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!