Re: [HG] Re: hurdy gurdy kits...or the DIY fanatics folly. I agree - but be
cautious. You can buy a cheap violin or guitar and still sound pretty good.
The instrument will work and make music particularly if you have some training.
If you get a super cheap HG, it may not work at all and it may never work
even if you have some training. I gave an intro to the HG workshop two years
ago and at the end of it two people brought up their HG's which they couldn't
play hoping that I could help them. I shimmed, cottoned, rosined but basically
the instruments needed a lot more work. One had a really funky wheel and the
other - well, I don't know exactly what was going on but none of strings hit
the wheel where they should. A professional builder could probably have
explained why they didn't play - but I do think the advice might still have
been - start over. So yes, there's certainly a range of tonality but there
are a lot of things that need to be done right to make the things actually play
at all. A lot of antique instruments are like this. I recently bought a very
cheap shawm - great deal I thought. Well, it requires so much breath to play,
its completely unstable and then it cracked. Its useless. With antique
instruments, if you get too cheap, too imprecisely made - you get firewood and
that line between firewood and playable instrument is a lot closer than modern
instruments.
----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Nogy
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 10:14 AM
Subject: Re[2]: [HG] Re: hurdy gurdy kits...or the DIY fanatics folly.
You hit on it exactly in your last statement. The gurdy comes in many
flavors, they have tonal differences, but the differences are not as many as
the similarities. And for those who have spent a lifetime learning to play a
gurdy, they have come to know the sounds and tonal components that make a gurdy
a gurdy. Those sounds and tonal components come from years of tradition, from
the way the instrument was steered throughout the ages. People here give their
recomendations according to the playability, the agility, the usability of the
instruments in a performance venue. They compare them to the work of the
Hackmans, to Nagy, to the other really fine builders instruments, and they are
trying to get people not to settle for something limited by design, but to
assure folks get a world of gurdy opportunity. They want you to have the best
tool for the job. And in that respect, they are usually quite right about kits
and plans.
You can buy a cheap violin from China, and if you are lucky and get a
professional to set it up, you can play the violin parts of a piece
recognizably, and even sound something like a violin. But even if you are the
finest virtuoso in the world, the music you produce is both from your skill and
from the instrument, and a surprising amount of what comes out comes from the
instrument without you telling it to.
So the cheap violin will work for lots of things, but it will never make your
musical experience what it could be with a much finer insturment.
The gurdy is not simply a droned, wheel driven stringed instrument - that is
a mechano-agitated droned chordophone. The gurdy is different from, say,
Dennis Havelena's $20 hurdy gurdy like object. My sinphone is a sort-of gurdy,
it doesn't have the soul of a great instrument but it does OK in renn faire and
other cheesy demo applications. It makes a drony, stringy sound that is
recognizable as belonging to the gurdy family, but it is not a great instrument
(or, I would imagine some here would say, even a very good one). But I am
happy with it the way every mother is happy with their own child, it is the
brightest, most handsome, most gifted thing around. But I am biased.
Yes, you can make an instrument you can play from many of these kits and
plans. But it will almost assuredly never give you what a professional
instrument will give you. But it will give you something a professional
instrument will not. You will know things after you build your first
instrument that most players don't ever get to know. And if you pay attention,
and are willing to experiment with your first child, as it were, then your
second, and maybe third, and even further if you are so inclined, you CAN end
up with a really nice instrument, and great knowledge, and you will be ahead.
But it will cost you, cost in time, visits to builders to learn, materials,
used up favors, the disgust of your house pets after listening to your
squawking, squeaking experiments every day. It will cost you more than you
would simply pay for an instrument. But that past earns you something more
than just an instrument, so in many ways, it is simply worth it.
If you are that kind of person - bright, mechanically talented, dedicated and
focused, a touch of massochism and sadism.
Just my 2 cents worth
Chris
Now comes more learning questions.
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 2/3/2008 at 10:10 PM Marsbar wrote:
I can see what you mean. The tone is very thin and lacks substance (no
bark ;-] ). But it is all about expectations. If I go to see an Adam Sandler
movie I go with low expectations and occasionally I get pleasantly surprised
even though there are still cringeworthy moments.
It is possible that even the kit model could have a use in a group scenario
especially to add colour in a medieval faire setting. The lack of the
trompette wouldn't be as important if other members are maintaining the rhythm.
And those of you who know what it should sound like can wander off to the other
end of the faire and drown your sorrows with some mulled ale ;-].
Fi
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Douwe Boschma
Sent: Sunday, 3 February 2008 9:25 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HG] Re: hurdy gurdy kits...or the DIY fanatics folly.
Kit obsession? I don't think that it is a strange question for someone new.
You have IKEA, model aeroplanes even whole houses that come as a kit. Not all
are of bad quality either. But asking around and researching I found out that
building an instrument is more critical. Kinds and quality of wood used. Glue
that is provided, the way it has been sawed, instruction, the patience and
precision of the builder etc. Still it is a good thing to ask around if you
don't know about something.
My first objective was to save money but still looking for a proper
instrument. At the end I have ordered one from a builder which will be finished
at the end of this year.
But well. The most convincing thing might be your own ears. Here it is...
The music maker kit... finished:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKM_99Y0KME
;-)
Douwe
