Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
desert diver
Mar 30, 2010

Morvus, congratulations on your garmon :woop: If you need, this is apprently the button layout for a 15x8:

'верх' is top and 'низ' is bottom, and the blue notes are the chords, I think. (It might not fit though, my small size garmon turned out to have a completely different layout to anything I found online.)

Also this thread on a Russian forum has a bunch of neat videos of people playing kids' garmons. Feel free to ask me if you need any garmon-specific info, I am obsessed with this stuff.

Great to have more melodeon posts in this thread too, thanks TTAF! The video with the bodhran is just great. I think I will go watch endless melodeon videos on youtube now instead of writing my thesis.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

desert diver posted:

Morvus, congratulations on your garmon :woop: If you need, this is apprently the button layout for a 15x8:

'верх' is top and 'низ' is bottom, and the blue notes are the chords, I think. (It might not fit though, my small size garmon turned out to have a completely different layout to anything I found online.)


I'm not totally sure, but I believe the "Hb" there is what most of the world calls "Bb". There's this weird German tradition of calling "B" as "H", and thus "Bb" as "B". It's drat silly, and at least on this chart it seems the Russians do it too. Anyway Morvus, even if you don't find too much specific garmon-learning material online, don't despair, it's a pretty straightforward instrument. If you have any decently clever piano-playing friend who likes a challenge, you can probably show them the fingering chart (or whatever corrected version applies to your box) and they can figure out some basic songs for you just by appling their keyboard knowledge. Since garmon is unisonoric (same note on the push and pull) it's pretty straightforward for anyone who plays a keyboard in general. Bisonoric (different note on push and pull, like a harmonica) is more intuitive for a musician in general, but would probably baffle a keyboardist.

Been messing more and more with bisonoric stuff these days, and it really is fascinating how easy it makes it to play harmonies. That's how these 1-row cheap German squeezeboxes became so omnipresent between, say, 1850 and WWII; they're just simple to build and anyone with any musical ear can figure out how to play songs just by mucking around with it.

Similar to the dulcimer deal, if anyone is looking to get into melodeon/cajun/diatonic accordion, let me know and I can help you track a good and decently affordable one down.


quote:

Also this thread on a Russian forum has a bunch of neat videos of people playing kids' garmons. Feel free to ask me if you need any garmon-specific info, I am obsessed with this stuff.

Did you ever end up deciding to get a larger garmon, or bayan or something?

Would you be up to doing a megapost on the bayan? Even if you don't own one, I'm sure you know more and know how to find cool clips/pics better than I.




quote:

Great to have more melodeon posts in this thread too, thanks TTAF! The video with the bodhran is just great. I think I will go watch endless melodeon videos on youtube now instead of writing my thesis.

No worries, I'm just trying to get my melodeon tweaked right so I can start taking it to Irish pub sessions (seisún). A 1-row does have some limitations; even though a huge chunk of Irish music is in D and Em (Dorian Minor, with C#), there are a few keys you can usually "cheat" (like G and A where you can just skip around the Cnat or G#), but there are some keys you just can't do which is when you just lean back and sip your beer. There was an interesting discussion on MelNet about whether 1-row really "works" for Irish or no. A few guys opined that it doesn't because it can't subtly shade the notes like flute, voice, and fiddle can, so melodeon just is no good for Irish. To which another replied Marc Savoy's father told exactly this about Cajun music to his son when Marc picked up the accordion. :)


Morvus, if you want me to pass any contact info to desertdiver so y'all can talk in depth on garmoshka, let me know. And deserdiver, I was glancing at accordion tuning prices recently for a melodeon, and I believe that (especially if it's single-reed on the melody) getting your little mini-garmoshka back in tune could be decently affordable, like $100. Not dirt cheap, but a smooth-running mini with some family history behind it isn't a bad deal. That reminds me in general that there is a pretty substantial difference between a properly set-up accordion and one in rougher shape. Occasionally on MelNet someone will come in saying "I've been playing a beater 40yr old Hohner Pokerwork and it kind of sucks, but I tried a £400 Chinese import melodeon at the shop and it felt way better, should I just buy a new one?" To which everyone jumps in to say instead they should just put £150 into getting their old Hohner properly "fettled" and it will run like a new box. You really, really don't want to mess with reeds unless you're expert or have a junk practise box you're willing to destroy, but for basic stuff I'm about to order some fresh felt, straps and springs and whatnot to get my old Hohners running smoother.

lambeth
Aug 31, 2009
Thanks for making such an excellent thread, TTFA. It's gotten me to get two kalimbas and a lap harp (the zither-like kind), all of which I'm enjoying learning to play. It's been years since I've played an instrument, so I'm happy to start doing that again.

One question: I'm interested in eventually getting a bowed psaltery. Is there any advice on how to find a good-quality one or is looking on eBay ok? Obviously I know not to buy from Zither Heaven and cheap brands like that.

Dulkor
Feb 28, 2009

Progress update. After about a week and a half with my flute I can consistently get tone out of it and play the lower octave without any difficulty. The higher notes, especially the A and B, keep throwing me for now but I'm sloooowly improving. My hands still get tired a bit too quickly for playing actual music at anything but the slowest of tempos, but the fact I can stumble and fumble my way through simple, low octave tunes already is kinda neat.

Also my copy of the essential guide showed up. The sheer amount of history in this thing is kind of fascinating and a nice bonus on top of the technique instructions and CDs.

Butch Cassidy
Jul 28, 2010

I have only futzed with the concertina a little bit since TTFA sent it to me and it seems about time to post a starting update:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC9a3VMxk4Q

I'll eventually post another update after I get a chance to spend some proper time with it.

Edit: You can hear the single reed on the top right button on my right hand and how it meshes with everything else being a double reed.

Butch Cassidy fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Apr 15, 2013

Dancebot
May 21, 2007

"Come, follow me," Cthulhu said, "and I will make you fish that walk like men."
Thank you for the informative posts, TTFA and Desert Diver! Please do send my contact information along. The garmon is the first instrument I've played in a long time but I'd love to chat about it.

That keyboard layout seems to fit my garmon perfectly (haven't looked too hard at the chords yet). Right now I'm just working on practicing the scale without screwing up my bellows work!

I've reached out to a few of my instrument-playing friends for whatever assistance and resources they can provide. If they come across anything useful I'll be sure to post it here.

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

quote:

Edit: You can hear the single reed on the top right button on my right hand and how it meshes with everything else being a double reed.

Have you had a chance to check with the Concertina Forum yet about how to tweak the reed you've taped off? If you check with them and they say that one needs replacing, let me know and I can either get one mailed out to you, or can send you two donor ends so you'll have spares to pull from if you need to do any work. But hopefully for the price you're pleased overall in any case.

So far as the playing, are you finding the diatonic instrument to be pretty intuitive? A lot of it is just a matter of being bold and being willing to hit buttons next to the one you're pushing, as due to the magic of bisonoric layout they'll tend to harmonise regardless.


