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withak
Jan 15, 2003


Fun Shoe

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

For goons in San Francisco and Seattle, vist the Lark in the Morning store

They closed the SF store a few years ago.

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The Letter A
Nov 8, 2002

Okay, time for me to assault your ears.

+ =

I got the tab and chords for this from Bing Futch's website, and just kinda made up the uke part as I went along.

I'm so very excited about learning all these cool easy instruments. This is the best thread ever.

Xiahou Dun
Jul 16, 2009

We shall dive down through black abysses... and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory forever.



Sounds pretty okay.

And Bing Futch is a really chill dude.

N183CS
Feb 21, 2007

MOMS WITH GUNS
Hey TTFA, how about a writeup on Cigar Box instruments? My buddy got his start on a cigar box mandolin and it actually sounds really good.

Paramemetic
Sep 29, 2003

Area 51. You heard of it, right?





Fallen Rib

radium's grandmother posted:

also, someone just posted this: http://anchorage.craigslist.org/msg/2496101790.html -is this a reasonable price for a Moog theremin? I kind of feel like I need one of those in my life. At this point I'm having a hard time choosing between a theremin and a concertina.

He's exaggerating the retail price a bit, I got mine at a store for $350 with a slight discount. Nevertheless, if it's in solid condition that's a good price. The nice thing about theremins is you don't touch them, so they don't suffer much wear and tear.

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

Paramemetic posted:

He's exaggerating the retail price a bit, I got mine at a store for $350 with a slight discount. Nevertheless, if it's in solid condition that's a good price. The nice thing about theremins is you don't touch them, so they don't suffer much wear and tear.

Thinking more on it, it's quite likely that even in Anchorage you'd be able to re-sell it later for the same price, so it's not so much "money gone forever" as "$250 is tied up until you sell it again." If you don't mind tying up that amount while you dick around with it, sure, no reason not to get it. If it were here, I'd probably buy it, dick around a couple months, and then sell it unless it really grabbed a hold of me.

Speaking of electronic instruments, my total Stylophone score is up to 23 purchased, of which 2 sold and 3 gifted.


quote:

Hey TTFA, how about a writeup on Cigar Box instruments? My buddy got his start on a cigar box mandolin and it actually sounds really good.

It wouldn't be quite the same as these other posts, because various cigar box instruments have nothing in common learning/playing wise, they just all happen to share materials. So a CB-mando plays like a mando (already covered), CB dulcimer like a dulcimer (and I think we have a pic of a CB dulcimer on pg 2, etc.)



By all means, feel free to post some pics and hold forth on the general concept of building instruments out of cigar boxes, but your perspective is as good as mine there. Though I am finally towards the top of a waitlist for a cigar-box luthier (been on his list a year) to have him build me a mini cigar-box oud.

quote:

I got the tab and chords for this from Bing Futch's website, and just kinda made up the uke part as I went along.

Not bad at all, you're definitely making some headway.

So far as things to tweak: your rhythm is a bit stiff, so you'll want to both relax and allow some funk in your junk, and get smoother on your chord changes so you're not rushing to be into place by the proper beat. One excercise I'd suggest to work on this: pick two chords that are pretty easy to transition between, and just establish a rhythm and go back and forth between those chords as you strum. Try all kinds of different things: jig time, some kind of bluesy lope, calypso-ish, maybe a little reggae stutter. Just get comfortable establishing a rhythm and yet smoothly changing chords.

The other thing is, as mentioned with another dulcimer player on the last page: it sounds like sometimes your fingers are too far from the frets, and so your strings are slightly muffled. When practicing your fingerings, try going through it really slow while ensuring that your fingers are almost up to the fret, that they're definitely close enough you get a clear ringing tone.


Glad you dropped in to share! Overall, anyone who's been learning a weird instrument, speak up and let is know how it's working out for you. It'll be yet more good evidence for readers that music really is this accessible.



EDIT:


Okay, I'll make a partial correction to the above statement that cigar-box instruments aren't particularly distinct. Arguably, there is a tradition of 3-string cigar box guitars used for blues, which are arguably a distinct instrument.

3-string cigar box guitar



Okay, I was vaguely familiar with this instrument in the past, though looking around today I note there's an incredibly hardcore niche of devotees on the internet. The span is a little bit obscured by the fact that one man, Shane Speal, happens to be breathlessly sperglording about this instrument across the internet, including registering numerous domains such as cigar-box-guitar-music.blogspot.com, 3-string-guitar.com, cigarboxnation.com, etc. Per his online bio: "Shane Speal is a musician and marketing professional from York, PA. " And how. In fairness, the guys sites aren't too bad, he has at least some original content at each, he appears to have a totally genuine interest in Delta blues and the 3-string, and his recording are actually awfully good.

In fairness, Speal and whatever other people in on this that aren't Speal, have a really valid point that American primitive guitars are rather overlooked in ethnomusicology, that many now-prominent bluesmen played them in their younger days, and that they are quite legit and evocative instruments. I do feel that he's maybe a bit over-selling the concept of it being "a thing" as opposed to a looser evolution of different ideas, but given how little awareness there is of the instrument, and the guy's not exactly a PhD, some over-selling is understandable.


Yep, that's Bo Diddley himself

Cigar box instruments can be found quite inexpensively online, some as low as $60 or so, others in the mid-$100s, and there are a handful of botique artistan $1000+ instruments. And, of course, you could not be a spoiled white middle class rear end in a top hat and just build a drat axe for yourself. Honestly, I'm lazy and would just buy one though. Though Speal does link to some sellers of CBs, he does also note that rural hicks were able to build these in barns with hand-tools, so it's not like this is rocket science. I would suggest that whatever you buy or make, go for a 3-string at first. Building a 6-string will just tempt you to play it like a guitar, so going 3-string will better keep you in the primitive Americana vibe.

There are various free plans online for building CBs, and Speal, ever the marketer, does have a DVD for $20. He also has some instructional DVDs, and makes a point of arguing that if you try to learn Delta blues by "here's how you do a G chord, and then an Em", then you're a punk and doing it wrong, because the Delta blues greats didn't know music theory and did just fine without it. So presumably his DVDs are more traditional folk music learning, watching and listening to somebody else do it over and over again until it sinks in. Again, guy makes a totally valid point.



