at almost full length, so that was probably why I couldn't get the others in tune with it. At this point I'm not really worried about nailing the bridge in place, since I am getting it in tune as is. That said.... this thread is infectious. I teach at 6 elementary schools, all of which are getting ready for their music festival - I am seeing melodicas, recorders, and xylophones everyday. Yesterday I saw a kid xylophone (I can't find a good example pic, but it's just the "keys", and short enough that it would fit on a student's desk. It also had what is analogous to the piano's white and black keys.) Anyway, I passed it up, but there is a 50/50 chance that in the next few hours I'll have gone back to buy it.
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Oct 30, 2012 09:45
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Hey cool thread! I currently play Banjo, ukulele, Dulcimer and keyboard. I tried my hand at harmonica a while back, but I was totally awful. I keep playing with the idea of getting a Sitar - however I'm self-taught with all my instruments, and I've heard sitar is incredibly difficult to master, so without some help I may end up lost. I mean, the thing has 21 strings and no matter who I ask I get conflicting reports on what tuning is "standard". Any opinion on whether I should try it out? Or is there some other fanciful instrument I should look into I am easily tempted).
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Oct 30, 2012 13:26
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sans pants posted:I just tested the tuning - it was a little off, but not hard to fix (using the AP tuner I downloaded). I tuned according to this chart; I have 10 tines, so I focused on the purple part. Ah, I got it, you have a primitive-style one. Yeah, so you'd fix the tine pitch by wriggling them in or out to change the length sticking out. Ignore the amount sticking out in the back, that's just where the spare bits stick out, the part that makes sound is just the length your finger plucks. Modern ones would have screws in the top bar, so you could loosen it slightly to make adjustments, but since your top bar is nailed down, don't try to loosen it or it'll be hard to get tight again, so stick to wriggling in and out. Kalimba has been really underrated in this thread, it's a great instrument, especially for beginners. Needs about no tuning once it's set up right, low maintenance, mellow sound and quiet enough to play in an apartment. The little wrapped bits past your nut are likely there to add some sound effect by rattling around. You'll see them too with wrapped metal there, or bottlecaps to jingle. quote:
A large number of Western instruments use pretty generic strings, so as long as the gauge and type are right, you're pretty on. "Dulcimer strings" are just strings that happen to be X diametre steel strings, and they pick out the ones that work for the average dulcimer and package them in an envelope. Not any different from guitar or mandolin strings. As SecretSquirrel notes, traditional balalaika uses a mix of gut/nylon and steel strings (which is somewhat unusual), but in gauges you can find for guitar as well; with a little googling you should be able to just go online and order X, Y, and Z diametre for a few bucks total, vice buying a pre-packaged set (which appear to be just steal, not nylon, for $15 on eBay. I think SS is referring to the advice from Barynya.com: For the first (A) balalaika string you can use any first (E) steel guitar string .011 diameter, for 2nd and 3rd balalaika (E) strings you can use 3rd (G) nylon guitar strings So far as buying a balalaika in a thrift shop: I wouldn't pay more than like $75 for a balalaika of unknown quality, and you want to be sure that you or a guitar-savvy friend can glance it over and make sure there aren't any structural issues like collapsing top, bowed neck, etc. If that checks out (the bridge you can adjust and action height you can fix with home tools), $75 can be fine, or even more if it turns out to be actually decent and not just a tourist wallhanger. So far as playing, you can either acquire formal balalaika training materials, or you can do what a lot of Americans do and just strum it as though it were a mandolin or ukulele, like this dude here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrI0Cw0QKAE playing "East Bottom Blues". For that you'd just go to any of the zillion guitar chord sites, pull up the song you want, and then figure out how the specified chords are fingered on balalaika. This would be one of the easier string instruments to play like that, though it's not as fancy as serious balalaika-ing, but if you're new to string instruments and want something unusual, it's not a bad start. quote:I keep playing with the idea of getting a Sitar - however I'm self-taught with all my instruments, and I've heard sitar is incredibly difficult to master, so without some help I may end up lost. I mean, the thing has 21 strings and no matter who I ask I get conflicting reports on what tuning is "standard". Well, it really depends on whether by "play sitar" you mean getting deeply into Hindustani music, learning new theory, a whole body of work, etc. or you're just wanting to have an interesting-sound to apply to the Western music you know already (the "Norwegian Wood" school, as it were). If the former, Yiggy is our main sitarist here that I know of, and if you want to do that you really want to get some formal instruction to start out. If however, you just want something that sounds cool and don't necessarily want to dive into a whole new musical tradition, you can get a rather similar sound but at a much better price and portability by going with either a Turkish baglama or Persian setar. Both have that kind of jangly-drony sound, so if you use them to back up a track on your next indie garage band album, 95% of your listeners would think it was a sitar. The Indian sitar is actually just a really over-developed version of those anyway, same lineage. By the way, the instruments are called sitar/setar because of the Moghul/Persian term se tar, three strings. The Indian sitar has 21 strings, but only three of those are actually fingered like guitar strings, another three are drones that you strum but don't finger (like old school Appalachian dulcimer) and 15 are sympathetic strings that just resonate with the air around them.  