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Just wanted to chime in and say that I, too, caved in and bought a gaudy green Feadog. One week later and I'm playing Puff the Magic Dragon for all my neighbors whether they like it or not! Thanks for the awesome thread. On a related note, any experience with the Keytar? I'm a very mediocre keyboard player, and lately I've been wondering if my limited skills would carry over at all (and, of course, if one can be purchased at a reasonable price). Because keytars are flipping awesome.
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Sep 2, 2011 02:17
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Metamucil posted:On a related note, any experience with the Keytar? I'm a very mediocre keyboard player, and lately I've been wondering if my limited skills would carry over at all (and, of course, if one can be purchased at a reasonable price). Because keytars are flipping awesome. Yeah, it's not really much different than playing a piano. You can even reach your left arm inside the strap and play the keys two-handed. Not cheap, though; I got mine used (and in awful condition) for a hundred bucks. They are often only midi controllers, too, so you might need some sort of synth to plug it into to actually generate sounds.
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Sep 2, 2011 02:28
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jeeves posted:Thanks for the info, most of which I knew from my own research-- however it is also nice to know it is pretty easy to play. The technique is tricky, but the playing pretty straightforward. What I would suggest (in the abstract) for anyone learning saw is to focus first and foremost on just getting one good, smooth-sounding note. Once you get that down, I'd focus on reliably being able to go from one note to another: since there are no clearly fixed intervals on the saw, you have to develop an ear for what it sounds like to go from, say, an A to a D (one 4th). Not that you necessarily need to know the music theory, you just have to get an ear for intervals. One great way to learn intervals (and this goes for learning any instrument, but particularly "continuous pitch" instruments where the instrument's scale isn't clearly demarcated into fixed pitches), is to read any of the lists of intervals for the first two notes of songs. This is called "interval recognition" in ear training, and one popular and easy way to learn the intervals is to recognise the differences between the first two notes of popular songs. Wikipedia has a great list of intervals by popular song. It's well worth a read for anyone playing any instrument. I don't do enough mucking with electronic music apps, but if you or a friend are familiar, it could be great practice to set up a track where it's just several measures of, say, A and then several of D going back and forth, that way you can slowly hold a note, transition to another note, and then back. Later, you can practice playing along with recordings, but rather than try right away to do fast melodic work, you're better off picking songs with only a few chord changes and just playing the keynote of that chord for a measure or two, transition to the next keynote, etc. If the above sounds overly complicated, it's not, I'm just using slightly technical vocab, but if anyone wants a more layman breakdown of any point above I can clarify. quote:I'm completely horrible with having patience to practice musical instruments, so I want to try to pick up something easier (and cheaper) and see if I can actually follow through with learning it before I drop a few hundred on something like an accordion. Saw is cool, but there is going to be some steepness with the initial learning curve, and as noted above you'll have to do some self ear-training on intervals. Not at all to dissuade you from saw, but if you're looking for an inexpensive/easy starter instrument to later transition to something else (like accordion), tinwhistle has been very popular in this thread, and is overall one of the least-expensive instruments, and a good jumping off instrument. The pitches are clearly tied to the fingering, so less of the nuanced ear work, and there's plenty of instructional materials online. Out of curiosity, were you just throwing accordion out as an example, or are you considering that instrument down the road? What kind of music are you looking to play eventually? As usual, I do recommend anyone that "vaguely wants to play an accordion" to also consider the concertina. A bit mellower, more compact, and a more distinctive playing style that's not any harder to learn (arguably easier on some levels). 
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Sep 3, 2011 17:43
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Yesterday, I stumbled upon an instrument that has left me entranced and wanting to make one myself. I'm talking about the sape (or sapeh) The sape is a traditional, though probably much younger than one might think, instrument from Borneo. It's a plucked instrument, made from a single piece of wood that has been hollowed out and decorated. Since it looks like a boat when turned upside down, it's also (according to Wikipedia at least) called a boat lute. In the olden days it was used primarily in rituals, but as it more and more came to be used for dances, it went from two to four strings and gained more frets so more complex music could be performed on it. In fact, it continues to develop as an instrument, and it didn't take long for people to experiment with electric ones. Sadly enough, the popularity that the sape gained a couple of decades ago has largely disappeared from what I've read, so it's question as to whether it'll follow other instruments from that region into obscurity.  So what makes this instrument special, apart from the trippy shapes and decorations? Well, in a sense, you play it as a monochord. Only one of the strings actually carry the melody and has a sizable number of frets. The others are just drone strings. The effect this has on the play style is interesting. Many tunes I've heard are also some of the most mellow and happy go lucky I've heard in a while. You really feel like dancing to these tunes. Music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRpvOXqqhhA&feature=related - A busker with some ballin' tats playing a short tune. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZZKyCvc7iQ&NR=1 - A longer piece. Also, nice hats (poor quality) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKzxCBrXcQY&feature=related - Badass grampa bringing out the electric. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np2Cpz4DvzE&feature=player_embedded - A nice tutorial on how to play http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIyTgx98LyY&feature=related - Another electric piece (audio only) Longhouse fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Apr 1, 2012 |
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Sep 4, 2011 12:51
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TTFA, do you have any offers on helping goons find good used accordions/concertinas? I'm not exactly on what makers/brands I should be looking for or what are reliable ones. Most of the ones I've seen in Australia that I recognise are really expensive, and are brand new
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Sep 6, 2011 10:47
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Longhouse posted:Yesterday, I stumbled upon an instrument that has left me entranced and wanting to make one myself. I'm talking about the sape (or sapeh) That is cool indeed; I'd seen pics of them on Wikipedia and whatnot, but never heard them played before. They are uncannily like the Appalachian dulcimer, with the set of melody strings, and the other strings as drones. There are even older dulcimers that have just that kind of "partial fretting" where the frets don't go all the way across.  (this is a Pennsylvania German zither called a scheitholt and June Apple makes this model for $175) If you're going to make one, which will be awesome, I'd suggest you get onto one of the luthiery forums for acoustic instruments, ideally one that does the various weird folk instruments. If you can't get any plans, you can probably improvise most of it from pics, but then the only question would be how to set up the frets. A good luthiery forum should be able to set you up with some fret calculator where you can figure out "for X mm scale length, fret #1 should be Y mm down, fret #2 Z mm down..." etc. If nothing else, you could get the proportions for dulcimer fretting and use those, if you're not dead set on having the specific Southeast Asian scales. quote:TTFA, do you have any offers on helping goons find good used accordions/concertinas? I'm not exactly on what makers/brands I should be looking for or what are reliable ones. Most of the ones I've seen in Australia that I recognise are really expensive, and are brand new Big question: what kind of accordion are you looking for? If a piano accordion, I really can't help you there, and would mainly suggest you ask on whatever forums there are for Australian musicians to see if anyone has any leads. On the positive side, there are a lot of used piano accordions out there, and they're not terribly in style, so with a little asking around, and checking online to make sure a given brand is decent, you should be able to rustle up something. Piano accordions are also (generally) a bit more commonly chose by generalists/keyboardists, so it's not as rare to find a player/owner, whereas people go out of their way to learn button or concertina. If button accordion, the main brand to watch for in the affordable range is Hohner. Big thing is with button accordion, you really want to get a type specifically in the right type/key for the kind of music you play, so let us know what that is. If it's something that's in the Brit/Irish tradition, you shouldn't have undue trouble finding something, and also buying from the US might not be unduly terrible since there are a lot of good used Hohner button accordion deals here, ranging from $250 (Hohner 1-row) to $400 (Hohner 3-row). The forum Melodeon.net should have some Ozzies there too who can give advice on button accordions.  (Australian digger playing accordion in a Japanese POW camp in Jakarta during WWII) If concertina, about the only decent affordable modern concertinas are Stagi and Concertina Connection. There are probably used Stagis in Australia, and for CCs either they might have a distributor there, or you can get it shipped from the US and given the small size/weight it shouldn't be terrible. I prefer CCs anyway for bang for the buck, but I wouldn't turn down a good deal on a used Stagi if you find one in-country of the appropriate type. Give us some kind of idea of whether you're thinking piano accordion, button accordion, concertina, or other (Chemnitzer, CBA, bandoneon, etc). If you're not sure what type, just let us know what kind of music/playing you want to use it for and we can sort that out. EDIT2: If you want to browse in person, here's a list of major accordion retailers in Australia. Still tell us what kind of music you're aiming for though. EDIT3: Huh. Appears three out of five Hohner Ericas on eBay at the moment are in Australia. Weird. EDIT: Do we have any goons who play chromatic harmonica? Those are a totally different creature from diatonic harmonica, so worth covering in their own post if we have any players.  Can you play Bach on it? Evidently, yes. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Sep 7, 2011 |
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Sep 7, 2011 03:39
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The thing is, it's going to be a gift for my brother's wedding/birthday (happening around the same time, he's mentioned a few times how he'd like a piano accordion), so it's difficult to tell exactly what music he wants to play with it, I know his love for it was really borne out of listening to Beirut, and other european music, particularly eastern european (he came back from Russia with a balalaika in tow), but his musical background is in jazz. And now he's married an Irish girl, so I guess there are a lot of musical styles he could try. With that in mind, I was thinking concertina, for price reasons and versatility, if such a thing exists with these instruments. Plus shipping from the US isn't a huge deal, it will still probably work out cheaper with the ridiculous markup on instruments in Australia
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Sep 7, 2011 09:45
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If anyone was on the fence about uilleann pipes, see if this doesn't change your mind: The Downfall of Paris withak fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Sep 7, 2011 |
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Sep 7, 2011 15:13
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:EDIT: Do we have any goons who play chromatic harmonica? Those are a totally different creature from diatonic harmonica, so worth covering in their own post if we have any players. I don't play, but after glancing at the wikipedia page I'd love to hear more from someone who does!
