Thanks for the timely response to my post!!! I am jointly working on this
project with a mechanical engineer with a great deal of wood working experience
so I have no doubt that we could piece together something on our own, over time
based on our on going research. I just do not see the need to reinvent the
wheel time and time again. It would seem to me that those who were passionate
about hurdy gurdies would try and help others who are starting out by helping
them avoid the early mistakes and setbacks they went through. I believe that
knowledge not shared is wasted knowledge.
Is there any particular reason why no one has produced hurdy gurdy plans
or kits of a decent quality to facilitate the making of a first intermediate
hurdy gurdy by a novice? It seems to me that there is a demand for something
like this since so many on this list and on other websites all admit had their
start by attempting to make their own hurdy gurdy.
I know making a hurdy gurdy is a huge undertaking and most certainly not
for everyone to try. I often hear repeated on many hurdy gurdy websites and
lists the dire warning that you should not encourage a novice to attempt their
first hurdy gurdy for it is sure to end in dismal failure. This poor end
result will surely drive them away from such a wonderful instrument forever.
Instead of trying to scare everyone away from trying in the first place, why
hasn't someone tried helping by creating a functional set of plans or a kit
that will produce, while not a professional grade instrument, something of an
intermediate quality that will keep them coming back for more?
I do hand engraving of metals, which is another passion of mine. It is a
difficult art to learn and a life time to master. Most who attempt to learn
the art do not follow through. They quit long before they reach even a novice
level. Hand engraving is a dying art in this age of machine reproduction.
Since it is a passion, I want the art to survive. So, I teach any and all
who want to learn. Will most of my students follow through and pursue
engraving? Probably not. But by removing the trial and error aspects of the
learning curve and by demystifying many of the "tricks of the trade" almost all
walk away with a positive learning experience. All take away with them a
strong sense of accomplishment. The small percentage who wish to pursue the art
further will have a solid foundation to work from as they journey down that
road. As I said before, knowledge that is not shared is in the end, wasted
knowledge.
Just my two cents worth.
Thank you for the many positive, helpful and encouraging responses!!!!
-William Gull
Juan Wijngaard and Sharon Berman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I agree with Chris, it is entirely possible to build a working hurdy
gurdy without plans if you want it bad enough, I did so over 30 years ago when
information was even harder to come by than it is today, I had no woodworking
skills and bought or borrowed tools as I needed them. I ended up with a pretty
unique diatonic creation, made out of mostly second hand furniture but it
looked like a hurdy gurdy and, maybe more by luck than judgement, it sounded
like one too. Like Chris, I learned an awful lot in the process and had no
qualms about getting in there with a chisel or knife to fix things when they
went wrong or to add improvements. It was a fun thing to do. Just be prepared
to keep going, to quote Roy Trotter: "Making a hurdy gurdy is like eating
peanuts, you can't stop at one." By the way, the last HG I made was a couple of
years ago, again without plans other than plotting out the keyboard, it was for
my son who was three at the time, the body was made from a
toy wooden boat. It works.
Juan
I am going to give a slightly different perspective to this issue, one I have
given before. I am in the minority here, as I consider myself an amateur
player of several instruments, not a professional, and while I enjoy getting
better, I also enjoy everything else that has to do with the older instruments
- the lore, the construction, the materials and techniques, thedesign and
aesthetics, the personalizations and the integration of new technologies into
the instruments. And I like to learn by doing, and I like to build things as a
tool to learn. I built my first Sinphone (medieval box predecessor to a
true hurdy gurdy) without plans, without a model to go by, with only some basic
knowledge of structures, a whole lot of tool knowledge (and a bunch of tools)
and 1 piece of information - 354mm. The vibrating string length. It is
amazing what you can do with just that one piece of information. I used
woods I knew to be acceptable from some of my previous
instrument experiments. I experimented, and with some work I came up with an
instrument that I enjoy playing and some folks enjoy listening to. I play a
few French tunes, and I do the unthinkable - I play a bunch of bagpipe
standards, things like 'The Minstrel Bard" and "Amazing Grace", and I play
harmony parts on some old English folk songs and I even have my own cover of
"Smoke on the Water". In other words, I do not fall into the category that
most folks here fall into - students and performers of traditional Hurdy Gurdy.
So while a professional would probably find my first instrument a dismal
failure, I find it a spectacular success. I learned so much from that
instument that I never would have learned by reading about or looking at
someone else's work. And the second instrument I built, which was really just
a technology tester for what will be a much nicer, late medieval piece of my
own design, turned out better by leaps. So if my goal was to acquire an
instrument on the level of Wolfgang or Cali and Alden's offerings, I failed
miserably. But I acquired in my experiment so much more. I also have to
say that I do not get discouraged. I will not let the moderate quality and
excessive finickiness of my first instrument put me off from continuing to
study and develop my talents, and one day I would like to be able to play
proficiently some of the music I have seen videos for from OTW, but that will
come and I have patience. I had made plans to be at OTW this year, but in a
real surprise circumstance, my wife and I discovered we are going to have
another baby in Spetember sometime, so I have to put that trip on hold for yet
another year. But hopefully next year, if nothing major gets in the way, I
will be bringing my current project and letting some of the experts critique it
- that is how I like to learn and how I like to 'network'. And maybe someone
more proficient than I will help me find the instrument's voice.
So if you are the unique kind of individual that likes the ride as much as
the destination, and you don't consider failures while learning to be anything
but successes in disguies, then I whole-heartedly suggest cutting wood, making
mistakes, building a few 'cats with digestive tract problems', having some
leughs, and learning a ton in the process. If you like to figure things out
yourself, it is possible. There are several reasonable plans, and a few books
with plans and construction articles. You can, if you have hand skills and a
technical mind, work through the problems and build something that will be, at
least to you, a wonderful thing. But if you are mainly a performer, mostly
interested in playing a really nice instrument, then I suggest just buying one.
There are not, on the market today, any kits that will yield right from the
box an instrument of the caliber any of the professional HG luthiers are
building today. Chris
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 5/26/2008 at 10:53 PM William Gull wrote:
Greetings unto the list!!!!!! My name William Gull and I reside in
Nevada, Iowa and I am a first time poster to this list.. I am a silversmith
and hand engraver who does historical reenactments for both recreation and and
as a market for my hand work. It was through my love of both medieval and 18Th
century music that I was introduced to the wonders of the hurdy gurdy.
Since then it has been an ever growing passion to learn to play one. First
things first, before learning to play I need to find an instrument to play on.
Being a hands on sort of person, I have decided I would like to try building
one. I know this will be a definite challenge, but it is one I am willing to
undertake. Like any new project I undertake, I am starting by doing research
and gathering as much information as I can. There in lies the problem. While
I am slowly collecting and reading as many books on all aspects of the hurdy
gurdy as I can get my hands on, there seems to
be almost no information on the quality of the hurdy gurdy plans and kits
available. Does anyone on this list have any recommendations or opinions on
the commercially available kits and building plans??? What would you recommend
for the beginner as far as must have books? I appreciate any and all input
that will get me closer to my goal of learning the hurdy gurdy!!!! In a
shared hurdy gurdy passion, William