For either setar or baglama (also called "saz" by Westerners), just find someone on eBay with good feedback for instruments and buy one in the $80-100 range. You will rarely hear me give that kind of advice, but for those two instruments that's seriously the consensus for getting cheapies that work. I got a setar from a dude in Istanbul, with semi-hard case, for $107 total shipped to DC, and I'm quite happy for the money. Get some extra strings with it too if you do that. One slightly off-the-wall alternative for "Western pseudo-sitar": if you like doing some jimmying and gadgeting, hacking and all that, you can sitar-ise an Appalachian dulcimer. Mainly this is done by making slight mods to the bridge to get that buzzy sound; on a sitar this is jawari and done by micro-adjusting the bridge to deliberately dick with the sine wave and cause interference. It happens often enough accidentally on Western instruments while tweaking them, or if they're shittily made, and some folks will say "cripes, I dicked up the bridge, and this drat guitar is sitar-ing now." There are a couple non-invasive ways to do this, or you can improvise or buy a used guitar bridge for a coupla bucks and make a sitar-style bridge to swap-in for your dulcimer. At the simplest level, you can also try inserting something just under a string or two as they leave the bridge, and muck with trying to get it just close enough to the vibrating string to dick with the sine and cause buzz, but not so close to deaden it. If this sitar-ising a dulcimer an appealing option, let me know and I can track down the email of a guy I know who's good at this and may have some tips. A few assorted dulcimer-sitar hybrid clips: - Ragas on a standard dulcimer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6rqyjrmoMM - Not a great clip, but this dude worked a vina bridge onto an electric dulcimer, so you get some jiwari effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl_zFzWGY44 Long post, but hopefully gives you a few ideas. EDIT: The "Pygmy sitar" is a surprisingly well-executed version of the above "take a basic Western instrument, give it drones and jiwari". I wanted to be skeptical, because it's just an octave mandolin with some restringing and a modified bridge, but damned it it doesn't sound pretty "Indian-ish". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jli_I5uQ218  Pygmy Instruments sells these for £335, £435 if you want a scalloped neck. At that price I'm pretty sure they're buying cheap import octave mandos (Romanian cheapies sell as low as £185 in the UK) and reworking them, which is a legit method. You could buy your own Trinity College (Korean made) and rig a sitar bridge onto it, and the TC is probably a better instrument than whatever cheapie they're converting. Just depends on how you are on the time/money spectrum, and you're willing to pay someone to muck around doing the conversion like this, or want to feel it out yourself. So mixed feelings, but the price is not really unreasonable, and the sound is kinda cool, so a bit of a novelty/niche instrument, but I'm not totally dismissive of their product. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Oct 30, 2012 |
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Oct 30, 2012 17:36
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Calico Heart posted:I keep playing with the idea of getting a Sitar - however I'm self-taught with all my instruments, and I've heard sitar is incredibly difficult to master, so without some help I may end up lost. I mean, the thing has 21 strings and no matter who I ask I get conflicting reports on what tuning is "standard". Whether you want to explore sitar or not depends on your musical needs. In several ways it is a tall challenge, but a potentially rewarding one. You can make some decent progress on your own but its slow at first, and you really have to be proactive about doing your homework and tracking down good materials. The trick is, sitar playing really benefits from a firm basis in technique, and this can be difficult without a teacher. I began practicing and becoming familiar with the instrument making some ok progress, but eventually needed a teacher. That first lesson was the most valuable just for having my bad habits corrected, at which point I could have progressed a good distance further without a teacher. That said, if you have access to one, certainly take advantage of it. I'm glad I stuck with lessons. What area do you live in? There are actually more and more epicenters of Indian classical music springing up and you might be near to a place with some teachers. If you're interested in learning the sitar, but not learning Indian classical music, there are a few things to keep in mind. There is no reason you have to play Indian music on a sitar, however, the way it is built is tailored to ICM's strengths and vice versa. Its primarily an instrument that explores solitary melodic lines and ornamentations. Learning a style of music other than ICM would make it difficult to get in the practice of meending, bending notes and developing a fine ear for relative pitch which is essential for producing the sitar's distinctive sound. However, there is also something to be said about how learning ICM has helped broaden and deepen my appreciation and listening skills with the western music I like to listen to for fun. So, spending a lot of time learning this kind of music in a culture that doesn't have a lot of fellow fans or listeners can be lonely sometimes. Its not as easy to just jam with western musicians, because you're tuned a little sharp, used to modal playing, and missing a few frets which would simplify the instruments chromaticism. You also won't have as many attentive listeners. Especially once you start to understand the music, it becomes obvious that many of the listeners do not, even the willing ones. I believe creative minds can find a way to adapt the instrument to western sounds and playing, but its not going to be an easy project. ICM is a soloists genre, so if you can have fun playing by yourself you will find lots to explore. If you need others for musical fulfillment, it can be difficult until you reach the higher levels and need a tabla player for more than just playing the cycles. Picking up the sitar and learning Indian music has been one of the most fun and interesting chapters in my life, but its definitely going to take a little bit of dedication to learn should you decide to pick it up. If you have any questions about tracking down an instrument, Indian classical music, sitar practice routines, steps to take in learning etc, I'm more than happy to answer.