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Sep 7, 2011 17:22
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 I start sanshin lessons today. They run until just before we leave the island. I'm pretty excited since it's one of the things I've wanted to do for the whole of three years (they just started offering lessons). And now I have an excuse to buy one prior to leaving.
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Sep 7, 2011 20:58
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I want to learn a strange instrument, but they're so expensive. If my budget is say, 250, what strange things could I learn to play? That's more money than I have, I'm just wondering.
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Sep 8, 2011 03:58
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WAFFLEHOUND posted:I want to learn a strange instrument, but they're so expensive. If my budget is say, 250, what strange things could I learn to play? Other than your ocarina? Out of my woefully far behind table of contents from page 1, which covers only half of this thread, the bolded ones can be had under $250, the bolded and underlined under $100: Pg 1: Ocarina, tinwhistle, kantele, dulcimer, sitar, concert zither, melodica, glass harmonica, ruler, mandolin, Irish bagpipes, shamisen, necked dulcimers, mandora/bouzouki, cuatro Pg 2: Swedish bagpipes, tiple/tres, didjeridoo, autoharp, ocarina, steel-pan drum, mountain dulcimer, double flute, bowed psaltery, alpenhorn, dungchen, hosaphone, serpent, theremin, accordions/concertinas/bandoneones/chemnitzers, Hardanger fiddle, hurdy-gurdy, erhu Pg 3: cardboard dulcimer, Celtic harp, mbira/kalimba/thumb-piano, bowed lyres (crwth, jouhikko), serpent, Native American flute, crummhorn/kelhorn, oud, nyckelharpa, toy accordion Pg 4: autoharp, balalaika, udu, Native American flute, euphonium/sousaphone, harmonia, kantele, berimbau, resonator/slide/Hawaiian guitar, Irish flute, band-flute, low whistle, jug, Hang drum, hurdy-gurdy, electric kazoo, stick dulcimer Pg 5: Appalachian dulcimer, bodhran, bones, banjola, NAF, kalimba, Hapi drum, French/tango accordions/concertinas, ukulele, autoharp, dilruba, mandolin, bowed psaltery Pg 6: fife, berimbau, dulcimer, kantele, harmonium, toy accordion
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Sep 8, 2011 04:33
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screaden posted:The thing is, it's going to be a gift for my brother's wedding/birthday (happening around the same time, he's mentioned a few times how he'd like a piano accordion), so it's difficult to tell exactly what music he wants to play with it, I know his love for it was really borne out of listening to Beirut, and other european music, particularly eastern european (he came back from Russia with a balalaika in tow), but his musical background is in jazz. And now he's married an Irish girl, so I guess there are a lot of musical styles he could try. Okay, did some puzzling on this, and you have a few different options: Piano accordion:  This would be the safest, but least edgy, option. Beirut uses one, you can play Eastern European music on one just fine, same with jazz. You should be able to get a decent small used one on eBay under $300, maybe well under. I don't have much advice on how to pick a good used piano accordion, which brands are good, etc., but you could ask on a specific accordion forum (or a general musician forum that has some accordion traffic). Also, you could buy used from a reputable accordion dealer in the US who will ship to you, which might cost a little more but eliminate a lot of the risk. The downsides of piano accordion are that even the small ones are rather heavy, and also since they're basically a piano keyboard they don't add as much distinct flavour (arguably) as instruments with more limitations which direct them to more distinct styles. There is also the Russian bayan, which though it has buttons behaves somewhat like a piano accordion with a different keyboard layout; similarly quite heavy, but a bit quirkier in layout and appearance. A bit harder to shop around for, though there's at least one seller in the Ukraine on eBay with high feedback who sells refurb bayans for $400ish.  Okay, so that's one general option. Next: Button accordions:  These are the kind where you get a different note on the push/pull, overall kind of like harmonicas with bellows. Most of these are limited to certain keys, but if you get a 2-row where the rows are staggered only one step apart (like a B/C or a C/C#), those call play all the notes in the scale since the two rows are perfectly offset to cover each others' gaps. At the moment there are two Hohner Ericas in C/C# on eBay, one of them in Australia. BC, DD#, etc. tend to get snapped up quick by Irish players, but C/C# is a nice option in terms of not being specific to most English-speaking traditions, but flexible enough to cover generally anything. Will take a bit more mental wrap-around to learn than a piano-based accordion, but once one gets a feel for it it's a very intuitive system, and the limitations it has are what shape its sound. Generally speaking, a used Hohner Erica would be your best bet, and it's likely you can find one under $400 in a month or two of looking. They tend to be in keys a 4th apart (D/G, C/F, etc) which would be less versatile, but C/C# or similar could cover the full scale. These also weigh about half as much as even a small piano accordion. Concertina:  Generally speaking, the best way to get one these days is to get a new one from Concertina Connection. They run around US$375 or so. There are three utterly different keyboard layouts: Anglo, English, and Hayden. I play Hayden, and it's a great system, but the CC one is small and doesn't have all the in-between notes you'd need for jazz and the like, so a great box for American/Anglo/Celtic folk and other Western European styles, not so much for Eastern European or jazz. The CC Anglo in C/G has a C row, a G row, and a third row for all the in-between notes, so can cover a complete scale. It's not an instrument specifically designed with jazz in mind, but it can do a full scale by going onto the