Lunchtime Blurts

[CelticCookie]

Totally didn't expect a Rasta lesson from the mailman!

 

[Super-Surprise]

https://pics.imcdb.org/784/tmwtgghornet6.jpg

 

[Antryg_Windrose]

Must I wait until lunchtime? I don't know if my blurts will last that long.

 

[CelticCookie]

Must I wait until lunchtime? I don't know if my blurts will last that long.

Every hour is lunchtime somewhere, right?

 

[CelticCookie]

He had to mention milkshake!

 

[CelticCookie]

Great day for soup!

 

[CelticCookie]

Back to it!

 

[Hypoxia]

I was going to talk about music. I almost bought a sheng off eBay but decided that was risky -- no way to tell its playability. Maybe I'll find one next time I'm in Chinatown.

If not music, then how about modern steam engines?

 

[RocketLauncher]

I was going to talk about music. I almost bought a sheng off eBay but decided that was risky -- no way to tell its playability. Maybe I'll find one next time I'm in Chinatown.

If not music, then how about modern steam engines?

It's lunch in London, isn't it?
Don't know much about steam engines.
I like music, though, almost bought a melodica. Guess I'm not as musically talented as you. Ended up with a squeeze box, about my skill level.

 

[Hypoxia]

It's lunch in London, isn't it?

It's always lunchtime somewhere. I'm just not there. Yet.

Don't know much about steam engines.

I'll never get near building one but they're fun to mentally design.

I like music, though, almost bought a melodica. Guess I'm not as musically talented as you. Ended up with a squeeze box, about my skill level.

I've an E.German concertina on the shelf, and a few keyboard synths stashed away, because it turns out I'm not really a key person. My melodica sits unused. Various harmonicas are with me always, and too many stringed instruments stare at me, begging for fondling. I trained on clarinet; recorders, flageolets, and tinwhistles litter the place. A sheng might work for me.

 

[RocketLauncher]

It's always lunchtime somewhere. I'm just not there. Yet.


I'll never get near building one but they're fun to mentally design.

I've an E.German concertina on the shelf, and a few keyboard synths stashed away, because it turns out I'm not really a key person. My melodica sits unused. Various harmonicas are with me always, and too many stringed instruments stare at me, begging for fondling. I trained on clarinet; recorders, flageolets, and tinwhistles litter the place. A sheng might work for me.

You have a melodica? You might like this guy

https://youtu.be/RI5LRsMtyjA

If you can play the clarinet any reed instrument should be fairly simple. Sheng sounds perfect for you.
I'm trying my hand at the squeeze box with lofty ideals of playing the accordion, my second favourite instrument after the banjo.

 

[Hypoxia]

You have a melodica? You might like this guy

https://youtu.be/RI5LRsMtyjA

Alas, all I hear on my laptop is the rhythm track. I'll try that on another machine with better sound. And somewhere I have a link to a virtuoso playing what looks like a souped-up melodica. Stay tuned. (Alas, IRL intervenes...)

If you can play the clarinet any reed instrument should be fairly simple. Sheng sounds perfect for you.

The sheng looks like a whole different approach. Good. I love oddity.

I'm trying my hand at the squeeze box with lofty ideals of playing the accordion, my second favourite instrument after the banjo.

I've tried various squeeze boxes; alas, they're just not for me. But I did once live in Cotati CA, home of the annual Cotati Accordian Festival. Motto: "Accordions don't play LADY OF SPAIN; people do."

I've been a guitarist for a long long time, a mandolinist for a bit less; I now mostly play mandos and 'ukes because I can play, lounging in my recliner, while the laptop in my lap refreshes screens. A number of banjo-like objects and hybrids stare at me here. Loud, ain't they?

I'm consumed by tunings. Almost all my guitars, banjos, mandos, 'ukes, dulcimers, et al are strung and tuned uniquely. Keeps me on my toes.

 

[ThatsTheGuy]

Yaaayyy breakfast! When's lunch?

 

[Hypoxia]

Yaaayyy breakfast! When's lunch?

I'm having an early lunch. It's called breakfast. Then I'll go back to bed. Later I'll have a later lunch, or tea, or a peanut butter sandwich, or wine. Probably wine while my partner is out playing cards. Pray for winnings. Prepare for macaroni cheese. Call it very late lunch, or supper.

