Re: [HG-new] Proposal on Hurdy Gurdy Construction topic

[Kazimierz Verkmastare]

I don't think we should be focusing on a restricted instrument for a beginner with a few hand tools, I think we should decide on a reasonable instrument capable of playing a modest selection from the repertoire of world Gurdy music.  Not the finest French dance pieces, not the most epic Hungarian tunes, not the most difficult Spanish/Galacian music, but a decent sampling of the more intermediate pieces of each style.   I suggest this because one of the criteria most people have used in arguing against building an instrument is that after all the work you don't want to be significantly limited by your instrument when you go to learn to play, so you have to build something a bit more featured than some jazzed-up Havelena $20 Hurdy-Gurdy if you want to have something to really play and learn on in the end.   Most craftsmen can build well a simple example with limited features of a thing, and be quite pleased with their work, but that doesn't mean it would appeal as more than a novelty to the universal audience base of the object in question.  But what we want to show is that it is possible to build a gurdy that would be useful for a dedicated player, not just that we can build something we would love as our own creation.   You don't need 4 chanters, 4 mouche, 3 trompette and sympathetic strings, but 2 chanters, 2 drones and a trompette doesn't seem like an unreasonable setup to allow you to play a good portion of most world Gurdy literature without too much limitation.  And that basic configuration, well set up, would honestly appeal pretty much universally to the majority of gurdy hopefuls and players .   It also is probably the basic setup you would have to know and have built to consider yourself a successful generic Gurdy builder.  It would teach you the art of setting up a Gurdy, the understanding of design elements, and would present every skill and tool challenge that a more complicated gurdy would present including multi-string bridges, trompette bridges, tyrant peg placement, among others.  And once you had that understanding, you could then build each more or less complicated instrument from diffferent regions and traditions should you want one.   If we are going to prove that building a Gurdy is possible, I suggest we set our standard so that the end product is a viable, useful and versatile instrument.  I don't know of any plans for such a critter available for free.  But available or not, I think it would not be as productive to prove we can build HGLOs rather than useful gurdies.   Chris > Hi All > I think a good free plan for a beginner with just a few tools would > also be on the Graeme McCormack's web site "antiquated strings".  > and that would be "The Sinfonye" I built a few from his very > detailed plans and they are very nice and I find with good volume.  > Early Hurdy Gurdies were built with handtools and the help of other > craftsman like a blacksmith so I think it still could be done the > same way.  I do think Michael Mcmillan on his blog "a huyrdy Gurdy > Odyssey" is buiding a very beautiful kit with very few tools and > borrowing tools from friends. you learn to make do.  I have a very > well equipped shop but the last instrument I constructed is a > Nyckelharpa  it is like a very detailed Hurdy Gurdy that is played > with a bow. and they are largely built in Sweden with only a > carvers knife.  > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "hurdygurdy" group. > To post to this group, send email to hurdygurdy@googlegroups.com To > unsubscribe from this group, send email to > hurdygurdy+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit > this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy > > The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be > found at http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm.  To reduce > spam, posts from new subscribers are held pending approval by the > webmaster. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hurdygurdy" group. To post to this group, send email to hurdygurdy@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to hurdygurdy+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy   The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster.