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Smoking Crow posted:I'm gonna try and get that Green River That would be amazing. Used dulcimers sell for crazy cheap (and actually new customs aren't that pricey). A guitar as nice as that GR would be like $400 used. Definitely bid for it and update us. I can do further eBay pulls for any goons in a few days.
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Jun 7, 2016 14:52
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Smoking Crow posted:I'm gonna try and get that Green River Sold for $110; was that you?
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Jun 10, 2016 14:06
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Goons who know what they're looking for should probably be stalking Shopgoodwill.com for used instruments.
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Jun 10, 2016 18:16
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Sold for $110; was that you? No, $100 was as high as I was willing to go
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Jun 10, 2016 19:57
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Smoking Crow posted:No, $100 was as high as I was willing to go No worries; are you going to bid on any of the other ones, or shall I do a fresh pull for you (and any other goons wanting one) on Monday? Had a fun idea come to me: what if once I reach Austin I post some blog or whatever offering to loan out cheap weird instruments to people so long as they put down a deposit equivalent to its value, and get it all back when they return it the next month? Like I paid under $100 for a cheap concertina, let me hold $100 and you can play it for a month and bring it back for a full refund. Does that sound too annoying or worth a shot? I can do it small at first with just cheap stuff I already own, and if it goes well it'd give me an excuse to buy a few more weird/cheap things to loan out. Austin has a lot of musicians and not all of them have money, so I think a lot would be inclined to go play with weird stuff if they weren't risking money on a purchase.
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Jun 11, 2016 17:43
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Welp, getting a check tomorrow so placing an order with Porto Guitarra to have one shipped over from Portugal. Gonna turn that little teardrop cittern to DADGAD and take it to Irish pub sessions. His base model can end up as low as $350 with US shipping, but I'm going one notch up and getting an action job and hard case. Gonna be sweet and is vaguely period-correct for reenacting songs of the American Revolution.
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Jun 14, 2016 01:56
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Whoo! Tell us about your cittern when it arrives. Are you going to play it by ear, or read tablature, or what?
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Jun 14, 2016 05:50
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:No worries; are you going to bid on any of the other ones, or shall I do a fresh pull for you (and any other goons wanting one) on Monday? If you'd do another pull on Ebay dulcimers I'd be most grateful. I've finally decided to take the plunge and try one but I'm having difficulty figuring out what's good and what's garbage. Budget is $100 + shipping, wood body please.
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Jun 17, 2016 22:49
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As a kid, I took a year of piano lessons (mostly classical) and have been largely self-taught ever since. I learned electric guitar in high school and took a fancy to arranging heavy metal guitar parts on the piano. I later taught myself acoustic guitar (read: actual chords, e.g. Tenacious D) and began singing. Years ago, I took a liking to bluegrass and bought a cheap banjo and mandolin and taught myself some simple stuff on those. I've taken a few banjo and guitar lessons in recent years but never kept up with them. I also bought a drum set from a friend but haven't got more than a couple basic beats down. I have a build-your-own ukulele kit but haven't mustered the motivation to actually put it together. I can somewhat read musical notation, slowly, but have a decent understanding of musical concepts. I'm pretty good with tabs on stringed instruments. What weird new instrument should I learn this summer? Or should I actually just hunker down and master one trade, instead of jacking yet another? fwah fucked around with this message at 08:44 on Jun 18, 2016 |
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Jun 18, 2016 08:42
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fwah posted:
As a banjo and mandolin player, I suggest you go back to them. This shouldn't get in the way of learning something weird, though. Perhaps going to a local jam or something will spur interest. You could also take the approach to learn clawhammer style on the banjo instead of Scruggs style. This will give you some variation with current instruments.