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Oct 31, 2012 01:50
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Thanks to this thread I purchased and assembled one of the Cardboard Dulcimers sold by the site mentioned in the OP. I shall be sure to tell my GF to blame you fine gentleman, but I'm having a total blast with it so far.
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Oct 31, 2012 05:08
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drat this thread. drat it straight to hell. I picked up a Remo Thundertube tonight for use in my percussion rig. Since I couldn't use that as the only content in the post, I also shelled out a bit of cash for an Eddy Finn Mahogany tenor ukulele.  I'm also looking into picking up a Claviella (a melodica variant) and possibly a chord organ if the Craigslist ads pan out.
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Nov 1, 2012 03:58
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I'm in the midst of 3d-printing a flute, specifically http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:31610 It's printed the first section so far, but when I tried to print the second section it got about 40mm in, pulled a stray strand off, and then managed to catch the strand on the way back around, knocking over the in-progress print. Luckily the plastic is cheap and there's nothing lost but about 40 minutes of letting the machine run, so I'll try again tomorrow. We'll see how it sounds when it's all put together. I can get a high-pitched toot out of the first segment right now, and the partial second segment fits reasonably well onto the first segment.
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Nov 1, 2012 06:36
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Whoa, printing a flute... That is drat trippy. Eager to see how that works out once you finish. Any good clips of people playing their 3D-printed flutes? So far as melodicas, I ran across yet another interesting variant: Couesnophone. Patented back in 1924 by a French instrument maker, it's essentially a melodica shaped and held like a saxophone, mostly as a toy. Various 1930s proto-hipsters, among them Adrian Rollini (who called it a "goofus"), seized on this instrument, presumably ironically. I couldn't find too many clips of them online, but they're still readily sold today, including by the Bontempi company, of cheap chord-organ fame.  There's a different variant they make which is red plastic, which looks a bit sturdier. Both run around $20 or so shipped on eBay. I'm not 100% sure with this model, but historically and logically these should by polyphonic. That is, unlike a real woodwind, you can press multiple buttons and get multiple notes at the same time, since each key has its own reed. Bontempi and the like also make toy clarinets and trumpets which are also just re-shaped melodicas. Kind of an interesting little footnote of music history which still keeps chugging as a toy. Actual old-school couesnophones had a lot more notes, and original ones cost hundreds on eBay. If there are modern repros that have this many notes, I'm not yet aware of them:  A few applicable clips: - Bontempi sax playing "Through the Fire and Flames" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjAzCcc8NjQ - Bontempi clarinet used for some art music contest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWHryVYbmug - Bontempi trumpet, which has only four notes to it, but in harmonic sequence so you can play bugle calls and the like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPZ988YS600&t=69s - Pro musician playing an old counesnophone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0tFp2_H3R8#t=08m08s - this clip has clips of dozens of cool saxophone variants, worth watching TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Nov 3, 2012 |
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Nov 2, 2012 05:25
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Whoa, printing a flute... That is drat trippy. Eager to see how that works out once you finish. Any good clips of people playing their 3D-printed flutes? I finished printing it today. I'm not a very good flautist, I basically just dicked around with one back in high school band. I can get what sounds like a decent note with all finger holes open, but as soon as I cover the first one the sound instantly drops to just noisy air. Might be my playing, might be the materials (PLA plastic), might be the design. Haven't found any videos of similar flutes, just one of a full concert flute printed with a much fancier machine at MIT. Edit: After playing with it for a while, I attained *two* notes--I can also get sound with the first hole covered. Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Nov 2, 2012 |
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Nov 2, 2012 06:32
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Pham Nuwen posted:I finished printing it today. I'm not a very good flautist, I basically just dicked around with one back in high school band. I can get what sounds like a decent note with all finger holes open, but as soon as I cover the first one the sound instantly drops to just noisy air. Might be my playing, might be the materials (PLA plastic), might be the design. Flutes are tricky, having to get the embrochure right to really get anything out of them. But if you're getting basic sounds, that's probably a positive indication. Presumably somebody out there has gotten these printed ones to play. Along the previous sitar question, ran across a product that came out in the last year or so that looks interesting, and the clips have looked pretty decent:  Again, not "the real thing", but an interesting approach. Since I started looking at it, there's really an impressive number of products/designs out there to get some sitar-style sound into Western music without having to get a sitar. There are a ton of clips and reviews of this on YouTube, but here's just one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwYGK18k3zc It really doesn't sound great for chording (logically, since that's really not what's used in the style), and while it doesn't literally sound just like a sitar or anything, it does add an interesting drone/modal effect, though I'm still torn on whether the digital jawari is interesting or grating.
