Ask me which weird musical instrument you should learn this summer

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me which weird musical instrument you should learn this summer

Longhouse: Nov 8, 2010; Chill out, dog

desert diver posted:

Okay, finally got around to writing about my favourite instrument ...

Sanshin

[...]

Ahaha, I'm so making one of these suckers. If the Okinawans could make them out of tin cans, planks of wood, and parachutes, with little more tools than a bayonet, then I should :bravo2:

# ¿ Aug 22, 2011 13:04

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 12:21

Longhouse: Nov 8, 2010; Chill out, dog

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

# ¿ Sep 4, 2011 12:51

Longhouse: Nov 8, 2010; Chill out, dog

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.

[...]

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.

Oh hey, didn't know about that dulcimer. Cool stuff

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.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2011 22:41

Longhouse: Nov 8, 2010; Chill out, dog

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 :3:

(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? :haw:

Longhouse fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Sep 12, 2011

# ¿ Sep 12, 2011 18:29

Longhouse: Nov 8, 2010; Chill out, dog

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.

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.

quote:

Like one of these?

Ayup.

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?

Sympathetics as well. I've seen a few different approaches for adding strings. The "true" Mohan Veena adds that extension to the side of the neck (I suppose it's been made thicker as well) and small metal rods on the fretboard, so that the strings run directly under the playing strings. I've also seen a much wider extension on some, with the sympathetics running next to the others, which makes them look sort of like harp guitars. Then there's the guy you linked to. He has a video where he explains how he made it. He let the strings run diagonally across the body, which looks kinda funny, but I suppose it evens the strain on the instrument. I wouldn't jam the tuners right through the soundboard like he did, though :v:

quote:

What will you be using for the donor body?

No idea to be honest. Not besides choosing a steel stringed. I'll contact a luthier (or a luthier forum, like you suggested earlier) to see what they think of it. At least so I know what I shouldn't do. Experiment or not, I wouldn't want to snap an instrument :haw:

And while we're on Indian instruments, have a vichitra veena and a gottuvadyam.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2011 16:56

Longhouse: Nov 8, 2010; Chill out, dog

So a couple of weeks ago, after listening to a lot of Hindustani classical music, I got myself both a bansuri and, for good measure, a tinwistle. Progress is slow but steady on both instruments, and it feels good to learn something new again :3:

For anyone, especially in Europe, interested in getting a bansuri, I recommend this site. For some reason they stick with using order forms for their stuff, but the shipping costs are lots cheaper than any other site I've seen.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2012 13:11

Longhouse: Nov 8, 2010; Chill out, dog

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

Meaning the Stylophones we covered earlier? Those can be fun, though I would suggest checking out a few more upscale options; $20 is about as much as I'd pay for a Stylophone, as you start running into nicer stuff not much above that. The Korg Monotron is a bit more expensive ($40ish), but can be found used for a bit less. The Gakken SX-150 analog synth can be had in kit form (no soldering required) for about $25, is easily hacked, and appears to have a goodly online following. Bleep Labs (yay Austin) offers their Nebulophone in kit for for $55, and it sounds pretty rad, though a bit less musical and a bit more freaky-noise.

If you want to get fancy (and oddly melodica-like), I was just checking out the website for Critter and Guitari, and they have some cool synths, particularly the "Pocket Piano" (clip).

Even though I haven't tried it myself, I'd recommend a Shruthi-1. It's a digital synth with analog filters, and it can sound pretty nifty. Minus the casing, it comes as a solder-it-together-yourself kit for $185, and they have quite a few different filter boards to choose from. And if you want to roll your own or mod it to oblivion, you're more than free to do so.

Here's a demonstration from Synth-Project. They, of course, went the extra mile and made a totally sweet-rear end custom controller for it :frogc00l:

# ¿ Apr 20, 2012 20:14

Longhouse: Nov 8, 2010; Chill out, dog

Since one of the themes in this thread is about making really simple DIY instruments, often single-stringed, I thought I could share stuff about a couple of Indian instruments I've encountered recently. Many regions in India use very simple instruments as accompaniments to vocal music, and a common choice is to use one of the ektara ("one-stringed"). Some times it's just for drone and rhythm, like here, and other times it's used for melody.