Morvus' garmoshka, on the other hand is unisonoric, so if you're soliciting advice from musician friends who are feeling adventurous, you can describe the melody buttons as being basically the white keys of a piano arranged in staggered fashion. You're finding the fingering chart to match yours overall? There's one thing in the chart I'm a little unclear on, and maybe while futzing with yours you can clear this up. Unless I'm mistaken the "Hb" is what we'd call Bb, so the chords on the left at F-Bb-C-Dm, the common I-IV-V-vi chord progression used in all kinds of Euro music (including modern pop). That's a Key of F progression. But what I don't get is the right hand chart seems to indicate purely Key of C pitches, which granted will fully overlap with Key of F with the sole exception that C uses a B and F uses a Bb. The fingering chart shows a Bb chord on the left and a B note on the right. Is that exactly what it is and it just makes sense in a certain way, or is it a Bb on the right as well? None of this is alarming or bad, it's just a slightly unusual layout that either I'm misunderstanding, or it just has some logic to it that's eluding me. In whatever case, I'm sure you'll have fun feeling it all out.

Protip: when searching YouTube for garmon/garmoshka clips, use the Cyrillic spellings: гармонь, хромка, гармошка, etc. Just copy-paste them from Wikipedia if need be.




While we're on accordions/concertinas/melodeons, let me just emphasise again as a Public Service Announcement, or A/T Very Special Episode:

Buying free-reed instruments from anything short of reliable sellers is inherently risky. Buying from someone trustworthy is far, far smarter than "finding a good deal", and odds are will save you money and much hassle. if you go on eBay, most sellers know jack poo poo about accordions, so you're at full caveat emptor. And some appear to know a little bit but can speak vaguely enough and claim enough ignorance that you'll be stuck if anything goes wrong. Properly set up and maintained free reeds can run smooth for years and year, lovely/damaged/neglected ones are a pricey fix. If you want to buy an accordion/concertina/melodeon, I would strongly suggest you either:
- Buy one you can play in person, and some kind of instrument you are at least dimly familiar with to the point you can check all the notes, condition, bellows function, etc to your satisfaction before buying.
- Buy on eBay or an instrument-specific forum, but explicitly from someone who has a long and good reputation for selling free reeds. So a guy on MelNet or Concertina Forum that's an upstanding contributor and gives a detailed description of his instrument. Or on eBay, a seller who describes in detail his qualifications and quality checks, and has a substantial track-record of high feedback specifically for free reed instruments.
- Safest of all, buy new or used from an established dealer who's either free reed specific or at least deals in large numbers of such instruments. Liberty Bellows in the US frequently has good deals, as do several other major US and Canadian accordion shops; similar for the UK as I listed a few dealers above.


I rolled the dice and came up short on a Cajun accordion I bough from a limey on eBay recently. Heard back from my melodeon tuner (yeah, I have a guy) that it's in worse condition than described in the writeup. Way out of tune, amateur repairs inside ("bodged", as the Brits say), shittily packaged. Filed an eBay complaint and hoping for a partial refund. At the actual bid price it would've been a great deal, but as it is with a £100 refund I might be able to sell it as a project piece for a coupla hundred and recoup all but $100 or so of a $500 purchase.



So, object lesson here. Unless you have either time and inclination to dick with things, or have enough cash that you can weather an occasional punch to the dick, or get a price so low that anything short of no reeds and a dead racoon inside would still be a good deal, then just buy from someone reputable. By all means, buy used accordions of good manufacture, but just don't buy blind for an instrument where all the important stuff is hidden inside.


quote:

Progress update. After about a week and a half with my flute I can consistently get tone out of it and play the lower octave without any difficulty. ...
Also my copy of the essential guide showed up. The sheer amount of history in this thing is kind of fascinating and a nice bonus on top of the technique instructions and CDs.

Good deal, sounds like your focus on picking it up throughout the day to try a little breathing practise is really paying off. Yeah, the Essential Guide is just massive and detailed, so if you're the type that likes having a clear methodology and detailed academic info for Irish trad and all it's ornaments, it's well worth the $50.


quote:

One question: I'm interested in eventually getting a bowed psaltery. Is there any advice on how to find a good-quality one or is looking on eBay ok? Obviously I know not to buy from Zither Heaven and cheap brands like that.



After all the above warnings about accordions, you'll be glad to hear that bowed psalteries are quite a bit safer a proposition. I wouldn't go so far as to buy an absolute no-name one on eBay, but even in that case the main risks are just that it'd be overbuilt and have poor resonance, have wood that's not dense enough to hold the threads of the tuners well, or just obvious wood damage. So a much simpler beast. You can buy nearly-new Unicorn Strings psalteries for around $100, barely more than a new ZH.

For psaltery, there's a Psaltery Forum that's a bit chintzy of format but looks helpful, and a Yahoo Group that's nearly dead but has an extensive back-catalog of posts. I glanced at a July 2012 list of makers on the forum, and here are a few ones that jumped out at me. Note I'm not particularly spun up on BP, but I've messed with them some, and since there's a decent amount of crossover with dulcimer I've got some vague eye for who seems locked-on:

- Prairie Psaltery - $275 for their basic model in simple hardwoods; looks to be a design they put thought into, good info and presentation
- Craggy Mountain carries TK O'Brien's stuff starting around $200, and his dulcimers have a good rep
- Dreamsinger - one of the more affordable at $200 for a 30-string, but I'd read up to make sure they're decent for the price
- Waynie has what looks to be good gear, and a really unusual "sideways" design starting at $340
- Flat Creek - one option only a few makers do is a diatonic psaltery, one only in one key at a time. This is actually not a bad way to go, since most folk music is in pretty limited keys. These are pitched in D, which means you can drop the C# and/or F# slightly to play in G or C, and those three cover you for a large portion of basic folk music. The 13 string diatonics are $139, so if you want something decently built and new but low-price and simple, that's an option.

If you or your spouse or sugar daddy/momma has cash and you want new, two sellers that do higher-end:
- Folkcraft, well-known for great dulcimers, a little pricier at $360.
- Omega Strings - if money is no object, for $500 and $700 these folks make some gorgeous gear with some really creative technical innovations. The high-end instrument shop Dusty Strings in Seattle carried these, and I recall being impressed by them back in the day.


There are some other brands that look decent but not unduly exciting (Unicorn Strings), but that I'd have no qualms about buying used; Unicorn has made hundreds of these over decades. Bear in mind that a proper case for these does either cost a bit or take some hassle, so if it's a used BP you like anyway, a $30 markup or so for a good quality case is not a bad deal. Looking at eBay, plenty of good psalteries have sold in the last 30 days at reasonable prices (like $100ish), so prioritise finding one in good condition with the proper accessories (ideally with case) from a recognised US maker, and you probably can't go too wrong. Do note that re-stringing one (if the strings are dark and corroded) can run like $30 in strings for a complete set, so if the current strings are clean-ish that's a plus though not clinching. Overall, psalteries are simple so you get pretty good bang for your buck compared to guitars or saxophones or what have you.


Out of curiosity, what draws you to BP? Any particular YouTube clips, saw one at a festival? What kind of music are you planning to do?

I believe :norway:-goon Black Griffon is our only current BP rep, so hopefully s/he is tracking and can drop in to advise as well.

TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 06:02 on Apr 16, 2013

lambeth
Aug 31, 2009
Thanks for the infopost, TTFA. I will definitely look into the sites you mentioned. My interest in it stems from watching YouTube videos, as it has a neat sound and I find the bowing between the pegs concept interesting. I used to play violin years ago, so there are some quasi-similar features there as well for me. Not sure yet what I'd play with it; right now, I'm trying to decide if I want an alto or soprano psaltery (probably will go with soprano).

Jazzbone
Oct 12, 2012
Heads-up for Goons interested in Irish instruments: I'll be staying for about 6 weeks in the fabled land, and there's quite few music stores nearby, along with postal office, so I can try to arrange instruments from here.

'Course, I'm just a student so some of the bigger priced ones might not be so easy to arrange.

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

Jazzbone posted:

Heads-up for Goons interested in Irish instruments: I'll be staying for about 6 weeks in the fabled land, and there's quite few music stores nearby, along with postal office, so I can try to arrange instruments from here.

'Course, I'm just a student so some of the bigger priced ones might not be so easy to arrange.

You might actually find the reverse process more engaging: most instruments are more affordable in the US than in Ireland and the UK. If you don't have a ton of carry-on luggage, bear in mind most (all?) airlines allow a "small" musical instrument as an extra carryon for free. I've hauled musical instruments on local and international flights tons of times, and so long as you are politely firm, and the instrument isn't huge (and sometimes even then) airlines will let you stow it in the cabin, or at worst do that "gate check" thing. I've never yet been forced to check instruments in the hold except for a few times I just had crazy amounts like a duffle-bag full of instruments.

In any case, last time I passed through London I brought two Appalachian dulcimers with me, put them on consigment with Hobgoblin, and got back twice what I paid for them. I'm not saying it's a huge money-making proposition, but if you enjoy spreading music around you could do worse than to bring a dulcimer with you to Ireland and sell it on their version of Craigslist.


The main instruments that would be more affordable, or at least a better selection, in Ireland and the UK than in the US, might be a few things like wooden flutes, maybe uilleann pipes (not that you want to muck with those as an amateur) or diatonic button accordions. In particular, the D/G 2-row is pretty popular in the UK, somewhat less so in Ireland, but pretty uncommon in the US.

I wouldn't focus unduly on trying to find deals for other people, but taking a dulcimer or two over (I've had good luck "cheating" and strapping two small/long dulcimer cases together as one item) to hook an Irish brother up, and maybe bringing back a melodeon for yourself or a friend, is a feasible idea. Mailing items back is costly enough that barring something tiny (like a great deal on a wooden flute or something) the postage eats up most of any advantage.


Separate note, I'm selling my African kora harp in DC, or maybe NYC if you can catch me on a weekend trip. It's up on SA Mart: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3544719



I have a few other things to sell in the DC area, like a Puerto Rican cuatro for $50. Once I get some pics I'll also post an Anglo concertina on SA Mart for cheap, and those are easy to mail. Just trying to trim back to a quasi-reasonable number of instruments.

Jazzbone
Oct 12, 2012
I was thinking more in line of utilizing the mentioned postal office nearby for the deeds.

As for luggage, I've had my fair share of carrying instruments on plane. Euphonium in your footspace (didn't fit in the compartment, had enough of the damage repairs) for whole 4 hour flight is nice :downs:.

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

Jazzbone posted:

I was thinking more in line of utilizing the mentioned postal office nearby for the deeds.

As for luggage, I've had my fair share of carrying instruments on plane. Euphonium in your footspace (didn't fit in the compartment, had enough of the damage repairs) for whole 4 hour flight is nice :downs:.

Oh, I know postal was your first though, just noting that postage costs can eat up a lot of the price difference. Getting a melodeon shipped over from Europe tends to run US$60-80. Buying locally is also mainly good for used gear, because if it's something new and commonly stocked in Europe but not carried in the US, my understanding is that if you have it shipped over you can save 20% when they subtract the VAT.

Not at all to dissuade you from browsing the instruments available in Ireland, just noting that shipping home might be a bit ambitious, whereas (if you're not already full of luggage) carrying an item or two over to sell there and carrying one or two back to sell here might not be too bad.

While in Ireland though, definitely check out the local sessions scene. I'm fixing to hit up some of the DC area sessions, or NYC sessions on a weekend trip; fortunately some sessions in the US have a supplementary "slow session" for more novice players, or folks that don't know the Irish Trad corpus so well. Just so that folks can ease their way in, since the fashion in many sessions has leaned towards playing incredibly fast. There's an argument that it's just turned into silly speed inflation at the expense of actual skill in ornamentation, so I'm definitely hitting up the slow session first.

BigHustle
Oct 19, 2005

Fast and Bulbous
I finally had some time to write up an effort post on one of the oldest instruments known to man and the reason I have money these days… BONES



Wait, wrong Bones. I mean MUSICAL RHYTHM BONES



That's better.

Records show that the bones were played in Ancient Egypt as well as the Greek and Roman empires. They were brought to the US by Irish immigrants back in the 1800s and quickly became a popular instrument for a few reasons, one of which being that they were fairly cheap and easy to purchase. Sears Roebuck and Company sold them in their mail-order catalog for about thirty-five cents back in the 1890's. They were an integral part of Minstrel shows, which kicked off the modern music and popular entertainment industries as we know them today. The bones can also be found in the blues, zydeco, and French-Canadian music. After almost completely disappearing from common use after the Minstrel era died out, the bones experienced a rebirth in 1976 when Percy Danforth (pictured below) popularized them again and began selling his own line of wooden bones.



The bones get their name from the original material they were fashioned from, namely animal bones. The Irish traditionally used goat ribs to fashion their instruments. The American traditionally used ox ribs or shins. You can still buy bones made of actual bone, although in modern times you can get them made from almost every wood available as well as plastic, stone or metal.



Bones typically range in size from 5 to 8 ½ inches or longer. The ideal set of bones will be 6 to 8 inches long and have a 28-degree curve to them, mimicking the shape of a rib bone. Obviously using a rib bone would require less overall shaping, but it is not difficult to fashion instruments from other materials.



Choice of material will affect the overall tone of the instrument. Soft and less dense woods like pine and maple offer a duller, softer tone while hard woods like ebony or English boxwood offer a sharper, louder tone. Plastic bones are usually on the soft and dull side of the spectrum while metals are sharper and brighter sounding. Natural bone varies based on density and finish. Polished bone has a sharper, higher tone while unpolished bone sounds much deller and lower.



There are two primary techniques for playing the bones, minstrel style (pictured above) and two finger grip (pictured below). For minstrel style playing, you place them on either side of your middle finger with the convex sides together. The middle finger wraps around the side of the bone closest to the thumb, using enough pressure so that it doesn't move. The ring finger should be used to squeeze the other bone against the middle finger with just enough force to keep it from falling out but not keeping it from moving freely. Two finger style players place the non-moving bone between the thumb and pointer finger, wrapping both fingers around the stationary bone. The movable bone is held like it is in minstrel style playing. The bones are rattled together by snapping the wrist with the same motion you use to start a car. As your skills advance, you can create multiple clicks per motion by also using arm motion to the wrist action.



