Anyone play a Balalaika?

[Chuck Naill]

If you do, where did you find one to purchase?

[dulcillini]

No, I don't but I would like to have one. I will be watching the responses to your thread.

Mike

[man dough nollij]

I would think they would be about nine thousand times easier to build than a mandolin. I think I've even seen kits somewhere...

[Lee]

Some use strips of wood for the back like an old bowlback, not that simple.

[Chuck Naill]

Have you seen this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oYL_If5SPM&feature=related

or her... I mean this:redface::redface:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41viTHJhoJs&feature=related

[Richard Moore]

No but I do play its relative the domra.

[jblanchard]

I have a balalaika that was purchased at a foreign currency store in Moscow back in the late 1970s. It's actually not that bad sounding for what was basically intended to be a souvenir. (It's got a big "CCCP" on the headstock!!) The biggest problem is getting it to stay in tune. After I got it, I did a little work on the neck, narrowing it and sanding down the rough edges of some frets. I recently had a new nut and bridge put on it.

Lee is right about balalaika construction. The front is flat, but the back is like a bowlback with wide ribs. There are some balalaika kits--I built one myself years ago--that are essentially boxes with straight, flat sides all around. Not a real balalaika.

I learned how to play the balalaika from some English and foreign language instruction books. Your thumb will sure get a workout if you play the balalaika! I'm also interested in finding a little better quality balalaika. Maybe some day.

Here's one website that offers balalaikas: http://www.barynya.com/balalaika/for_sale.htm.

[Rick Schmidlin]

I always wanted to because of Doctor Zhivago, then I found out Lara Theme was played on the mandolin.

[Eric Hanson]

Not I. but if I did I wish I could play like this guy. :disbelief:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6pPP2kfHzU

Balalaika? Yep, just a different shape.

[Chuck Naill]

Not I. but if I did I wish I could play like this guy.


Eric,

It looks like he is playing a prewar Vladimir Lorinsky signed ф5.

[Eddie Sheehy]

I've got one. Brought back from Russia in the 70's and put on Ebay during spring cleaning. I had to improvise for the bridge. I got the tuning off the Net. Two nylon strings and one steel string. The melody is played on the steel string while tremolo on the nylon strings. I retuned it DAE (top 3 of a mando) and play Celtic on it when I'm bored.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Hey Rick - You just explained something to me there. I ALWAYS thought that 'Laura's Theme' was actually played on the Balalaika. I don't play much non-Bluegrass stuff but that's one tune that i do like to play (one of my all time favourite movies also). I've often wondered why my Mandolin sounded so much like the sound track instrument - but i suspect that it might have been a Neopolitan Mandolin,do we know ??,
Saska ~:>

[mandozilla]

No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night! :grin:

But seriously. A Balalaika?! Why, that ain't no part of nothin'! :))

:mandosmiley:

[allenhopkins]

Hey Rick - You just explained something to me there. I ALWAYS thought that 'Laura's Theme' was actually played on the Balalaika...I've often wondered why my Mandolin sounded so much like the sound track instrument - but i suspect that it might have been a Neopolitan Mandolin,do we know ??

Here's what Wikipedia has to say; take it for what it's worth:

On the soundtrack album for Zhivago, there is no one track listed as "Lara's Theme". A variation of the piece appears in numerous songs, however. Some tracks briefly "cite" it, while others are made up entirely of the song.
The piece is performed on various instruments, most notably the balalaika with orchestral backing. Although never credited, Edgar Stanistreet of Philadelphia was asked to play the song over the phone to an MGM executive, and was later taken into the studio to record.
One of the main reasons the theme is featured in so many tracks is that Jarre had hired an impromptu balalaika orchestra from several Russian Orthodox Churches in Los Angeles; the musicians could only learn 16 bars of music at a time, and could not read written music.

[violmando]

I have a fairly inexpensive balalaika I got when I bought a bass berde (upright bass used in tamburitzan groups) off a fellow in Pittsburgh and I recently bought a bass domra. At the Iroquois Springs Balkan Camp each Aug, a group gets together a Russian group--the Triangle Liberation Front--and we play balalaika ensemble music with balalaikas and domras of various sizes, and other Russian folk instruments. It's a BLAST! Last year, as a newbie, they let me play my mandocello! That's why I wish I could start something Russian here in SW Ohio--the music is GREAT! Hope you can get a Balalaika; Hora makes some nice ones overseas and they are occasionally available on eBay; most of the other ones are cheap souvenier ones that aren't worth playing, I think. Yvonne

[wundo]

Go to this link http://bdaa.com/id30.htm

[mandroid]

балала йка, has a cousin , the Domra, домра , in its 4 string variant they are GDAE like violins.

"_" Ukrainian rather than Russian.. its round too
virtuoso player > http://www.tamaravolskaya.com/

[steve V. johnson]

There are balalaikas at Lark In The Morning (http://larkinthemorning.com/search.asp?t=ss&sb=0&ss=balalaika&x=0&y=0), including some pretty inexpensive ones, accessories and some instructional stuff.

NFI,

stv

[Eddie Sheehy]

I have a 70's one from Russia. I have a makeshift bridge on it, otherwise it's original and it plays ok. PM me if you're interested...

[Tim2723]

One US source for quality instruments and instruction materials is Lark In The Morning. Been doing business with them for years.

http://larkinthemorning.com/search.asp?t=ss&sb=0&ss=balalaika&x=9&y=4

Alexei Arkhipovskiy's video is amazing! Anybody who can showboat for over ten minutes with only three strings gets my vote!