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Nov 3, 2012 22:13
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Welp went on a vacation and then this happened. It's a Hall crystal piccolo in D and I'm totally in love with it. You jerk. Why did you get me interested in these.
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Nov 4, 2012 01:51
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Oh, what a lovely baby.
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Nov 4, 2012 01:55
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Tap, have you ever seen/played a Kouxian? It looks blindingly cool.
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Nov 4, 2012 02:00
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Yesterday I was introduced to a nifty reed instrument: The Thai Mouth Organ  While it looks like a set of pan pipes, this instrument has a reed in each pipe, and is fingered while being blown into.  Video of it being played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jpqx4gR6p4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aflqfJFhcTc Sadly, I couldn't find anyone playing Bach on it, but this starts out with Beethoven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXtyGHXMzGw For the more video game minded of us, MORTAL COMBAT! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duYl-saFZiA and The Zelda Song of Storms to round things out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY6sfbf20GM
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Nov 6, 2012 00:44
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My husband is intrigued by an unknown-to-us stringed instrument we saw in a It's fretted and should have four strings. What is it?    I forgot how much it was. Probably too much for the state it's in.
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Nov 6, 2012 03:47
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Prof. Ann Mary Ann posted:My husband is intrigued by an unknown-to-us stringed instrument we saw in a About definitely far East Asian, that style of pegs and the raised frets are a dead giveaway. My gut wants to say Southeast Asian, so I checked the Atlas of Plucked Instruments for SE Asia: http://www.atlasofpluckedinstruments.com/se_asia.htm Based on that, a really likely guess is a Thai seung (also spelt sueng). There were several pics quite close to yours that I could snag, but here's one that's the same general idea:  The one you show looks in poor shape, and really ornamental, so I'd say worth whatever as a wallhanger, but not really as an instrument. Might even have been made as more a decorative piece for tourists originally anyway. The four strings are actually two courses of doubled-strings. Here's what one sounds like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF1YIPU9Ogc quote:Tap, have you ever seen/played a Kouxian? It looks blindingly cool. Literally the day you posted that, I was rooting around in my junk drawer for my E/A set of Swedish bagpipe reeds, and I kept turning up little zip baggies iwth kouxians in them. I bought an envelope full from Vietnam for a few bucks each last year. Also somewhere in my gear I have one of the multi-ones where they fan out and have different notes. It's basically a jawharp based on copper leaf. Pretty easy to play, but a lot more fragile than a wooden or steel 'harp since it's thin copper leaf. The ones I ordered come on a string to hang around your neck, but I found out quick they'll destroy themselves in a matter of hours snagging on clothes or hair, so best to store them in a matchbox or envelope when not in use.  The single ones, sold as Vietnamese dan moi are about :5bux: on eBay, and maybe  for the muliple fanned-out scale of them.- Demo of a whole variety of dan moi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCBM1zHLZHc - Serious Chinese artist playing a variety of jawbones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElJbIIvLcGE - A great clip of that Siberian lunatic, Nadishana, playing a 5-tongue kouxian, which he calls the "acoustic sythesiser": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qpm3OpgBOs As a technical explanation, jawharps, and their cousin the mouthbox, are found all over the planet, and work on pretty basic principles. The vibrating tongue produces basically one sound, which has a basic tone and all the composite "overtones" which are woven into the basic soundwave. By changing the shape of your mouth, you can amplify some overtones and soften others, so even though the vibrating tongue (or string, on a mouthbow) does the same thing constantly, the sound to the listener is greatly changed by your mouth reshaping to select the waves to emphasise. We covered mouthbows a ways back (the table of contents in OP should say where), but as a refresher, here's a mouthbow being played by Cannuck Buffy St. Marie on Sesame Street back in the 70s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXkM11kp_tg  quote:It's a Hall crystal piccolo in D and I'm totally in love with it. You jerk. Why did you get me interested in these. Good deal, are you finding the tinwhistle skills to cross over easily? Any words of wisdom for other amateur tinwhistlers unsure about making the jump to an embouchure? If you've wanted to play didgeridoo but aren't big on the breathing thing, or want something less hippie-associated, mouthbox can play a very similar role. - (will get to Thai mouth organ in a few days, and in the meantime if anyone lives in DC and wants one, let me know since I have a 4ft tall one taking up too much space in the corner)
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Nov 6, 2012 04:46
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Do you have any experience with hang drums? Or possibly even building a Hank drum out of a propane tank? The tones they produce are incredibly soothing. heres a link of what they sound like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpMS15kJyOY
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Nov 7, 2012 07:20
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:
I couldn't tell you--I've never touched a tinwhistle in my life. I did play clarinet for a very long time, though, and it's very different from that. It feels like I'm forcing a frown and trying to relax at the same time.