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Jun 19, 2016 00:20
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quote:What weird new instrument should I learn this summer? Or should I actually just hunker down and master one trade, instead of jacking yet another? There are a couple ways to look at this: is your priority more finally getting proficient on an instrument you enjoy, or is this more a "I like dicking around and learning new stuff even if it doesn't go very far"? If the former, hands-down I'd say work on your mandolin. It's a very versatile instrument, conveniently portable, and welcome in just about any kind of jamming or collaborating environment. Seriously hard to over-rate the utility of the mandolin. If you're going to buckle down on mando, get the Niles Hokkanen chordbook for like $5, make sure you have good (fresh if needed) strings, and make sure your action is set at a good height (let me know if you have trouble figuring out how to do that even after googling). Get a case and strap for it if you don't have one, I like the straps where it's a button-hole on one end and strings to tie just above the nut on the other end. That might help satisfy any need to get "new stuff" while investing in your axe-of-focus for now. Btw, if mandolin is metal enough for Jimmy Page, it's metal enough for you. Here's a cool acoustic clip of a mandolin duet covering Tool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dwH-WAntCg. And here's an odd but fun amateur performance on a cheap electric mando: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbPCVuJ65Kk. And another simple electrified: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ellFrIeBhY Get your mandolin how you want it, then just pick a few tunes or styles of music you want to experiment with, and make a serious effort to get in at least 15 minutes every single day, and see how that feels after a week or two. If on the other hand you're just looking for some mind-broadening experience and have money burning a hole in your pocket, I'd go one of three ways: - get any of the basic small winds: tinwhistle, ocarina, recorder, Native American flute. You can get a decent one really affordably, and for the formers there's plenty of e-learning and for the NAF you can just improvise on it and chill. All of these can be had in good-quality plastic versions if you want a knockaround to take to the park, camping, leave in your car, etc. My only caveat is don't get the dirt-cheapest one because you can generally find a way better one for 10% more. Particularly on recorders get something okay, but overall this category is like $15 to $50 for a solid instrument, and they don't take up much space. - if you dig strings but want something that you can just have fun play with without getting all serious into techniques and tabs, I'd say get any one of the basic lyres/zithers. There's some guy in Magnitogorsk on eBay now selling tons of "Russian gusli" for like $120 with free shipping, I'd do either that or a small kantele, or maybe a cheaper Anglo Saxon lyre. It'd be a very different string experience, you can do a lot of neat microtonal tuning stuff since each string is independent (if you go this route post here and I'll walk you through it), definitely distinctive, and affordable.  - if you want to get back to your keyboard roots, I'd go with a squeezebox. If you want a familiar keyboard, go piano accordion. If you want a little more mentally broadening, the Hohner Club squeezeboxes (2.5 row diatonic accordions) are out of vogue right now so are often sold for really reasonably prices for the quality you're getting, and are pretty versatile while way lighter and more compact than a piano accordion. I can advise on how/where to get one if you're inclined, probably $250-300. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LVdrUlEJYk  So either get (slightly) serious and buckle down on mandolin and you'll have an instrument you can take about anywhere and play about anything. If you're in the "I'm not a player/ I just crush a lot" mood, here's a few suggestions and you can bounce whatever other weird ideas off us that come to you, or browse the thread. Really can't go wrong either way, just depends what road (for now) you want to take. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Jun 19, 2016 |
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Jun 19, 2016 16:29
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Here's an eBay dulcimer pull for this week. When I state a price I'd recommend going up to, that's including the shipping: - Appears to be a Folkcraft kit build, a little sloppy on assembly but nothing critical. I'd go $85 on it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-String-DULCIMER-Hourglass-Shape-/231982702094?hash=item36033f1e0e:g:H4oAAOSwGIRXZGnh - Apple Creeks aren't amazing but not terrible with a little polishing, I'd go $50 on any one that's not trashed: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Applecreek-Dulcimer-Beautiful-Item-/152133736190?hash=item236be096fe:g:jTMAAOSwmtJXZFjn - Ends Monday, generic but nice wooden, I'd do $75: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mountain-Dulcimer-Vintage-/262482325128?hash=item3d1d2a6e88:g:vIkAAOSw-4BXXtEZ - if you want a funky 1960s hippie painted one and a too-nice case, and are on the West Coast to keep shipping down, I'd go $85 on this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/33-Handmade...bsAAOSwMNxXYZfR
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Jun 19, 2016 18:02
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Anyone else here love the Russian Bayan? (This is what many people would recognize as a chromatic button accordion, but the voicing and button lay out is different) I've only been playing for about a year, but I would recommend to anyone with an interest in bellows instruments.
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Jun 20, 2016 19:32
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I'm working on a new mid-thread "OP" to update folks on popular choices for given scenarios. Will post it finally this week and re-post the banner ad.CrimsonSaber posted:Anyone else here love the Russian Bayan? We have at least one thread regular who plays the garmon (different type of Russian accordion) and I think one CBA player, but you might be our main bayan advocate. What kind of music do you play on yours?
