Chiff and Fipple Forums

I have used a capo made for five-string banjo on my octave mandolin and found it useful. I don't really like to capo my standard mandolin, as it's just so short to start with. I am not that skilled, but I have found I can play most keys without a capo, so it's not as useful as with a banjo or guitar...

New article on this topic, so it seemed worthwhile to update this thread. The article seems to mostly agree with my contention that there is no completely suitable name for this people group or culture. Based on this, I still use either Anasazi or Basketmaker, though there are objections to both. Pr...

The third one I got is from the USA, made by Geoffrey Ellis ( http://www.ellisflutes.com/ ). It is made from Vera wood with an epoxy finish. It has a conical bore, more extreme than the Un Mundo de Bamboo flute, and relatively smaller tone holes. Its embouchure notch is the shallowest of the three,...

A local garden supply centre had some growing for resale as "decorative features", they were happy to cut out a dead stem for me to take away ;) It's made a flute and a couple of whistles so far and there's still some left! That's a brilliant suggestion Kypfer. In fact, I picked up a coup...

Cool tunes. Been a big DeDanann fan for many years. Had a question though. Listening to the first one, it sounded like two plucked string instruments playing together. The lineup lists a bouzouki and a banjo, but neither of those sounded like a banjo. Anybody know the instrumentation on that first o...

Any ideas where I could obtain some bamboo or river cane about an inch in OD, and like 3/4 to 7/8 ID? Needs to be 18 inches long or so, depending on the ID. Also interested in suggestions of other materials. Don't really want to go PVC on this one, but I don't have the means of boring it out. I gues...

When I worked nights, I used the foam ones a lot for sleeping in the daytime. Then I discovered wax ones, obtainable at the pharmacy. Don't know how well musical frequencies will be perceived, but they cut down a lot on the noise. Something like this.

Just sang it in the pub last evening. You shoulda been there.

That's bad, but not as bad as the lead actors of the movie "The Boys And Girl From County Clare" with Colm Meany (from Star Treck NG), Andrea Corr (of the Corrs) pretending to play fiddle, and Shaun Evans pretending to play flute. I had quite forgotten about that film until you described ...

I think I'm getting there ... gradually ... My main difficulty at the moment is getting all of the lyrics in my head. If I had those, I think I'd have it. Nothing for it then; I'll have to learn the song. When I sing it, I usually do verse, verse, chorus with six verses total. Comes out a pretty go...

Well, I now have a nearly new (and new to me) Anglo style C/G Hohner 20-button concertina. I have started off with Gary Coover's book Easy Anglo 1-2-3 and so far have learned to play a C scale. Well, almost. Any advice and encouragement appreciated. I watched several YouTube videos on playing the An...

Three of 'em on the dashboard. There's a little shelf there that is perfect.

Thanks to a friend who has tired of it, I will soon be the proud parent of a concertina. Always thought this was an interesting instrument, smaller than an accordion for those long, cramped sea voyages, but versatile enough to play dances and such. All I know so far is that it's a 20-button C/G. I'l...

[THREAD REVIVAL - MOD] There's a lady who plays one at our local Irish session. She uses it to accompany herself on slow ballads and dirges and such. It's quite a nice effect actually. https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--W1YYf5MJ--/a_exif,c_limit,e_unsharp_mask:80,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_sout...

There's also one listed at Molly Malone's. Check on The Session.org