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Nov 8, 2012 03:29
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So the ocarina and tinwhistle (and recorder) always sound too 'shrill' when I hear them - even when they're being played by people who obviously know what they're doing, when they hit the high notes I can feel my spine twitching. I did stumble on 'low' whistles which are much easier to listen to and that I wouldn't mind playing around with, but the price difference is kind of shocking - is there that much extra work and/or material going into these or am I just in the wrong part of town (i.e. smalltown, Canada) for finding a good deal? (Side question which I hope is okay as it's not exactly a 'weird' instrument: I'm also thinking of going out and finding myself a second-hand keyboard to pick up piano, which I took lessons in when I was still in the single-digits. There seem to be a few different styles with different numbers of keys available - how many keys should I be looking for, minimum? I'm not looking to play classical or anything ridiculously impressive - I think the most adventurous I ever got when I played before was the first part of Fur Elise and the rest was christmas songs, some contemporary pop and some folk music.) Edit: I should note that I did find this when looking around for a low d whistle but as the next 'cheapest' I could find - anywhere I looked - is about $70 more and used, I suspect that's for a reason, yes? Addy fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Nov 8, 2012 |
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Nov 8, 2012 07:07
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You know what really cuts into your string practice time? Slashing your right index fingertip with a seam ripper. Grrr. Only a couple more days, I hope.
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Nov 8, 2012 19:05
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Arsenic Lupin posted:You know what really cuts into your string practice time? Slashing your right index fingertip with a seam ripper. Grrr. Only a couple more days, I hope. Oh dude, I feel you there. I managed to get a pretty nasty burn on my thumb and couldn't practice for ages while it healed. Addy posted:So the ocarina and tinwhistle (and recorder) always sound too 'shrill' when I hear them - even when they're being played by people who obviously know what they're doing, when they hit the high notes I can feel my spine twitching. I did stumble on 'low' whistles which are much easier to listen to and that I wouldn't mind playing around with, but the price difference is kind of shocking - is there that much extra work and/or material going into these or am I just in the wrong part of town (i.e. smalltown, Canada) for finding a good deal? I know the low D flutes, which usually are around the sameish range, all run around $60-$70 for me for a good quality one. I don't really know much about them or cheaper options, though, because I've kind of been eyeing them from afar. The piccolo I just posted was an impulse buy because the music store I was in had it.
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Nov 9, 2012 04:10
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Addy posted:So the ocarina and tinwhistle (and recorder) always sound too 'shrill' when I hear them -... Coupla ways to go about this: - Easiest/cheapest, see if a Bb tin whistle still bothers you. D whistles are the most common, and though the Bb is only 1.5 steps below the D, it overall has less shriek too it. Same way the G tinwhistle is only 2.5 steps above D but sounds like a banshee. Bb is as low as cheap (~$10) whistles go, anything below that (Low A, G, F, Eb, and the popular Low D) is going to cost at least $50. Here's a Bb Generation playing, including in its high second octave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFiG8bxK1mQ Any better or still too shrill? - As you note, Low Ds aren't particularly cheap; I bought a good Kerry used on Chiff & Fipple and it was $75 shipped. Slightly a matter of material/size, but more that they're a very small market and only made by the smaller shops, not turned out by the thousands each month. - Getting away from whistles, recorders come in several sizes, and used tenors and inexpensive basses aren't bad at all. There are some used basses, and some generics of decent quality, just under $100, and tenors lower still even in decent makes. Check eBay, and use the "used" radiobox to narrow down as needed. Here's a little Bach on the bass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivaa9oOSkLs A girl doing self-duet on a tenor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekMqB1Oga80 Those are a few ways to get a <$100 mouthblown instrument in the folk or classical category. quote:I'm also thinking of going out and finding myself a second-hand keyboard to pick up piano, Totally fine to ask here, but probably the easiest place on SA is the NMD:ML PIANO MEGATHREAD: How to start out. As you may have noticed, there are a lot of variables in choosing keyboards, so the goons there should have some good points on weighted keys, range, brands, etc. If you end up finding something cool in that thread, definitely post back in this thread and let us know how it worked out!
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Nov 11, 2012 00:35
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Wow, that Bb whistle is actually surprisingly better. The high notes are still a little high but they don't bother my ears like the higher ones do. I had looked at recorders but... well I'm kind of confused by recorders. They sound *really* similar to whistles when I've compared videos, and yet there's something about them I don't like. I haven't heard a song played on recorder that actually caught my attention and made me want to learn to play it, whereas even the D whistle recordings that have been linked here, along with the ones I've found on my own for low whistles, made me want to pick one up and learn. As for the keyboard advice, thanks! Just reading through some of it gave me enough tips on what to look for.