I did actually have a lot of fun looking at these clips, as I haven't listened to any Delta blues in a while:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz5wMGovkuQ an intro/promotional by Speal's buddy John McNair: What's a 3 string Cigar Box Guitar? It can take your playing back to the roots of early Delta Blues

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cHKK-rFvuI&feature=related Some slide blues by someone who is neither Speal nor McNair

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM5RchVyihc Acoustic 3-string cover of Richard Marx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6vpqbRIigA&feature=related Dude in Capetown playing an electric 6-string oil-can guitar


If you can put up with endless sperglording and marketing, this is actually a pretty fun topic to read up on. Given the affordability and relative ease of learning the instrument, and how it well-addresses a niche other than the generally folk-ish/world-ish instruments we've covered mainly in the thread, this actually places pretty high on my current list of recommendations. The is also a cigar box forum that's pretty active and helpful and also run by guess-who.

If the following apply to you:
- Want to learn something a little less Irish than much of this thread, wanting something a little more bluesy, early rock, rockabilly, etc.
- Like primitive and dirty sound, like having both acoustic and electric options
- Want something pretty simple yet able to produce licks that sound hardcore
- Are into DIY and want to build something, or else want to buy something that's unique and yet inexpensive vice mass-market instruments

... then I'd say this is worth taking a close look at. I would agree that this is something you're going to want to learn more from listening than anything else, though from a music pedagogy aspect I am quite curious to get Speal's instructional DVD and see how he approaches teaching this while avoiding formal theory. Not that I doubt the feasibility, just that you don't usually see printed/pressed instructionals aiming to replicate traditional learning.

In summary: 3-string CBs are pretty drat cool/gritty/minimalist, Delta blues is a great genre, and Shane Speal is a crazy sperglord but I salute him for his tireless efforts in reviving the tradition.:911:

TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Jul 17, 2011

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres
Building on the three-string cigar box guitar above, an ever cheaper/easier instrument for anyone interested in Delta blues, DIY, cool-but-cheap, and the like:

Diddley bow



First things first, yes, it does appear legendary bluesman Bo Diddley was named after this instrument. Technically, it’s a monochord, and as such yet another variant upon the great-granddaddy of all string instruments, the musical bow.

There are DB-like instruments all over the place (the Nipponese cousin I’ll cover later), but this specific version is, like many of America’s greatest world contributions, associated with poo poo poor areas of the South. This was used as an accompaniment instrument for singing, largely, and is about as simple as driving two nails, a piece of wire (sometimes stripped from an unraveling screen door), and some whiskey bottles. The latter being a sustainable resource in the South. I’ve read accounts of folks turning their back-porch railing into a DB for jamming, or using the whole side of a barn.



There is, fortunately, a goodly online community of folks building, playing, studying, designing, recording, etc. the DB. Again, even more so than the cigar-box, these things were built by illiterate sharecroppers in areas so poverty-stricken that even nails were valuable enough to scrounge, so there’s no earthly reason that you and your debit card, Home Depot, and the almighty power of Google cannot build the DB to end all DBs.

At its very easiest, you pretty much need a piece of board, two nails, two glass bottles (or one bottle and one can), and a piece of metal string or wire. A hammer would be a nice luxury, but anything heavy and hard enough to pound nails will do.



As you can see, a lot of folks like to electrify them, which is totally legit. I haven’t priced out all the parts and I haven’t built anything electric in forever, but I’d venture to guess you could go to a guitar store (not a big-box, an actual local store where they fix guitars and things) and buy some crap out of their junk-parts bin. I’d imagine a soldering iron would be nice, but you might be able to get by with electrical tape (do not sue me, I am not an electrician).

There are a zillion and one demos, plans, blueprints, discussions, etc. of DBs online, so I won’t insult your intelligence by googling them for you. Instead, I’ll just present a few of the awesomer clips I’ve run across:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZNk76_4lds&feature=related Jack White (of the White Stripes) builds a DB in a matter of minutes with a hammer, and then rocks more severely on it than you would on a $5,000 guitar.

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0YWVm6OQEk Yes, that’s one dude with one string doing a highly credible rendition of “Personal Jesus”, a song usually done with a plethora of expensive synthesizers.

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKfamQl1YSg Combining with the previous instrument, a cigar-box diddley bow.

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXcpx4-nsk A shed turned into a DB

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCvHBNba5DM&feature=related Getting deluxe with a two string diddly bow.


Have you been wanting to learn an instrument, but are just short on cash? Are other instruments just too bewildering with all those knobs and buttons and strings going every which way? Man up, pretend you have the balls of a hardscrabble cotton farmer, and get yourself a board and some nails and one of your many whiskey bottles emptied of dreams. Build it, and then use your unfair advantage of YouTube to expose yourself to more DB than the average 1930s Southerner saw in a month, given they were too busy working their assess off to play every day.

Do this, you have really no excuse.

a penus
Aug 14, 2004



see you next mission
I think I may have found what I'm looking for:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-F-Lange-German-Concertina-Accordion-Band-Union-/140576304957?pt=Keyboards_MIDI&hash=item20bb002f3d#ht_7320wt_952

Think it's worth bidding for? It looks like it's in pretty good shape, and the price is right.

withak
Jan 15, 2003


Fun Shoe

radium's grandmother posted:

I think I may have found what I'm looking for:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-F-Lange-German-Concertina-Accordion-Band-Union-/140576304957?pt=Keyboards_MIDI&hash=item20bb002f3d#ht_7320wt_952

Think it's worth bidding for? It looks like it's in pretty good shape, and the price is right.

Buying old accordions without playing them first is a pretty big risk. They don't age well without regular maintenance (regardless of how they look on the outside) and the way this description is written makes it sound like the seller doesn't know much about them so probably can't be relied up to tell you whether it is actually playable. IMO it would take a pretty cheap price to balance out the risk.

