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First, this is a really awesome thread and I really look forward to the bagpipe discussion ; if there's a cheap way to get some uillean pipes up in this, I might have a new instrument to learn. Also, I can recommend the mandolin. It's small, easy to carry and can be used in a lot of different genres. Playing Irish music with it is relatively easy (Haha, I will never, ever have to leave first position under any circumstances, gently caress yes.) Plus, Rogue sells a good one for about a buck and a half. In addition, the whole mandolin-family/guitars tuned to fifths are pretty good, bazoukis, mandolas, mandocellos, and are really cool. Most big guitar/music stores will have an old zouk that no one has touched forever that they'll sell you for a song. The only down-side for newbs is that playing courses instead of single strings is really hard on your fingertips for the first bit, but after a week or two you will have scary monster death calluses.
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Jun 2, 2011 17:50
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 04:43 |
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Picks would obviously be good. Get a range of sizes and thicknesses and see what you like, but, as a rule of thumb, the bigger your hands the bigger your pick. Definitely shell out the cash for a real tuner ; with 8 strings it makes your life so much easier, plus it means you're less likely to gently caress yourself up at the beginning. (I still don't understand people who learn without a tuner and do it right. Do they just have better ears than me? Until I got a tuner I just made my girlfriend tune it for me or used hers, so I have no idea.) I like the kind that clip on, especially if they glow in the dark or whatever ; makes playing in bars/at sessions/at sessions easier. O, and you'll probably want some kind books of tunes ; although, depending on genre, a lot of it might be open source. (https://www.thesession.org is great for Celtic, for instance, and Mandozine is just amazing.) Mel Bay makes some pretty good stuff, and they almost always have a CD so you can hear the tune.
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Jun 2, 2011 19:48
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Slight derail, but someone should make a trad-thread in one of the music forums. I'd do it, but I'm not that good of a musician, nor an expert. There should be somewhere we can talk about Child ballads, right? Edit : Since you made the pennywhistle-post, I have some random retarded questions as someone who only plays stringed instruments so far : How in the hell do you play something like King of the Fairies that has sharps and naturals in the same key? Also, coming from Irish music, where that instrument is incredibly prominent, how do you recommend anything but keys of G and D? That's 90% tunes where I come from (Including minor-equivalents, because I'm a bad person) . This is honest confusion, not condescension ; I can't name a single tune in F of the bat, although this is quite possibly a genre thing. Double Edit : Live jamming is the best method for just about anything related to music, and I will fight that point to the death. The only exception being rear end-tons of practice. Although, again, I suck, so I'm a terrible source of information. Xiahou Dun fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Jun 3, 2011 |
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Jun 3, 2011 06:45
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I know it's not the case, but every time I see someone playing the theremin, I can't shake the impression that they're just humming and making weird hand-gestures. And have a theremin link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AerCCx7Fas (Bill Bailey is awesome.) You mentioned tuning it ; how the hell does one go about that?
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Jun 9, 2011 22:13
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Just checked with my girl who plays fiddle : cheap fiddles are really, really awful. If you have a buddy who plays, you might be able to find some wheat amongst the chaff, though. Have you considered renting instead? It's very reasonable. Also, hardangers own.
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Jun 11, 2011 03:52
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How about comparing it to a de gamba, then, if you can? I always liked traditional Chinese instruments. hosed around with a pipa once when I was in Taiwan ; gently caress that poo poo's hard. Also, again bringing up my woman because she's much, much more musically competent than I am (Sorry, it's relevant, I swear!), she's played fiddle for something crazy like 17 years and can't even make notes on an erhu and has declared it, as an instrument, to be "witchcraft". So, there's at least something of a comparison. One of these days, I want to get her to do something about traditional Irish and Scottish music on either Ask/Tell or NMD, although I doubt there's much interest. Speaking of which, we might want to do some kind of effort-posty thing about musical sub-genres, or subcategorize and mention instruments by what they're popular in. Like, I loved your hurdy-gurdy post, and will probably reference when I finally get around to buying one, but it might be nice to have something saying, "Great for Quebecois, Medieval, some Modern and, maybe, very liberal Zydeco" or something.