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Jun 21, 2016 20:33
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Okay, I'm back from West Africa and starting to settle back into Austin. Time to hoist high the banner ads and get this thread back helping goons get musical. I'm linking the banner ad to this post as a quick sum-up of some of the thread favorites, but folks just arriving, it's worth going back to the beginning of the thread and browsing through all kinds of musical ideas. EDIT May 2017: okay, life got complicated in Austin, but I finally got things wrapped up and moved to Montreal, let's get this thread pumping again. For this post, I'm going to try this FAQ-style laying out some common scenarios we encounter here, and you can see if some of these describe you. I have no current musical ability and want something you really can't sound bad on just dicking around Easily done, there are a number of cool affordable options. - Native American flute: can be had in wood or plastic (good for backpacking) as low as $50, limited scale so basically any note you play will blend with the others so you can just wander around all day just playing notes and sounding musical. An equivalent would be the Japanese shakuhachi (available in bamboo or PVC very affordably, $20-50) which is slightly harder to learn the right angle to blow but the fingering is equally meander-friendly. Both make amazing meditational instruments. If you want slight variants, you can get recorders and side-blown flutes in "pentatonic" (just five notes) as well.  - Any of the small harp or lyre instruments. Small Russian guslis and Finnish kanteles can be had in the $150 range, and you can easily tune them to different scales for different moods and then just let your fingers wander. Also really meditative but also something you can use for basic song accompaniment, playing basic tunes, etc.  - Thumb piano: a little metal board with metal tines to pluck. Never goes out of tune but you can deliberately re-tune it for different moods. Don't buy the absolute cheapeset junk import ones, but you can get good basic ones for like $30  I want something really inexpensive and low-intensity, but something I can semi-seriously study, pick a specific genre and learn a body of tunes that I can play for my friends. - There are several small winds that are great for this, mainly the Irish tinwhistle (or "pennywhistle"), the ocarina, and the recorder. Any of these are affordable and very compact and usually durable. A perfectly good tinwhistle can be as low as $7 tossed into your next Amazon package, like one good enough you could play it in an Irish pub jam once you get the chops (there's really no reason *not* to get a tinwhistle if you have the slighest interest). Decent ocarinas can be had around $20, recorders around $40. Check/ask the thread before you buy if you're not certain which ones are good. Put simply, if you have any interest in Irish and/or folk music, get the tinwhistle. If you want to play pop stuff like videogame and movie music, get an ocarina. If you want to play Classical/Baroque music, get a recorder. For any of these instruments, there's a vast plethora of free learning materials online, YouTube tutorials, etc. so you can go at your own pace and be playing recognizable tunes in a day or two, and if you just put 10 minutes a day into it you'll be sounding awesome in a few weeks. - Appalachian Dulcimer: a perennial A/T favorite, partially because I love them, but also because they're cool and exotic, yet crazy affordable (like $90 or under) and really, really easy to learn. Probably the single easiest string instrument to learn. You don't need to learn how to read music, they're easy to tune, and you can play a wide variety of styles once you learn the basics, and I've had non-musical people playing basic tunes by ear on their own just 30 minutes into the workshops I've taught. Check out a variety of YouTube clips, odds are you'll dig the instrument, and it's definitely something that will stand out as unusual but is easy to fit into all kinds of musical scenes.  My friends like to hang out and play guitar and jam; I want to do that too but I want something more interesting (and maybe easier) than guitar - Mandolin: This is a hands-down awesome option. Everything you love about guitar, but way more agile, compact (great for those with small hands), and ludicrously versatile. Pretty much any genre you want, mandolin fits it well. Good basic mandolins can be had as low as $100, learning materials are free everywhere, and not hard to learn the basics. It has the exact same fingering as violin so you can play your favorite fiddle tunes or classical solos, you can strum it like a little guitar and sing, you can do great rhythmic backing chops, everything. If you want to go slightly weirder and larger, mandola, bouzouki, and mandocello are its larger cousins and operate on the same idea. Really one of the thread favorites, and again really your most versatile option.  - Autoharp: funky and cool, affordable, and to make a C chord you literally push a button labeled "C" and strum. The absolute basics are absurdly easy, but once you get those down you can do seriously complex and ornate professional stuff, and the instruments are affordable and easy to find, and very easy to tweak and modify to your needs if you like. Autoharp is hard to beat if you want to sit in a coffeeshop and do your indie folksinger thing, drop into jams and play along, or just make fun music at home.  - Ukulele: basically everything about guitar but on Easy Mode, really mellow and affordable. Definitely the way to go if you find guitar too big, and any skills you learn on it are directly applicable to guitar and all kinds of other string instruments. Honestly, probably the majority of people in the US who have taken up guitar would be better served with a uke, for reals. It had sadly fallen out of favor for a variety of reasons after having been hugely popular in the early 20th century, but is roaring back in with a vengeance.  - Appalachian dulcimer: see above mention, but again a great instrument for playing melodies or strumming chords. For jamming out you'll want to get a capo and learn some basic re-tuning, but they're cool as hell, distinctive, cheap, and easy to learn. Miscellaneous weird stuff from the thread If the above doesn't tickle you and you just want to get really weird, here are a few distinctive options some goons here champion. - Squeezeboxes: everyone knows the big piano accordion, and if you dig those you can get one easily, but I and some thread regulars favor the much smaller and hipper traditional button accordions and concertinas. Not hard to learn, technique is just pushing buttons and opening a bellows, but lots of room to master cool skills. The kind you want depends hugely on what kind of music you want to play, so pop into this thread and give us some details on what you want to do.  - Bagpipes: it's not what you think; there are well over a hundred kinds of bagpipes everywhere from Portugal to India. Everyone knows the huge and loud Scottish Great Highland Bagpipes (GHB) and some folks know the quiet but virtuosic Irish uilleann pipes (UP) and you've heard them in dozens of movie soundtracks. But there are plenty more options, and they aren't all noisy and whiny, some are really mellow. Let us know what cultures or kinds of sounds you're into, but a good default option is Swedish bagpipes since they're inexpensive, quiet and mournful, and generally cool.  - Slide guitar: here we're talking about instruments usually played in the lap or on a table, where the strings are raised high above the neck, and instead of pressing them down to the neck to change a note you slide a smooth metal bar along the strings for a glistening sound. In the US this is mostly famous in old-school country music, but also vital for Hawaiian music, big in India, etc. A good alternative to guitar with some amazing virtuosic abilities.  - Shamisen: the shamisen is a Japanese banjo, and though we don't have many players in this thread it somes up surprisingly often, maybe because the Yoshida Brothers' Wii commercial brought so much outside attention to the instrument. There's a small body of American enthusiasts who've produced some learning materials for this instrument, and several dealers importing good basic student models, plus the Okinawan sanshin works as an even cheaper stand-in.  - Hammer dulcimer: a trapezoidal box of strings that you strike with hammers; basically consider it a piano that cuts out the keys middleman, or a harp combined with whack-a-mole. Surprisingly affordable for how fancy it looks, not too complex to learn, and definitely unusual.  - Hurdy-gurdy: I don't think anyone in the thread actually has one, but this is one of the perennial "what about..." instruments in the thread. Not to be confused with the "organ-grinder and monkey" box called by the same name, the HG musical instrument is basically a string bagpipe, it's a box with strings where you turn a wheel that acts as an eternal violin bow, constantly sounding the strings as long as you crank it, and you change your notes by pressing little keys. The main downsides are they're a little pricey (budget at least a grand, though Eastern Europe is now selling some affordable options), and they take a little patience to keep running smoothly and aren't just something you can chuck under your bed in a case and haul out once a month. That said, fascinating historical instrument that deserves a comeback.  - Theremin: we have a couple players here, and this axe has real tech-nerd cred. The theremin is an instrument you never physically touch, it puts out an electrical field and you operate it by moving your hands around; it's like the Wii was invented in 1928 by a Russian immigrant. Absolutely famous for its use in old sci-fi films, and then anything that ever has a pop-culture reference about old sci-fi films for the last century. Not terribly expensive, and there are build-you-own kits, and we have some players on SA. Fundamentally it serves as something between the violin and human voice, and while it takes some practice and knack to sound good, it's an intuitive instrument that doesn't require reading music or theory, it's all just played by ear.  So these are some good options to consider if you're looking to get beyond conventional instruments and try out something weird that will add variety to your life or even your local music scene. Most of the above have been chosen for being reasonably affordable and accessible, and we have goons playing all kinds of things in this thread. If you have other ideas, pitch them here, and if you aren't sure what instrument fits your needs, just post and tell us what kind of music you want to play (describe in whatever terms), what skills or none you currently have, and rough budget, and we can help you figure it out like hundreds of goons before you. Anyone can play music, most "non-musical" people just haven't tried something that works for them. Put aside your fears, take a leap, learn a weird instrument. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 04:55 on May 26, 2017 |
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Jun 22, 2016 15:00
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I wouldn't necessarily recommend a hammer dulcimer as a first instrument, because you've got to tune a lot of strings. It's very doable, but it's a learned skill, and without that skill many-stringed instruments can be out of tune with themselves and sound like poo poo.
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Jun 22, 2016 15:44
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Can you give some good plastic NAF sellers? Want a good quality one, willing to pay a bit more. Love my tin whistles (especially my Freeman Mellow Dog) but I'd like something more meditative to play along side it. Plastic is appealing for durability and portability.
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Jun 22, 2016 16:17
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Chin Strap posted:Can you give some good plastic NAF sellers? Want a good quality one, willing to pay a bit more. Love my tin whistles (especially my Freeman Mellow Dog) but I'd like something more meditative to play along side it. Plastic is appealing for durability and portability. Hands-down option for plastic, Northern Spirit flutes up in Canuckistan: http://www.northernspiritflutes.net/ About US$40 for a flute, or you can pay more for a double-bodied drone flute at US$97 (I might get one now that the Arctic Dollar is so low). There are a few cheaper plastics that are perfectly decent, like Sounds We Make, but the NS has the most traditional look while being really well-made out of food-safe plastic. quote:I wouldn't necessarily recommend a hammer dulcimer as a first instrument, because you've got to tune a lot of strings. It's very doable, but it's a learned skill, and without that skill many-stringed instruments can be out of tune with themselves and sound like poo poo. Yeahbuttal: they're a little tricky to tune, but that's just a matter of patience and using your smartphone, and the one I had at least stayed in tune really well for weeks and weeks. And mainly, it's reasonably easy to play the basics on it. But duly noted that it takes someone with a little patience (but not great skill) to tune it up. If I set up my "musical instrument lending library" that I'm pondering, I'll use mostly gear I already have but high on my list of stuff to acquire to loan out is a cheap small HD. By the way, I finally have my clavichord, and despite sitting for years at the seller's house unused and then in my closet for two years while I was gone (bought it on eBay and had a friend pick it up for me), it's working fine (short one string) and decently in tune, and in A=440 no less so I can play along with stuff easier. It's kinda clunky, rusty pins and strings (need to find what it costs to get a full set of fresh strings), and a heavy beast at 70lb or so, but for $250 it's certainly something I can learn on and see if I want to commit to a nicer (and much lighter) triple-fretted instrument. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Jun 22, 2016 |
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Jun 22, 2016 17:33
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Hands-down option for plastic, Northern Spirit flutes up in Canuckistan: http://www.northernspiritflutes.net/ How hard are they to assemble? The unassembled seem quite a bit cheaper. EDIT: Hmm unassembled seems to be undrilled too. Nevermind! Chin Strap fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Jun 22, 2016 |
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Jun 22, 2016 17:45
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Chin Strap posted:How hard are they to assemble? The unassembled seem quite a bit cheaper. efb; yeah, it's not the gluing pieces that's tricky, it's drilling and polishing the holes. If work really takes off, I owe a big favor to a Native American reservation in WA state, so if the big money comes in I play to buy them an entire case of unassembled flutes, plus the tools and jigs, and ship it all over so they can equip a bunch of schoolkids on the rez. I know the current "NAF" is a kind of genericized version of various instruments played by specific tribes, but broadly I'd imagine (I'll check with someone who knows rez culture first) that flutes would be useful as a pan-Indian cultural tool.
