Home-made Erhu

Just last Sunday I decided to try making an erhu, which is a Chinese fiddle out of some cardboard paper core and other materials I bought or had lying around.

A new beginner's instrument will set you back over $300 SGD. The cost of this one? Just $15 SGD and 3-4 hours of work.

Materials used:
- Cardboard roll for the soundbox (Free, complements of Alina)
- Wood dowel for the pegs and neck ($6)
- Plastic cotton bud box cover for the front of the soundbox (Free)
- Screw to hold one end of the strings (Free. Swiped from dad's toolbox)
- Scrap felt (Free, complements of Ni Zhen)
- Spare erhu bridge (Free)
- Erhu strings ($3 for both strings)
- Bow (salvaged from a crude gaohu I bought from a roadshow)
- Qian jin, which is a type of string ($1. Not shown in the picture)

Equipment:
- Hand drill
- Screwdriver
- Files

Materials

Soundbox with hole drilled through it for the neck.

Soundbox with neck

Neck with holes drilled for the pegs

Pegs with ends filed down to size and holes drilled for the strings

Screw at the bottom end

Half-assembled. Pegs, neck, soundbox and cover

The bow is strung between the strings. Notice the qian jin tied over the neck and strings below the pegs

Closeup of soundbox with bridge, felt and strings

Finished. Without flash

With flash

And here's a short test of the finished piece:



I'll try to post a full song when I can find the time.

Home-made Flute and Whistles!

Finally got about to posting some home-made instruments by yours truly!

The first video here is me play testing some Irish whistles made from PVC pipe by a friend for an overseas community project.

The instructions were taken from this fantastic website of Guido Gonzato, who makes his own whistles out of PVC pipe: http://www.ggwhistles.com/howto/.

The article my friend wrote of the project can be found here: http://www.goducate.org/making-music-with-pvc-pipes.html

Photos of her process can be found here.



Way to go, Alina and her elves!

Pitching may not be perfect, but for a first attempt by most who are not musicians or artists, and some materials with different dimensions, I think it's pretty good!

Just in case anyone is interested in the tunes I played in the video, they were (1) Lamb of God, (2) the Butterfly (mistakes and all) and (3) Inisheer.

The second video is of a flute I made out of PVC pipe following the instructions of famed PVC pipe Irish flute maker, Doug Tipple. The instructions are on his website can be found here: http://sites.google.com/site/dougsflutes/makingasimpleirishflute

Doug sells the flutes he makes too, and the reviews have been very positive. Irish flutes can be rather expensive costing several hundreds just for a beginner's instrument and in the thousands for well-crafted wood ones. For starters who just want to try it out without committing too much resources, Doug's instruments are a great choice: http://sites.google.com/site/dougsflutes/

My flute is different from Doug's as it incorporates some design features from the Chinese dizi, namely the membrane hole and the end holes on the underside of the flute. I use a piece of paper to cover the membrane hole when I want to play the flute without the characteristic dizi's buzzy tone.



Doesn't sound great, but still quite in tune and serviceable!

Be Thou My Vision on My Generation Bb Brass Irish Whistle

My all time favourite hymn, which has survived since the 5th Century. Composition attributed to St Patrick. Taken with my Lumix DMC-TZ15 in my room.

Wonderful Merciful Saviour by Selah

Kung Fu Panda - Oogway Ascends by Hans Zimmer

Without His Cross

English Lyrics:
Without His Cross
By : Joseph M. Martin

Without His tears, there is no comfort
Without His death, there is no life
Without His blood, there is no pardon
Without His cross, there is no crown

Without His shame, there is no glory
Without His grief, there is no joy
Without His stripes, there is no healing
Without His cross, there is no crown

Lamb of God, You bring salvation
And with Your grace, our hearts are sealed
Lord, with Your tears of love, You bathed our sorrows
In Your eyes we stand revealed

Without His tears, there is no comfort
Without His death, there is no life
Without His blood, there is no pardon
Without His cross, there is no crown

At the Foot of the Cross

My Whistles

Finally a photograph of my Irish whistle collection! (well, short of one though as it's been lent to a friend).