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Jun 13, 2011 06:51
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I'm sorry to bring down the level of the discourse, but all I'm seeing is dog-poo poo, sorry.
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Jun 15, 2011 15:56
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Rock Band has minimal relationship to musical competence. People who are excellent musicians can often be terrible at it. It's really in your head though ; you just need to find something simple and learn to enjoy practicing. It took me three tries to find an instrument that clicked for me where I really enjoyed just playing the same simple tunes over and over and over so I get could get the basics down. Uke was actually a pretty good starter because it can do basic rhythm and chords for pop and rock quite easily, while having a relatively low initial investment. As others have said, penny-whistle and ocarina are similar, but are melody instruments. Do you sing? If so, I'd pick up something that can do basic chords, like your uke. If not, a basic melody instrument is probably a good bet, like the above whistles and ocarina. (And mandolins do both. Play the mandolin ; mandolins are cool.*) *I'm not biased and all, no sir.** **No content. I just like nesting foot-notes.
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Jun 29, 2011 16:22
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That's normal, dude. Pretty much all instruments make you do stuff like that. After you get over the initial 'AAAAH!' it's fine. Like, the ocarina and the penny-whistle make you breath correctly while fingering, so you're going to have the same problem of doing two things at once for every instrument I can think of.
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Jun 29, 2011 19:27
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I went to a music festival over the weekend*, and I have the sudden urge to build a cigar-box guitar. Anyone know a good guide to making one? i.e. has actual knowledge and isn't just googling (because I could that). And Bing Futch is a pretty good dulcimer player. And a really happy dude. *Old Songs in upstate New York ; it was loving nice. \/\/\/\/\/\/Why don't you just play lefty? Xiahou Dun fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Jun 30, 2011 |
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Jun 30, 2011 03:08
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onecooldan posted:Hey friends, I'm interested in learning a simpler instrument after failing miserably at guitar. Two instruments intrigue me greatly, namely the Ukelele and the Ocarina. My biggest issue with guitar was my left-handedness, as strumming to any sort of near-rhythm was painful and difficult to coordinate, but making chords was a simple affair. Would you recommend either a Ukelele or an Ocarina to a heavy lefty or should I stick with guitar and push through the awkwardness? This might be from my instrument, and guitars are different, but you know you can switch the strings, right? You just have to make sure you don't gently caress up the bridge or the nut.
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Jun 30, 2011 03:48
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Oooo... Okay, now I got you. Changing the strings is comically easy. You just unwind them until they come off, and then put them in mirror order. But yeah, if you're bumming a guitar then it's up to your room-mate whether she'll let you do some minor work on her guitar. (Which she might for a six-pack if she has a couple ; it's not like you'd be damaging it, just making it weird for her to play for a bit.) But yeah, uke is probably pretty good if you liked guitar. And you can do the same deal and swap the strings to make it lefty. You only really need to worry about stuff with a cut-away or something weird, like an F-style mandolin. They make really nice build-your-own-uke-kits that're pretty cheap ; I was just looking at some the other day and they sounded good.
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Jun 30, 2011 04:02
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Here, have a link : http://www.wolfelele.com/Model-Specs.html I didn't attend the workshop on building them (gently caress that ; there was a contra dance at the same time), but I was having a beer with a guy who did it and hosed around on his. It sounded good and apparently took less than an hour and some wood glue. Plus, I bet you I could train my cat to re-string it lefty. How's that?
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Jun 30, 2011 04:16
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Every time I pick up a uke the tuning just makes me go crazy. I understand that it makes it great for chords, but as someone who is used to normal tunings and plays melody exclusively, it just makes me  Why would you make the lowest string higher than the second lowest string. Why?! I feel like I'm the tuning-equivalent of a really old people. "Those darkies down the road are so strange with their reentrant tuning..."
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Jun 30, 2011 05:30
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Cheap dulcimers are the only thing that make me happier than your avatar.Chin Strap posted:Any opinions on the hand strength required though, TTFA? I can do pressing motions like the piano just fine, and even recorder i can last for a while, but the gripping required for guitar just killed my hands whenever I tried. Note bene : this is pretty much a given of all stringed instruments unless you work with your hands a lot. It's not that you are weak, it's just that you aren't used to using those muscles. If you don't like guitar or whatever, that's cool. Just keep in mind that it's one of those things you work up to. The worst part is that you eventually go through the rabbit hole and need to relax how hard your tugging on the strings to stop it from sounding bad.
