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TapTheForwardAssist posted:I've been living in Berlin for 10 days now, and within my first week I went to a flea market and got a 3-row GCF diatonic accordion €40, got signed up for clavichord lessons, and sang in a local Shape Note sing. The only things I prioritized over music stuff was getting a bicycle (day 2) and getting a Euro SIM card for my smartphone (day 3). You sure aren't wasting your time! Priorities, eh? (I am to talk, I cannot go by a music store without looking in...) Buying a guzheng: Try 2, this time for a full-size intermediate guzheng. It was on pretty darn good sale. Maybe a price mistake? Well, I jumped in and we will see what comes out of it. Does not come with stands, so I guess I will play it like either the Korean gayageum or like the the Mongolian yatga: with one end on the floor and the other end on my legs. Yeah, about the yatga. Wikipedia tells stories about this instrument. Once upon a time it might have been something, but now it does not exist. See, "yatga" seems to be a Mongolian worth for zither. The yatga is most often just a guzheng, but I have seen the gayageum often used as well. Once even a dan tranh. I haven't seen a yatga that is an instrument different than the three I mentioned. And then there is the "altai yatga"...  https://youtu.be/KDM-n4NA8_g?t=32 From what I can gather, they found the remnants of such an instrument in a tomb of some sort. They reconstructed it and there it is. Seems really out of place in what a yatga usually is. Five or six fixed strings, no frets or any opportunities for changing the pitch, at least as far as I can tell. I saw it played in a few videos by the lady that is considered to be Mongolia's #1 guzheng-as-yatga player. Cannot say that even she managed to make it super interesting by itself, but it does have a very good sound to accompany anything else. https://youtu.be/tu1LVjr4YGQ?t=360 Something very pleasing about it. I will have to reverse-engineer the videos to get the pitches out and put them on a flute. This is about as close as anyone can get to owning one though. Mongolia on the whole is a nest of interesting instruments. They use the guzheng and the gayageum (including the diatonic gayageum) for their plucked strings. They use the yangquin for the hammered dulcimer. Then their bowed strings are a square affair of some sort. They have a clarinet-like instrument that is round like a horn. And some funny brass horns too. I have also seen them play the erhu. Then there is the throat singing... Have some Mongolian music videos which feature the instruments prominently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOsZyTdlWgI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwnrWrtUUGg As as aside, reading anything about Mongolia is super frustrating. I'm Polish-Canadian, but I can read cyrilic. I'm not just any Polish, but I'm an eastern borderlander. This makes me able to understand Russian quite frequently. I just have to fill in some blanks or find a similar word, but since everyone around me spoke some half-Russian dialect of Polish for 20 years it goes easily. Works for Serbian decently too. Not for Mongolian though, not even close. And don't get me started on the native Mongolian script, which is supposedly the only script in the world that is vertical-only...
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May 23, 2015 10:53
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Oh dear. I ordered a guzheng. It said it shipped. With China Post. From past experience I know China Post cannot ship such a large item. The second red flag was that the price went up 20$ and the shipping 200$. Clearly a price mistake, or rather a mistake in pricing of the shipping. And yet it said the thing is shipped. I don't know what happens next. Presumably a cancellation is heading my way, for the second time. I got the guzheng through Amazon, so I should be able to get my money back if something ain't quite right.
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May 25, 2015 19:52
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Cigar box guitar building went really well, albeit highly over-engineered and way nicer than we were intending. Half the weekend was spent making jigs and shortcuts for future instruments, because it's a bit addictive. First two instruments came out great, though. Purpleheart fretboards, contrasting with oak (for one) and cherry for the other. Still dialing in the intonation, but it's close enough for some fine blues. Got a pair of piezos on one, and a magnetic pickup on the other. Fretting was surprisingly painless, especially after using calipers for fret distances. Of course, as soon as we started posting video of the process, people wanted some, so I guess I accidentally found a way to make some cash? Ukulele is on the bench right now, along with half a dozen necks and some plans for various experimental instruments. We're hoping that the plans for an electric erhu will work - small motor driving a rosined wheel for pitch generation, for a hurdy-gurdy type sound. EDIT: Crossposting from the Woodworking thread - here's a picture of my project. I think it looks decent, and worst-case, it sounds pretty good. 