From left to right:

1. Walton's C
2. Walton's D
3. Feadog Brass C
4. Feadog Brass D
5. Feadog Pro (Nickle D)
6. Generation Brass Bb
7. Generation Brass C
8. Generation Brass D
9. Generation Brass Eb
10. Dixon Trad Brass D
11. Clarke Sweetone C
12. Clarke Sweetone D
13. Clarke Meg C
14. (Not in picture) Clarke Meg D
15. Clarke Original C
16. Clarke Original D

My favourites are 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 :).

Sea Organ and Singing Ringing Tree

I like this kind of art :)

Sea Organ, Zadar, Croatia


Singing Ringing Tree, Burnley, Lancashire

Making the Khaen

I have one of these! (albeit a small one)

Some of My Playing

Finally recorded some clips of me playing some instruments. First attempt. Will do better next time.

Who Needs Brass Instruments When You Have a Rubber Tube?

Come to Jesus

My granduncle (great uncle) passed away suddenly on Monday morning from heart failure. His sudden departure came as a shock to all of us. He just came to my house a month ago to celebrate Chinese New Year. He was a pastor, and though officially retired, was still very active in missions. I have friends in Shanghai who got to know him as well. From the eulogies, I learned that he was a very well loved man and prolific in missions and the Boys' Brigade. In fact he had just come back from a mission trip to Uganda.

Today was the funeral and cremation. His daughter sang this song by Chris Rice and his son, a professional musician, played the piano. It was very moving, and the song is beautiful. I'd like to share it here:



Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus)
Written by Chris Rice

Weak and wounded sinner
Lost and left to die
O, raise your head, for Love is passing by
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus and live!

Now your burdens lifted
And carried far away
And precious blood has washed away the stain...so
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus and live!

And like a newborn baby
Dont be afraid to crawl
And remember when you walk, sometimes we fall...so
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus and live!

Sometimes the way is lonely
And steep and filled with pain
So if your sky is dark and pours the rain...then
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus and live!

O, and when the love spills over
And music fills the night
And when you cant contain your joy inside...then
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus and live!

And with your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on glorys side...and
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live!

Be Thou My Vision in OLD Gaelic

I got this video of my all time favourite hymn, Be Thou My Vision, in old Gaelic from a lady who posted a comment on my original post of the same topic. This is so cool! Thanks, Sheila!!



Lyrics:

Rop tú mo baile, a Choimdiu cride:
ní ní nech aile acht Rí secht nime.
Rop tú mo scrútain i l-ló 's i n-aidche;
rop tú ad-chëar im chotlud caidche.

Rop tú mo labra, rop tú mo thuicsiu;
rop tussu dam-sa, rob misse duit-siu.
Rop tussu m'athair, rob mé do mac-su;
rop tussu lem-sa, rob misse lat-su.

Rop tú mo chathscíath, rop tú mo chlaideb;
rop tussu m'ordan, rop tussu m'airer.
Rop tú mo dítiu, rop tú mo daingen;
rop tú nom-thocba i n-áentaid n-aingel.

Rop tú cech maithius dom churp, dom anmain;
rop tú mo flaithius i n-nim 's i talmain.
Rop tussu t' áenur sainserc mo chride;
ní rop nech aile acht Airdrí nime.

Co talla forum, ré n-dul it láma,
mo chuit, mo chotlud, ar méit do gráda.
Rop tussu t' áenur m' urrann úais amra:
ní chuinngim daíne ná maíne marba.

Rop amlaid dínsiur cech sel, cech sáegul,
mar marb oc brénad, ar t' fégad t' áenur.
Do serc im anmain, do grád im chride,
tabair dam amlaid, a Rí secht nime.

Tabair dam amlaid, a Rí secht nime,
do serc im anmain, do grád im chride.
Go Ríg na n-uile rís íar m-búaid léire;
ro béo i flaith nime i n-gile gréine

A Athair inmain, cluinte mo núall-sa:
mithig (mo-núarán!) lasin trúagán trúag-sa.
A Chríst mo chride, cip ed dom-aire,
a Flaith na n-uile, rop tú mo baile.