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

radium's grandmother posted:

I think I may have found what I'm looking for:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-F-Lange-German-Concertina-Accordion-Band-Union-/140576304957?pt=Keyboards_MIDI&hash=item20bb002f3d#ht_7320wt_952

Think it's worth bidding for? It looks like it's in pretty good shape, and the price is right.




Have you already bid yet? If not, I'd really hold back. If so, then it's going to be a real learning curve either way.

Like withak said, judging condition can be awfully tricky, and in general I would be (and have been) awfully skeptical of any seller of squeezeboxes unless I can either play it in person, or at least hear it played (or just squeezed for each button) over the phone. Failing those, I would generally assume that it's going to need a fair bit of work.


Again, not to delay your enthusiasm, but your odds of ending up happy increase if you do some basic research on this topic which is, to be fair, totally new to you. You can ask at Concertina Forum, Melodeon Forum, or Bandoneon Group (http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/bandoneon/), or be shameless and just ask on all three: "Want to learn bandoneon for tango, what are the affordable options"? Do bear in mind that you'll have folks at extremes: some people who'll insist it can't be done under $2000, others who are going to insist you learn violin first or some other weird theory, etc. But over the course of answers you should get a pretty good feel.

It's also not totally impossible someone will have an extra to sell, so instead of buying a pig in a poke, you can get an instrument from a knowledgeable player who can tell you what condition, what's been done, what its drawbacks are, etc. Especially as an utter noob, it is very rare you'll come across your "one in a year deal" on eBay your first week looking at it, so if you're seeing an amazing sudden must-buy deal... it's probably not, and you'll be better off just asking the smart and helpful folks online how to proceed.


Now, if you've already bought it, not the end of the world. Time to start asking pretty much the same questions on the same forums, but prefaced with "I bought an old Lange for $XYZ, now what do I do"?

TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Jul 19, 2011

a penus
Aug 14, 2004



see you next mission
I did hold off on bidding, I tend to get really excited right when I find something and then calm down and think about it a little more closely (thank you, too, withak). I did sort of think that ebay bando was too good to be true. I submitted my join request to the Yahoo bandoneon group so I can ask there, thanks for the link.

Yeah, I know it's good to wait. It took more than a month of solid research and deliberation to settle on my double bass, and I'm very glad I did. I'll calm down about the bandoneon a little bit, and wait until I can find one that is right for me. and then learn the poo poo out if it.

a penus fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Jul 19, 2011

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

radium's grandmother posted:

I did sort of think that ebay bando was too good to be true. I submitted my join request to the Yahoo bandoneon group so I can ask there, thanks for the link.

Yeah, getting to know other players and making an informed decision isn't as sexy as making a blind purchase, but it's probably way, way smarter. Bandoneon is a pretty small community, so folks should be pretty supportive. Definitely a cool instrument though, and given how few folks play it I'd imagine you'll have quite a few opportunities if you get to be a decent tango player.


I wanted to get a little bit back into some of the electronic options out there, particularly as some of them are pretty affordable, and also quite accessible to people who might not have a lot of musical background, but like working with sound.

propellerhead ReBirth app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad ($7)



Propellerhead is a Swedish company that, back around 1997 produced a computer program called ReBirth, which was made to be a digital imitation of several analogue Roland synthesisers: TB-303 Bass Line Synthesizer and the TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines. Apparently for anyone involved in electronic music production back in that period, this was a groundbreaking program, and resulted in folks producing tracks and emailing them back and forth across the planet, forming communities, etc. To this day the company still maintains several active forums for its loyal userbase.

In 2010, the whole package was faithfully reproduced for the above Apple products, and techno fans rejoiced. Note that I don't personally play this instrument, but this was the hands-down recommendation from the thread Synthesizers! in NMD:ML. Apparently it's today considered somewhat of a "babby's first mixing program", but a really good place to start learning, and it costs $7. Again, given that you could mix tracks while riding the bus home from work, this seems a sure thing if you own any of the above devices and have even the mildest interest in mixing electronica tracks.



Clips:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zomsMea6KxM A bit of a tutorial-style explanation of the iPad version.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LlHgQQtMhE A demo of the iPhone version; apparently a little less smooth because you can't spin as many knobs simultaneously, and do some scrolling to reach the far edges, but this guy certainly still sounds good
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPRSB2EljgE&feature=related Slightly tangential, but an Attack of the Show rundown of iPad music apps


While I'm here, I'll cover another option, this time hardware for folks like me who don't have smartphones, or want something more standalone:

Korg Kaossilator



Another item with the enthusiastic support of the goons in NMD:ML. It's a small paperback-sized touchpad-based "dynamic phrase synthesizer", which does both backing beats as well as melody lines. Rather than me listing out the huge number of features, Wikipedia. On a good day, you can get these a little under $100 new.

I have not gotten around to getting one of these yet, but apparently it's a really intuitive settup and easy to start sounding good on.



Clips:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJWj8HjX9ew Brit YouTube celebrity Brett Domino covers Bad Romance using only a Korg Monotron (basically a nicer Stylophone) and a Kaossilator
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njiy8XzX-lM A dude at home playing "folktronica", jamming on Appalachian dulcimer backed up by his Kaossilator. There are actually several good YouTube clips of dulcimer and the KK, which I was really not expecting.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3_yXmIfmYg The Yellow Album - 100% Korg Kaossilator. Yep, a whole album produced on the KK, sample track up on YouTube.

TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Jul 20, 2011

Econosaurus
Sep 22, 2008

Successfully predicted nine of the last five recessions

Things I got because of TTFA -

A ukulele
A irish tin whistle
This stuff



(Soy sauce not included)

I keep putting this off...

Xiahou Dun
Jul 16, 2009

We shall dive down through black abysses... and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory forever.



Rough schedule of what I'm doing Friday :

Teach morning class.

Office hours.

Light lunch.

Knock off at noon.

Meet up with 2 friends.

Go to guitar store.

Go to hardware store.

Go to liquor store.

3 guys, lots of bourbon, making diddley bows in a barn until we pass out or someone calls the cops.