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May 26, 2015 03:31
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Chalk up one more instrument buyer as a result of this thread. I bought a Clarke D tin whistle back in January. After doodling around with it for a couple months I decided to try a Native American flute in the key of A. That loosed the floodgates- now I and my husband are both playing NAF and own 5 flutes between us with no sign of stopping. Thanks TTFA! For anyone who is wanting to get into Native American flute for under $100 I can highly recommend the Northern Spirits flute in A minor made from ABS plastic. It sounds really good and is durable as hell. I'm just as likely to reach for it as I am my cherry wood A made by Kuzin Bruce (who I also recommend, if you have the patience to wait for something made to order). The High Spirits pocket G is also a good choice. It's small enough to drop in your bag at a moments notice and lots of fun to play. As for what not to do, I wouldn't advise getting a flute in a lower key without plenty of practice with a mid A. I know they sound amazing, I love the sound I get from my High Spirits F#, but it's not nearly as user friendly. It overblows on the lowest note if you're not careful and it's harder to keep all the holes covered. It'll tire your wrists out much more quickly as well.
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May 31, 2015 11:39
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Hey guys, guess who just moved into an apartment of his own? Guess who has nothing but free time this summer? Time to dig out my poor, neglected tinwhistle and  all day long.
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May 31, 2015 14:01
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Quick question - I have an opportunity to buy a sarangi, and I'm not entirely sure if there are any good guides for things to look for when buying. I'm not exactly looking to learn Hindi music, aside from any learning materials that I end up picking up, but it seems like an incredibly cool instrument to fool around with over the summer. Been working on building more instruments; it's been a blast so far. I'm halfway through building a lyre and just finished working on the rough shaping and tooling on the neck for a shamisen. Opted to use modern tuning machines, rather than the traditional pegs, and it fits like a glove in the cigar box I'm using for a body. My instrument-building partner - who is considerably better at tool use than me and has been teaching me the ropes in exchange for musical consultation on the instruments we've built - is getting a CNC router, so we'll be inlaying some purpleheart into the neck in a rather cool pattern.
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Jun 2, 2015 04:39
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Casca posted:Chalk up one more instrument buyer as a result of this thread. I bought a Clarke D tin whistle back in January. After doodling around with it for a couple months I decided to try a Native American flute in the key of A. That loosed the floodgates- now I and my husband are both playing NAF and own 5 flutes between us with no sign of stopping. I've got a Northern Spirit plastic one as well, though I don't take it on the road with me still since NAFs are a bit on the large side. And by coincidence I also just bought a High Spirits Pocket Flute for my da as a Father's Day gift. Good taste. Do you play any specific kind of music on the NAF, or do you more use it as a free-form improvisational instrument? Hedningen, nice work on that cigar-box shamisen; that's basically the same thing as what a gottan is. If you're trying out lyres, do note that I'm not aware of anyone in the US who's built either an Ainu tonkori or a Siberian nares-yux yet, so those might be fun areas to groundbreak in if you have any big cheap chunk of wood. Along which lines as well No Gravitas, you might have an easier time reading up a little on Siberian instruments, since the main body of coverage on those is in Russian. The Siberians, as well as the Volga Finns, have a bunch of smaller wind and idiophone instruments, as well as a few interesting strings:  Been kinda busy bouncing around, and got way too much life stuff in limbo right now. On kinda short notice I decided to leave Berlin by this weekend, haven't even really decided where yet but will probably fall back on Portugal since I haven't been there, but I do speak the language (worked in Brazil), and I gotta go somewhere. Hopefully in the next month or two I'll finally get job stuff sorted out and be a little more stable. To one degree, I've been telling myself that I need to just stick to my small traveling instruments for now rather than picking up stuff in new places and having to sell/gift it on when moving, but then I remembered that in Portugal you can find these really cheap ($200 or so on a good day), and I'm kinda resigned to the fact that I'll probably be lured into getting one: 
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Jun 2, 2015 10:59
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No Gravitas posted:Oh dear. Oh, man. I'm actually getting this thing. After almost two weeks of checking the tracking number for China Post and getting nothing I contacted the seller. The seller shipped it courier and had a second tracking number for me. The thing left China and is well on the way. Should get it in the next ten days or so. Yay! (On the downside I have ordered it as a MSc graduation present for myself, but now the school yanked the graduation from under me. Ah well, at least I have a guzheng now.)
