I'm probably showing how little I know about the instrument but I find
mine very stable indeed.
I suffer form problems with my spine now so need to select when I am
able to play (and arthritis does limit the speed of tunes) but apart
from the usual cottoning, tuning and the occasional tweak of the
tangents, I find it as stable as most instruments once the inital setups
have been seen too (OK shimming and the like may seem fiddly after
changing strings as does rosining every so often but I really wouldn't
call it high maintenance, just day-to-day stuff).
May it be that a new player has a far higher expectation of what a HG
does "on it's own"?
Along with most bowed instruments, it takes a LOT of time and effort to
get it to sound well (we have all listened to the school evenings when
the pupils scratch their way through their violin solos, I think).
The HG is far more responsive to "how" it's played at a basic level than
many instruments - and we haven't yet got to the trompette - a whole art
in itself.
I found the biggest problem was turning the wheel at the right speed
when starting to play (going back to the same problem with kids and a
violin). It takes a leap of faith to turn it fast enough to produce a
good sound (and, of course, a lot of time to learn how much rosin to put
on it and to get it even).
You just don't get a proper sound until those things come together
(presuming the setup is OK of course).
I found a similar problem with Northumbrian small pipes in getting a
proper pressure up. There's a feeling of "take it easy until you know
how to play it which, of course, is the wrong way around as it will
always sound bad.
I do wonder if people who say how difficult an instrument it is to play
(we are talking general playing for fun here, not professional stuff)
could find out they could play in a matter of minutes if they had just
one lesson from a player.
We can easily forget the basic stuff as, once we have learned it, it's
quite natural.
Just a thought.
Colin Hill
On 20/12/2011 20:47, Elizabeth Gilmore wrote:
Hi All, sorry, but WHAT is so high maintenance about a hurdy gurdy?
as compared to any other wooden instrument with strings? Beth
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