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Jun 22, 2016 18:08
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Banner ad should go up for a month starting at midnight, let's see who that brings in. I was momentarily considering getting an udu drum again because it's like the coolest drum I ever owned, but this first week back in Austin I'm already buying a bicycle and a cheap motorcycle, a bunch of gun parts, and stuff for the house, so I probably need to keep expenditures moderate for now. Plus I just got my hands back on all kinds of music gear (though I sold a ton before moving overseas two years ago), and while overseas I ordered online a 20b Anglo concertina, a small lute, and a clavichord that have been sitting in Texas waiting for me to get back and play them, so I have those to mess with. The lute has a small crack in the soundboard and the pegs and nut are crap, but I love the overall design so might take it to a luthier. The clavichord is a clunker, but it's tuned A=440 and overall pretty playable, but I need to clean up the gunk and de-rust (or replace) the pins, either restring or de-rust the existing strings, and get it all tuned up. It's an "unfretted" (each note has an individual string) so I can easily set it up for all kinds of exotic temperaments like Quarter Comma Meantone, Pythagorean, etc. This should hold me for now until budget settles down and I can replace this with a smaller fretted clavichord that doesn't weigh 80 pounds and puts out more volume than a whisper. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Jun 24, 2016 |
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Jun 24, 2016 00:28
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I'm interested in picking up a musical pursuit with some of my time these days. I played the classical bass as a kid until the end of middle school, then moved on to other pursuits and haven't tried anything musical in many years. I've found the Shamisen to be a really interesting instrument and I like the sound of it. Looking at the Bachido options for a beginner it seems like I'd be jumping in at the $500-750 level. While that's not a huge obstacle I am concerned about two aspects. First would be tuning. I don't have a great ear for notes so can't easily distinguish an in-tune or out of tune instrument. In the mean time I suppose I can use an electronic tuner but it seems less than great. The second concern would be lack of frets, without a reference point how do you know what notes you're hitting other than by ear?
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Jun 25, 2016 08:13
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Thanks TTFA, ordered one of the Northern Spirit plastic flutes. Drone flute was tempting but that can be later. I'll check back in with my impressions once I get it.