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Jun 4, 2015 07:35
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:I've got a Northern Spirit plastic one as well, though I don't take it on the road with me still since NAFs are a bit on the large side. And by coincidence I also just bought a High Spirits Pocket Flute for my da as a Father's Day gift. Good taste. I do sometimes dig up finger charts and play specific songs when I'm in the mood, but the ability to close my eyes and just play whatever music comes out of my fingers is the best thing about the NAF. It's like an instant mood elevator. Did you get him the A or the G pocket flute? You should get one for yourself as well since you're traveling. The size is perfect for tossing it in whatever bag you've got with you and it's actually a pretty tough little flute. I drop mine in the glove box of my car all the time.
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Jun 5, 2015 01:52
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I am looking for a string instrument that is portable and I could learn to play a variety of Grateful Dead and other rock/jam songs of that nature.
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Jun 11, 2015 04:32
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goodness posted:I am looking for a string instrument that is portable and I could learn to play a variety of Grateful Dead and other rock/jam songs of that nature. consider a guitar?  I don't know, maybe a mandolin? Or a ukulele, if you're a photogenic girl with a Youtube channel.
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Jun 11, 2015 04:35
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Pham Nuwen posted:consider a guitar? Yeah I wanted anything besides a guitar but that will have to do if nothing else will.
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Jun 11, 2015 04:44
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goodness posted:Yeah I wanted anything besides a guitar but that will have to do if nothing else will. There are many fractional sized, parlor and travel guitars that are designed to be portable. Or a requinto guitar, which is not really much smaller than a regular guitar. Gretsch makes a cheap little laminate guitar called the Jim Dandy that is built like a tank, sounds OK, and is very easy playing. It's parlor sized, so small but nowhere near as small as a ukulele or mandolin. You could also try a dulcimer, or one of the many guitar-like South American instruments (vihuela, tiple, cuatro, and so on). By far the easiest route would be a guitar, especially if you want to look up arrangements on the internet.
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Jun 11, 2015 04:56
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Gilgameshback posted:There are many fractional sized, parlor and travel guitars that are designed to be portable. Or a requinto guitar, which is not really much smaller than a regular guitar. Yeah it seems a guitar is probably the best bet. Is it alright to start on a smaller guitar and go to bigger if I ever want to? Or should I just learn on a regular to start.
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Jun 11, 2015 05:25
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if six strings is the problem you can always start with a tenor guitar or baritone ukulele!
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Jun 11, 2015 05:32
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goodness posted:Yeah it seems a guitar is probably the best bet. Is it alright to start on a smaller guitar and go to bigger if I ever want to? Or should I just learn on a regular to start. I don't think that should be a problem. If you get really used to one particular short scale length then playing a larger guitar will feel weird for about ten minutes, but it shouldn't make a meaningful difference in the long term. A 7/8 scale guitar, for instance, is pretty portable and handy, very easy to play, but not so far from a full size that it feels like a different instrument. Do you want to play steel-string acoustic or nylon?