third row to get out of C and G. Honestly Irish players use C/Gs though they play in A and D far more, but they just plan on using the third row to get that C#. This applies to a 30-key Anglo, a 20 has no in-between notes. The CC English is a 30-button English, so smaller than the common 48-key, but with those 30 it can still do 2.5 octaves with a complete scale. English concertinas are particularly suited to fast melody work. They can also chord, and do all the complex E5sus9 weird chords that would be most tricky to do on a buttonbox or Anglo, but English aren't great for doing chords and melody at the same time, so that's the compromise of the style. I don't know your musical background, so if I've thrown out way too much technical talk at you, let me know. Long/short, any of the above options would be cool. Piano accordion would be safest, but also less of a challenge and less unusual (if he's into challenge and unusual in his instruments). All of the above you can come in around $400ish, maybe less, coming from the US to Australia (though I don't know how y'all's import fees work). Does this have to be a tip-top-secret purchase, or are you able to just ask him which kind of squeezebox he'd like? TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Sep 9, 2011 |
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Sep 9, 2011 03:42
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Holy crap, that was waaaay more information than expected, however it was incredibly useful. It doesn't need to be a super secret purchase, but I would prefer it that way. After reading what you've said though, I think the Bayan might be the best option now, his musical background is one that he would be easily to pick anything up and adapt his knowledge to whatever he wants (he has been playing for about 25 years now) and it also fits well within my price range. Either way, I've got a very good starting point to have a thorough search. On a somewhat related note, I'd like to give a big thanks to TTFA for this thread, he puts an incredible amount of work and research into his responses, just for the sheer love of music, and for me, I've uncovered a lot of new music through this thread, and even though I have enough new exotic instruments to learn myself (balalaika, mandolin and charango), I check this thread every day to learn something new
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Sep 9, 2011 13:02
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So, instead of going with the bandoneon this summer, I decided to be boring and buy an instrument that would actually serve me well in school/gigs this semester: The bando is still a future purchase, just not this summer, I guess. I hope an EUB counts as a weird instrument  Thanks to everyone who gave me fantastic information, if anything this thread has made me more excited about exotic instruments.
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Sep 9, 2011 19:29
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:That is cool indeed; I'd seen pics of them on Wikipedia and whatnot, but never heard them played before. They are uncannily like the Appalachian dulcimer, with the set of melody strings, and the other strings as drones. There are even older dulcimers that have just that kind of "partial fretting" where the frets don't go all the way across. And thanks for the advice. I don't know when I'll start this project, since I'll have to find everything I need for the kankara sanshin first. Also, it was ages since I did woodworking, but luckily, my sister is a professional violin maker, so I'll likely get some advice from her as well Interesting thing about those frets, though: I tried to look up what scales they actually use and whatnot, and I found out that the frets are movable. Apparently they use some kind of gum, so they aren't glued on very hard.
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Sep 9, 2011 22:41
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screaden posted:Holy crap, that was waaaay more information than expected, however it was incredibly useful. It doesn't need to be a super secret purchase, but I would prefer it that way. After reading what you've said though, I think the Bayan might be the best option now, his musical background is one that he would be easily to pick anything up and adapt his knowledge to whatever he wants (he has been playing for about 25 years now) and it also fits well within my price range. Either way, I've got a very good starting point to have a thorough search. No worries, glad to help. At this stage, what I'd recommend you do is go to the squeezebox experts at Melodeon.net. Technically they cover diatonics, but they have an "Other" section that gets plenty of traffic. I'd recommend starting a thread like "Where to get an affordable bayan or CBA?" CBA being "chromatic button accordion", pretty much like a bayan but played in Germany/France/Scandinavia. If you're not specifically doing one particular tradition, your brother would be about equally served by either, depending on what good deals you find. Just explain to them briefly you're brother's situation, your timeline and price-range, Australia, etc. and see what advice comes up. Finland loves CBAs, even in metal:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quSs_Ef4L94&feature=related Whatever you do, don't buy something unless you know what you're buying. There are various shite brands out there, so get the good info before buying. EDIT: If anyone is looking for an English system concertina, there's a CC box for $279 on eBay, which is about $100 less than retail: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jack-English-Concertina-/150660602660?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2314125b24 TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Sep 11, 2011 |
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Sep 9, 2011 23:48
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TTFA, I read this thread and want more money to buy instruments. I will give in one day! Until then, I'll keep dreaming. Honestly I'd kill to get a Taiko but they're holy gently caress expensive. They're such physical instruments.