I want to see if I can do this :

Diddley bow + dulcimer = diddlicimer.

Xiahou Dun fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Jul 20, 2011

TurdBurgles
Sep 17, 2007

I AM WHITE AND PLAY NA FLUTE ON TRIBAL LANDS WITH NO GUILT.
PRO TIP: Don't drink a bunch and play NAF flute, you'll get it full of spit and sound like rear end.

Diddly Bows are a better drunk instrument.

Edit: What are instruments that would pair well with NAF? I've got the gf interested now that she sees I enjoy it even whilst imbibing.

TurdBurgles fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Jul 20, 2011

Exploding Barrel
Jun 17, 2005

Lights out!
Guerilla puppet show!
If I manage to land the job I'm interviewing for soon I'm going to see about making a diddley bow with a bass string, I'm curious as to how it would sound.

Mradyfist
Sep 3, 2007

People that can eat people are the luckiest people in the world

Exploding Barrel posted:

If I manage to land the job I'm interviewing for soon I'm going to see about making a diddley bow with a bass string, I'm curious as to how it would sound.

This sounds pretty tempting, I have piles of old bass strings that I can't quite bring myself to throw out, because they "might be useful as an emergency replacement someday".

Your Computer
Oct 3, 2008




Grimey Drawer

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njiy8XzX-lM A dude at home playing "folktronica", jamming on Appalachian dulcimer backed up by his Kaossilator. There are actually several good YouTube clips of dulcimer and the KK, which I was really not expecting.
After seeing this, I kinda really want a dulcimer. I've always loved their sound on their own, but this fusion of dulcimer and synth is fabulous.
The ukulele-thread has already made me buy an ukulele (which I completely love, so there's that). :banjo:

I've always wondered though, having never heard one live, how loud are the dulcimers? It sounds like they might be very loud, which could be a problem since I live with three other people..

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

quote:

3 guys, lots of bourbon, making diddley bows in a barn until we pass out or someone calls the cops.

But where are you going to get the bottles to build the... oh, nevermind.

This sounds like an awesome event, and you owe it to posterity to record the highlights thereof. You could become a legend in the online CBG/diddley community. Not that you would be in the slightest the first person to stay up late drinking heavily and building diddley bows, it's just that others don't do that in their actual YouTube videos.

quote:

If I manage to land the job I'm interviewing for soon I'm going to see about making a diddley bow with a bass string, I'm curious as to how it would sound.

If you are too poor to build a diddley bow, you need to take a hard look at how you're living your life.

Are you sharecropping cotton somewhere in the Deep South? Boll weevil done et your crop?



This man's ghost is rolling his eyes at you. Look in an alley, find a chunk of pallet wood or something. Scrounge up some nails, some bottles and/or cans, and some sort of wire. There is absolutely no way you can't build one of these (acoustic) for basically free. If you want to splurge you can buy a single guitar string for about $1.50, or beg a broken (since they tend to break at the ends) or spare one off a musician friend. Hell, I would mail you a string for free just to allay your self-pity.

quote:

I've always wondered though, having never heard one live, how loud are the dulcimers? It sounds like they might be very loud, which could be a problem since I live with three other people..

??? No, not at all. If anything one of the main complaints about dulcimers is that you can't hear them unamped in a jam session. They can keep up with maybe one steel-string guitar, or one fiddle or banjo, but any more than that and you're going to need amplification. If you can even play uke in your place, you can play dulcimer. They're very rich/full sounding, but low-amplitude.


Angra Mainyu posted:

PRO TIP: Don't drink a bunch and play NAF flute, you'll get it full of spit and sound like rear end.

Diddly Bows are a better drunk instrument.

NAF is more a 420 instrument than a drinking instrument; dry mouth will prevent wetting-out (getting the wood soggy) even longer than usual. Beer goes fine with pennywhistle since you can tap it against the table or your boot and splatter the spit on the floor. Hard liquor mainly goes well with percussion, particularly the less-breakable types. For anything fancier than this, you're going to have to ask TCC.

quote:

Edit: What are instruments that would pair well with NAF? I've got the gf interested now that she sees I enjoy it even whilst imbibing.

Good question, and definitely one you could ask on Flute Portal as well, but I definitely do have opinions. I'd say overall what you're looking for (aside from just something that can match your scales) is something that does slow/dark/moody well, has at least some low-end (so not ukulele), and a bit more emphasis on melodic or arpeggio type stuff vice complex chording. I'm also of the opinion that mixing winds sounds kind of odd, so outside of just getting another NAF in the same key (always an option, or even a different key if you want to get tricky), I'd suggest getting either strings or percussion. A few options:

- Dulcimer: inexpensive ($100 or less used if you're cheap), easy to learn, does the whole droning thing well. I had to do a little mental arithmetic to figure out how to tune a dulcimer to match the NAF, but if I or someone else just explain it to you it's easy to do, and you'll eventually understand the "why" and be able to figure out ever more complicated ways to tune it. Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88y1GKg6hhk , a little soft for my taste, but some nice slow fingerpicking, and gives you the general idea.

- Hammered dulcimer ($250 and up new, could be much cheaper if you're lucky on eBay or CL): for backing NAF, I'd probably use this to play either two-note chords, or arpeggios, or else to a counterpoint harmony, or take turns playing the melody. Not terribly difficult to learn, but a somewhat large instrument. There are small ones for like $150 new but they don't have as much bass. Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mUDdob-Hew I can't find one of HD and NAF, but here's a girl looping HD, fiddle, flute, and vocals



- Harp (mid-$300s new): I'd do pretty much the same thing with this as with the HD. It'd be a little more mellow and lower in volume, but also not too hard to start out playing. Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QJR1CcBqJs&feature=related Again, kind of hippyish music (hard to avoid with NAF), and this is a much larger harp than the smaller Celtic lap ones I'd suggest starting with, but you get the general idea.



- Various percussion: if she can keep a beat and isn't set on doing melody, you could always get a decent drum. I'd suggest one with a pretty good low/mellow sound. Off the top of my head (and I'm open to rebuttals) I'd go either djembe or ashiko: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xndrRs6wHbQ djembe and flute played by teenagers. Another clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4OE_5hAxz0 says bongos, but I'm pretty sure it's a djembe or maybe ashiko.