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Jul 2, 2011 06:28
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Actually, if anyone has experience, what's the take on resonator-mandolins? I wouldn't be trying to sound like a banjo, it just seems like a cool idea to have a louder, banjo-sounding mando to gently caress around on. Anyone know what the market is like on those?
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Jul 6, 2011 05:09
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poo poo, I didn't think it was obscure enough or I would've done it. Should I do bouzouki or mandocello then? And straps actually have a second peg on A-styles quite frequently ; it's pretty much just an F-style thing to wrap it around like that. Also, for whatever reason, the standard is to wear it just on one shoulder rather than across the back, although that's personal preference. Finally, to do a post about mandolins and not include Chris Thile is heresy, so have some links : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wtkYFy8LxE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylxIRd6f5pQ The man is indiscernible from a wizard. O! And Rogue is really, really good for the price. That got me through my first year and a half of playing, and it came with a really nice case. Xiahou Dun fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Jul 9, 2011 |
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Jul 9, 2011 06:15
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That cat's expression is adorable.
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Jul 12, 2011 04:31
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I bought a penny-whistle in D for 3 bucks today from a pawnshop on my way home today. You win, I caved. Currently figuring it out by ear. All fingers is a D, and then each removed finger is a half-step, yes? So a scale looks something like : XXXXXX OXXXXX OOXXXX OOOXXX OOOOXX OOOOOX XXXXXX (But blowing harder) Am I on the right track? This is the first non-stringed instrument I've ever owned. (Except for poo poo like a tambourine or whatever.)
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Jul 15, 2011 00:44
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Thanks ; I actually meant to type the all open but I'm really dumb. No idea on what the make is ; it's some old beat up thing that was cheap. I can tell where the name was, but it's long since turned into just a couple of motes of paint. I'll see if I can't find my camera. I do, however, know it's in D. Apparently they're color-coded and my girlfriend told me what it was. I think it's green? (Don't ask the color-blind guy!) Edit: Here's the whistle :   And, because I was already there, a pic of my mando :  Sorry for the crappy pics ; it's a bullshit camera I bout for 40 bucks in Taiwan. Xiahou Dun fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Jul 15, 2011 |
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Jul 15, 2011 01:06
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MrGreenShirt posted:Looks like a Feadog whistle to me. That good or bad?
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Jul 15, 2011 03:15
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When you get up to it, learn Hangman's Reel. It sounds really, really good on dulcimer.
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Jul 15, 2011 03:58
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I'd hear the rest of this story. Just saying.
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Jul 15, 2011 04:13
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Sounds pretty okay. And Bing Futch is a really chill dude.
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Jul 16, 2011 18:33
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Rough schedule of what I'm doing Friday : Teach morning class. Office hours. Light lunch. Knock off at noon. Meet up with 2 friends. Go to guitar store. Go to hardware store. Go to liquor store. 3 guys, lots of bourbon, making diddley bows in a barn until we pass out or someone calls the cops. I want to see if I can do this : Diddley bow + dulcimer = diddlicimer. Xiahou Dun fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Jul 20, 2011 |
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Jul 20, 2011 03:29
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O poo poo! I said I'd do that! I'm in a bit of a rough patch getting ahead on work so I can take off for the Drunken Diddley Bow Bonanza, but if it can wait until after the worst of the hangover gets over (late weekend/Monday morning), I'd love to. That cool? I ain't married to doing it ; just feel like other people should start stepping up and am willing to do my part for awesome instruments. And I don't know about recording the Bonanza. We'll see if we can operate a camera by then. One of my buddies rented a nail-gun and is planning on "making everything that holds still long enough into a diddley bow". 
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Jul 21, 2011 05:27
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 04:43 |
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I'll see what I can do. But if I pass out and wake up as a diddley bow... Well, I was going to say I'd be angry, but I'd probably just be screaming. Maybe I can scam a camera and tripod off of someone and set it to take pictures at random intervals...
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Jul 21, 2011 05:48
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