A little back story. I have been to Australia twice and since, I own two Digderidoos. I can play them but have
yet to master the circular breathing. Are they any brewers out there that own instruments that they
own and have mastered or are in the process of mastering?
Please to share.
Actually very traditional, but not common, anymore.
Last night I played (with) a very, very, nice concertina. Damn it was a beautiful instrument, unbelievable sound and capable of much more volume than I would have expected. Unfortunately I can’t afford a concertina that nice. Currently the only instrument I’ve mastered is my stereo. I do own a classical guitar and parts of two steel string acoustics. Didgeridoos are cool.
Mouth harp! Which is apparently called a “jew harp” in other parts of the country.
I own a digeridoo as well, but can only make it sound like a sick elephant.
I also have a mouth harp made from bamboo that sounds pretty neat.
I’ve been playing the “stereo” for years now and have become quite good at it. ;D
If non-traditional means not-traditional-to-western-cultures, then the one I’ve come close to would be sitar. I’ve so far taken one “lesson” (a workshop with Sandip Berman, fantastic tabla/sitar/voice player who has toured with Bela Fleck among others) and the gentleman was nice enough to offer to let me use his sitar to practice on.
I’m not sure I’m cut out for sitar though, they are quite challenging to play, even physically.
Maybe Hawaiian lap steel?
I play the dulcimer (mountain dulcimer), though ‘play’ is an exageration since I haven’t picked it up in several years. should oughta maybe do that. I always enjoy it when I play, though I’m not very good.
My dad is big into Dulcimer playing, and I love it too. It’s one of those instruments that, because of open-chord tuning, sounds good no matter how bad you happen to be - Kinda like a harmonica, where if you haven’t been trained you can still do some nice stuff.
I have on occasion played a blues harp in a band!
Is that a psaltry?
nose flute. but not in years. I had a friend who was quite good with a musical saw and I used to play around with that.
pink violin
Looks like a Hurdy Gurdy to me.
That matches what google images finds. I’ve never seen one and don’t know what they sound like. The name is vaguely familiar for some reason though - I think from a Beastie Boys song
Well, I’ve just been educated. An expensive wheel-bowed folk instrument. Think bagpipe crossed with a fiddle and harmonium! Yeah, there’s part of me that wants one…but a bit too pricey for me. I could probably get a sitar plus a sarangi, sarod, or dilruba… ;D
Ah, yes!
being older, different frame of reference… it brought to mind an old song by Donovan called Hurdy Gurdy Man
You and me both, man! ACID FLASHBACK!!!
Hurdy Gurdy it is… and although a good chunk of money, this one was not as expensive as most of them out there. It was built for me by a gentleman in Oregon, in a workshop in his back yard with a wood stove and a solar panel on the roof…
The hg Donovan sings of is actually a barrel organ. (Crank it, it plays a tune, think player piano).
First seen in depictions found in the Iberian peninsula (what is now Spain and Portugal) dating back to 1100 the hg was the street instrument for many centuries. They were also used in churches as the drones are quite good at keeping the congregation in tune. The Notre Dame in Paris has several depicted on the sculpting it has on it’s exterior. Louis XIV was a music freak and had them all over the palace cranking at all times…think “rave”. Then there was the dark chapter of the Hessian Hurdy Gurdy Girls…read here:
A piece of American History which is conveniently left out of the books…
The instrument is still in use in folk music, although in a more modern iteration, in Eastern Europe. And the Swedes have a derivative known as the Nyckelharpa, also still in use in folk music.
I use mine at SCA events and play medieval-ish and later traditional tunes for general entertainment. For those of you that are familiar with the SCA, I particularly have a lot of fun joining the drum circles…the dancers LOVE any melody instrument, and I have sort of mastered a few middle eastern-ish scales that I can vamp for hours. I call it:Drive by taksim… However, my friends and family have made me promise never to tune it in their presence again. ;D
It can be heard here in a recording/video I threw together and posted to youtube in a camper in about 45 minutes, as a demonstration for my kids, using the hurdy, a dumbek, a macbook running on an inverter and a Sprint wireless card…it’s not as tight as I would like it to be, but it was fun to do.