Alternately, you could also get a "frame drum", which would be a decent stand-in for a lot of Native drums (beat with a padded stick), but also allow you to do some broad ranges of hand-drumming as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlBsni5_mxc not an NAF, but tribal European overtone flute and frame drum.

A decent djembe (Remo, Meinl, Pearl) can be had under $100, and probably well under if you get used on eBay or CL. If your area is even slightly hippyish, either CL or calling local pawnshops could really work out. Same for ashiko, though they're a bit less common since djembe is pretty much king of hand drums so far as white hippies are concerned. I would almost say bongos would be kind of cool, but can't find any clip of that. For frame drums, good ones can be closer to $30-50. I'd eBay/Google terms like "frame drum", "shaman drum", "buffalo drum" (the last being the closest to some Plains Indians drums, but a little more limited than the standard frame drum. You could also get an Irish bodhran, which can do most things a frame drum can, but you can also apply the totally different Irish technique by just using a cipín/tipper double-headed stick and learning some new skills.


Remo makes shaman-style "buffalo drums" in a variety of synthetic sizes, graphics, etc. for a great price, like $69 even for the big 22". If you get a non-graphic one, I suggest you draw all over it. Sure, it might knock the resale down $20 or so, but it'd be awesome to have it with actual cool decorations. If you do this, get a huge one, like 20" or 22" for max bass.

For overall percussion advice: again, do not buy blind. Don't buy a drum unless the smart people on the internet are saying good things about that make/model. If someone is selling some random drum on eBay with zero name/maker, just "cool Djembe drum!!! L@@K!!!" the only way it's going to be a good buy (even cheap) is if you just happen to be lucky. Stick with good brand names or known makers. As a noob you probably want a synthetic vice natural head for easier maintenance, and don't be afraid to buy used so long as the head isn't dicked up (which is unlikely on a synthetic). Also, I'd go at least 12-14" on an ashiko or djembe, and 14-18"+ on a frame drum: a small drum is not "just the same and a good deal" because you'll be unable to get that bass response you'll really want.

One last percussion option:

- HAPI drum (since they're like $350, and Hang drums are cool but $2k): apparently a pretty popular match-up for NAF, and has the advantage of being pretty easy to play, plus you can get one in the same scale as your NAF (should be something like "A minor pentatonic". Hangs are nice but expensive, so HAPI is a viable alternative. Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-IA-buOUjM here's a Hang. Found it, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFjDVTQkZHA , Hapi with NAF.


Couldn't find a pic, so here's a Hang

Those are the main instruments that jump to mind, are affordable, and not to difficult to learn, at least to the level that she'll be able to jam out with you. Maybe let her look over these writeups and clips (and we have longer writeups of most of these earlier in the thread), and let us know if she has any followup questions?



EDIT: Xiahou Dun, do you want to go ahead and cover CBOMs and mandocellos?

TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Jul 21, 2011

Exploding Barrel
Jun 17, 2005

Lights out!
Guerilla puppet show!
I'm just an absolute tightwad when I don't have a job, any spending past keeping the car and cell phone running rarely happens due to my paranoia about poo poo happening and not having the cash to cover important things. So projects get put off, gives me time to locate a local music shop anyway.

Xiahou Dun
Jul 16, 2009

We shall dive down through black abysses... and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory forever.



O poo poo! I said I'd do that! I'm in a bit of a rough patch getting ahead on work so I can take off for the Drunken Diddley Bow Bonanza, but if it can wait until after the worst of the hangover gets over (late weekend/Monday morning), I'd love to. That cool? I ain't married to doing it ; just feel like other people should start stepping up and am willing to do my part for awesome instruments.

And I don't know about recording the Bonanza. We'll see if we can operate a camera by then. One of my buddies rented a nail-gun and is planning on "making everything that holds still long enough into a diddley bow".

:ohdear:

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

Xiahou Dun posted:

And I don't know about recording the Bonanza. We'll see if we can operate a camera by then. One of my buddies rented a nail-gun and is planning on "making everything that holds still long enough into a diddley bow".

:ohdear:

You simply can't say poo poo like that and then not record it. Set it up on a tripod or something and just drunkenly stumble over and turn it on as needed. Drunk people love being filmed, shouldn't be a problem.

No hurry at all on the CBOM/mandocello post, next week would work just as well too, assuming you're functional again by then. I feel truly touched to be playing a small part in this upcoming event.


quote:

I'm just an absolute tightwad when I don't have a job, any spending past keeping the car and cell phone running rarely happens due to my paranoia about poo poo happening and not having the cash to cover important things. So projects get put off, gives me time to locate a local music shop anyway.

Again, for an acoustic one you should literally be able to make it for free (as in no money), so since you're jobless and time hangs heavy on your hands...



Anyway, been a bit short on woodwind for a bit, so going to cover one of those before we dive back into strings, keyboards, and electronica.

Primitive clarinets



The term “primitive” is often used to describe woodwind instruments that don’t have keys (the buttons with rods that actuate to cover or open holes rather than using your fingers). It’s a bit of an odd term, given that keyed instruments are a very modern and Western anomaly, but due to Western musical education we’ve come to think of the modern keyed versions as being a “normal” clarinet/oboe/flute, and the old-school ones as some odd subset. In any case, generically speaking “flute” is stuff where you’re blowing onto a blade or edge, “oboe” is anything with a double reed (two pieces of material that clap together when they vibrate), and “clarinet” is anything single-reeded (one piece of material that claps against the instrument body when it vibrates). This little bit is about primitive clarinets, so keyless (or largely so) instruments with a single reed.

These sort of instruments were reasonably common in many parts of Europe (and related instruments elsewhere in the world), and the French term chalumeau is a pretty common term for them. They sound, overall, rather like the modern clarinet, but are generally more compact, less expensive, more hands-on with the fingers directly interfacing, and just generally a cool instrument.



