Musical Instruments

Are you ready for a giant low-low D concertina?

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Musician Cormac Begley, redefines the Traditional Irish musical instrument with the giant concertina.

This has been circulating round social media that it’s hard to ignore. Concertinas are awesome and I am glad there are artists who are pushing the limits in redesigning the instrument. I think traditional Irish music needs something like this because it adds variety to the mix. Just imagine new traditinal tunes that could be written just for it! Here’s the link to the original article: http://www.thedronenews.org/#!CORMAC-BEGLEY-UNVEILS-NEW-LOWLOW-D-CONCERTINA/c1kod/551c18fc0cf215f35a319658

The Grantena

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The Grantena

Have you seen anything like this before? 

I have a friend from Nova Scotia and his name is Layne Greene. He comes from a long line of musicians and musical instrument makers. For anyone with Celtic blood in his or her veins, music and instrument making are all part of the tradition. This Grantena is hand made in 1918 by his grandmother’s grandfather. This is the only one in the world.

The Haunting Sound of a Waterphone

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pic_waterphoneHave you ever wondered how some of the sound effects in the movies are being done? Trust the waterphone. I know you’ve seen this instrument before. It has been played in a wide variety of genres: Rock, Classical, Folk and even Pop . This is the info I dug from the web:

Waterphones are stainless steel and bronze monolithic, one-of-a-kind, acoustic, tonal-friction instruments that utilize water in the interior of their resonators to bend tones and create water echos.

The rods can be played with superball mallets, by hand or with a bow. When the tonal rods are sounded some of the fundamental tones and/or harmonics are sympathetic to the bottom & top diaphragms.

Sounds  very techie to me. But read further here

Or you can watch the actual demostrations here and also here

Visit the waterphone homepage for more pictures and sounds.

The Hurdy-Gurdy

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Hurdy-Gurdy

Hurdy-Gurdy

You might have noticed this peculiar instrument feature on a Denez Prigent performance which I linked on my last blog .It was about about Breton music. This instrument is no other than the hurdy-gurdy. A lot will be said about this instrument if you click on the name link. It dates back to the 12th century and has been associated with medieval music. It has however become ‘fashionable ‘among musicians who make World Music. A Loreena McKennit video called The Mummer’s Dance also features the hurdy-gurdy.Now just in case you want to know how it really sounds like as a solo instrument, then check this out.

Pibau Cymreig: Welsh Bagpipes(pics and links)

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Pibau

pibau2

I found these pics fascinating. And much more the music coming from them. Check this link out to forward you to the official site with historical facts and pictures. Here is a demonstration as to how it is being played.