I think guzheng is beyond my means currently but I am interested in getting a guqin in the not too distant future, any tips there?
I think guzheng is beyond my means currently but I am interested in getting a guqin in the not too distant future, any tips there?
Like mndlns, Asian long zithers are diverse. I guess pursue the sound you like. As far as acquiring one, Carol Huang at sound of china/asia is a reliable and friendly sales dealer. In Houston, you should be able to find a zheng or dan tran on craigs - perhaps not guqin though..
To me, guqin sound is quite evocative. Reminds me of the sound of ancient mid-eastern/afican harps & lyres. Of course they're from roughly the same epoch.
Very interesting, though im with you, i prefer the traditional oldstyle.
I'm quite fond of guqin, though instrument are rarer and harder to get - just as everything so remote, culturally speaking - not like others zheng, dan tran, kayagum etc. Heck I got mine trading here with mandolin players! Although I think we'll be hearing much more in new music, classical fields merge with trad forms, and on and on.
I find Asian forms quite challenging, though equally rewarding and highly suitable for me.
For me it's going to be the electric taishogoto.
Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.
Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!
Lyon & Healy Wood Thormahlen Andersen Bacorn Yanuziello Fender National Gibson Franke Fuchs Aceto Three Hungry Pit Bulls
lukmanohnz...
"I have been eyeing those Morse concertinas for quite some time. Glad to see your endorsement. "
Contact Button Box Mgr, Doug Creighton..
You can get a "perusal" concertina for the cost of shipping.
Just specify the type, Anglo, English, Hayden etc and Key system such as C/G or G/D...etc.
I prefer the bisonoric systems as I am used to Button Accordeons, but attracted to the English system as it makes a great deal of sense.. and you can read music and play.. I am not an "ear" player. I like dots : )
I have heard all kinds of music on Anglos to include classical and jazz as well as IRTRAD and American/Scottish/Irish fiddle tunes.
For Irish, no question.. C/G Anglo.
In the right hands, English does a credible job of everything to include IRTRAD.
http://buttonbox.com/morse-concertinas.html
Allen Hopkins..
What about the Tenor Geordie ? Or Baritone ?
Last edited by Jeff Hildreth; Feb-28-2018 at 5:49pm.
For me it was the banjo and now the tanpura. I may be regressing.
My evolution was whistle, anglo concertina, mandolin, fiddle. After needing to re-wire my brain to play anglo concertina, mandolin provided an enlightening balm of logic and it is still the shortest distance between me and a tune. After about a year on the fiddle I sound like someone who has played fiddle for about a year. It's soothing to go to the mandolin or concertina and have the note just sitting there, not hiding somewhere on a fretboard. I have the Button Box c/g Ceili model. It's light, fast and reliable. I've heard more complex tone from vintage instruments but didn't want the uncertainty and potential upkeep challenges involved in those treasures. As someone mentioned, there are good learning resources available for anglo.
I am not sure there is a next based on my current inability to put down the mandolin, my longing for it at work, and my total neglect of my other instruments. I guess I could see myself giving the dobro a shot.
What, no pipers?
Oh yeah, the pipes...
I live with a fiddler who has a love for Scottish and Irish pipes. She hangs out with pipers in local mixed Scottish/Cape Breton/Irish sessions, so as a consequence I'm exposed to that too when I join in the sessions. I'm starting to enjoy it more now, and some of the pipe tunes are great fun to play on mandolin.
But starting on pipes as another instrument? Nah, I'm too old. I've heard that it takes something like 20 years to play GHB/smallpipes or Uilleann pipes with any competence, and I'm getting into my mid-60's now. I don't have that many years left. Irish flute is something I have a chance at sounding not half-bad at with the remaining years. All the pipers I know started young or in middle age. I wouldn't want to discourage any of the younger Cafe members here, because bagpipes are wonderful within their own musical sphere, but I don't think it's a late-bloomer instrument.
The other thing about pipers is that it's something of a closed community. We do have a few Scottish pipers in my area that show up at mixed Irish/Scottish sessions, but just by the nature of the instrument, it dominates even with the indoor versions like smallpipes. And pipers in my experience don't learn any non-piper repertoire. Generally speaking, pipers hang out with other pipers, and play the pipe repertoire -- lots of tunes in A, never anything with a G sharp, forget D dorian tunes, and so on. There is a wider range of music that I'm interested in, even if I could learn to play the blasted things.
Lebeda F-5 mandolin, redwood top
Weber Yellowstone F-5 octave mandolin
I've not taken up the pipes.. on another thread - "if i could choose my mandolin career over again, what would I do different?" - I said, the pipes
But I emulate the pipes on different instruments, as i love pibroch and piping tradition...on wire harp especially, accordians, hammered dulcimer especially...playing musical instruments: a problem to be solved.. I guess I perform pipe tunes on a variety or instruments. .. two summers ago I was immersed in bonnie rideout's Harlaw, and playing them in fiddle and bass.
As f-path says, prbly better to take up the pipes earlier on But ive spent the better part of my harping career with old forms, as you would find with pipes. I think I have some heritage here, or maybe just cosmic.. But old pibrichs and airs spoke to me long ago. Love
I started playing short scale tenor banjo a few years ago to give more volume when playing against accordions etc and I get so much pleasure from it. Tuned GDAE I have an old Slingerland. Pretty inlays, bird's eye maple neck etc and a joy to play open back. The tone is wonderful and scale length makes it very playable for mandolin players. I'd recommend it but with banjos I feel tone is so important. Cheap tenor banjos often sound so thin.
Jimmy P
UK
Here's a pipe tune on anglo c. (Now I remember why I stopped playing c. - arranging gnossienne #3, I'd gotten through the first section, but just couldn't make it work when it modulates to E, or thereabouts, which instigated the switch to PA).
https://youtu.be/LOHLkwbxrIs
If electric Dola and Mandocello don't count, I'd love to learn cajun accordion. Don't know if I have time for all of that.
Very nice. I love that music, and that squeezebox gets very close to the piper's vibe. Well-played pipes never fail to give me goosebumps.
For myself, I dabble badly in other styles, but always come back to improvisation. Not that I'm a good improviser, but on the rare occasions when it works, nothing feels that good.
Ya improvisation is primary appeal to me too. I'm a drummer (or, was) and will get into a groove on the instrument and sometimes lose myself.. why I like the accordian so much as it's such a natural machine - get a groove in the left hand and there's still the right hand to play with
But before that I spent decades on formal cl/fl guitar, so not much improv playing then. I miss all that baroque and flamenco stuff, but play a bunch of early stuff now so it's kinda similar - they feel similar in ways. Trad Han is a lot like Bach - and the slow gaelic stuff a bit, too. I don't read for either idiom, so learning long pieces typical of the idioms is mentally challenging.
*Anyway, re the OP, the mndln kicked off a whole trad thing (ITM, BG, OT..) for me, the 'celtic' stuff stuck and led me to bunch of other stuff. So ya, mndln
Last edited by catmandu2; Mar-02-2018 at 12:35am.
I done did it....
"Well, I don't know much about bands but I do know you can't make a living selling big trombones, no sir. Mandolin picks, perhaps..."
I wonder if there is anyone here contemplating taking up the mandolin?
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
What did you get?
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
Welp ordered one today, should be here in a week or so. I'm hoping my dulcimer playing skills transfer over fairly well. I'm getting a six string Yamaha acoustic electric, should be nice. Some of the ones listed are missing strings, so beware of that if any of you decide to venture down the taishogoto path. I'm sure replacement strings can be tracked down, the ones I have seen are fairly expensive though. Since you're not actually touching the strings, they should be more like piano strings and last a long time.
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