I have a hammer dulcimer!
Dec. 1st, 2008 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaAnd it sounds wonderful!
Got up nice and early this morning, managed to do some laundry and get in a good hour's worth of uni work before heading over to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
clovis_t's parents' house, where we moved furniture out of the room we will occupy when we move in with them next week. Then I left him there and went another 20 minutes south to the home of the tallented artist who made my hammer dulicmer. I spent nearly two hours there learning as much about it as I could manage in that short time. It is lovely, made in a Medieval Style (but modern tuning). He didn't use blackwood after all, the piece he had turned out to be the wrong size for the project, so the sides and bottom are myrtle, another lovely Tasmanian wood, and the top is something else I've forgotten, but comes from the US and makes a better soundboard. He liked the juxtaposition of using both Americian and Tasmania wood for an instrument for me, who will hold dual citizenship in both countries in only 11 more days. I promise to take photos of it to share with you tomorrow, but I'm too sleepy now. It has a lovely sound. As exected, when someone like me, who has never played an instrument in her life, strikes it with the hammers in a random manner, it makes pleasing sounds. When someone like him, who is used to playing music, strikes it, it makes really, really pretty sounds! Indeed clovis_t's dad was impressed that a new instrument would sound so nice, since, generally, instruments sound better with age and "settling" in to the new stresses the wood is under.
After getting the instrument I pickedclovis_t and we came home, where I proceeded to spend another nearly three hours trying to figure out how to play tunes I know. Much fun! But, as expected, I didn't get back to uni work, and it is now late, and I'm sleepy, so I will put the computer down now that I've sent notes to the folk who want to give new homes to the items we are getting rid of, and hope that tomorrow is a much more uni-filled day!
Got up nice and early this morning, managed to do some laundry and get in a good hour's worth of uni work before heading over to
clovis_t's parents' house, where we moved furniture out of the room we will occupy when we move in with them next week. Then I left him there and went another 20 minutes south to the home of the tallented artist who made my hammer dulicmer. I spent nearly two hours there learning as much about it as I could manage in that short time. It is lovely, made in a Medieval Style (but modern tuning). He didn't use blackwood after all, the piece he had turned out to be the wrong size for the project, so the sides and bottom are myrtle, another lovely Tasmanian wood, and the top is something else I've forgotten, but comes from the US and makes a better soundboard. He liked the juxtaposition of using both Americian and Tasmania wood for an instrument for me, who will hold dual citizenship in both countries in only 11 more days. I promise to take photos of it to share with you tomorrow, but I'm too sleepy now. It has a lovely sound. As exected, when someone like me, who has never played an instrument in her life, strikes it with the hammers in a random manner, it makes pleasing sounds. When someone like him, who is used to playing music, strikes it, it makes really, really pretty sounds! Indeed clovis_t's dad was impressed that a new instrument would sound so nice, since, generally, instruments sound better with age and "settling" in to the new stresses the wood is under. After getting the instrument I picked
clovis_t and we came home, where I proceeded to spend another nearly three hours trying to figure out how to play tunes I know. Much fun! But, as expected, I didn't get back to uni work, and it is now late, and I'm sleepy, so I will put the computer down now that I've sent notes to the folk who want to give new homes to the items we are getting rid of, and hope that tomorrow is a much more uni-filled day!