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Jun 25, 2016 13:29
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Conan the Librarian posted:I'm interested in picking up a musical pursuit with some of my time these days. I played the classical bass as a kid until the end of middle school, then moved on to other pursuits and haven't tried anything musical in many years. Hey Conana, shamisen is indeed awesome and merits a look. Is this a "I've always liked it and finally want to make the jump" or a more recent thing? If the latter, I'd recommend at least a week of YouTube binge-watching of shamisen clips, read up on the articles and discussions at Bachido, etc. to give yourself some time to mull it over. If you've been meaning to do this for a while, have the cash and aren't blowing the rent money, then by all means I'd get a beginner instrument from Bachido. As you note, you have to get a couple different pieces along with the instrument: the axe itself, accessory pack, and then choose a bridge and a pick.  Fretless can seem intimidating at first, but it's really a non-issue once you get past the very first steps; the Bachido accessory pack also comes with tape for marking finger positions, and/or you can buy the strips or dots that beginning violinists use, which peel off easily after you're past that stage of learning. Fwiw, just glancing at the Bachido forums, a number of folks mention they went whole-hog and marked every position on the instrument, but within days took off most of them and just left on some key intervals (the 5 is probably a good one). Ear training is just a part of the learning process, nobody expects you to have it awesome at first. Download just any basic tuner on your smartphone, you don't need a standalone tuner; there are plenty of free ones but if you want a really awesome one for a couple bucks (with features you may eventually use), I love Cleartune. In the beginning you can use the e-tuner to help mark at least a few key points on the neck (either on the fingerboard itself or on the side), or all of them if you want for now. But pretty quickly you'll likely just be using the tuner to tune your strings, and finding the finger positions by ear. Bachido is doing the lord's work in providing English-language shamisen materials to a wider audience, and they're true believers and genuinely want more folks to learn, so I'd feel comfortable buying from them, plus they include a lot of online training materials with purchase. The great thing too about something as exotic as shamisen is that you don't really have much competition, so if you spend just a few months practicing and feel you can smoothly and clearly play even just the Japanese equivalent of nursery rhymes (and you'll likely be well beyond that if you just practice regularly), then you can waltz down to a coffeeshop open mic, play in the park, whatever and people are going to be impressed by even basic stuff. I play weird instruments in public occasionally, and I've gotten excited audiences for stuff I can barely play; I got an enthused crowd of six for just *tuning* a Swedish bagpipe, and had multiple people hand me money (I had no case or hat out) for playing an Anglo concertina I'd just gotten from the post office twenty minutes ago. People like music and if anything is weirder than guitar they tend to be curious about it and pretty forgiving. Fun instrument, give it a ponder and do your homework, but if it's something you really enjoy then this is as good a time as any to dive in. As always the key advice: ten minutes of practice a day beats an hour a week, so make the small effort to just pick it up and play it for a few minutes daily, and you'll be surprised how fast the skills build up.
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Jun 25, 2016 17:32
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Mmmm, I do love clavichord music. Who's the maker?
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Jun 25, 2016 18:08
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Mmmm, I do love clavichord music. Who's the maker? Your bog-standard clunky old Zuckerman kit; but it was only $250 (it's be at least a grand even beat/used from a dealer) and it's solid enough to learn on.
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Jun 25, 2016 19:12
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I have a wad of cash and nothing in my bank account right now; does anyone know a good place in LA to pick up a tin whistle? I'm in the south bay but I'll go as far as downtown, santa monica, or long beach if necessary.
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Jun 25, 2016 20:12
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Grand Prize Winner posted:I have a wad of cash and nothing in my bank account right now; does anyone know a good place in LA to pick up a tin whistle? I'm in the south bay but I'll go as far as downtown, santa monica, or long beach if necessary. Ah, I was just going to say "dude they're like $5-10 on Amazon" but I see you're going cash-economy here. Broadly speaking, just google or yelp any of the following in your area: - Irish, Scottish, or British gift-shops - Musical instrument stores Between those two kinds of shops (and honestly the gift shops are probably most likely), you're sure to find some. The main brands to get: - Feadog (they make $20 ones but also cheaper ones) - Soodlum (same) - Walton (same, as low as $5) - you might find various off-brand ones, just google the brand to see if it's worth $10 before buying - if you get a Clarke, don't get the "Original" with the wooden block in the head, they're better for more experienced players, but the plastic-headed Sweetone or Meg are fine - Generation aren't bad at all (and are the classic) but the other brands have upped their game and are better buys in D Note, you absolutely want one in Key of D for a beginner (and the stores should mostly carry D with maybe some Cs), since all the learning materials online are in D. It should be marked on the instrument/package. Don't pay extra for a book/CD set, unnecessary since free stuff is all over the internet. Just call a couple gift shops, ask if they have an "Irish tinwhistle or pennywhistle" and go to whatever one is close to your house that sells whistles without a book/CD package. Easy done.  FAKEEDIT: tinwhistle is one of the few instruments I'd tell someone to buy regardless of financial situation; they're so dang cheap that if you're really hard up you can just go sit outside with a hat out and play it for an hour and make as much as you paid for it. quote:Thanks TTFA, ordered one of the Northern Spirit plastic flutes. Drone flute was tempting but that can be later. I'll check back in with my impressions once I get it. No worries, they're nothing fancy but durable and play smooth; I have one of those and one Sounds We Make (if I haven't given it away, idk still gotta unpack) and I'm going to send one of them to a Canadian surfer guy I worked with in Liberia who's back in Vancouver for a couple months. I figure it'll make a great beach instrument he doesn't have to worry about ruining on the shore, can kick back and zone out with a joint and play it while waiting for the tide to turn on some West African beach.
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Jun 26, 2016 16:43
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Hi! I'm a beginner-lever rhytm guitar player, playing in a dad-rock/blues band (seriously, I'm 15-30 years younger than the other members). The problem is that we have too many guitars! We have a great lead guitar player, I'm playing rhytm guitar, but the singer also wants to play rhytm guitar on most songs. Is there any good weird musical instrument that I could look at as an alternative to rhytm guitar? The singer sometimes play harmonica instead of guitar, so I was thinking if I could found a secondary instrument as well, we could share the rhytm guitar between different songs, since three guitar players sounds like rear end when we're not on point, which is often. So, secondary instrument for mainly 60-70's blues, rock, and bluesrock?