In the right hands, bones can sound amazing and bring a great accompaniment to a jam session. In the wrong hands, the player is likely to find them shoved up their rear end by the other musicians at the session who are thrown off because they can't keep a beat and/or bring the loudest pair they have and overshadow the whole ensemble. Practice and more practice, hone your skill, and go join the Irish jam session at the pub to show them that not all bones players suck.



I work for Bone Dry Musical Instrument Company, the only bones-specific store on the planet. We're based in St. Louis, MO and sell bones, washboards, and assorted accessories for old time/folk/roots percussion. Although I can't offer a Goon discount, I can let you know that if you go to the website and sign up for the monthly newsletter you will receive 5% off of your orders as well as 10% off the wood of the month. The newsletter is a once monthly thing and we don't sell our customer's email addresses or anything nefarious like that.

If you end up ordering anything, make sure to put something Goony in the comments or mention me by name and I'll try to avoid getting Cheeto dust on your order, which is not something I would normally do.

VIDEO SECTION
Dr. Steve Brule on bones: http://youtu.be/8iMXH5z63r0
Vash of Circled by Hounds with a basic how to play video: http://youtu.be/mU31eqwC3w4
Percussion god Boris Sichon showing off his skills: http://youtu.be/JxFZzqUCzoI
Boris and Matt Gordon in Dueling Percussion: http://youtu.be/WsKIkZFHiqI
Suzuki Harmonica clinic with guest Mardeen Gordon, maker of Shooting Star brand bones: http://youtu.be/7pWZX1zS6gE
Dom Flemons of Carolina Chocolate Drops shows how to play the bones: http://youtu.be/iMokBr9cTxM
Carolina Chocolate Drops performing Genuine Negro Jig: http://youtu.be/bNaK_nBp2Yc
Teenager Sky Bartlett making most bones players look like poo poo: http://youtu.be/KtXayGVttm0

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

quote:

I finally had some time to write up an effort post on one of the oldest instruments known to man and the reason I have money these days… BONES

Thanks for the great writeup! Your earlier posts a few weeks ago actually got me to go digging into boxes and drawers to haul out the pair of wooden "bones" I bought back in the mid-1990s and have scarcely played since then. They're a reddish-light-brown wood, and pretty lightweight, I want to say cedar. If I every actually get decent on bones I think I'd buy a pair of whatever is least sharp/loud sounding, so I can play it at a session without being too obtrusive, or "that guy" like the archetypal inept bodhran player.


To draw a connection with my bones experiences back in the day, I've been reflecting on how ridiculous communications technology has gotten in my lifetime, and I'm only in my early 30s. Back when I first started getting interested in bones, the big deal was the paper copy of the Lark in the Morning world instruments catalog I got from some music store. It was huge and full of all kinds of weird stuff, and I mailed them a letter asking to get on their mailing (literal paper mail) list. If I'd somehow become aware of bones and hadn't had their catalog I could've spent forever trying to find out when folk festivals were in my area, going to festivals and hoping someone was selling bones, or asking musicians at local pubs if they knew anyone who played bones and could help me learn the basics.

Nowadays, in contrast, I went onto a melodeon forum and mentioned I was looking for a D 1-row, a guy messaged me to say he was in my area and had a spare, we met up by cross-communicating with cellphones to find each other. I bought it off him, and went online to buy some spare parts from an accordion store in the UK using PayPal. I then went back to the forum, used the search engine to get some recommended 1-row players' names, bought three of their albums on iTunes, then downloaded a free demo of the Amazing Slower Downer program so I could play the tracks at low speed (at the same pitch) to figure out the fingerings. I ended up buying the app on my phone, so I could move tracks there, and then sit outside in the park listening to half-speed tunes on my earpiece and playing along with the recordings. And now I'm shopping around Irish music instructors on the opposite side of the planet that I can take lessons from via Skype, from their homes in rural boondock County Whichever.

To get together that much info and materials on the Irish melodeon would've taken me months back in the 1990s, multiple paper letters mailed including overseas airmail and expensive long-distance phonecalls. And that's assuming I even found the basic info in the first place. Long ramble, but I've just been pausing more and more often these days to think about how amazing tech has gotten, so I can't imagine how amazing this poo poo is to an 80yr old. My current ambition is that the next motorcycle I buy will be an electric that interfaces with my smartphone, ideally with a heads-up display in my helmet visor.


In any case, that aside, with more reflecting on where I'm going musically, I'm continuing to cut back on instruments that I probably won't ever do much on. I'm keeping a few things I really like and want to play seriously (concertina, melodeon, Swedish bagpipe, dulcimers), and a few things that the basic skillsets cross easily to (Persian setar, toy piano). But things like flutes, shakuhachi, Chemnitzer, bowed lyre, etc. that would take me actual focus and attention to learn, those I'm selling off. On Monday I'll go to SA Mart and post my last fully-working Anglo concertina for really cheap, a few shakuhachis, etc. And the big Chemnitzer and a few other pieces I'll put up on Craigslist locally, along with an autoharp in a Scottish drone tuning. I have a lot of cool gear, but it's just an undue amount of stuff considering 90% of my music time is spent on 10% of my gear.

EDIT:
Shakuhachi ad: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3545512
Anglo concertina ad: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3545513

TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Apr 22, 2013

Butch Cassidy
Jul 28, 2010

I've sent a few e-mails to try contacting the builder about getting on the list for a serpent, but no reply for months. Looks like it isn't happening for now. :smithcloud:

But a beat up, wrapped package from Bulgaria was signed over to me yesterday, so I can be happy that my collection has grown a little :yayclod:



I ordered a 13 string Gadulka from Bulgariana and it was delivered exactly two months later. Now to find out what to do with this rose rakia. I'm thinking it would do well dropped into a mango lassi in place of rose water.

Butch Cassidy fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Apr 25, 2013

withak
Jan 15, 2003


Fun Shoe
I can't remember if we ever talked about the khene here, but here is an interesting application of one:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMgw9xI-OcY

BigHustle
Oct 19, 2005

Fast and Bulbous

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

Thanks for the great writeup! Your earlier posts a few weeks ago actually got me to go digging into boxes and drawers to haul out the pair of wooden "bones" I bought back in the mid-1990s and have scarcely played since then. They're a reddish-light-brown wood, and pretty lightweight, I want to say cedar. If I every actually get decent on bones I think I'd buy a pair of whatever is least sharp/loud sounding, so I can play it at a session without being too obtrusive, or "that guy" like the archetypal inept bodhran player.

Those do sound like cedar. We have some bones in Indian red cedar that are reddish brown and, when the light catches them right, almost salmon pink. If you do end up deciding to get another pair, let me know exactly what sound you are looking for and I'll get you some recommendations.

quote:

To draw a connection with my bones experiences back in the day, I've been reflecting on how ridiculous communications technology has gotten in my lifetime, and I'm only in my early 30s. Back when I first started getting interested in bones, the big deal was the paper copy of the Lark in the Morning world instruments catalog I got from some music store. It was huge and full of all kinds of weird stuff, and I mailed them a letter asking to get on their mailing (literal paper mail) list. If I'd somehow become aware of bones and hadn't had their catalog I could've spent forever trying to find out when folk festivals were in my area, going to festivals and hoping someone was selling bones, or asking musicians at local pubs if they knew anyone who played bones and could help me learn the basics.