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Jun 11, 2015 06:39
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Gilgameshback posted:I don't think that should be a problem. If you get really used to one particular short scale length then playing a larger guitar will feel weird for about ten minutes, but it shouldn't make a meaningful difference in the long term. A 7/8 scale guitar, for instance, is pretty portable and handy, very easy to play, but not so far from a full size that it feels like a different instrument. I have no idea on the string type. The reason I was hesitant on guitar was because I tried learning when I was about 16 and didn't have much fun with the steel strings and huge guitar.
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Jun 11, 2015 17:19
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goodness posted:I have no idea on the string type. The reason I was hesitant on guitar was because I tried learning when I was about 16 and didn't have much fun with the steel strings and huge guitar. You and me both! I got told that I should just tough it out with monster strings on a huge dreadnought guitar and ended up hating it and didn't pick the instrument up again until years and years later. Steel string guitar is more popular for folk, rock, and blues, while people choose nylon for classical/Spanish and flamenco. These are, of course, not hard and fast rules at all. Nylon strings are much easier on the hands but the sound is very different and maybe not well suited to the Grateful Dead - also, you generally play nylon strings with the fingers instead of a pick. If you can go into a music store and fool around with both kinds that might help your decision. Also, you can get low tension strings for a steel string guitar (sometimes called "silk and steel") that might feel better under the left hand. On the other hand, a ukulele is much smaller and easier than a guitar in every way, and there's quite a lot of music out there arranged for the uke. But it has certain limits that the guitar doesn't.
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Jun 11, 2015 19:52
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Whoah, I think we're really skipping past mandolin! Mandolin is nice and compact, easy on small hands, good basic ones are very inexpensive, and they are nearly ideal for bringing to a jam session. Everyone has a guitar, so a mando gives you a lot of versatility, whether backing up the guitarists with some rhythmic chops, or knocking out some solos. The only contraindication you've mentioned is not enjoying steel strings when you tried guitar in the past, and mando strings are slightly tough to get used to at the very beginning, but no real problem after that. Mandolin is also a vital ingredient for a bunch of Greatful Dead songs; it's hard to envision Friend of the Devil or Ripple without mandolin. So mando gives you a chance to fill an important role that the guitars can't really replace.  Here's a good clip of a guy by himself singing Friend of the Devil while playing mandolin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znmDtnTt3Ds Here's a post from some years back about mando, but largely still applicable: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3415486&pagenumber=7#post393390811 Rogue, Rover, and Kentucky are some decent cheap import brands, as in like $100ish cheap. I would suggest paying a little more to get one from an online dealer who explicitly mentions that they do "set up" and quality control on the instruments, rather than just opening the crate from China and tossing it in a box. Usually for slightly more cost a dealer will do set up, adjusting string height and bridge position and all that. Alternately, get one from the cheapest seller, and take it to your local guitar shop to see if they can do a quick-easy settup on it for not too much.
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Jun 11, 2015 20:09
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This isn't a weird instrument question necessarily, but I figured someone who reads this might have an answer. My new baby loves me to sing her to sleep in her sling. I've got a few sight singing books that have melody snippets in progressive difficulties that I have been using as my daily fodder for things. I would like to get a book of melodies that I could use for the same purpose. Folk melodies, hymns, pop/rock, any of them. I don't really care about having piano accompaniment. Something just like the melody with chord tablature like that. I know I can find a lot of this stuff online but I want a physical book. Any good ideas where to start? The Real Book series has some vocal editions but that is pretty heavily jazz oriented (but I will still probably get them), and I would really like something similar with folk etc. EDIT: Nevermind I'm dumb. There are pop and folk fake books out there too. Chin Strap fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Jul 15, 2015 |
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Jul 15, 2015 15:21
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Just wanted to pop in and talk about my mandolin purchase yesterday. I had been vaguely considering adding a uke to the collection just for fun and as a weird inexpensive summer instrument (I remembered this thread from way back when I first read through it, and the $4 mandolin chords book), and a friend talked me into mandolin due to it sharing violin tuning (I studied violin for a while a long time ago). That was a while back. Yesterday I happened to be in a pawn shop and saw they had some ukes and mandolins. Long story short, picked up a Gretsch New Yorker for under $200 in great almost-new shape. Fretted strings are still not really my forte (never learned guitar; I have a p-bass I noodle around on some, but I'm not practicing as much I should be), but the mando is nice and portable, fun, and seems easy to get into. Thanks Tap The Forward Assist! I'm bummed that I'm not in D.C. any more, and that I missed out on your mando sale a couple years ago, but this thread finally had its intended effect on me.