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Sep 10, 2011 02:54
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WAFFLEHOUND posted:TTFA, I read this thread and want more money to buy instruments. I will give in one day! Until then, I'll keep dreaming. Honestly I'd kill to get a Taiko but they're holy gently caress expensive. They're such physical instruments. If you're looking for a good booming drum that you can play with (padded) stick, the 22" version of Remo's "buffalo drum" (a good overall stand-in for many Nativa American drums or Scandivanian-North Asian shaman drums) puts out a lot of sound for $55 and is a lot more portable-storable than a taiko, as well as near-zero maintenance with its synthetic head. Just get two mallets for it to do more complex beats. Or you can get any large frame-drum. Schlagwerks are more expensive, but here's what a 24" frame-drum sounds like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhSKlIqPKAY . Though, in terms of quality, synthetic, and buck per inch, $55 for a 22" Remo is a pretty impressive price-point. Remo makes a 40" table-drum, but it's like $500.  quote:I start sanshin lessons today. They run until just before we leave the island. I'm pretty excited since it's one of the things I've wanted to do for the whole of three years (they just started offering lessons). And now I have an excuse to buy one prior to leaving.  EDIT: For anyone interested in harmonica, turns out that harmonica is one of several instruments (including the autoharp and the Northumbrian smallpipes) where the main discussion of them still happens on antiquated email-based mailing lists, vice modern vBulletin forums. It's a minor pain to deal with lists, but honestly that's just where all the community is at the moment. The online harmonica forums bite and don't get much traffic, so if you need harmonica info just sign up for Harp-L. Just for content, a clip of Irish chromatic harmonica: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIufACYuJRA . Any yes, though I don't play one I know the basics about chromatic harmonicas and will get a post together in the next week or so. So I take it you're in the Corps, or your boy is? That's an awesome class to get going; is it MWR-run? If this thread keeps running, it'd be great to have you check back in occasionally with any observations about learning, sanshin prices locally, etc. If you go back to the West Coast after this tour, you might be able to hook up with the shamisen community in the US, which I think is generally SoCal-based. They may be interested too in hearing your descriptions of sanshin education in Oki. How long do the classes run? quote:If anyone was on the fence about uilleann pipes, see if this doesn't change your mind: This is the single best argument I've seen for regulators (those chord-producing keys on the pipes across his lap) not falling by the wayside. Not an expert, but my impression is that more players are playing "3/4 sets" which have the drones but not the regulators, and a lot of folks for ensemble playing just play a "half set" which is just the chanter, since with the other instruments in the enesemble producing tone the drones are seen as less-necessary and adding complication. Anyone interested in Irish pipes, back in the first couple pages we cover the uilleann pipes, and there are some very affordable options <$400 for synthetic and <$800 for wood for 1/2 sets.  quote:I don't know when I'll start this project, since I'll have to find everything I need for the kankara sanshin first. Also, it was ages since I did woodworking, but luckily, my sister is a professional violin maker, so I'll likely get some advice from her as well  Though the body issue is largely taken care of by the can (though I'm not sure of the fine points of securing the body to the neck, any supports, etc). The main issue is having details on the neck, and especially the nut, since the nut is made in a certain way (similar to Indian jawari) that causes that buzzy tone. I read about it somewhere online, but I think there's either a book that includes building plans for shamisens, and/or somebody (Guild of American Luthiers?) has a set of shamisen blueprints. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Sep 10, 2011 |
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Sep 10, 2011 19:25
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Longhouse posted:Oh hey, didn't know about that dulcimer. Cool stuff Cool, good luck! And post pics! If I could make one I am sure you can. There is a nice English-speaking sanshin forum, they have some threads about making kankara iirc: http://sanshin.freeforums.org/
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Sep 11, 2011 14:55
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desert diver posted:Cool, good luck! And post pics! If I could make one I am sure you can. Wait, have you posted pics of your homemande sanshin in the thread yet? Longhouse, if you're making a sanshin and want to give it some American flavour (and also maybe easier to work with wood vice thin medal), maybe you could make a sanshin neck and affix it to a cigar-box? Something like a CBT:  EDIT: Bought a new banner ad:  And since this thread still has legs, I might look into changing the title since summer is about over, yet the learning keeps on going. With the exception of bagpipes; nobody's checked back in yet about learning Swedish, Irish, Northumbrian, or Lowland bagipes yet. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Sep 12, 2011 |
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Sep 12, 2011 00:34
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I've started learning lowland pipes in the past 6 months, although I've also been playing highland and competing for something like 6 years.
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Sep 12, 2011 02:44
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Thanks for the advice, guys I got a tip to contact a local carpenter who probably has a good supply of softwood. However, after listening around on the 'tubes, I'm starting to like the sanxian style more. I think the deeper sound really brings out the qualities of the instrument. Though, it might just be the general Chinese playing style, since I'm a sucker for glissandi (listen to this to hear what I mean) And not to dissapoint you, TTFA, but I'm thinking of, instead of trying to build that sape, eventually converting a guitar into a veena. They sound excellent, and from what I've read from other people who have built them, you don't really need to add a hell of a lot of structural reinforcement (assuming you're starting with a steel string guitar). It's going to be a lot of blood, sweat and tears I guess, but why not? 
Longhouse fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Sep 12, 2011 |
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Sep 12, 2011 18:29
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Longhouse posted:Thanks for the advice, guys Are sanxian built out of softwood? I would think that necks, and the sides of the body, would be decently hard wood. I still stand by my cigar-box suggestion though. quote:And not to dissapoint you, TTFA, but I'm thinking of, instead of trying to build that sape, No worries; in all honesty you could imitate a sape decently well by stringing the right body shape of Appalachian dulcimer backwards. Though if you wanted movable frets you'd have to de-fret it and raise the action slightly. quote:eventually converting a guitar into a veena. They sound excellent, and from what I've read from other people who have built them, you don't really need to add a hell of a lot of structural reinforcement (assuming you're starting with a steel string guitar). It's going to be a lot of blood, sweat and tears I guess, but why not? Like one of these?  Are you just going to raise up the action, retune, and play with a slide, or would you be adding all the sympathetic strings too? What will you be using for the donor body? I've always loved this guy's clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZgF-vNk92I quote:I've started learning lowland pipes in the past 6 months, although I've also been playing highland and competing for something like 6 years. By all means, feel free to talk the instrument up and get us some more converts. I'm actually fixing to sell both my Lowland smallpipe sets, since I really get the most use out of my Swedish bagpipe. Though I'm thinking that the next set of Swedish pipes I get, with huge uilleann-type drones, I'll have a spare SSP chanter made just to mess with and do the beginner's classes at workshops.  Oh, apropos of nothing, but ran across a (nerdy-)cool pic of a guy playing moraharpa (primitive nyckelharpa):  TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Sep 13, 2011 |
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Sep 13, 2011 01:34
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Are sanxian built out of softwood? I would think that necks, and the sides of the body, would be decently hard wood. I still stand by my cigar-box suggestion though. quote:Like one of these? quote:Are you just going to raise up the action, retune, and play with a slide, or would you be adding all the sympathetic strings too?  quote:What will you be using for the donor body? And while we're on Indian instruments, have a vichitra veena and a gottuvadyam.
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Sep 13, 2011 16:56
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It has been touched upon a few times in the thread, but is the general consensus that you cannot get a Shamisen in the US for under ~$1k? I'm really interested in playing Tsugaru style on a Futozao Shamisen, and although there have been some good arguments for picking up a sanshin (much cheaper being the main one), I still hold out hope that I could get a student model in the Futozao style for closer to 500. Is this totally a pipe dream, or could a japan-goon possibly make this dream a reality by looking at actual storefronts in the land of the rising sun?
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Sep 13, 2011 20:58
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Its not really a wierd instrument, but I started Cello lessons this summer. I'm loving it to death so far. After years of saying I had "no musical talent" and just being a musical groupie, I bit the bullet to try and learn one of my favourite instruments, and its going pretty well so far! So even if you think you're awful/have no skill/could never do it, get out there and try!
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Sep 16, 2011 00:38
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Zorblack posted:It has been touched upon a few times in the thread, but is the general consensus that you cannot get a Shamisen in the US for under ~$1k? I'm really interested in playing Tsugaru style on a Futozao Shamisen, and although there have been some good arguments for picking up a sanshin (much cheaper being the main one), I still hold out hope that I could get a student model in the Futozao style for closer to 500. Is this totally a pipe dream, or could a japan-goon possibly make this dream a reality by looking at actual storefronts in the land of the rising sun?  Looking back at Pg 1, I realise I wasn't as explicit as to where to find all the details, but the video I linked there has some fundamental links: - Major Canadian shamisen dealer http://www.chordscanada.com/catalogue/shamisen/shamisen_ins_en.html - Japanese dealer with $540ish shamisens: http://www.ishibashi-webshop.jp/shop/g/g381006100 in his description box he gives the link for their English-language "how to order" page. - Bachido.com is apparently a new site affiliated with the guy who wrote the recent "best book in English on shamisen": Shamisen of Japan. If you're interested in learning shamisen, you probably want to get that book. And check out the site overall, though their "Where to buy" section isn't written yet. quote:Its not really a wierd instrument, but I started Cello lessons this summer. I'm loving it to death so far. After years of saying I had "no musical talent" and just being a musical groupie, I bit the bullet to try and learn one of my favourite instruments, and its going pretty well so far! Awesome, always good to see someone having fun learning. Too many kids learn music in school and have the life sucked out of it, but learning because you actually want to is a ton of fun. Not to distract you from your current learning, but at some point you may want to check out our posts above about mandocello; tuned and fingered just the same as your cello, but plucked. Basically what the mandolin is to a violin, the mandocello is to cello, and similarly is an easy way to apply nearly identical skills to play two very different-sounding instruments. If you want the same fingerings but not quite so big, the mandola is one octave above the mandocello, so one string lower in pitch than the mandolin.  