Nowadays, in contrast, I went onto a melodeon forum and mentioned I was looking for a D 1-row, a guy messaged me to say he was in my area and had a spare, we met up by cross-communicating with cellphones to find each other. I bought it off him, and went online to buy some spare parts from an accordion store in the UK using PayPal. I then went back to the forum, used the search engine to get some recommended 1-row players' names, bought three of their albums on iTunes, then downloaded a free demo of the Amazing Slower Downer program so I could play the tracks at low speed (at the same pitch) to figure out the fingerings. I ended up buying the app on my phone, so I could move tracks there, and then sit outside in the park listening to half-speed tunes on my earpiece and playing along with the recordings. And now I'm shopping around Irish music instructors on the opposite side of the planet that I can take lessons from via Skype, from their homes in rural boondock County Whichever.

It's almost insane how quickly the internet developed into what it is today. I've been attempting to source new items for the store and it still blows my mind that I can sit down and find exactly what I'm looking for and have a shipment on the way to my doorstep with just a few button clicks.

BigHustle fucked around with this message at 05:36 on Apr 30, 2013

Empty Pockets
Jun 11, 2008
Hey guys, I'm almost certain I learned about an instrument in this thread but I can't find it for the life of me. It's a pitched percussion instrument made out of metal (brass?) in a generally circular shape with a hole in the top and a tube on one side that you can also put your hand over to get different sounds out of it. Generally speaking it had a very deep sound, but could go from djembe sounds to more metallic ones depending on how you played it. Can anyone tell me what it was called?

Edit: I guess it's just a udu. I didn't think the flatter, metal versions were called the same thing.

Empty Pockets fucked around with this message at 21:38 on May 1, 2013

RasputinsGhost
Mar 22, 2005
Russia's Greatest Spectral Love Machine
Not precisely on topic but I jammed with a shakuhachi player and a NAF player today (on my uke), it was a ton of fun. Thanks to this thread I sort of knew the basic mechanics of it so I was able to play a little. Thanks again, TTFE.

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

Empty Pockets posted:

Hey guys, I'm almost certain I learned about an instrument in this thread but I can't find it for the life of me. It's a pitched percussion instrument made out of metal (brass?) in a generally circular shape with a hole in the top and a tube on one side that you can also put your hand over to get different sounds out of it. Generally speaking it had a very deep sound, but could go from djembe sounds to more metallic ones depending on how you played it. Can anyone tell me what it was called?

Edit: I guess it's just a udu. I didn't think the flatter, metal versions were called the same thing.

"Just an udu"? I dunno, udus are pretty awesome.

I don't know that they're ever made of metal, that's more like a handpan, but ceramic can sound pretty ringy.

The one you describe sounds like the Utar model made by LP (YT clip):



A guy named Frank Giorgini designed a lot of the modern world-percussion udu drums and their weird variants, and LP licensed and produces his designs, running around $70-100. The only other big mass producer is Meinl, who makes theirs out of fiberglass. It's a tradeoff, the fiberglass is way lighter and more durable, but most everyone would say clay sounds better. The fiberglass is still pretty good though, so I own one. They're a little pricier, like $125 and up. Meinl also makes a few ceramic models now, including a mini-udu called a Quinto; the Quinto I can't find any info or demos of except sale cites.

Several sellers have the Utar on for about $100 with free shipping, so the item you describe is pretty attainable.


After weeks of slacking, I'm aiming to get up a new stringed instrument megapost sometime this week, work permitting. We're gonna go Latin for this one.

Empty Pockets
Jun 11, 2008
Udus are definitely sweet. It just seemed different enough in my mind that I was surprised to find that what I described wasn't really called anything different.

pretz
Sep 3, 2006
smoke weed and freestyle
Eagerly read through the thread and learned lots. I found myself drawn to the bowed psaltery as well, so I'm delighted you made another mention of it. I think the way it is played appeals to me, I can't really describe it but it's the one that jumped out at me the most (and there have been lots of instruments mentioned here!).

I read the ukulele thread last year and finally got one a month ago (cheap but serviceable soprano that I added aquila strings to; it was a gift so I won't shun it, but definitely want to upgrade!). My Feadóg D tin whistle came in the mail just a few hours ago actually! While I don't feel as stricken by the must-buy-all-the-cool-instruments bug, I did find it rather serendipitous that the very day I learned about bowed psaltery I happened to go to the musical instrument section on my local craigslist for the first time ever and, lo and behold, someone posted an ad selling their 30 string BP that day. I'm relatively new at uke still, and the tin whistle I've had for a few hours, but that kind of coincidence makes it seem like I should just go for it... it's not exactly what I'd consider a common instrument. The seller posted several pictures of the instrument in question but I can't tell what, if any, brand it is. Says it was $180 new plus $40 for the bow and that he didn't play it much so it is like new, and selling for $90 bucks (BP, bow, tuner, no mention of a case). I inquired about the brand but I think I want to take the plunge anyway...



Thanks so much for this thread, TTFA. It's gotten me excited about music again (played percussion and clarinet in school band) and my guitar-playing husband enjoys playing duets with me on uke, and looks forward to playing rhythm to my whistle. Aside from maybe a cardboard dulcimer down the road and maybe a D or B flat whistle, I really want to stop at that and become proficient at these three instruments.

I play folk-y/popular covers on the uke, am interested in session music and familiar ditties on the whistle, and would attempt folk on the psaltery. Husband plays a lot of folk type stuff on the guitar, so I'd like to try to play some stuff with him. I don't really know what else BP is capable of so I'd like to check out some more youtubes.



update from seller: "its hand made, bought at a psaltery show, it was made by an american luthier. It also comes with the tuning wrench." The BP is a hundred bucks flat to get it delivered right to me. I think it'd be fun.

pretz fucked around with this message at 05:43 on May 14, 2013

Sierra Nevadan
Nov 1, 2010

Loving this thread since I am a seasonal worker and there are always crazy musicians in those sorts of jobs. I have never been very musically inclined, I tried the clarinet when I was 10 and hated it/sucked. I am looking to pick up something, and really like the culture and history around the jug band instruments. I am thinking of grabbing some musical spoons off of Amazon.

Here's a good intro if anyone else is interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK_M8TIEE-4

I've used and had fun with normal spoons before, I think a pair attached together would be easier on the hands over time though.

Sierra Nevadan fucked around with this message at 02:47 on May 14, 2013

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

pretz posted:

Eagerly read through the thread and learned lots. I found myself drawn to the bowed psaltery as well, so I'm delighted you made another mention of it. I think the way it is played appeals to me, I can't really describe it but it's the one that jumped out at me the most (and there have been lots of instruments mentioned here!).
...

update from seller: "its hand made, bought at a psaltery show, it was made by an american luthier. It also comes with the tuning wrench." I have read about a bowed psaltery symphony nearby and I think that would be great! So the BP is a hundred bucks flat to get it delivered right to me. I think it'd be fun.