The primary primitive clarinet sold/played in the US these days is an instrument brand-named the Xaphoon. It was developed in the 1970s by a hippie in Hawaii who made them from bamboo, and was meant to be a “pocket saxophone”, though at this level of simplicity a saxophone and clarinet are pretty much the same. They now make Xaphoons out of plastic as well, key of C, two-octave semi-chromatic range, recorder-style fingering, for about $100 in a variety of translucent colours; bamboo ones are only slightly more expensive and come in a bunch of keys. They have a decently informative website with a slow but viable forum.

The other options are generally European; my impression is that it’s mainly the French Early Music dorks that play chalumeau a bit, and the Bretons still use them for folk music (the treujenn-gaol) as do the Catalan. So far as names of makes: Sans (Catalonia, €88, and more modern version called the Clariphone for slightly more), Hanson (British, £34), Hameln (German, $65), and Kunath (German, €92).

You’ll also hear the term “bamboo saxophone” bandied about, but again these are pretty much just chalumeau, but made from a more American hippie-type perspective, though sometimes they are in cool bent shapes in imitation of saxaphones. We can get more into these if folks have specific interests.



Clips:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLuh6fI_Evc Round Midnight played on a Xaphoon
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ult73q9akuY Various demos of German clarineau/klarinoh
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taEnME5_-Ts legendary mento (early Jamaican) musician Sugar Belly, who invented and built his own bamboo sax
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfQSgLeZzhk Appears to be a Hungarian folk trio led by a primitive clarinet

Xiahou Dun
Jul 16, 2009

We shall dive down through black abysses... and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory forever.



I'll see what I can do.

But if I pass out and wake up as a diddley bow...

Well, I was going to say I'd be angry, but I'd probably just be screaming.

Maybe I can scam a camera and tripod off of someone and set it to take pictures at random intervals...

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

Xiahou Dun posted:

I'll see what I can do.

But if I pass out and wake up as a diddley bow...

Well, I was going to say I'd be angry, but I'd probably just be screaming.

Maybe I can scam a camera and tripod off of someone and set it to take pictures at random intervals...

Live webcast. :colbert:



Is there any chance we can get a Mod Challenge in here to force Exploding Barrel to build a diddley bow using only free scavenged materials, on pain of ban? That way he'd both get a free diddley bow and save :10bux:.

bigfoot again
Apr 24, 2007

TapTheForwardAssist posted:



Primitive clarinets



Is there a good way to find out the correct distance/finger hole ratios for one of these? I have strange instrument-building plans in mind. Which I will share if they work at all.

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

TapTheForwardAssist posted:


Primitive clarinets






Are those mouthpieces on back to front?

This thread has made me feel guilty about my neglected instruments and I want to clear up the back room, dust everything off and have a play.

I taught myself to play by ear on a kit-built keyboard, I guess like a stylophone only the contact was made by finger pads directly on the etched circuit board. From there I had some electone lessons but the teacher was a little scary. My cousin Terry blew my mind with some clarinet/bass clarinet one time when I was visiting so I started playing clarinet aged 10 and moved on to bass clarinet when I was a little older one time when they needed a player for state music camp. It did wonders for my asthma! I inherited an instrument which was my grandfathers, we always called it a banjo-mandolin - 4 double courses, no idea on the tuning, with a drum skin held on by hex nuts. The bridge slid loose and frequently fell off, we broke half the strings as kids, and the piece that holds the strings at the top of the neck was so worn that at some point in the 70s my dad replaced it with a carved piece of clear yellow plastic from a toothbrush handle. I bought some strings online to try and restring it but it's in very bad condition and I could never get it to sound right probably due to the bridge position being all wrong. The neck is cracked too so I gave up on it. I'll try and put some photos up later - actually it looks very similar to the pics at the top of this thread. http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?47007-Tell-me-about-this-banjo-mandolin

I've since collected a recorder, tiny B-flat dolphin ocarina, pentatonic pan pipes, a seven key thumb piano made from half a coconut, an autoharp after falling in love with this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIRdx-vSrTA ,

a replacement mandolin since I couldn't get the old one playable, and I still have my old clarinet although I've completely lost my embouchure over time.

I also have a collection of synths so I bought some wind controllers to go with them. I have a casio digisax dh-100

which has 5 or so cheezy sounding preset instruments of its own as well as being a passable midi controller with wind pressure sensitivity. The fingering is not like a clarinet though and I was occasionally reaching for keys that just weren't there, so I then bought a Yamaha WX7 controller

which is closer to what I'm used to. Plus it has a bend sensor on the 'reed' as well as sensing pressure. It's less sensitive than the digisax but in theory is adjustable. The synths I have are a Fizmo, a kawai k5000, a wavestation and I recently got my hands on a sid station. I think all of these are considered to be weird synths but I love the sounds you can get out of them.

I'm probably equally bad with all my instruments but this hasn't stopped me from buying a couple of pennywhistles due to this thread! I'm hoping to get my partner back into music to play along with me, we don't do enough together any more. He used to play flute but really didn't keep up with it after highschool. Oh, so there's the flute too which I didn't count because it's not mine and I pretty much almost pass out every time I try to play it.

Bonus pic of my cat Buster finding the most expensive seat in the room - my autoharp in it's softcase.


Thanks for all the great videos and inspiration to get back to doing what I love.

Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 07:32 on Jul 21, 2011

Lacerta
Oct 17, 2005

Baby, tonight the world belongs to you and I.
Well, holy gently caress. My dulcimer arrived in the mail and I spent some time assembling it. It sounds great and it's a helluva lot of fun to play. :3: Great thread, thank you for starting it.

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

Lacerta posted:

Well, holy gently caress. My dulcimer arrived in the mail and I spent some time assembling it. It sounds great and it's a helluva lot of fun to play. :3: Great thread, thank you for starting it.