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Jun 26, 2016 18:42
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lilljonas posted:Hi! I'm a beginner-lever rhytm guitar player, playing in a dad-rock/blues band (seriously, I'm 15-30 years younger than the other members). The problem is that we have too many guitars! We have a great lead guitar player, I'm playing rhytm guitar, but the singer also wants to play rhytm guitar on most songs. Hands-down, anything in the mandolin family. I assume you want electric? That's not at all hard to find for most of them. If you imagine doing more soloing, and or like mandolin specifically, I'd just get a basic decent electric mandolin. That said, if you want to trade a little treble for bass, and/or have slightly larger hands, I'd go with a mandola. And honestly that's what I'd personally prefer over a mandolin for this specific circumstance. I've only glanced at a few reviews, but the Eastwood Airline mandola looks to get good word, though do a little tweaking on the action. They're quite inexpensive (like $300-some) and look boss. But definitely read up a little and see what's good on the market, looks cool, meets your price range. Here's a brief demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gem-lUfiypM  That's my initial reaction; mandocello is also used by a scattering of rock guitarists, including in Cheap Trick, Bon Jovi, Drive-By Truckers, etc. It's not as distinctive-looking in performance as the mandola (a lot of electric mandocellos are built on guitar bodies) but its different tuning will give you a different playing style you might enjoy. Plus since they're simple to convert from guitars afaik you could probably just pick a guitar you like that's compatible with conversion and change it over, pick a funkier-looking guitar if you want. Mandocello would give you a cool bottom-end. Here's a simple demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNB5-5P5kcs This could be a really fun way to up your game in your dad-band, let us know what you end up doing and if you got any questions.
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Jun 26, 2016 19:22
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Hands-down, anything in the mandolin family. I assume you want electric? That's not at all hard to find for most of them. Thanks for the tip! There's really no way to get around getting the electic one, I guess. I found some cheap acoustic ones second hand, but none electic one. I'll do some more checking, it sounds like a neat idea but I'm not ready to spend 400 bucks on a new beginner mandolin until I know if it's my thing. How similar does an electic and acoustic mandolin "feel"? As in, would it be worth buying a cheap second hand acoustic mandolin to try out (I found some for 100-150 bucks) before jumping in? I also see several guides to installing pick-ups in an acoustic mandolin, how horrible an idea would that be? lilljonas fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Jun 26, 2016 |
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Jun 26, 2016 19:59
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lilljonas posted:Thanks for the tip! There's really no way to get around getting the electic one, I guess. I found some cheap acoustic ones second hand, but none electic one. I'll do some more checking, it sounds like a neat idea but I'm not ready to spend 400 bucks on a new beginner mandolin until I know if it's my thing. Coupla ways to go here: - Cheapest, just get an affordable acoustic mandolin. You can buy a brand-new Rogue for like $45 so unless you find an awesomer model locally for under $100, I wouldn't piddle around, just get a new one and Craigslist it later to get most of your money back. Be prepared to adjust the action and put on better strings and you'll be fine. If you like projects you can try adding a pickup, but I'd only do it if you actually enjoy the process so your labor is free. It won't be useful for playing in your band, but it'll be a cheap starter. EDIT: to answer your feel question, yeah, it'll feel pretty similar and the skills cross over easily between electric and acoustic - You can go on eBay or Mandolin Cafe's classifieds and get a cheap-but-decent acoustic-electric, one with a pickup already installed. Don't pay more than like $100-150 or so and google up the brand name to make sure it's okay. The only risk is getting a warped neck (hard to fix) or high action (easy to fix). If you like futzing with things, I'd suggest getting a used a/e and fixing the action rather than getting an acoustic and adding a pickup. That said, a/e's tend to be a "worst of both worlds" compromise where they plug meh electronics onto a meh body and charge more. Were it me, I'd get an acoustic to bang on, or find a cheapie electric (see below). - if you watch eBay and/or post a WTB at Mandolin Cafe, you can probably find a cheaper solid-body electric for like $150-200. E-mandos tend to come in 8-string, 5-string, 4-string, or 10-string. 4 is fine if you want a more guitar-like sound but higher pitched and different playing style, and a 5-string is a cross between a mandolin and mandola, with the High E of the -lin and the low C of the -ola. Just me personally, I'd stick to eight-string if you want a mandolin-specific sound with that natural chorus effect, but 4/5 is fine especially if you're playing it through pedals anyway and are adding effects that way. EDIT: like for example here's a cheap Saga kit-built 4-string for $125 shipped, though probably too short to convert to mandola, but could be a fun starter and easily to sell on CL after: http://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/99350#99350 EDIT2: on eBay at the moment there are a couple decent-seeming solid electrics for $150-200: - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Morgan-Monroe-MMT-1E-Tele-Style-8-String-Electric-Mandolin-/131857147788?hash=item1eb34c678c:g:tmoAAOSwGIRXbIr0 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/H-G-Harless-4-String-Electric-Mandolin-/162113173403?hash=item25beb2b79b:g:aFMAAOSwc1FXYBiw One thing to note: on a solid-body, particularly if it has a slightly longer neck than average, you can re-string the mandolin as a mandola (I wouldn't do this on acoustic due to slight added pressure and more futzing). A number of e-mandos are practically e-mandolas in neck length anyway, you'd just need to google up a free String Calculator and do a little numbers to see what gauge of strings to buy for note X for sounding length of Y inches, and maybe do a little filing on the nut and saddle. Not trying to over-sell you on mandola over mandolin, and whatever you buy just play it as-is at first and then later ask yourself if you wish you could trade out your top strings for an extra set of bottom strings. Worth noting too, the whole mandolin family uses the exact same fingerings, so if you can play one you can play them all. So you might get a $45 Rogue acoustic, play it a couple weeks and say "I want way more bass" and end up converting a guitar to mandocello, for example. But really no way to go too wrong of the options above. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Jun 26, 2016 |
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Jun 26, 2016 21:14
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I'm learning piano. 