At $100 delivered you're not taking too much risk, so if that one appeals to you and you like serendipity you may as well go for it. You can find similarly good deals on eBay routinely, but you won't find much better much cheaper, nor any truly high-end BPs for $100, so this is a solid solution if it appeals to you.

A BP symphony? I admit I'd never actually heard of such a thing, so I had to YouTube it up. I imagine it's one of those things one either loves or hates, since BPs have a really distinct sound, and that's only magnified when there are a stagefull of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByhNbdB3meM



quote:

I've used and had fun with normal spoons before, I think a pair attached together would be easier on the hands over time though.

Oh, okay now. At first I was confused since the video shows using regular kitchen spoons, but then you mentioned ordering from Amazon. So you're talking about these then:




While looking at such things, also consider the wooden equivalent, the "catpaws":



Video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8bZGKw7gQI

I had thought that "catpaws" was the generic name for these, but it appears that is (at least currently) the model by Catania, the brand a ton of sellers carry. Catania is maybe better known for making thumb pianos. In any case, other sellers sell them as "wooden spoons".

If you're going really bluesy-jangly jugband, I would imagine metal spoons might be better, but for anyone else doing less brash kinds of folks, I really favor the wooden ones. They're a little pricier but not crazy; the Catanias run $18 or so. If you want to get fancy, here's some fine-art ones from Canada, still not too pricey though: http://www.caronlecuyer.com/en/achat/

I have a set of catpaws (or whatever make) somewhere around here that I haven't played in ages. I need to go digging and see if I can find where those got to. They're easier to play than the bones (though can't do as many cool complex beats), but I like the duller/softer sound of the wooden spoons, plus a lot of models are made so you can more easily effect the pitch with your hand, which aids in switching it up.

BigHustle, this is kind of your territory. Any further guidance?

Soup in a Bag
Dec 4, 2009

withak posted:

I can't remember if we ever talked about the khene here, but here is an interesting application of one:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMgw9xI-OcY
I don't remember it being talked about here, but I'm pretty sure I have to have one. Where can I get one of these if I live in the middle of the US?

I found this eBay seller who sells them for about $120 shipped to the US. I have no idea how to tell if they're any good though. The eBay posting kind of worries me too.

eBay khaen seller posted:

CAUTION!!
1. Keep away from heat or sunlight. (Important)
2. Beware of snout beetle.
3. This musical instrument is breakable, do not drop it.

BigHustle
Oct 19, 2005

Fast and Bulbous

Sierra Nevadan posted:

I've used and had fun with normal spoons before, I think a pair attached together would be easier on the hands over time though.

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

*Catpaw and "musical spoon" things*

BigHustle, this is kind of your territory. Any further guidance?

Sure, I can chime in.

First, here is a video of a guy playing the "musical spoons" from Amazon

They are easier to hold but there are some downsides.

First is that you won't learn the proper grip/technique for playing actual spoons, which will cut down on the 'wow' factor of grabbing some poo poo out of the utensil drawer at a party and going to town.

Second is that you will have the exact same sounding instrument as everyone else who has one of those. Learning to play with the traditional method leaves you open to literally infinite tonal variety with spoons made from different woods, metals, plastics, or even bone or horn.

Third is price. The pair that TTFA pictured sells for $5.28 at Amazon. For that amount you could hit a thrift store and get an assload of spoons that will offer you more of a variety in materials and tonality.

I personally wouldn't apply the above comments to the Catpaws or other one piece carved spoons, mainly because those are nice looking instruments. The Amazon spoons look like something that was shipped over from China for the dollar stores. At least the carved one piece spoons look like there was some craftsmanship involved.

The variety of spoons are what will add spice to playing a simple instrument. We have some wooden spoons in a variety of sizes at the store I work for that aren't up for sale yet. They look nice and sound pretty good. The one thing I immediately picked up from messing around with them are that different sized spoons are a great thing to have. We're going to have three different sized wooden spoons, 4", 8" and 12". The 4" spoons have a nice, clear high pitch that I really like. The longer the spoons get, the lower the pitch.

If you get a decent pair of spoons, you can hold them in the same manner as bones and play them the same way. With a qood quality sounding set, you can get the best or both worlds.

Just as a word of 'warning', if you get a pair of 'cheater spoons' and go to play at a jamboree or something with folk/traditional players, they may treat you like poo poo for playing 'cheaters'. Some people are bothered by this, others not so much. As far as I'm concerned, if it brings you enjoyment just loving do it.

VIDEOS
Vash of Circled by Hounds teaches basic spoon method
National Museum of Australia video demonstrating the Spoons
Grammy award winning musician David Holt with an in-depth explanation of spoon playing <-- skip the rest and just watch this one.

virtual256
May 6, 2007

That last video is amazing. Short, sweet and to the point. I now feel comfortable monkeying around on spoons.

BigHustle
Oct 19, 2005

Fast and Bulbous

virtual256 posted:

That last video is amazing. Short, sweet and to the point. I now feel comfortable monkeying around on spoons.

That is part of David Holt's "Folk Rhythms" DVD. He teaches how to play the bones, spoons, washboard, hambone and paper bag. The whole thing is worth a watch if you are interested in old time percussion.

Butch Cassidy
Jul 28, 2010

Anyone here familiar with the domra? I just impulse-bought one on Ebay :shobon:

Also, TTFA, my wife just finished her finals and the last bits of my AR are inbound, so I should be able to get that autoharp back together in the next few weeks after I get caught up on sleep and the in-laws go back home.

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres
Re: khene

Soup in a Bag posted:

I don't remember it being talked about here, but I'm pretty sure I have to have one. Where can I get one of these if I live in the middle of the US?

I found this eBay seller who sells them for about $120 shipped to the US. I have no idea how to tell if they're any good though. The eBay posting kind of worries me too.

I got ahold of the guy I know who's messed with khene a lot. He says that quality declined on his old Thai maker, so know he gets them straight from Laos for $250. I can probably get contact info for that maker if that's in your budget. Otherwise, the eBay ones seem a reasonable deal in that the guy has good feedback specifically for selling instruments. You're taking some risk, but that's inherent to buying a primitive instrument from overseas.

I've occasionally toyed with the idea of making some nice durable khene with like carbon fibre tubing, but I'm swamped with work and projects enough as it is now. Someday...

quote:

Also, TTFA, my wife just finished her finals and the last bits of my AR are inbound, so I should be able to get that autoharp back together in the next few weeks after I get caught up on sleep and the in-laws go back home.



Don't forget, you'll need a little autoharp felt, it's a few bucks a foot but you won't need much for one that small. And there are some good tutorials online for how to re-felt the bars. While you're doing that, I'd suggest switching it up just a little by choosing whichever chord you like least and re-felting it as an Am, tape a new little label on the key. That 'harp has no minor chord so far, and I think it'd be a lot more versatile with one.

