Thanks, Seth. Interesting instruments, I am sure that certain features will be an inspiration to this instrument.
Here's a 'just for fun' question. Along with this medieval Gurdy, for the challenge I am thinking of building an instrument with the crank on the keyhead side, with the keyslips reversed (accidentals on the bottom row, naturals on the top) and a keyboard of keys in a standard piano pattern hinged to the bottom of the instrument, that depressed the keyslips as they were depressed. This would let me play the right hand exactly as I would a piano (the only instrument I have formal training on), and use the left hand for rhythm. I have quite a few years of performing with a guitarboard style keyboard, so this seems kind of a natural configuration for me (more natural, I think, than the left-hand melody and right hand rhythm of a standard gurdy). I am still thinking this through, not certain of the outcome (playing the sinphone has definately strengthened my left hand playing piano, which was ALWAYS my weak point, ALWAYS). But there seems something almost irresistable about building the instrument to play with a right-hand dominate keyboard that runs in the right direction (a gurdy built mirror image would require playing with the right hand where the notes decrease in pitch to the right, which would be very unnatural, thus the crank on the wrong side as the major design change, the notes still go up as you move right). And I am not sure about how much fine motor control I would be able to exhibit with my left hand - if it is my weak playing hand, then probably the same thing would be true about coups and such. Not to mention endurance. A nightmare to align and assure all the shaft bearings, and a lot of extra design work. But with the exception of the unique keyboard and the physical position of the crank, it would be a standard gurdy. My question is, if I build the thing, it would need a name. What might you call such an instrument, and has one like it ever been built to the best of anyone's knowledge? I like building unusual wheels, not necessarily re-inventing every one. Chris Nogy *********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** On 2/28/2007 at 9:07 AM Seth Hamon wrote: http://perso.orange.fr/xaime/vielle/vendee/vielvend5.html