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Jul 20, 2015 03:03
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I've been interested in getting a Native American flute for a while, but I'm only interested in the authentic article, not something made in China from plastic. Does anyone feel like recommending a good Native American flutemaker other than Jonah Thompson? Nothing against him but he can't be the only one.
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Jul 23, 2015 21:29
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I've been playing the ocarina for a few weeks now, any recommendations as to where to get good tabs? I like Zelda and all but it seems to be mostly Zelda and video game themes. e: also my instrument is one of the STLO non-fandom ones (the aria tenor), and I like it but am also interested in recommendations for one of the more sweet-potato shaped ones, as they seem to be little more comfortable for me to finger. I've been looking at STLO's Santa Monica, but am definitely open to recommendations from other retailers- preferably, I would just like it to look and sound decent and be sub $100. uranium grass fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Jul 24, 2015 |
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Jul 24, 2015 01:47
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Alvarez IV posted:I've been interested in getting a Native American flute for a while, but I'm only interested in the authentic article, not something made in China from plastic. Does anyone feel like recommending a good Native American flutemaker other than Jonah Thompson? Nothing against him but he can't be the only one. Not many NAF are "mass produced in China from plastic". The bulk of flute makers are hobbyists making flutes in small woodshops and there's loads to choose from in all price ranges. Even the mass produced flutemakers like High Spirits and Butch Hall are small family operations. They are also mostly non-native but that doesn't mean they don't make good flutes. Now, if what you're asking for is a flute made by a card carrying registered Native American that pool is a bit smaller. I'll give you a few names but the main way to tell is that only a registered tribal member of a federally recognized tribe may call their flutes "Native American Flutes". If they aren't a tribal member they must call them "Native American Style Flutes" in accordance with the IACA of 1990. Most add a disclaimer on their site that they aren't native and some makers completely dispense with that label altogether and call them Companyname Flutes. Now, the reason most people who want a native made flute go for Jonah Thompson is that his prices are entry level, his flutes are easy to find and purchase and his quality is consistent- most JT flutes are sweet players. The majority of other good flute makers (native and non) work on commission only and aren't cheap. Off the top of my head, I know there are more- Marvin Yazzie (Navajo) Charlie Mato-Toyela of Blue Bear flutes (Cherokee) Marlon Magdalena, aka Aluaki (Jemez Pueblo) Tim Blueflint at Shades of Rez Flutes (Commanche/Chippewa) Hawk Henries (Nipmuck) Casca fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Jul 26, 2015 |
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Jul 26, 2015 01:58
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Crossposting from the banjo thread because this one sees more action.HenryJLittlefinger posted:Looking for advice here.