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Nov 11, 2012 10:13
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Addy posted:Wow, that Bb whistle is actually surprisingly better. The high notes are still a little high but they don't bother my ears like the higher ones do. I had looked at recorders but... well I'm kind of confused by recorders. They sound *really* similar to whistles when I've compared videos, and yet there's something about them I don't like. I haven't heard a song played on recorder that actually caught my attention and made me want to learn to play it, whereas even the D whistle recordings... If Bb whistle is tolerable, spend the $10 and get one, try it out. The only issue you'll have is you'll be slightly lower than all the training materials, but all the fingerings work the same. If you like it, and hand-size isn't an issue, you could later look at getting a Low A (only a half-step lower but much better keys for Irish) or a Low D whistle. Or whatever sub-D keys work for the style of music you like. Glad to see you're finding good gouge in the NMD:ML piano thread! For the above posts of hand-damage slowing music practise: for four months now I haven't done string fingerpicking because I crushed a finger and lost the fingernail moving furniture. And then today I was out playing Gaelic football in front of the White House, made a bad catch and sprained my thumb, so no strings at all for a few days. Concertina should still be fine though. EDIT: people keep trying to shake my hand, so I have to keep fist-bumping with my left. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Nov 12, 2012 |
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Nov 12, 2012 00:04
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Yo TTFA, I'ma let you finish, but I just wanted to say your PM box is full and I'd like to know more about this Thai mouth organ. Hit me up. Also bummer on the injury. Hand injuries are the worst.
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Nov 12, 2012 03:04
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Paramemetic posted:Yo TTFA, I'ma let you finish, but I just wanted to say your PM box is full and I'd like to know more about this Thai mouth organ. Hit me up. I'll clear out some PM space, but aren't you the one one in Alaska? There is no drat way I'm shipping a 5ft tall instrument to Alaska. And believe you me, I've shipped some weird poo poo in my day. I really want to sell this Thai thing locally in the DC area. But I'll work up a post about them in general. Yeah, hand injuries suck, but the two main Irish sports (Gaelic football and hurling) have some hand risk. So it's either that, or be a douchebag DCite and play bocce or kickball. EDIT2: dude, I didn't mean ricky-tick right now, will free up PM space once I get home. Getting my drink on in Chinatown at the moment, and its too clumsy trying to fix SA on my phone with a busted thumb. EDIT3: Okay, space cleared in Inbox. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 06:24 on Nov 12, 2012 |
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Nov 12, 2012 03:20
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:I'll clear out some PM space, but aren't you the one one in Alaska? There is no drat way I'm shipping a 5ft tall instrument to Alaska. And believe you me, I've shipped some weird poo poo in my day. I really want to sell thIs Thai thing locally in the DC area. But I'll work up a post about them in general. Naw man, I'm in your neck of the woods. PM inbound shortly.
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Nov 12, 2012 03:27
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:For the above posts of hand-damage slowing music practise: for four months now I haven't done string fingerpicking because I crushed a finger and lost the fingernail moving furniture. And then today I was out playing Gaelic football in front of the White House, made a bad catch and sprained my thumb, so no strings at all for a few days. Concertina should still be fine though. drat, that sucks. Get better soon.
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Nov 12, 2012 18:37
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Feel like I should post to say I did end up buying a (small) Cimbalom, its loving fantastic. I've been meaning to write an effort post about it for a while, but I've not got access to a camera and it needs pictures really. I will get hold of a camera at some point soon though. So chalk me up as another victim/success of this thread.
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Nov 12, 2012 19:51
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@ Addy Walked past my dresser this morning, idly picked up a Native American flute and messed with it a second. Then I realized, depending on what you want to do wind-wise, that might also meet your needs. Mellow and not at all shrieky, commonly pitched in Low A, and there are some really solid ones around the $50 range. I have a link in the main NAF post recommending the best wooden flute guy for $50ish, and for plastic Sounds We Make has a pretty decent albeit primitive plastic one for $25ish, and for around $50 Northern Spirit makes a really nice ABS plastic NAF that looks a bit more traditional, comfier mouthpiece, etc.  Check out some NAF clips, and see how those jump out at you. Blue Screen Error posted:Feel like I should post to say I did end up buying a (small) Cimbalom, its loving fantastic. Outstanding, glad to hear you found a workable method. Are you using this to play Hungarian or Romani music, or do you have some other concept in mind? TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Nov 14, 2012 |
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Nov 14, 2012 02:27
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Outstanding, glad to hear you found a workable method. Are you using this to play Hungarian or Romani music, or do you have some other concept in mind? In the long run I'll be mostly composing my own stuff on it, but at the moment I'm learning from a Hungarian method book, so the vast majority of it is by Hungarian composers. I'd like to give some more folky Romani stuff a whirl but generally I'm finding learning materials for Cimbalom pretty hard to come by.