An interesting example, and perhaps one of the more usable, is the tumbi from Punjab:

A skin-covered resonator, a simple neck, and a single string. One of your hands is typically held near the gourd, and you pluck the string by moving your index finger up and down. Fairly complex melodies can be played on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=OwZK2Xe5Cv8 - A song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpEkT-SMLpM&feature=related - A medley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYbxlrh1lN4&feature=related - An introduction to playing.

Gopichand

Again, many instruments are lumped together as just ektara, and this is one of them. The gopichand is a popular folk instrument in Bengal, used by wandering religious musicians. What makes it special is that you squeeze the parts of the neck together as you play, causing the string to slack. It has a pretty weird sound, and I guess it can be hard to play in tune, but it looks fun in any case

The construction is simple, and chandraka.com has plans for it here. And if you think it's to much of a hassle to get a big piece of bamboo, burning holes in it and gluing skin on a hollow coconut, you can go the easier route like this gentleman did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWxajijf_4c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ai6yj5tMTo&feature=related

Finally, this hasn't to do with ektaras, but I stumbled upon more information about the Bulbul tarang, the Indian version of the Taishōgoto mentioned earlier. This pdf has lots of interesting stuff about the evolution of this group of instruments, from Germany to Japan to India. (e: apparently I have Alzheimer's or something, since this thread is where I got the link from :downs:

) The playing style of the bulbul tarang is interesting as well, and it sounds almost totally different from its Japanese counterpart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjb-JMR0qsE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJNrfIopyqc&feature=related - Strictly speaking, the instruments in these two clips are called shahi baja, since they're electric.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX8zsIyv1Yk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpAqAiix1P8&feature=related - I love this song so much

Longhouse fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Jul 18, 2012

# ¿ Jul 18, 2012 16:23

Longhouse: Nov 8, 2010; Chill out, dog

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

That's right, E Flat.

Nice

By the way, isn't it a Shaw that hatao uses a lot in his videos? Sounds p good.

~~~

Found another nice addition to the monochord-collection: The Viatnamese Đ�n bầu

A fairly standard diddleybow construction, but with the twist that the string is attached to a flexible rod at one end, which is used to produce pitch bend. Traditionally it was made out of a larger piece of bamboo, a coconut shell that served as a resonator (the modern counterpart in the picture is more a decoration than anything), and another piece of bamboo for the rod. I believe a piece of plastic would work as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K342W3ktjcs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqEryQNRzNg

Seems like a surprisingly flexible instrument.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2012 03:26

Longhouse: Nov 8, 2010; Chill out, dog

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

Bazantar

There's also a nice video on Vimeo where Mark talks about the thoughts behind it and the process of building it. He also wrote a symphony for bazantar and sitar (he writes more about it here)

# ¿ Dec 9, 2012 15:24

Longhouse: Nov 8, 2010; Chill out, dog

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

While it sounds really awesome and potentialfull, the fact that I understand so few of those words is indication to me that this would be a big step out of my field. While I wouldn't let that stop me if it was the solution to all my musical needs, its more complex than I can justify getting into at the moment since electric stuff is such a small portion of what I do. I don't even do MIDI stuff, much less analog synth, so that field will have to stay on my periphery until I find a musical need for it.

In your case, it's best to think of a modular system as a bigger and more open-ended effect pedal. It could be useful if you find a unique-sounding and/or deep processing module that you like (a particular filter, delay, flanger or what have you). Or if you want more modulation possibilities, like controlling the speed and regen of a flanger with, I dunno, a joystick, random settings, or with a sequence of different settings. You get the idea.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2014 14:34

Longhouse: Nov 8, 2010; Chill out, dog

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

It is intriguing, but in the short term I should probably make sure I use my electric kalimba enough to justify getting into something new and complex. So in the short term, stompbox flanger it will be.

Oh, I definitely agree with you. Modulars can be really hard to wrap your head around (it doesn't help that many common functions you see were originally derived from old lab equipment and from analog computers) and are still relatively expensive. Sure, they don't cost you the equivalent of a house anymore, but still.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2014 13:46

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 12:21

Longhouse: Nov 8, 2010; Chill out, dog

One of my favourite videos with clavichords (a smaller fretted one):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb_2O6yAltQ

# ¿ Sep 8, 2014 12:07

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