Oh, it's blurt time? I should sneak down to Mumberley's for world-class ice cream (voted best in Greater Sacramento) whilst my partner flips cards. Yah.

 

[RocketLauncher]

Alas, all I hear on my laptop is the rhythm track. I'll try that on another machine with better sound. And somewhere I have a link to a virtuoso playing what looks like a souped-up melodica. Stay tuned. (Alas, IRL intervenes...)

The sheng looks like a whole different approach. Good. I love oddity.

I've tried various squeeze boxes; alas, they're just not for me. But I did once live in Cotati CA, home of the annual Cotati Accordian Festival. Motto: "Accordions don't play LADY OF SPAIN; people do."

I've been a guitarist for a long long time, a mandolinist for a bit less; I now mostly play mandos and 'ukes because I can play, lounging in my recliner, while the laptop in my lap refreshes screens. A number of banjo-like objects and hybrids stare at me here. Loud, ain't they?

I'm consumed by tunings. Almost all my guitars, banjos, mandos, 'ukes, dulcimers, et al are strung and tuned uniquely. Keeps me on my toes.

You have an amazing instrument collection.Hybrids!? I'm intrigued. I love, love, love ukuleles and mandolins are pretty cool, too. I have a friend that's an instrument nut and has regular jam sessions so I get to hear them in action. He even has a 'piano harp' as I call it, basically just the string set up minus the rest of the piano, excellent for horror movie tracks.
Would love to see and hear a souped up melodica. If the link didn't work so great just look up tracks by the Melodica King, cool approach to reggae.

 

[Hypoxia]

You have an amazing instrument collection.Hybrids!? I'm intrigued. I love, love, love ukuleles and mandolins are pretty cool, too.

Big general difference in stringed instruments: Basses and guitar-like objects are tuned in 4ths; guitars, lutes, and 'ukes get a 3rd in there too. Forming open and closed chords is easy. Mandos, fiddles, citterns, and bouzoukis are tuned in 5ths; I like Celtic tuning, with a 4th on top so I can play guitar-like riffs. Melodic and (tougher) chord patterns are easily moved around the neck.

The stringing and chord patterns of a bass (or a guitar's bass strings) and a mando are exactly opposite. Gotta think backwards, there. I'm a guitarist and I approach mandos like guitars as best I can. Yes, they call me mad!

I love re-stringing 'ukes in various octaves, with high or low strings on top and/or bottom. 6- and 8-string taropatch 'ukes have courses in unison or octaves. They're all GCEA so the chords are the same but melodies go all over the place. And each pulls different sounds from similar bodies.

Okay, the hybrids:

* Banjo-mandolin, inherited from Grandpa, what got me away from guitar.
* Banjo-'ukulele tuned re-entrant, that high G string's nice ringing sound.
Both are about a century old, as is my tiple, the 10-steel-string ancestor of the tenor 'uke.

* A fretted 12-string Cümbüş lute, the world's noisiest banjo-guitar.
But now it's strung in 5ths so it's a mutant banjo-cittern.
My other fretless 11-string Cümbüş lute is tuned as an 'oud.
You may have heard such on the Hollies' STOP STOP STOP.

* The Mand'uke, an 8-string taropatch 'uke strung as a tenor mandola.
I assembled this to play what didn't fit on mandolin or baritone mandola.
I keep a soprano 'uke strung as a mandolin; guess it's an 'ukelin now.
* And a mandolin strung backwards like an 'uke in octaves. Hmmm...

I have a friend that's an instrument nut and has regular jam sessions so I get to hear them in action. He even has a 'piano harp' as I call it, basically just the string set up minus the rest of the piano, excellent for horror movie tracks.

We were offered a piano harp, as well as a couple of pianos. They would require adding rooms to the house, alas.

Would love to see and hear a souped up melodica. If the link didn't work so great just look up tracks by the Melodica King, cool approach to reggae.

In this fabulous hour-long Django homage by Angelo Debarre (with a Reinhart in the band!) at minute 14:00, with Django's VAMP, watch the wind player (Ludo Beier?) now that he's sans accordion. The "souped-up melodica" is an accordina, sez Wikipedia, a melodica with a chromatic accordion button keyboard. Yow! But then, a melodica is only a sheng with a keyboard, hey?

Yes, the Melodica King is interesting. I'll soak up some more Augustus Pablo.