Spent this morning meeting a very interesting old hurdy gurdy owned by some very interesting people. Tomorrow we’re off to find a lathe with which to fix it.
Anyone know who the #gurdy player heard but not seen in this Light in Babylon video is?
Send a one-line drawing to the moon! I drew a hurdy gurdy: http://www.moondrawings.org/drawing/ubuafrct surprisingly difficult with only one line of finite length.
#gurdy trompette study tip: watch the trompette string whilst buzzing. Watching its motion can help judge the evenness of your buzzes, and help identify buzzes which are weaker, shorter or merging together. It’s a convenient, built-in way of making the invisible (sound) visible (movement of a string).
Based on what I learned from the coup de catre, I will not claim to be able to play the coup de six until I can freely stress or miss any of the buzzes, start the coup from any location, and use it to play in 7 and 5 time. Step one: balancing exercises! Slowly beginning to be able to start the coup de six from any of the six buzzes.
Successfully re-booked! A member of security staff asked to see my hurdy gurdy purely out of curiosity, which is a first for me. Usually they either don’t care or require a swab and search.
Very excited to announce that next week I’ll be travelling to Turkey to play hurdy #gurdy at World Wood Day 2015 in Eskişehir!
Really looking forward to visiting Turkey and meeting everyone else involved.
Drehleierwiki has a very comprehensive list of #gurdy string suggestions, and is excellent reference if you’re not sure where to get strings, what to get, or simply want to try something new.
I’m currently using a Thomastik Infeld Dominant Viola a1 medium, (synth core, aluminium wound) as my g, some unbranded roundwound violin G (turns out roundwound doesn’t sit nicely with my gurdy) and a Violin D for the D. Planning on replacing the D with another low G set up for harmony playing, and maybe trying some gut strings for my trompettes after I’ve made new chiens.
RIP Doreen Muskett, author of hurdygurdymethod.co.uk. You contributed so much to the gurdy community.
Thoroughly enjoyed playing at Portið this Sunday and met a bunch of awesome people! Turns out that (probably for the first time in history) it was one of two #gurdy concerts in Reykjavík on the same day.
This is one of the more beautiful uses of the edgier sounds the #gurdy can make I’ve heard in a while:
From the amazingly talented Matthias Loibner (no surprises there).
Much as I miss building hurdy gurdies, using my current one for 1.5 years now is teaching me a huge amount about what to better next time. Dragging it around Europe in a rucksack was an excellent stress test, and the various repairs I’ve had to do (and continue to have to do) over the last few months highlights areas I need to put more thought into in the future.
For example, the aluminium axle with setscrew arrangement is inadequate due to it coming loose over a period of 6 months, the trompette disengager I made was much too fragile, the strap knobs need to be glued into a solid, well-attached internal block making contact to two planes, ditto for the bridge-end string holders — having them pull up against binding (which the instrument would be better off without anyway) is inadequate. Additionally, an adjustable melody string bridge is a no-brainer, and building custom capos is almost certainly unnecessary and produces worse results than just using harp capos.
Edit: having said all of that, it’s still a good-sounding, stable, very playable instrument.
Had a wonderful time playing #gurdy at Stóri Eyglóar-dagurinn — thanks to all who came and supported Eygló! Played my new tunes The Taste of Words and Jellyfish 500 (not yet notated), and accompanied Eygló singing Vísur Vatnsenda Rósu and Sofðu unga ástin mín.
I didn’t video it myself but hope to have one to link to in a week or so.
Yesterday I dug out this rather odd #gurdy track from January:
It was recorded after a visit to Hayling Island, wherein we found an assortment of sea creatures, all of whom, according to tradition, were called Gordon. One was alive, and thus the tune was named.
Built a #gurdy wheel speed measuring device 24hrs before leaving for festivals, and it turns out that without absolute positioning (which I certainly don’t have time to build) it’s actually not much use as it doesn’t tell you anything that an audio recording of the trompette does in far higher detail.
The data could still be useful for controlling effects, but again, the audio level is a more accessible indicator of speed than actual measurement equipment.
For teaching purposes, the thing which would actually be useful (as always) is not the measuring equipment, but a UI which shows you trompette traces from pro players alongside yours in real time and allows you to compare them. I’ll have a go at prototyping this if I get time tomorrow and bring it along to Chateau d’Ars if it’s successful.
Time to busk! Heading out to Austurvöllur with the #gurdy and some new tunes.
Unexplained Sounds — Whistle
My first experiment with using sped-up oceanic hydrophone recordings as a musical element, contrasted against the Hurdy Gurdy.
This one is a currently (2014-04) unidentified sound (probably an underwater volcano erupting) known as “whistle”.
Last night: fixed #gurdy intonation, fitted tapping string. Even without a dedicated EM pickup it’s sounding great! Can’t wait to get it hooked up to an amp.
And my hurdy gurdy is fixed! Huge thanks to Brooks Hood for letting me use his workshop space — top guy, highly recommended for guitar repair work if you’re in Reykjavík.