Mitch, you verbalized my sentiment exactly. People who play the hurdy gurdy don't realize how much of a (mental) block it is to those of us just beginning to learn on how much cotton do we put on? Is there enough? Too little? Is it adjusted properly? Are the tangents set properly? How do we, as beginners, adjust them without causing harm to the instrument?
Years ago a teacher wanted to send me music to learn, but he didn't realize just how new I was to the instrument and that I didn't sight-read music. He assumed I could sight-read. A good teacher (and I have given lectures on other subjects) knows how to present a program that is interesting, instructive and knows the skill level of his/her students. A good teacher should not assume that a student is further along than they are or what their music reading ability is. But, thank you for verbalizing the fears we encounter as new players. I'm sure you are or would make a great teacher. :-) On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 11:03 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > ** > There's no question in my mind that applying cotton and rosin are > essential skills that a beginning player needs to learn, and that he/she > needs help from another player a couple of times before the beginner is in > a position to figure this out for him/herself. Sure, you can look at > YouTube videos, and watch Neil or Scott throw a piece of cotton from across > a room and have it fly perfectly into place, nicely wrapped on the > string...but the reality for a beginner is that getting the cotton right is > not obvious at all at first. You don't know what you should or shouldn't > do, how much is too much or too little, how to adjust the piece that's > there, making sure it's tight enough, and on and on. We just went through > this with my student, who just bought my Phoenix, and she succeeded in > turning a very stable instrument into an unplayable screeching monster in > no time at all...we took one look at the high chanter, said that's way too > much cotton, do this, do that, add some rosin...and voila, she and the > gurdy are friends again. > > There are all kinds of other levels of how a perfectly good gurdy can > become unplayable in a player's life until they wrestle it back into > control, but as regards the beginner and a well-made instrument (that > doesn't have press-fit tangents) the cotton and rosin issues will be the > main hump to get over. > > And as someone else said, if we are blessed to have Over The Water again > this year, Cali and Alden's maintenance class will make you a much happier > human being who shares a home with a gurdy. > > Mitch Gordon > Guerneville, Calif., US > > In a message dated 12/20/2011 6:42:29 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, > [email protected] writes: > > Hi Elisabeth and Kevin, > > By "high maintenance" I mean the whole cotton issue. Do I put to much > cotton, loo little cotton? Tweaking the tangents. One player once told me > not to worry about whether I put too much or too little cotton. Eventually > I should know how much to put on. Another roadblock was that I had asked > to have it set up in D/G as I play primarily Celtic music and figured D/G > would be better suited for that. > > And, not to dwell on Bruno's comments, but I just wanted to add that this > was going to be my one and only hurdy gurdy purchase and I wanted to get it > with all the 'bells and whistles' and I wouldn't be able to afford a second > gurdy. Now, I'm thinking maybe I should have bought a more basic model > instead. They did make a "Symphonie" model which was a lot less expensive. > > Thank you all for your inspiration. I will definitely make a go of it > and, hopefully, will not be putting it up for sale next year. > > Jake > > > > On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 2:20 PM, Kevin Hughes <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Hello Jake, >> >> I'm curious as to what problems you are encountering in learning to >> play. You used the phrase high maintenance in two of your emails. Could >> you be more specific as what these issues are? >> >> I was once asked to look an Orca from Olympic Instruments. A friend had >> borrowed it from another friend(who been give it as a gift but never played >> it) and thought that the bridge needed to be lowered(or the string notches >> made deeper) and wanted me to look at it and see what I thought. It turned >> out that he was trying to tune the open chanterelle to D and so the string >> was not making good contact with the wheel. I looked at the paperwork that >> came with the instrument, found the chanterelle should be tuned to G, tuned >> it, cottoned the string, did a bit of shimming, and the instrument >> played. (This was a couple of years ago and I still haven't seen the friend >> play it.) But it seemed like the instrument was close to being good to go >> when shipped. >> >> When starting out the cottoning and related shimming is the first hurdle >> to overcome. Neil Brook has a youtube video that is helpful for >> this. Next is getting used to turning the crank and playing notes. The >> Muskett book is good for this as are Neil Brook's DVD tutorials. Aftre >> that work in trompette technique. Scott Gayman has a great series of >> youtube videos on this. And as with any instrument consistent practice >> yields best results. >> >> You will of course have to replace the cotton from time to time. A >> tangent or two may shift and need to be realigned. There could be other >> issues that arise, however once the instrument is set up it doesn't seem to >> me to need constant tweaking. Other folks may have other experiences. >> >> I wish you well in your endeavors. >> >> Kevin >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "hurdygurdy" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected] >> 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 [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > 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 [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > 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 [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] 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.