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Jul 26, 2015 19:54
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minidracula posted:Fretted strings are still not really my forte (never learned guitar; I have a p-bass I noodle around on some, but I'm not practicing as much I should be), but the mando is nice and portable, fun, and seems easy to get into. Thanks Tap The Forward Assist! I'm bummed that I'm not in D.C. any more, and that I missed out on your mando sale a couple years ago, but this thread finally had its intended effect on me. I'm down in Liberia now, so even DC goons are missing me, but I've run across multiple goons in town who've gotten the music bug from these threads, so that's always cool. I've had a number of things to say about weird music stuff in Berlin, Portugal, and now Liberia, but I've been pretty caught up with other stuff in life so haven't been as focused on the thread. One odd experience from the other day though: I was walking downtown in Monrovia and saw this scruffy street musician dude, with henna-dyed hair, coming towards me with what looked to be an Ovation acoustic bass guitar, with the four huge tuners. He was kinda rhythmically strumming it without fretting it, and it was way higher pitched than a bass guitar, so my brief impression was that he'd restrung it with light gauge strings in an open tuning. I would've asked him more about it, or maybe even filmed it, but as I got close he reaches out and pokes me in the shoulder and says "ya got da Devil in ya". Echoed by a bystander agreeing "Devil in 'im". So I decided this was not the best context for a longer conversation, but I do have the goal of visiting a couple used guitar shops I've heard about, and also I've driven past a big workshop that makes a variety of drums, including talking drums, so I've got stuff to look into. Separately, Jerry Freeman is a dude who "tweaks" Generation tinwhistles, modifying the head to make them play smoother. Apparently Generations were way better back before the 80s or so, when the old molds wore out and they made newer/inferior ones for the plastic heads. So Jerry gets in there with needle files and sandpaper and makes them play way, way better for $30 or so. He's got 10 days left on an Indie GoGo campaign to raise funds for him to digitally image his best whistle-heads, and then recreate them in some new kind of high-quality 3D printing so that he can mass-produce the kind of whistles that take an hour's work of handwork to get playing now. There's no donor bonuses since it'll be at least a year until he's in production, but if you're curious to see fancy science applied to make high-end whistles, you can chip him $5 or whatever to help out. I'm definitely up to buy one when they go into production: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-world-needs-an-affordable-great-penny-whistle#/story
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Aug 2, 2015 20:52
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:
I have a D tinwhistle from Oak that I play occasionally and I enjoy it but it seems a little temperamental sometimes- like it just doesn't play 'as well' on certain days. Is this a matter of me or the whistle? Mainly the reason I don't play it much is because it's a little loud and shrill and I don't want to annoy anyone with extended playing, not that it's difficult or sounds bad. What exactly makes Jerry's whistles so much better? Just better tone? Easier to play? I'm curious why it's worth spedning $30 to make them play better, what exactly is the major difference between a factory Generation and one of Jerry's tweaked ones?
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Aug 2, 2015 21:51
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Separately, Jerry Freeman is a dude who "tweaks" Generation tinwhistles, modifying the head to make them play smoother. Apparently Generations were way better back before the 80s or so, when the old molds wore out and they made newer/inferior ones for the plastic heads. So Jerry gets in there with needle files and sandpaper and makes them play way, way better for $30 or so. He's got 10 days left on an Indie GoGo campaign to raise funds for him to digitally image his best whistle-heads, and then recreate them in some new kind of high-quality 3D printing so that he can mass-produce the kind of whistles that take an hour's work of handwork to get playing now. There's no donor bonuses since it'll be at least a year until he's in production, but if you're curious to see fancy science applied to make high-end whistles, you can chip him $5 or whatever to help out. I'm definitely up to buy one when they go into production: Thanks for this. I'd been playing with the idea of getting a Freeman tweaked Mellow Dog because my Clarke sounds a little "off" now compared to my NAFs but I may wait for these whistles instead.
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Aug 3, 2015 18:27
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D'oh, I'm too late to say welcome to Germany! Hope the devil leaves you soon so you can talk to other musicians about their swag. So because of this thread I bought 2 ocarinas which I definitely don't play enough, but I got really into uke and even use one to sing along with my younger students. I didn't think about this thread again for a while until I saw the greatest fake instrument ever (https://youtu.be/ASywAfBAVrQ) and remembered all the weird and cool instruments I got introduced to here, particularly how tempting a concertina was. I had tried out Thomann's last concertina, but several buttons were broken, and they confirmed that they were discontinuing the line. Now that I'm no longer on a broke student budget, I'll go on a small road trip this weekend to finally get a squeezebox. I'm 80% sure I'll get a CC Rochelle, but an Elise is also tempting. I'd love to play jigs and folk music so an Anglo makes sense, but I wonder if I'd be limiting myself by not getting a duet. My boyfriend and I jam a lot, and it'd be fun to still play along with him. I'm sure there's something guitar compatible I can learn. Or I could surprise him with a new instrument for his birthday!
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Aug 3, 2015 19:44
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Separately, Jerry Freeman is a dude who "tweaks" Generation tinwhistles, modifying the head to make them play smoother. Apparently Generations were way better back before the 80s or so, when the old molds wore out and they made newer/inferior ones for the plastic heads. So Jerry gets in there with needle files and sandpaper and makes them play way, way better for $30 or so. He's got 10 days left on an Indie GoGo campaign to raise funds for him to digitally image his best whistle-heads, and then recreate them in some new kind of high-quality 3D printing so that he can mass-produce the kind of whistles that take an hour's work of handwork to get playing now. There's no donor bonuses since it'll be at least a year until he's in production, but if you're curious to see fancy science applied to make high-end whistles, you can chip him $5 or whatever to help out. I'm definitely up to buy one when they go into production: I was going to post this. I met Jerry at a piping event last year and he's a very nice guy. Some music teachers I know at the local Comhaltas school think highly of Freeman's tweaked whistles. I have a Mellow Dog and a Blue Bird and they're great. I'm going to get some of his tweaked Generations in C and Bb next. I also have a Killarney whistle (a bit more expensive, $70) that I really like, that was also recommended by pro musicians in my area. Lavender Philtrum posted:I have a D tinwhistle from Oak that I play occasionally and I enjoy it but it seems a little temperamental sometimes- like it just doesn't play 'as well' on certain days. Is this a matter of me or the whistle? Mainly the reason I don't play it much is because it's a little loud and shrill and I don't want to annoy anyone with extended playing, not that it's difficult or sounds bad. It depends on the whistle. Shrillness or screechiness might be a sign of a less-than-ideal whistle. For Generations he just tweaks the mouthpieces. His other whistles (Black/Blue Bird, Mellow Dog) are combinations of one commercial whistle head with another body (I think). E.g. the Mellow Dog is a Walton's Mellow D whistle with a Feadog head. When he adjusts the mouthpiece it does change the tone to some degree but I think that depends more on the whistle you buy (some are "smoother", more pure and sine-wave like; or "chiffier", which means a reedier, flute-like sound). Since his tweaked whistles are still factory-produced instruments there will still be some variation but he makes sure that everything plays in tune and that the pressure required for the various notes are relatively even. Some whistles sometimes screech in the second octave when they come from the factory and he makes sure that doesn't happen. I think it's worth the extra money to have a whistle that is guaranteed to be easy to play and sound good, vs. searching through many factory-produced whistles until you find one of the "good ones". You will probably enjoy practicing much more and that will have an effect on your progress. Keep in mind you can spend $150-$250 on a Burke or Goldie whistle so $30 for something that pro musicians are raving about is a steal. Edit: In addition to the Indiegogo campaign (which I made a small donation to, it's a good idea), here's his eBay store: http://www.ebay.com/sch/freemanwhistles/ Rhombic Drive fucked around with this message at 07:12 on Aug 5, 2015 |
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Aug 4, 2015 20:28
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I guess the uke thread was closed, so in the interest of keeping this one alive and answering a question, does anyone here have a Vorson solid body electric ukulele? If so, would you be willing to run it through a few effects pedals/pre-amps/what have you and record it? Bonus points if you can play some renaissance-y/baroque fingerstyle stuff like MacKillop's Spanish arrangements. I'm really interested in how that would sound, but other than someone who recorded a few short demos with one most people on youtube that have one are just strummers.
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Aug 15, 2015 19:39
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-world-needs-an-affordable-great-penny-whistle#/story Whoa! Yay Jerry. I'm So In.