NOTE TO SELF: پيانات/رهوداس، كورا، توركيش ستيك تراسور كواترو

TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 03:29 on May 19, 2013

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres
The ongoing reorganisation of my collection continues, whittling down the instruments I just don't use more than once a year, and using some of the proceeds to make sure all my main gear is properly maintained, cased, accessorised, etc.

While organising I came across a book of sheetmusic for Scottish harp; if anyone here plays Celtic harp or some similar instrument that does both melody and harmony part at the same time, shoot me an email at my username at yahoo, and I'll mail it out to anyone in the US for free.

BigHustle
Oct 19, 2005

Fast and Bulbous
I have a spoon update for you all. I picked up a couple of cheap sets of spoons at Dollar Tree yesterday and spent half the night screwing around with them. I ended up going to work today to get a few things done and my boss asked me to join him at a jug band jam session.

We get out there and it ends up being run by Ryan Spearman, a well-known local folk musician/music historian. It was kind of bizarre jamming with him since it was the first time I've played with someone I've written about. I'm a music writer for the local independent radio station and the last blurb I wrote was the piece I linked in this post. I was pleased to get a compliment on my playing. I kept it mellow and low-key, which is apparently a rarity for people who show up to the jam with spoons.

I also happened to be in the right place at the right time and picked up a Suzuki OM-84 Omnichord for $25 from a local thrift store. The organ function sounds like it was used to record the audio for NES carts, but it's a shitload easier to set up for basic playing than the newer version, the Q-Chord. I may end up busting out the DAW and recording a few basement demos with it just for fun.

Speaking of basement demos, I bought an electric kazoo last week. It's essentially a regular kazoo with a pickup that firs in the resonator port. I recorded a quick and dirty Neil Young cover to test it out, so if you want to hear some amateurish guitar playing and kazooing, here you go.

pretz
Sep 3, 2006
smoke weed and freestyle
So I've had the bowed psaltery for a little over a week now and it's really great! The initial reaction is almost invariably "what's that?" until they hear how it sounds. I can see how one would get the impression it was a love-it-or-leave-it sounding instrument but it really does sound neat in person. It's like a very resonant, more hollow violin. Plus, since this thing is set up much like a piano it's been pretty easy to mess around and figure out some basic tunes: Ode to Joy, the theme from Jurassic Park, the melody from Fur Elise, and then a bunch of Ocarina of Time ditties and real simple children's tunes, you know the ones. I'm also rather fond of just sitting and playing note after note just 'cos it sounds so dang neat. :)

The seller included a tuning wrench. After a few days, I checked the tuning on each string. They seem to hold really well, only a few of them needed any real adjusting. Sometimes the adjusting was akin to tensing up the wrist, the tuning pins don't need to be adjusted that much.

This is my first time playing with any kind of bowed instrument at all, and I did not know you aren't supposed to touch the hair on the bow! Or anywhere there is rosin. I had touched/fingered the horsehair several times out of curiosity before I learned the oils on your fingers do not mesh well with rosin. Like, at ALL. On the second day, it almost completely stopped producing any sound at all. Fortunately rosin is cheap and easy to procure and it only took moments before my psaltery was making even louder, crisper, more resonant notes. I asked the guy selling the rosin if I was supposed to score the surface of the new block of resin to 'start' it, and he said you can just draw the bow across the block until you see it marking the surface. It worked just fine and I can actually see the rosin on the strings/bow now and have had no problems.

My Feadóg whistle is also very easy to figure out as well. I think mastering breath control is key to making it sound good. It's really a high-pitched instrument thought, compared to the uke or the psaltery. There are day sleepers around here (and people who sleep at night too) so I usually wait til the house is empty and then whistle to my heart's content.
I think before the year is up I'll be in the market for a appalachian dulcimer, another psaltery bow, and another ukulele too. That's IT. There really is a lot of wisdom in "buy the nicest one you can afford". Since the uke was a gift, I don't turn my nose up at it, but I'm coming up in two months of solidly playing it every single day and while my skills have improved I think the ukulele is definitely "student-quality". I had the opportunity to tool around on a nicer tenor uke in a local guitar shop and the first words out of my husband's mouth were: "that sounds like an instrument and not a toy!"

Bonus *~arty~* photo of my instruments.




(edited for clarity)

pretz fucked around with this message at 07:00 on Jun 1, 2013

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres
pretz, great update on your BP; so did you end up buying the one you found online? If you find it slipping off your lap, my preferred easy-fix for dulcimers is to buy some of that rubbery mesh stuff people use to line drawers and shelves, a few bucks for a roll of several feet of it. A patch of that laid across the knee will help hold the instrument in place. And yes, a second bow will eventually prove very useful.

quote:

I also happened to be in the right place at the right time and picked up a Suzuki OM-84 Omnichord for $25 from a local thrift store

Lucky SOB; we have what, two goons who own these now? I'm tempted, since these would be awesome as a guitar substitute for the chiptune set.





The last few weeks I've been mostly focused on Irish button accordion, as well as steadily selling off the music gear I don't use regularly. Had a slightly confusing experience today where a guy and his brother showed up to buy my Craigslisted Chemnitzer concertina (big square squeezebox like a bandoneon). Their English wasn't great, so we switched to Spanish and they explained they were buying it for their dad, but didn't really know much about instruments, but what I had seemed fair enough. I asked if their dad played 3-row accordion (the usual Tejano instrument) and explained that a Chemnitzer was vaguely similar but not quite the same thing, but there's only so much I can do to talk a customer out of a sale. So hope that goes well for them.

Also went to the DC Folk Festival (not Smithsonian Folklife, that's on the Nat'l Mall later in June) and caught a few acts like some Irish dancers backed up my 2-row accordion and fiddle. I don't know Irish dance really well, but my impression was they were doing sean-nós (Irish for "old school") dance rather than the Riverdance-y stepdancing people are used to. Sean-nos more resembles what Americans would think of as clogging, feet lower and shuffling and arms swinging, vice stepdancing which is more formal with arms nailed to the body and sprightly kicks. I honestly don't really dig stepdancing, so was happier to see folks doing sean-nos, especially as they did the old method of dancing on a wooden board, and then on an overturned wooden washtub, for better sound:



Also saw a performance of a Sikh woman singer who accompanied herself on the harmonium (small hand-pumped organ set on the floor), with some accompaniment from an Anglo guy on violin. He was apparently a local classical violinist she'd run across, and had been willing to learn to do a set with her by just listening to Punjabi recordings of hymns and learning the tunes by ear on violin.

Saw a few interesting vendors too, including June Apple Dulcimers, mentioned earlier in this thread since they're one of the few makers producing the various European dulcimer relatives affordably. Their German scheitholt (a long, skinny ancestor of the Appalachian dulcimer) is only $195, and it attested as early as 1600ish in Germany, if anyone is in need of a historical reenactment instrument. Also plenty of bowed psalteries on-hand. BPs are a pretty popular instrument at musical festival vendors, to the point where that's the main place I associate them with. Probably because they're inexpensive to build and easy to sell to even inexperienced musicians due to being pretty intuitive to play, as pretz has noted. Also a whole rack full of large kalmibas (thumb pianos) made from cigar boxes. Kalimba is another instrument I associate with festival vendors, and that's where my dad first bought us one back in, oh, 1986 or so. Another instrument easy to make and play, and I have some uplifting kalimba info to share, and renewed encouragement for goons to try that out, for next week.

