An ongoing series of interviews with musicians who share the story and music of their instruments. Follow James Hodson to Italy, Ukraine, Finland, Sweden, Latvia and Lithuania to visit performers and hear their stories.
The idea of muting notes that are not in the chord goes right back in antiquity to the ancient Greeks. It's the basic concept of the Autoharp, where the buttons block out all the notes not in the selected chords.
Thank you for the kind comments everyone! James here. I have fallen a bit behind with editing and doing interviews. I've learned a lot over my Stringdom time. I will be traveling again soon, so I hope to do a second run of interviews and publish them. So stay tuned! :)
Dear James, Thank you for producing this most exciting series of videos. It is so enriching and horizon expanding! Are you also planning a video about the Bavarian Zither by any chance?
Thank you for the comment! I have fallen a bit behind with the episodes! :/ but I do have some more still to publish. I would LOVE to do an interview and video about any interesting string instrument. I did one with a Hungarian Zither player, but haven't even been to Bavaria yet. I will be in Europe soon, so perhaps! If you have any recommendations of players to interview, please let me know!
I'm a self taught piano accordion player. I do okay on the keyboard side, and on the bass side I especially love the clear layout and ability to transpose within the Stradella system. I never could hack the guitar - my left hand just doesn't work that way, not to mention guitar tuning anomalies. The Harpejji looks like a very intriguing alternative. Price point is about the same as a quality accordion and I would imagine it to be lower maintenance. I'm saving up for one of these. Thanks for the video!
It is interesting that the clarsach nearly died out in Scotland. It seems to be with many plucked instruments (think guitar, lute, mandolin, banjo) that they go through periods of popularity and then "dry" periods where they recede into the background. This doesn't seem to be quite as common with the bowed strings and the winds. I've no idea why.
That's off the chain. A million rappers with a million producers in a million studios with a million dollars couldn't manufacture 5 seconds worth of music of equal quality to this hurdy gurdy mayne.
fascinatingly similar to the dulcimer here in the US, and rather alien in others. Really cool stuff, lovely to see how the family of fretted zithers continues in the modern day The early Pennsylvania folk zithers that became dulcimers after moving to the Appalachians are a bit interesting in this regard actually as many of them had anywhere from 5 to 8 strings typically, 1 or two melody strings fretted diatonically (I love the way the frets on this instrument are though) which is where the doubled melody string comes, and the rest unfretted drones similar to this instrument. Though obviously this instrument has many more drones, and that makes me wonder actually a bit of how much the family of concert zithers that evolved from these kinds of instruments in the 19th century might've influenced this Hungarian citera, considering a major path of development was making the frets chromatic and adding many more strings (a concert zither can have upwards of 40 strings) If I try to make a 19th century noter-drone style dulcimer, I might try and do the same chromatic fret trick this instrument has, I actually rather do like that. (when he talks about the stick used to articulate notes, that's what a noter is and that same technique applied to the dulcimer is the traditional noter-drone style, opposed to the more modern chord-melody style)
I know it''s probably been 6 years since this video was posted but does Terema Toere or Tefa make those ukulele's for resale? I love how he put the holes on the sides for better resonance! WOW!!
complex and sophisticate instrument, i cannot imagine i want to tune it... but i am not really a musician either. I just suffer from good/perfect hearing 🙂 this instrument has one bad string. - but otherwise beautiful to listen to, until voices drown it out. may the ukrainian traditions never be erradicated by anyone.
I'll never, in my life, see the kind of money that's needed to buy one of these, but seeing this video helps me understand the "why" behind it's price. By the time I saved enough for one of these, I'd likely be in senior hospice care. LOL I'm on disability, and that's why I will never be able to pick up this instrument. Might as well be a 9 foot concert grand. LOL But it's fascinating to watch someone play this. Thanks for sharing.
I was lucky enough to hear Tolgahan in concert here in Vienna last year, and talk to him a bit afterwards. A great inventor, brilliant musician, and a very nice guy. And a very nice video too. I will be checking out the rest of your work. cheers from sunny Austria, Scott
It is so sad to hear Ukrainians from the western parts of the country talk about Russians. I myself also made the experience more than 10 years ago in Lviv: people insulted me because I could not speak ukrainian but only russian (I am German). War always has it´s roots ...
My aunty to whom came from russia part of Karelia, she had an metal pick at her pointing finger and thumb, so she never needed a "pen". She played on a 32 string kantele, which I understood was very expensive kantele.
the biggest misconception about this instrument, is that the saz is an originally authentic Turkish instrument. The saz has been played before Turkic expansion into West Asia, and is derived from the Dutar (Dotar).
What an insane trompette technique, people who never held a Gurdy don't realize how hard it is to get the buzzing to sound so consistent e perfectly timed