So was it a cardboard dulcimer, or a wooden kit, or just in pieces and needed fixing?

quote:

pentatonic pan pipes

Not to zero in on one thing off your huge list, but what make of panpipes have you?

ashgromnies
Jun 19, 2004
Look at this dude owning on a melodica and ukelele and bass guitar and bass drum and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbPYmGq74eI&NR=1

Ratatozsk
Mar 6, 2007

Had we turned left instead, we may have encountered something like this...

ashgromnies posted:

Look at this dude owning on a melodica and ukelele and bass guitar and bass drum and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbPYmGq74eI&NR=1

I'll see your melodica/ukelele/bass/drum and raise you a drum/tin whistle/guitar/accordion/water glasses/baking sheet/vocals/panpipes/santa hat

Lacerta
Oct 17, 2005

Baby, tonight the world belongs to you and I.

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

So was it a cardboard dulcimer, or a wooden kit, or just in pieces and needed fixing?


Not to zero in on one thing off your huge list, but what make of panpipes have you?

I got a cardboard dulcimer. The sound that comes out is rad as hell. People who've seen me play it thought it was wooden.

I assembled it, then primed it. Waited for it to dry, then painted it in latex paint. Waited for that to dry, sanded it down, another layer of paint. Waited for that to dry, another quick sand and another layer of paint. Once that dried, I decorated it with spray paint. Let THAT dry, glue/clamp the fretboard to the body and holy poo, this cheap-rear end cardboard dulcimer sounds like hot poo poo on a griddle.

:3: Even noodling around with no song in mind is fun and sounds good. I totally recommend the cardboard dulcimer from that MusicMaker's site. Good value.

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres
Yet another Appalachian dulcimer success story. Honestly, you really can't ever go wrong with dulcimer.

Since we've gotten in some angle of modern/electronic/electric instruments, I'll bring in another modern innovation which took an obscure guitar technique and made it the basis of an entire instrument.

Chapman Stick



In the 1970s, guitarist Emmet Chapman was doing a lot of the technique called "fretboard tapping", basically hammering his fingers onto the fretboard of a guitar (no plucking) to get them sounding the fretted notes. He reckoned guitar just wasn't really doing it adequately, so designed an entire instrument around the concept of tapping fingers on the fretboard. What he came up with was a 10-string instrument where a note is produced wherever a finger touches, so kind of combining the concept of a guitar and a keyboard, with the possibility for much more complex harmonies than guitar can manage.

There's a shitload of info about this instrument online, partially because the kind of person who plays it overlaps significantly with the kind of person who likes being on the internet. So I won't go into undue detail here, except to say "read up" and check out their forum: http://www.stickist.com/ .



Actual genuine Sticks (and they're very touchy about the trademark of the term "Stick") are a bit pricey, $2100 for the most basic new models. You see older 10-strings go for $1200-1400 on eBay. However, like many good ideas they've spawned a slew of, depending how you look at it, shameless ripoffs or inspired evolutions. Of these the most famous is the Warr guitar (pictured above, $2800 base models) and the Mobius Megatar ($1600 base models).

The main affordable tapping-instrument is the Touchstyle by Krappy Guitars. Those are $700 new, and my cousin got one for $450 on CL or something. In general if you watch eBay for "chapman stick" you'll get various ripoffs popping up. I'd be leery of ones that you can't trace to a specific known luthier, but sometimes you can get a deal on a 1-off that some guitar maker made on the side for $400 or so.



Before the clips, let me just say that though it is an awesome instrument, I hate about 90% of the online clips for it. It just all sounds like the soundtrack to a lovely 1980s soft-porn film to me. I don't know if it's the musical taste of people that gravitate to these, their interest in MIDI (which I hate), or whether I'm just a dick. When I tried a Stick I thought I sounded ballsier; I actually dropped by Emmet Chapman's house, chatted with him, and tried one of the Sticks at his workshop. No biggie.:smug:

Clips:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozt9am44pKc One of my general measures of any instrument is "can you play Bach on it?" Fortunately, Stick does a surprisingly good imitation of a clavichord, which is the main thing that keeps me interested in someday getting one.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFTupf0Rj8U Using a looping pedal for the bass and playing some (somewhat goofy) hair metal, though its the principle of the thing
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfbK_Nn0FeQ&feature=related Some more Bach. drat but I love Bach. And clavichords.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCfQmVuIgVg Since someone was bound to ask, yes, the Chapman Stick was used for the fictional baliset in the film Dune. Here, Patrick Stewart, playing the character Gurney, gets his Stick on.

ashgromnies
Jun 19, 2004
Alright, I tried building a diddley bow and really hosed it up... how can I keep my bridge in place? I'm using an old Drambuie bottle I found in the neighbor's trash. It keeps sliding around on me.

I filed down a dip for it to rest in, and when I started hammering the nut in, the string(a bass guitar A string) just loving unravelled. Crazy.

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

Ratatozsk posted:

Not that we're anywhere near to exhausting the list of weird/less common musical instruments, but any chance at a write-up on jaw harps or harmonicas?

No worries.

Jaw harp



Back when/where I was coming up, they called these "jews harp", but that term had been somewhat sidelined as not PC, though nobody is totally clear on why they were called that, which variant of the name came first (jews, juice, jaw, jeu) etc. In any case it's a small frame that's held against the mouth, and a thin tongue (generally of metal in the West, but wood/bamboo in other areas) is plucked over the mouth. By changing the shape of the mouth, you change the resonance from the vibrating bit, and can produce clear notes.

These have the advantage of being quite inexpensive and portable. Pretty restricted to certain genres of folk music, but that's mainly just a matter of usage.



So far as learning how to play: you know how you can flick your finger against your cheek while changing the shape of your mouth? That's exactly how you change notes in a jawharp, so if you can do that you're set. There are a few YouTube clips on best ways to hold different types, but overall it's awfully simple and basically everyone who plays one is entirely self-taught.

So far as getting one, you can get cheap ones for $3 at Cracker Barrel and similar places. The cheapest ones are slim but with kind of a big sharp perpendicular oval on the hand end; it's my impression that these are Austrian-style. Those are the kind you also see sold in the cardboard displays with Snoopy on the front. American-style jawharps tend to be much stockier, louder and deeper (that's the kind I used to rock). And there there are a variety of bamboo and wooden Asian jawharps.