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Nov 14, 2012 13:46
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I've always wanted to learn the xylophone (or a similar instrument, like marimba or glockenspiel), and I suppose I want to ask a beginner's question about picking out an instrument. (Background: This would be a purchase for me to play covers of pop/Disney songs on my own, maybe with friends for fun. I want to get a decent instrument, but I doubt I have the background or ear to get really annoyed if it isn't a professional-level instrument. I've played around with guitar, soprano ukelele, and keyboard, but I haven't really had any instruction in playing any kind of instrument besides guitar) Right now I just feel overwhelmed in my research about xylophones (or similar instruments) because as you've probably gleaned from my background, I don't know very much about music theory at all, and I notice the websites tend to classify these instruments as chromatic, diatonic, by what type of key they're in, etc. I want something that sounds cheerful, happy, sort of like the xylophone fish in The Little Mermaid's "Under the Sea" (I can't believe I actually typed that, but it sums up what I want). I suppose it's a sound not unlike my soprano ukelele! Maybe that means I should pick out an instrument with "soprano" in the name, but at the same time, I would like to try something that sounds a bit different than my uke. I'm guessing I would want to spend some more money on getting something with a chromatic range so I won't be limited. Aside from the fact that this is obviously a beginner's instrument, does there seem to be anything completely un-playable with this $40 instrument I found on Amazon? http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Beat-25...ds=glockenspiel legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Nov 14, 2012 |
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Nov 14, 2012 20:11
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I tuned my sitar up a half step to D and its a lot easier to find tunings that work better with western songs. I've noticed that fiddle parts in country and western tunes adapt well in some cases. I'm trying to figure out some Garth Brooks songs and its a lot of fun and a nice change of pace from classical gats.  Trying to match the right phrasing with the proper ornaments ought to give me something to practice and explore with too. Country and Eastern.
Yiggy fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Nov 16, 2012 |
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Nov 16, 2012 06:34
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legsarerequired posted:I've always wanted to learn the xylophone (or a similar instrument, like marimba or glockenspiel), and I suppose I want to ask a beginner's question about picking out an instrument. ...play covers of pop/Disney songs on my own, maybe with friends for fun. Great question, and you phrased it really well with lots of clear details as to your intent.  I took a few days to poke around at tuned-percussion info, and things look promising. Your instincts were good, you positively want a chromatic instrument, which has two rows of bars, with the less-populated bar being the equivalent of the black keys on a piano, so the notes other than Key of C. For range, there are a lot of smaller diatonic instruments, and a few variants of small chromatics (18 key and such), but in your case I'd hold out for at least a 25 if not a 32 key to give you a nice amount of range to play with. Of the tuned-percussion instruments, I would suggest you start on glockenspiel since they're the most affordable/available, and there are a zillion of good used ones out there since they're so commonly used in school bands. I checked your Amazon link, and though that seems a decent option, if you're willing to take a little risk buying used, there are a ton of name-brand instruments on eBay for even less money, and some with bonus gear like extra mallets, cases, stands, etc. I went to eBay, searched "(xylophone, glockenspiel)" to get hits for either, narrowed the search to Percussion (refining menu is in the left margin of the screen) and then check the little box for Used only. When I checked today there were easily a score or more of 25-32 key chromatic glockenspiels by good brand names under the $50 area. I would go peruse those for a bit, get a feel for what's out there, and buy from a seller with a good rep who appears to have properly checked out the instrument. Outside of obvious damage, I can't imagine much can go wrong on a glockenspiel other than the rubbery-bits under the bar getting old, and I'm not even sure all gockenspiels use those, and in whatever case that's a pretty simple maintenance issue and something you're not even likely to notice until you get used to playing it.  I'd start out on a set you can put on the floor/table or on a glockenspiel stand (also easy to find used on eBay, but keep an eye out for whether your stand has to match your brand name or if they're generic or whatever). But later on once you have the basics down it might be fun to pick up a lyre/lyra glockenspiel for $30 used on eBay for playing outside, on stage, etc. I could see that working great with a hipster act:  Okay, so that's how to get the gear. So far as playing it, you are going to want to learn how to read music. That way you'll be able to get just normal piano scores and read them to know what to play. Since you have two mallets and not 10 fingers, you'll need to use piano sheet music as a rough guideline and pick-and-choose which notes are most key, but it's kind of like using a recipe and making an approximation. There is some sheet music out there intended for glockenspiel, but generally that's for the glockenspiel part in a larger orchestral work, so not what you want to learn for solo play. I ran across a few books that aren't expensive and might be interesting: Rubank Elementary Method - Marimba or Xylophone is an old-school 1950s classic, and has some basics on how to do scales and arpeggios, plus it's only $5. The song selection is a bit dated, but you can use YouTube to find any of those songs to hear so you know what you're trying to play. Sometimes old-school learning is the way to go. There's also Goldenberg's Modern School: Xylophone, Marimba, Vibraphone (Morris Goldenberg Classics). The Amazon review say it's an outstanding book, but it assumes a basic knowledge of scales and the like, so maybe best to get both books and start with the Rubank one.  