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Jun 26, 2016 21:15
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Just showed my luthiering partner your mandocello description. Gonna fab up a bridge and convert a cheap pawn shop Strat to one, will provide a trip report when done. Should be a fun time for all involved. Uilleann pipes remain awesome. Can already play through a few airs and jigs, along with some Pogues that I've decided sound better with the pipes. "If I Should Fall From Grace With God" is a fun tune, plus it's relatively easy to teach people.
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Jun 26, 2016 21:42
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For the mandocello conversion, make sure to read up on whether you need a pickup that's indiscriminate for string placement or no, like a lipstick, or if stock is fine. Eventually I might get a cheap 3/4 electric guitar and make it an octave mandolin. Re uilleann, drat dude, post some YouTube already! Wasn't it also you who plays sackpipa for Classical Greek plays? Show us some clips (I also need to post more clips of weird stuff).
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Jun 27, 2016 02:16
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Need a music stand that's tiny, portable, cheap, and looks it? I ordered the SimpleStick stand from DivergentLutherie on Etsy and was happy. I have a very pretty cherrywood stand, but it's heavy and annoying to move. The SimpleStick is a pole, a clothespin, and a wood square to stick the pole in. It works perfectly for putting one standard music book (not the hard-bound kind) next to your chair and noodling around. It also can quickly be disassembled if you want to take it to busk or something like that. If you've got a drill, you could build one yourself. I was happy to pay the maker  plus shipping, because I don't have the time or tools.
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Jun 27, 2016 02:25
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:For the mandocello conversion, make sure to read up on whether you need a pickup that's indiscriminate for string placement or no, like a lipstick, or if stock is fine. Eventually I might get a cheap 3/4 electric guitar and make it an octave mandolin. We were already going to do a pickup swap - actually have a scavenged lipstick pickup in the big box of miscellaneous parts in the luth bench, and stock Squier pickups never sound that great, so switching from stock might be good. Plus, the undeniable urge to tinker - we have a project bass we're calling Theseus because everything has been replaced by this point. It starts with pickups and cosmetic stuff, then a truss pops due to weird tuning so the neck gets replaced, and then we made a body because we got a good slab of wood and wanted to try to refinish it . . . I really should record something. I'm just rear end at doing it myself due to weird mental pressure - the moment I start, I suddenly lose most of my musical ability. It's hilarious - I'll see if I can set something up where my wife is recording without telling me so I don't start forgetting how to play. It's basically crippling "Oh god, permanent record of sucking!", similar to jamming with a new group, but even worse.
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Jun 27, 2016 03:02
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quote:Just showed my luthiering partner your mandocello description. Gonna fab up a bridge and convert a cheap pawn shop Strat to one, will provide a trip report when done. Should be a fun time for all involved. Let me know how cheap/easy it ended up being. If it's not particularly pricey, I might be interested in sending y'all a small 3/4 electric guitar for conversion to 8-string octave mandolin. I was debating doing it myself, but then I realize that I have a ton of things I should be focusing on right now, and that other than doing action jobs on dulcimers I don't have a great history of follow-through on luthiery projects and would be way more effective if I just teach more lessons and workshops and let defter people do craftsmanship for me. Danknificent posted:I'm learning piano. Nothing wrong with piano, I myself intend to start taking piano lessons soon since it's a useful fundamental skill everywhere and good for understanding music theory. Definitely try out a clavichord sometime using your piano skills, though I wouldn't say no to a Hohner Pianet either, which is not at all electronic, but rather plucks little metal tines and amplifies them: Video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q0e6l05KTs  
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Jun 28, 2016 01:38
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pianet posted:This pad adheres to the reed when at rest, and lifts and releases the reed causing it to vibrate when the key is depressed.
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Jun 28, 2016 01:46
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Tap, have you ever messed around with a laud, bandurrķa, or charango?
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Jun 28, 2016 02:44
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