Chiff and Fipple Forums

While I personally feel it sounds *great* as an Itrad backup instrument, it would probably draw stares at a session. Yeah, it's too bad that nobody influential in the 1960's thought to use a uke so it could be considered traditional, because it would work really well. And it's much kinder on the le...

Yes, there are fiddle mutes. You can get a light mute that gives the instrument a silvery sound- they are used in performance "con sordino". Or you can get a heavy practice mute that will make a fiddle quieter than a flute. The high tension cheese-cutter strings on a mandolin won't be kind...

A German system recorder is wrong for Baroque or Renaissance music too. What it's meant for is for children in Germany to play folk tunes, between WWI and WWII. There may be some sort of distinctive costume associated with them, but I couldn't find any photos.

cents is relative and not absolute Well, it depends on how you're looking at it. :) If you're talking about the size of intervals, or the placement of notes in relation to each other, a figure in cents stays the same regardless of octave. A pure 5th is always 702 cents. It doesn't matter if you're ...

Another place to crosspost would be to archive.org

They've got a growing collection of 78's on there:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query ... 2278rpm%22

EDIT- oops- I didn't notice that this is where they were! That's the trouble of coming back to a thread you looked at earlier!

If anybody wants to try a breadmaker cheaply, thrift stores and garage sales are full of them in never-used or used-once condition- some of them are the better brands, too. Just make sure you get the paddle(s) with them, and that the pan and paddle isn't worn out. I buy yeast from a local store-fron...

You should be able to find some traverso players in the Netherlands, I would think. Gambas work very well in ITM, and you may find some players, even if most people haven't seen them in a session for a couple hundred years.

If there aren't a lot of people around that play, consider starting a slow session to teach tunes first. You should end up with a core group of people who can play tunes from memory and you can also start working in ornaments at the same time. The alternative would be to print out sets of music for ...

Another possible path would be to start playing whistle before going to wood flute. The idea behind this is that playing an instrument that's less like the one you're currently playing will encourage you to get the style in your head and fingers instead of playing the wood flute just like you do the...

Some cheap garage sale (and ebay) mandolins are poorly fretted, so they won't play in tune. Sometimes it's just a problem with bridge placement (which you can fix since it isn't glued down). On a small instrument, fret placement is critical because the frets are so close together. Mandolin can be a ...

Some traverso tips- Take a look at several fingering charts, including the Quantz book if you can find a copy. 1-key flutes vary a LOT and depending on what tuning system you're shooting for one of the other fingerings might work better for you/your instrument. Remember that there are often differen...

I haven't tried it, but it should work well, since it's a museum-quality wax. That's actually a very good idea!

Do you think there's more of a tuning problem mixing different designs / brands of whistles, or is it mostly players who aren't listening?

With the highest string in steel, you could tune it as high as d- the 4th line on treble clef- a whole step lower than a mandolin. Going much higher than that and you'll get a lot of breakage. A tuning like the 3 lowest strings of a violin gda (or the top three of a viola) would work better, but tha...

I've got an old Folkers Baroque flute at a=415. Not much good for traditional music at that pitch BUT.... The one-key flute continued to be made and sold well into the early twentieth century! In general they were less expensive than models with more keys, and therefore would have appealed to player...