Alternately/supplementarily, you can just use any absolute-basic piano materials to learn the fundamentals of theory. Just bear in mind you only have two "fingers" to play your keys, but just reading a whole bunch of introductory piano stuff online would give you a much better grasp of intro theory than anything else. So overall I'd suggest maybe the $5 book and the $12 book to use a little later, read up on basic piano, and also watch any xylophone/marimba/glockenspiel tutorials on YouTube, not for the theory but to see how they physically move and hold the mallets. Does that give you some idea of where to start on this? And if you find a few good used instruments on eBay that appeal to you, feel free to post here and we can help reckon which might be the best bang for the buck. For everyone else, enjoy some tuned percussion clips: - Harry Potter theme on glockenspiel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XgdKTfy1Pw - Coldplay on a huge wooden marimba: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2ZsUrv0mcU - "King of the Vibes" Lionel Hampton, one of the heroes of early jazz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_rTICMVXQQ
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Nov 17, 2012 17:05
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Yiggy posted:I tuned my sitar up a half step to D and its a lot easier to find tunings that work better with western songs. I've noticed that fiddle parts in country and western tunes adapt well in some cases. I'm trying to figure out some Garth Brooks songs and its a lot of fun and a nice change of pace from classical gats. Your talk of sitars reminded me of something downright cool I heard recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOrDneiOJDM&t=101s Jinja Safari cover R Kelly's Ignition, with complimentary sitar
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Nov 18, 2012 12:58
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atxweirdo posted:Do you have any experience with hang drums? Or possibly even building a Hank drum out of a propane tank? The tones they produce are incredibly soothing. heres a link of what they sound like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpMS15kJyOY Catching up to your question: there are quite a wide variety of folks who’ve been making propane tank hand drums for personal or commercial use, particularly given the success of the (expensive) Hang drum from Switzerland. There are a number of folks making fancy metal hand-drums from as low as $375 (the HAPI drum discussed earlier in the thread) up into the several thousands. I hadn’t been tracking this specific Havlena project, but I’m familiar with his work, and corresponded with him probably as far back as 1996 or so, which I now realize is probably before some people reading this thread were born.  In any case, his plan is here ([link) and looks reasonably straightforward with some pretty basic tools and proper attention. A brand new empty propane tank (apparently it is an extremely bad idea to cut up a used one no matter how sure you are that it’s empty now). If you have absolutely no tools, the hand tools used to make it would run about $30, assuming you have a friend who can loan you a power drill so you don’t need to buy one of those. Dennis claims its pretty easy to make if you pay attention, but does note that a lot of people on YouTube seem to blow off the tuning step, which is not at all hard, especially with modern electronic tuners on your phone for a few bucks. If you are vaguely handy, and/or have friends who are and have most of the basic tools, I’d imagine you could knock one of these out for around $50 and a 4 or 5 quiet evenings, or maybe just over a slow weekend. If you have more money than time, or are more focused on just having a working instrument than the experience of building, give HAPI a look. I like too that they have a variety of tunings available, and a neat online tone drum simulator. If there are any cheaper commercial metal hand drums, let me know so we can include them in the thread.
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Nov 19, 2012 03:50
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Great question, and you phrased it really well with lots of clear details as to your intent. This was very great, well-written advice! I really appreciated it. It looks like there are a ton of resources online for building wooden percussion instruments from scratch, but I felt that I would be better off just buying a used xylophone/marimba/lyra type thing. I was very tempted by this 15-note rainbow xylophone, since I like the sound of wooden bars and I also think that having different-colored bars could help me learn the notes. I was willing to accept that it would just be a lower-end instrument, but I eventually decided not to buy it because I couldn't find a video review of this instrument anywhere online--however, I did find a 2-minute youtube video that was just a still photo of this particular xylophone, with guitar playing in the background for some reason?... I feel like I've seen this happen with other musical instrument video reviews, and I don't understand it all. I get that it's more difficult to upload a video than write "This sounds AWFUL" in a review, but as an inexperienced amateur, I want to get an idea of how bad something is--is it something I wouldn't really notice about while learning and deciding whether or not I should save up for a better instrument, or is this thing just truly atrocious? I ended up following your advice and buying a used 27-note glockenspiel off ebay. I also got myself in a bidding war for a really cute bell lyra. I'm pretty excited! legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Nov 19, 2012 |
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Nov 19, 2012 04:50
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