Quad
Dec 31, 2007

I've seen pogs you people wouldn't believe
Has the thread touched on bhangra instruments at all? I want to buy a tumbi and I'm wondering if there's a reputable online dealer or if I should just go to Amazon.

TapTheForwardAssist
Apr 9, 2007

Pretty Little Lyres

Quad posted:

Has the thread touched on bhangra instruments at all? I want to buy a tumbi and I'm wondering if there's a reputable online dealer or if I should just go to Amazon.

I think we covered dhol just a little bit once. What the heck, let's do a tumbi post; I've been too lazy about instrument megaposts for a few months now.

Tumbi



The tumbi is a Punjabi folk instrument, consisting of a gourd with a skin head and a stick stuck through it, with just one metal string. Vaguely similar in construction to the earliest American banjos. It's a folk instrument, not a classical Indian instrument like several discussed in the thread, and is mostly used in Punjabi folk music and in Bhangra. If you think you don't know Bhangra, look it up on YouTube and you've probably heard it before: the really bouncy, hyper style of Punjabi music with lots of hip-hop effects. The Wiki article on it is a bit of a mess, but has some interesting content about the development and controversies of Bhangra as a genre.

In any case, the tumbi produces a really high-pitched, bright and twangy sound whose notes modulate only slightly. So less of a melodic instrument and more of a backing piece. I don't know the modern sound-mixing term for it ("tweeter hook"???), but it fulfills a role like the whistle in samba music, or the triangle in Cajun music: a repetitive pattern at the high end of the scale that helps ground the music.



So far as acquiring one, I'm not finding anything truly conclusive. Mostly people seem to just buy them from wherever, so mainly I'd just look for a reputable-seeming seller. Ideally one that seems to do enough music business that they would want to get it right. They're also awfully inexpensive, so you're not assuming huge risk. I am pretty curious though as to whether full-time professional musicians track down great builders to make them extra-nice tumbis, or whether they just keep a barrel of cheapies around and go through them as needed.

Of the few sites in English I've seen that seem semi-serious, in the UK there's https://www.tumbi.co.uk for £22; also in the UK https://jas-musicals.com is one of the only stores I've seen to offer more formal-looking "concert tumbi", for whatever that's worth. https://bhangraavenue.com appears to ship from India, $15 for the tumbi and $15 for shipping. In the US, https://dholetc.com is a Punjabi-centric dealer with tumbi from $30. Those are just a few dealers that pass a general sniff-check, though overall I'm just not seeing a lot of advice on what dealers are preferred. eBay is viable, with the standard technique there of not just looking at their feedback, but checking it to see if they specifically have good feedback for tumbis and similar musical items, not just good reviews for selling saris and ankle-bells.

The one tricky bit is that tumbis don't have a lot of range, so at some stage you have to figure out how high pitched of one(s) you want to get the sound you want. But again, they're cheap enough to experiment a bit, have a small variety, etc. If you live in a part of the world that has a bhangra scene, you might be able to get some good advice from local musicians, who might even have a preferred tumbi dealer to refer you to.

In the few forum discussions I've seen about these, several folks recommended the iTumbi app (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaAeDT9IY5o), so that might be worth at least glancing at. And for the others of y'all reading who've been collecting weird instrument apps on your smartphones. There are apps for dhol drum and the like too, making me wonder if anyone has an all-smartphone bhangra ensemble.

So far as learning, you're just spoiled for choice with tons of folks having free YouTube tutorials in a variety of styles. Of those one of the more professional looking is the series of lessons by Sangtar Heer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYbxlrh1lN4 for part one. They are in Pujabi but hit the "cc" button for English subtitles
http://www.bhangraavenue.com/Instrument/tumbi.aspx


These days tumbi is usually buried in ensembles, so I'll have a few clips of ensemble playing and a few solo:


- A really minimalist field recording of an older Punjabi man accompanying his singing on tumbi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6UZHeX2f-I
- A track by Panjabi MC with tumbi throughout the back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fRNtqD2UBU
- A skilled player going solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6n0Jt0UWd0
- Missy Elliott's 2001 "Get Your Freak On" is one of the most famous non-Indian songs with heavy tumbi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2dgFyJQvEs
- Trad playing of tumbi and dholki drum (I think dhol is played with sticks, dholki by hand): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er7MRG33BkA
- Live performance of UK Punjabi bhangra dancers with very prominent tumbi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6pfGaQblN0


EDIT: If anyone in the DC area has been looking to get into harp, there's a dude on CL who has a Paraguayan harp (a really lightweight but strong clever version of the old harp) up for $400: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/msg/3852292176.html. If I weren't trying to really trim back on instruments I'd be going down there to check it out (down in southern Alexandria).

TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Jun 10, 2013

Butch Cassidy
Jul 28, 2010

The impulse-purchase four string domra finally arrived:


At the same time as a lead dust collector for my air rifle :neckbeard:

It is just a bowl-backed mandolin with single strings. It could be a pretty versatile instrument, and it has a sharp quality versus the mandolin's shimmer, but is hard to find in the States. I'd just as soon get a mandolin and play pieces for four string domra as go through the trouble of trying to find one over here and then pay the price. It really makes me want to find a good three string, though which would better stand out with its tuning.

As wall art in the dining room and occasional plucker when friends are over, though, I don't think it was a bad purchase. One friend noodles pretty well with my mandolin when he is over, and this should play well with it.

Heath
Apr 30, 2008

🍂🎃🏞️💦
So I picked up a Puerto Rican style cuatro today and I'm trying to tune it. Does anybody have any advice for doing so? I have a chromatic tuner that works pretty well, but it seems to give me odd readings on this and I'm not sure whether it's because the strings are too loose or what. I'm a little new to guitars in general (I also picked up an electric guitar a few months ago and have just started lessons) so any general tuning advice would be welcome. :3:

Bigos
Dec 30, 2006
A Succulent Polish Treat
While, hindsight sure is 20-20.

Ever since reading this thread, I had been interested in a dulcimer but never interested enough to buy one. I could afford one, I just wasn't willing to spend the money on something that was just a curiosity. Today I re-read the beginning of the thread. Looking at the cardboard dulcimers, I thought they're so cheap it might not matter if I rarely play it. Then I realized I had a box for a .22 cal rifle that's right about the size and shape of a dulcimer body. Hey, this dulcimer's going to be super cheap and mostly homemade! Then I realized the box got thrown out a couple of weeks ago. Oh, well.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

I Greyhound
Apr 22, 2008

MusicKrew Dawn Patrol
Does the standing offer for decent used Ebay dulcimer locatior service still stand?

I figure a new summer calls for a new instrument that I'll only learn 1-2 songs on, and I could go for a dulcimer if its still possible to get a decent used one for about $100. I don't have platinum, but I can throw up an e-mail.

I Greyhound fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Jun 21, 2013

  • Locked thread