So far as where to get it, you see them scattered about, but given how cheap they are I wouldn't worry buying a random one on eBay or in a shop. EDIT: drat, but there are some expensive 'harps on eBay, so look and drool but scroll to the bottom for the $5 ones. I do have a strong bias for the heavy $20 American ones, but totally understand folks may want to start cheaper. There is a site which has quite a few that's worth digging: http://www.mouthmusic.com . Note also an association, http://www.jewsharpguild.org/ .



Clips:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O34jtRclFGM&feature=related Yeah, Norway is pretty serious about these
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnMXzCGNPSo&feature=related A player in India showing some trippy techniques
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsON2aFu2XI that madman Nadishana with a whole fistful of jawharps
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1m1ODyQ8AE A home-made bamboo jawharp, SE Asia style


While we're on the subject, I'll cover a few other instruments that don't produce sound in the same way as the jawharp (lamellophone, vibrating tongue) but do use the same mouth-shaping technique to change the tone.

Clackamore



I have one of these in the house somewhere, couldn't find it, racked my brains to think of the name. In any case, it's like flicking your cheek again, but since it's a tensioned arm, you can use all four fingers to tap it, so it's quite fast and decently loud. They run about $20 online, and I could only find one clip of it on YouTube that semi doesn't suck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2RwoePbJgI#t=0m47s

Humantone or Nose flute



Yup, exhale through your nose, air splits on a fipple, shape your mouth for the notes. They're like three for $3, so cheap enough to just give away. This is what the US Patent Office does for us. Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNu0b7BfkD0

There are actual serious "nose flutes" from Oceania that are normal flutes but played with the nose, but the ones I'm referring to are just little cast pieces of plastic.



Getting a bit more back to serious instruments, at several points thus far we've made mention of the great-grandaddy of string instruments:

Mouth bow



Insert here various old-school ethnomusicological tales about how the first hunter, leaning his tired face against his bow, was astonished to hear a note come out of his mouth when he idly plucked his weapon... In any case, ancient instrument, used in cultures throughout the world, and cheap as hell to make (or buy if you're a fancypants). Again, played by shaping the mouth to selectively amplify harmonics.

These were used all over the world, often for ritual or shamanic uses. You see this a little bit in America in old, old Old Time music. There are a few good sellers online, and again you really can't go wrong with one of these.



Clips:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYeR7c2eUak Nadishana again, playing a Siberian shaman mouthbow ("ghost catcher"). This dude is truly impressive, so if you dig this watch all his videos of weird instruments.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNpzC2HyOC4&feature=related a band jamming with a bowed mouth bow
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXkM11kp_tg&NR=1&feature=fvwp Fuckin'-A: famous Native American folksinger Buffy Sainte-Marie plays a mouthbow on Sesame Street (here's her again on Pete Seeger's old TV show)



I do keep meaning to pay $25 or whatever and get a really nice mouthbow with a tuning key. Out of all this instruments in this section, I like mouthbow best, though it's by far the least portable.

TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 07:38 on Jul 25, 2011

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

TapTheForwardAssist posted:


Not to zero in on one thing off your huge list, but what make of panpipes have you?

Handmade by Tasmanian hippie, bought at Salamanca Market - probably inspired by seeing http://www.araucolibre.com/ play there. I could have stood and watched these guys play for hours but my family wanted to shop and dragged me off.

Just caught this on youtube and thought a carrot ocarina sounded like an appropriate weird summer instrument http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsboQ7cp7a4 - enjoy!

Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Jul 23, 2011

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

Roxxfan posted:

Handmade by Tasmanian hippie, bought at Salamanca Market - probably inspired by seeing http://www.araucolibre.com/ play there. I could have stood and watched these guys play for hours but my family wanted to shop and dragged me off.

Groovy, I'll look to do a panpipe post later on in the week; just have to check into one or two suppliers.


One small update on the NAF issue: at a recent jam session I ran across a rather eccentric young dude who had a bunch of wind instruments, including a very simple plastic Native American Flute. I managed to get the name and look them up, and check them against Flute Portal, and ended up getting two shipped to me for $50 total.

The brand is "Sounds We Make" and they're basically just a piece of ABS plastic with finger-holes, a chamber plug, and a very ingenious fetish-block in the form of just a clip-on cast plastic piece. That minimalist fetish functions just fine, cuts out a lot of cost, and is easily adjustable and removable. Overall quite pleased with the sound and intonation; it's a bit on the soft side, but for a home practice piece it seems to work great.

Do note: the maker originally made these in a new modified fingering system, and those are the model that the Sam Ash company distributes online. If you want one in standard modern NAF fingering, just email the maker directly with your request.

I've been using mine as my knock-around piece, one I carry with me when out on errands, nipping down to the local bar, etc. That way I don't need to worry about it getting knocked around, falling off tables, etc. I have been stopped several time by bar staff who want to make sure it's not a length of lead pipe or something, though it is entertaining to be asked "excuse me sir, is that a flute?"

I'd still get a nicer traditional wood one if price and durability aren't your key considerations, but these definitely are great knockaround or starter flutes.

Paramemetic
Sep 29, 2003

Area 51. You heard of it, right?





Fallen Rib
Edit: ended up getting an autoharp. Pics to follow.





I dig it. Now I have to get used to a new style of fingerpicking.

Paramemetic fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Jul 26, 2011

Bolkovr
Apr 20, 2002

A chump and a hoagie going buck wild
You could find a stand of bamboo and make some panpipes/quills.

edit: ok your edit made my post nonsensical. But the idea stands.

Paramemetic
Sep 29, 2003

Area 51. You heard of it, right?





Fallen Rib

Bolkovr posted:

You could find a stand of bamboo and make some panpipes/quills.

edit: ok your edit made my post nonsensical. But the idea stands.

This is actually on my list of things to do sometime but I don't have a source for bamboo right now.

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Bolkovr
Apr 20, 2002

A chump and a hoagie going buck wild
Got my Xaphoon in the mail today. Woodwinds are hard! I think I'll have to go walk down in the woods and honk the poo poo out of this thing to learn proper mouth control. Don't want to the neighbors to think I'm raping goats up here.

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