Big ol' mandocello, Gibson K-4 quote:I don't play, but after glancing at the wikipedia page I'd love to hear more from someone who does! Chromatic harmonica  Basically, chromatic harmonica is mechanically pretty close to harmonica, but played very differently. Great simplifying, imagine that a regular (diatonic) harmonica is a piano, and it has only white keys, so you can only play in that set key, with no black "in between notes". What a chromatic harmonica does is have an extra set of reeds that's one half-step higher than your regular set, so when you slide that little rod at the side of the instrument, it shifts your breath to the slightly higher note, going from the "white key" to its slightly higher "black key" on this metaphorical piano. The practical upshot of this is that you can play every note in the scale.  The chromatic harmonica is generally played way more "single note" style than the diatonic, in which you tend to play several notes at the same time. If you want that more chuggy, rhythmic sound, that's diatonic; if you want a really flexible melody, you want chromatic. So far as the market, these don't get any cheaper that the $35 Chinese-made Hohner Educator; there's some back and forth, but some folks think they're a great buy, some not. There is a slightly cheaper Chinese brand called Swan, but honestly the savings isn't worth the QC risk to me. In the $50-100 range you have the Hohner Chrometta and Koch, in a few different sizes, a few Seydels (I've heard of but don't know well these guys). Suzuki used to have a cheaper model called the "Leghorn", but I think all the Suzuki chromatics are $150+ these days, so Hohner and Seydel seem your main options.  One thing to note: CHs are mostly melodic instruments, so a huge portion of CH YouTube clips use "backup tracks" to accompany them, which is pretty big among jazz musicians. I freaking hate backup tracks, so if some of my tracks sound a little sparse, that's just what melody-only instruments sound like by themselves. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfIEJ4CyaFg Japanese dude plays a little Brazilian jazz - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFuYW-G4p4s Dude in wifebeater playing Mozart on CH - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJp1gPilmxs Indian master plays some film soundtrack tunes on CH - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rx8kVBjAL4&feature=relmfu Awesome set of Irish reels backed by bodhran On a semi-related note, going back to diatonic harmonicas, I totally forgot to mention miniature harmonicas. These are playable, yet fit in a watchpocket.  The Hohner Little Lady is like $10, and there's a cheaper nearly-identical version called Keychain (and other various names, "Mini", etc) that's like $2-3. Honestly, I'd pay the $10 for German quality, but your call. There are also a bunch of off-brand cheap imitations, but for this exact 4-hole model, I'd stay Hohner. Suzuki has a similar 5-hole product that's a little bigger (which isn't saying much), that runs $25. Not only do they have a Cmaj ("Metal Major") they also have it in Am, which is drat awesome ("Metal Minor"). One or both of these are near-term purchases for me. I've owned several of the Little Ladies, and recommend them highly, but just note that you will eventually lose them somewhere, and/or put them through the wash, so consider them expendable instruments.  Even if you're not huge on harmonica, these little things are great, cheap, and the most portable instrument short of humming. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Sep 18, 2011 |
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Sep 17, 2011 21:35
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Longhouse posted:Again, I don't have much experience, space or tools (yet), so I thought I'd choose wood that's easy to work with very basic equipment. The distinction between "hardwood" and "softwood" is a lumber industry technical thing that has very little connection to what you'd expect-- balsa is a hardwood, for example. Spruce is probably the most common softwood used for musical instruments but you local contractor won't have instrument-grade stuff and you probably don't want 2x4s. This is definitely something else to ask your luthier forum about, they'll have the best recommendations for you. Also, another tangentially related resource: Stewart-MacDonald is an excellent luthiery supply store. They carry all of those millions of tiny little pieces that hold a guitar/banjo/mandolin/whatever together, as well as wood, tools, etc. I've bought stuff from them a couple of times for various projects and have never been unhappy.
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Sep 17, 2011 21:56
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:
Nah, husband is army, but since everything is open to everyone around here, I'm attending classes on a different base. It IS MWR..thingy? run. Classes are about an hour long and first class is just hanging out and watching. You don't actually start playing until week 2. My first class got canceled, too, so I just got class this past week. And then this week we're off due to a Japanese holiday. Our teacher is a tiny little old man who's 80 years old and has been playing for 30 years. He mixes Japanese and English like craziness and it really fucks with my head, but it's helping my Japanese conversational skills so it's a good thing. Unfortunately we won't be in California, but HE knew of a group in Austin, TX and I may (at least) go see them play. I managed about ten notes of Aha Bushi then started losing pace with the rest of the group. However, memorizing the fingerings and such is..eh. easy enough. ish. The notes are written in Japanese in a chart on a page (I'm used to a standard music staff, not this ) and it takes some adjustment to memorize, but I'm pretty sure I'll get it.Sanshin cost around 15000Y-25000Y on Okinawa. The current exchange rate is downright awful, so that's about $200-$335 depending on if you want a false nylon hide on the instrument or a real habu skin. We're given picks/pluckers and an instrument in class, settled down, taught to tune by ear, given the english translation guide and the music and we're expected to be playing at least a bit of a song by our second class. The guy is great and sweet but if you don't meet his standards, I'm pretty sure he's got no problem kicking you out. He's a tough little old guy. I'll see if I can get some decent pictures of my charts and stuff.