Original post: http://favian-music.blogspot.com/2009/11/be-thou-my-vision-in-original-gaelic.html

I Love My Azumi

I'd like to mess with people and tell them I have a Japanese girlfriend, but too bad most of them already know I was going to get a flute. Well, here's the actual piece, played by the lady who sold it to me (she plays much better than me, of course). Susan took the time to record a flute test for me and answered a load of my questions, and it was great doing business with her! I wasn't planning to get a flute till the end of the year, but 2nd hand Azumis in good condition are rare (actually 2nd hand Azumis are rare to start with), so after some prayer and consideration, I decided to go for it. It's a lovely flute. You can visit Susan's website at http://flutastic.com/. She's got a bunch of other instruments for sale. No more Azumis at this point of writing though.

Anyway, without further ado, here's the video:

Dizi Head for Boehm Flute

Ok. This is weird. I play the Dizi and the Boehm, but the way this tries to make East and West meet takes the cake (and I thought Quena headjoints for Boehm flutes was weird).



I think he ought to play Chinese music instead of classical and see how it sounds.

How to Build a God

I'm not out of tune. You are!

Well, that depends on your point of reference, really.

I play the Irish whistle (which in itself isn't always a well-tuned instruments, especially the cheapies) and it's been hard getting the rest of the mini orchestra I play in for church to accept it. Nice as it sounds, I can't seem to match the pitch with the other instruments on a note-by-note basis. Some people tell me that every note is a little "out of tune" and has to be handled differently from other notes in order to play in tune, if at all possible. "Some people", I say, because there are others who tell me that the instrument is not tuned to the Equal Temperament tuning system which pianos and most other orchestral instruments use. There are whistles that come in Equal Tempered tuning, of course, but others use Just Intonation. The latter differs from the former on a note-by-note basis and could be the reason why my whistles seem out of tune with other instruments.

But Equal Temperament is a compromise system, so, in a sense, you can say they are out of tune. In an effort to create a tuning system where music can be easily transposed to different keys without sounding out of tune, Equal Temperament was developed. It is most prominent in pianos, which need to be able to play in all different keys without the need for retuning (which could be helluva lot of work!) between playing different pieces. It is a compromise because in order for it to work, some notes are tuned in a way that they don't sound "perfect" (they may be sharp or flat based on other tuning systems).

So too bad for me. I can't control my whistles that perfectly as to vary my pitch to match the other instruments for each and every note (and my hearing isn't trained to that level yet to be able to tell pitch differences very well), if at all possible. And I can't afford the more expensive whistles that come in the imperfect Equal Tempered tuning. Maybe the problem is everyone else is "out of tune" with me. Haha... But I guess in this case, the majority wins.

(Some information on tuning systems here).

How Flutes Are Made

Pronomos Flute (aka Complex Flute) - quartertones and all

Ok, I know I have an interest in flutes, but this one takes the cake.

I subscribe to a flutemakers Yahoo group and often get updates from people who make simple flutes (6-hole flutes, usually Irish flutes). Here is one of the more recent posts:

The newest addition to the Boehm flute world is the Complex Flute designed by Istvan Matuz, improved by Julian Elvira, and built by the British flutemaker, Stephen Wessel. It can be played as a regular Boehm flute, but it also enables quarter-tones, multiphonics, and sound vocabularly of many types of non-western flutes and flute-like instruments. Elvira refers to it as "an advanced instrument, taking the Boehm instrument to its limits." It is now known as the Pronomos flute. For more information about the flute see:

http://www.wessel-flutes.co.uk/complex_flute/a_brief_history/

-  Susan Maclagan, "A Dictionary for the Modern Flutist," Scarecrow Press, April 2009.

 As if mastering semitones on a Boehm flute isn't hard enough, here's one that offers you quartertones!  I'd sure like to see James Galway play this thing. Lol!

Handmade Bamboo Flutes