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Aug 15, 2015 23:21
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I inherited a good, proper mountain dulcimer last weekend. It was in my grandparents house, and my aunt finally gave me the go ahead to take things. It's a McSpadden; originally a gift of some sort to my grandparents; and was just sitting in one of the guest rooms (lots of random instruments floating around, but many are decorative or in awful shape). Really not feeling the 'traditional tuning' though (C, G, Gx2), it makes some things easy, but also really limits what you can do. Are there any other good tunings that counter the fret placement and offer more variation without turning one string into the 'accidental string'? At the moment I'm enjoying messing around with a Jandek inspired tuning, but would ideally like to focus on something that I wouldn't need to completely change I want to play song A vs song B.
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Sep 9, 2015 05:39
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D-A-d is quite versatile (or C-G-c), especially if you have the 6.5 fret. Once I got used to that one I never went back to C-G-G. Lot of relatively quick tweaks you can do for specific tunes, also. D-G-d, D-A-c, etc. slap me silly fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Sep 9, 2015 |
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Sep 9, 2015 15:38
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Will try that. After looking at some videos, it seems the default configuration is designed to make it really accessible to nonmusicians: press stick on 2 notes, strum everything with a giant pick, and you don't even have to touch the strings. Makes music instantly, but is also very limiting. I'm actually thinking about just restringing it to four notes, which could give me an off-key string and make anything playable (currently has 2 strings together, but the bridge has 6 string slots so it can be reconfigured).
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Sep 9, 2015 20:09
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Definitely an option. I played around with that a bit and never liked it - it was good for complex chording or nice for fingerstyle/flatpicking stuff, but it took away a lot of the rich drone-y slide-y sounds that I really like. Depends on what styles you're interested in, really.
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Sep 9, 2015 20:20
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I respread the strings to be even, and messed around with a few weird tunings. Mostly more trouble than they were worth (for now at least) so for the moment will probably just go with C-G-c-c#. I can just keep my right pinky on the bottom string to mute it and it's essentially a three string until the need arises. I should theoretically get a lighter string for the c/c#, right?
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Sep 10, 2015 03:59
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That seems pretty useful, similar concept to the Irish button box. I'd probably go C-G-c-b for a closer parallel but that's my free reed brain speaking  As I recall, I use 22 / 14 / 10 / 10 gauge strings for D-A-d. The 14 gauge is too heavy for a c or d high string - get 10 or maybe 12. D'addario and McSpadden make reasonably sized 4-string sets, or you can buy them separately.
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Sep 10, 2015 04:20
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Whoah, I think we're really skipping past mandolin! Mandolin is nice and compact, easy on small hands, good basic ones are very inexpensive, and they are nearly ideal for bringing to a jam session. Everyone has a guitar, so a mando gives you a lot of versatility, whether backing up the guitarists with some rhythmic chops, or knocking out some solos. The only contraindication you've mentioned is not enjoying steel strings when you tried guitar in the past, and mando strings are slightly tough to get used to at the very beginning, but no real problem after that. I hope I'm not too late for mandolin chat, I finally got a steady job and I'm looking at getting back into playing music. I'm interested in the mandolin largely because I want to learn some bluegrass and American folk while still being able to reasonably play Breton stuff for work purposes. Nobody in town stocks mandolins but I've been able to find this on Amazon, what do you guys think of it? Everything I find online in English or French says it's pretty good but my steady job doesn't pay very well so even 80€ is a bit of an investment for me. http://www.amazon.fr/Stagg-M20-Mand...#productDetails Also, I've found some mandolins on the local craigslist analogue but the cheaply priced ones terrify me because they're old and I'm not really qualified to tell whether or not they're worth the money. http://www.leboncoin.fr/instruments_de_musique/offres/bretagne/?f=p&th=1&q=mandoline e: Oh man, I didn't notice that TTFA's post was 3 months ago Soviet Commubot fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Sep 17, 2015 |
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Sep 17, 2015 20:48
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Let's say I wanted a cello to lean in the corner of the study to further the goal of having my kids grow up with an assortment of instruments to try out. And mainly for dicking with at midnight after a few drinks with friends. How terrible a decision would this clunker be? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00770MKOA/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_lu1-vb00V795X
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Sep 18, 2015 01:08
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