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Sep 18, 2011 01:40
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Finagle posted:Its not really a wierd instrument, but I started Cello lessons this summer. I'm loving it to death so far. After years of saying I had "no musical talent" and just being a musical groupie, I bit the bullet to try and learn one of my favourite instruments, and its going pretty well so far! nice! If you want some internet advice give me a PM, I've been playing for a long time.
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Sep 18, 2011 19:30
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For those interested in melodica, here's the crazy expensive relative: Accordina, basically a melodica but using the Chromatic Button Accordion fingering system rather than the piano-esque one. There's a company making them these days for €1300. Here's a little Bach on one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKGiDYlIQ6k&feature=related Any more folks picked up a melodica, other than our initial Augustus Pablo fan? 
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Sep 20, 2011 02:38
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Finagle posted:Its not really a wierd instrument, but I started Cello lessons this summer. I'm loving it to death so far. After years of saying I had "no musical talent" and just being a musical groupie, I bit the bullet to try and learn one of my favourite instruments, and its going pretty well so far! check this out!  self indulgently blasting my mandocello/cello cover of this song all over the forums
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Sep 20, 2011 07:20
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Metamucil posted:On a related note, any experience with the Keytar? I'm a very mediocre keyboard player, and lately I've been wondering if my limited skills would carry over at all (and, of course, if one can be purchased at a reasonable price). Because keytars are flipping awesome. The extra nerdy response is that you can pick up the keyboard accessory for Rock Band 3 for cheap and it comes with straps for keytar action. It even has a proper plug to be a fine little midi keytar. I have one, so I should know this, but I'm a little unsure how many octaves you get. I want to say 3. It would be a great intro to the instrument if you just want to try that bad boy out.
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Sep 20, 2011 16:53
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:
Have you got any audio of this working?
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Sep 20, 2011 19:40
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I just wanted to drop in and offer my thanks for the awesome posts and information. I did some research and settled on some tin whistles, which should be here in a week or so. I went with a Feadog in D and a Generation in F. If the store I ordered from gets some more in stock soon, I'll probably also grab a Generation in Bb as well as a tweaked Generation in D. It's been fun just watching videos and researching things. The tin whistle is very well supported online, which is always a benefit to a shut-in like myself.
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Sep 21, 2011 06:01
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Does anybody have any tips for recorder? I have been trying to learn and I feel dumb because I play guitar like a motherfucker and I am alright at piano but stick a wind instrument in my face and I have no idea what to do. My brain is being impatient because it knows how to do other instruments well but not this. I am really struggling with it. I mostly have problems with force when blowing. I don't know maybe there are some breathing exercises. Maybe I'll just get a ocarina so I can entertain (annoy) my friends with Zelda songs.
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Sep 22, 2011 02:37
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Behold! A Elk! posted:Does anybody have any tips for recorder? I have been trying to learn and I feel dumb because I play guitar like a motherfucker and I am alright at piano but stick a wind instrument in my face and I have no idea what to do. My brain is being impatient because it knows how to do other instruments well but not this. I am really struggling with it. I mostly have problems with force when blowing. I don't know maybe there are some breathing exercises. Maybe I'll just get a ocarina so I can entertain (annoy) my friends with Zelda songs.
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Sep 22, 2011 20:39
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I wisely avoided going with the ocarina because I knew I'd only use it for Zelda songs, and I knew everyone else would know that too. Don't you enablers convince me otherwise, I have enough of a reputation for being obsessed with video games as it is. gently caress, I don't even like Legend of Zelda.
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Sep 22, 2011 21:39
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Behold! A Elk! posted:Does anybody have any tips for recorder? ... I mostly have problems with force when blowing. I don't know maybe there are some breathing exercises. Maybe I'll just get a ocarina so I can entertain (annoy) my friends with Zelda songs. Might I assume you're overblowing and it's getting all shrieky? Best thing I can suggest is start with a low note, start blowing too softly to even get a tone, and steadily increase. As your increase pressure, get a feel for when it's just strong enough, and the tipping point where pressure makes it worse. Then just hold it at that nice balanced point, do that note for several long holds. Then go to the next note, realising that the pressure will be slightly different for each note. Once you can hit that moderate clean point for each note and hold it, try alternating between two notes and see if you can cleanly hit the proper pressure at each note. It can be hard going between notes far from each other, because the small pressure differences add up over the scale, so if you go from one of your higher notes (in the same octave) to a very low one, you might have to reduce pressure to not overblow the low note. All this becomes subconcious with practice, it just takes a little time to feel it out and let it sink in. What kind of tunes are you doing on recorder?
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Sep 22, 2011 22:40
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