About the perfect pitch

[Rique Meirelles]

Hey, folks.

As some of you may already know, I'm a begginer who's basically alone with my gurdy in Brazil (I do have Augusto around, but he lives kind of far from my city - plus, we play in different tunings). Anyway, I've been able to overcome some bothersome problems such as sticky keys and some maintenance issues, but there's this one tiny detail I can't seem to vanquish so soon: the two chantarelles playing  high notes together. I mean, the first keys are ok, I don't have that much trouble on the first octave an a couple of notes after it, but the really high-pitched notes are really hard to play when both strings are on.

How were you able to achieve a pleasent sound when playing those keys? Any tips?

Kind regards,

Rique

 

--
"For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery hand in hand,
From a world more full of weeping
than he can understand."

The Stolen Child - William Butler Yeats -

[Augusto de Ornellas Abreu]

Rique, 

something I meant to ask you when we met yesterday but I forgot - do you tune your melody strings an octave apart, or both in high D? It kinda sounded like you have two high Ds on your gurdy. If that's the case, consider an octave tuning, using medium viola strings (you can try it with some cheap wound strings - I love my Corelli Crystal set, with a full set you can have both octave Gs and octave Ds)

Augusto

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[George Leverett-Altarwind Hurdy Gurdies]

HI Rique:

 

I find a good habit to cultivate is to turn the wheel a little more rapidly when playing those upper notes (especially #10 diatonic & higher).   Even on slow plassages, a faster wheel rotation can even out things and give more consistency to intonation.   There's also cotton, rosin, & shims, but I'm guessing you likely already know about since you seem savvy on how to fix sticky keys.

 

Cheers

George

 

----- Original Message -----

--

[Neil Brook]

Hi Rique

My opinion is that the main factors for sweetness of tone are absolute flatness of the rim and a perfectly straight line from the rim to the nut. Without these correct, no amount of fiddling with shims, cotton, rosin is going to help . To check the rim for flatness, rest the edge of a  ruler on one side of the rim and lay it down on the rim. If the wheel has a " crown" , the ruler will roll noiselessly over the rim with no indication as to when it is dead flat . If there is a hollow in the rim ( caused by cleaning the rim with abrasive just held in the hand ) , There will be a tiny  click at the rule touches the other edge and you will easily tell when it is sitting on both edges. The perfectly flat wheel is half way between these conditions so there will be no click audible but you will feel when it is sitting flat . 

Scraping the wheel sounds like a serious proposition but there is enough info on the net and it is well worth learning. 

One tip I've not seen is to make the protective  block (for resting the scraper on the soundboard) have a slant so it looks like a wedge. This means that your flat scraper blade would actually scrape a tiny hollow in the rim if it was held perfectly . In practice, it's nearly impossible not to allow the scraper to wobble a bit so you end up with a flat rim.

[Drewstix45]

Hi Rique,

As with anything concerning a gurdy there is no straight and simple answer. The factors surrounding this difficulty that you have are well explained in previous posts: - Amount of Rosin, amount of cotton, string pressure on the wheel, 'trueness' of the wheel, alignment of the strings across the wheel, speed of turning the wheel when playing in the upper octave and type of strings. 

What type of music are you wanting to play? What strings are you using? Gut, metal or synthetic? What tensions are they? Light, medium or soft?

If you are wanting to be able to play in the upper register without the stress of thinking "Is it going too sound harsh" and the strings you are using are causing this, then one way to eliminate these multiple factors is by changing one factor at a time and seeing what the effect has on the sound you are wanting to achieve. 

The way in which I would approach this is by first "refreshing the wheel". That is remove the rosin you have on the wheel (having lifted all strings off the wheels surface). The way in which I was shown was too use a 1000 grade 'Emery' paper (used for polishing metal) hold it firmly on the wheel and turn it fast for a few seconds. You will find on the paper a dark build up of the rosin you have taken off with a lighter lesser amount of fine wood dust from the wheel. Taking a lint free cloth hold this on the wheel and turn a few times to clean any remaining dust particles off. Taking your rosin block hold it onto the wheel and turn the handle a few times to apply a 'fresh' layer of rosin. Finally taking the lint free cloth again hold it on the wheel firmly and 

turn the wheel fast to remove any excess rosin.

Place your melody strings back on the wheel and see whether it has improved the sound or eliminated completely the harshness? If so, then the reason was too much rosin. If not...

Raise the string by adding a thin shim under the strings at the bridge end, tuning back up and seeing if there is a change in the sound in the upper register?

If not....

Replace the cotton slivers that you have wrapped around your strings, as when you rosin a wheel it builds up in the cotton and can cause the sound to become harsh in the upper register.

If this works then everything is fine. If not...

Check if the string is lying flat across the surface of the wheel? If it is raised at one edge of the wheel or the other this will have a big influence on the play-ability of the upper register. To solve this is by a slow process of trial and error of adding and removing shims at both the bridge and nut to get the string to lie flat across the wheel when tuned to the note you require. Your instrument maker will be able to give you further and more experienced advice on how to achieve this.

If still no improvement on the sound which you are looking for, then you may want to try a lighter tension string for your instrument or different material of string. 

Finally, the advice of turning the wheel slightly faster when playing in the upper register is true and can help a lot.

Regards

Andrew

On Monday, July 2, 2012 6:18:14 PM UTC+1, Rique Meirelles wrote:

[Arle Lommel]

Rique,

you've gotten some good advice. I'd just add one piece if you're playing with a high D chanterelle (I'm not clear what pitch you are using). The high D chanterelles take a minuscule amount of cotton and it is best to apply it on only the third of the area over the wheel closer to the bridge.

As I am currently traveling and away from my instrument, I cannot supply a photo, but I'll try some ASCII art to get the idea across:

= is string      XXX=cotton

=================XXX============//

 A             |---------|

/ \            |         |

| |            |         |

| |            |         |

Bridge          Wheel

Don't know if that is clear or not, but Neil Brook told me to use his "Wonderstring" in this fashion and I can testify that it really helps the upper notes to have cotton on that one part of the wheel. If you use more, it creates a harsh tone and unsteady, warbly pitch on the high notes.

Best,

-Arle

[Rique Meirelles]

Thank you very very much, guys. You have been amazing. As usual, there's a lot to do and to experiment. So I'll go as carefully as I  can, reading and re-reading your e-mails.

I cannot thank you enough, but I'll let you know the outcome of this situation. =)

All the best,

Rique

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