HG in Illinois?

[Nick Lowe]

Are there and Hurdy Gurdy players in the Chicago area? I'm about 45
miles North of Chicago in Waukegan and would love to meet other local
players, swap tunes, sing and play songs etc and learn more about
technique and such like.

Thanks - Nick

[Gary Plazyk]

Hi, Nick!

I don't know if you saw my post earlier this week. Three Chicago-area
hurdy gurdy players will be presenting a hurdy gurdy demonstration this
Saturday at the University of Chicago Folk festival. Here's a link to
some photos from our program in 2011:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1602995870715.2077286.1110631830&type=3&l=d60532441e

---------------------------------------------------------------------

We have also had as many as a dozen players get together in Chicago
several times for an all-day hurdy gurdy event. You can sign up for
updates at the Yahoo Groups Chicago Hurdy Gurdy list at
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/ChicagoHG/

Here's a summary of our last event:

"We had a dozen people show up for our Chicago area hurdy gurdy
get-together on Saturday 9/25/2010. Attendees ranged from local to two
from Bloomington Indiana and two from near Detroit Michigan.

I think there were 14 hurdy gurdies present, representing a vast range
of designs:
* several simple box-shaped instruments
* a number of guitar-body-shaped instruments like my Volksgurdy
* a real lute-back design
* several of Mel Dorries' new hourglass-shaped models, the fanciest one
sporting two courses of six sympathetic strings, three melody strings
for playing in different keys, six drones with at least a couple of
buzzy bridges and three internal pickups with a mixer and tuner built
in! And it had a rich mellow sound.

Activities included:
* introducing each of ourselves, our backgrounds, and our interests
* introducing each hurdy gurdy, and describing any novel features
* learning a tune and playing it together
* talking about cottoning the strings and applying rosin
* experimenting with different ways of using a microphone for hurdy
gurdy pickup
* taking turns playing tunes in our own particular style
* discussing future events, including: another in-town event; possibly a
weekend event where we would bring in a hurdy gurdy teacher; checking on
doing another workshop for the University of Chicago Folk Festival
* great food and visiting!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

There is also a workshop in Brown County Indiana coming up in April that
might appeal to hurdy gurdy players that can't get to the Over the Water
hurdy gurdy event on the west coast. I'm hoping to go; perhaps some
other local players will be there as well.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's some information on these Chicago-area hurdy gurdy events:

Several Chicago-area folks will be presenting a hurdy gurdy
demonstration at the University of Chicago Folk Festival this Saturday,
2/11/12. We'll be performing in Ida Noyes Hall, West Lounge, from noon
to 12:50.

Festival details at: http://www.uofcfolk.org/
Workshop details at: http://www.uofcfolk.org/2012/workshops.html

Hurdy gurdy weekend workshop in Brown County, Indiana 4/20/12 to
4/22/12; details at:
http://earlymusicinmotion.org/EMIM/Hurdy-Gurdy_Workshops.html
http://earlymusicinmotion.org/EMIM/Hurdy-Gurdy_Schedule.html
http://earlymusicinmotion.org/EMIM/H-G_Workshops_Brochure_files/Hurdy%20Gurdy%20Brochure.pdf

Very best regards,

-Gary P. (in rural northern Illinois near Marengo, between Elgin and
Rockford IL)

Gary Plazyk, g_pl...@ix.netcom.com
Fuzzy Bear Farm
http://www.BearCreekMusic.us
http://www.KishwaukeeRamblers.com

"Music is too important to leave to the professionals." -Robert Shaw

[Dennis Sherman]

I see Gary gave you the info-dump on Chicago area hurdy-gurdy, so I won't repeat
it.

The ChicagoHG yahoo group is very low traffic, and your best bet for finding out
when we do another Chicago Gurdy Gathering. And other players in the area.

--
Dennis Sherman
Chicago, IL, USA
http://www.dennissherman.com

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[William Gull]

I am curious if there are any hurdy gurdy players in Iowa?

-William

---

From: Dennis Sherman <dennis_...@yahoo.com>
To: hurdy...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 8:54 PM
Subject: Re: [HG-new] HG in Illinois?

I see Gary gave you the info-dump on Chicago area hurdy-gurdy, so I won't repeat
it.

The ChicagoHG yahoo group is very low traffic, and your best bet for finding out
when we do another Chicago Gurdy Gathering.  And other players in the area.

--
Dennis Sherman
Chicago, IL, USA
http://www.dennissherman.com



----- Original Message ----
> From: Nick Lowe <ruft...@gmail.com>
> To: hurdygurdy <hurdy...@googlegroups.com>
> Sent: Mon, January 30, 2012 9:39:49 PM
> Subject: [HG-new] HG in Illinois?
>
> Are there and Hurdy Gurdy players in the Chicago area? I'm about 45
> miles  North of Chicago in Waukegan and would love to meet other local
> players, swap  tunes, sing and play songs etc and learn more about
> technique and such  like.
>
> Thanks - Nick
>
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[Felicia Dale]

Hi, all,
My new gurdy from OI is breaking in very nicely. I've solved some of
the little issues with strings settling in, etc. but I'm at a loss as
to how to tune the sympathetics. I have eight of them (or will when I
get some more string) and the gurdy has D and g/G chanters and drones
in c/d, g/a, G, C/D, c/d. Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help!
Felicia.

[Augusto de Ornellas Abreu]

if the gauges permit, tune them in pairs - two each in c, d, g (and when you get the other strings, in a as well). That way you'll have the most important notes in most of your scales, as well as the main drones / modal notes.

Felicia.

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[Barbara Currier]

I have 6 sympathetics, half g and half d. You might want to do that for a full, loud ring or add c and a. I think I wouldn't add because the a could clash with the g and the c with the d. I used to have to do a lot of damping on my wire strung harp.

Barbara

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[Arle Lommel]

I've never had a HG with sympathetics, but on the nyckelharpa the sympathetics are detuned from the scale notes by just a few cents (~5, IIRC) to mute the response slightly and cause a slight delay. In the case of the nyckelharpa there are sympathetics for all notes of the scale. I have no idea how that would work on a  gurdy.

-Arle

[Rob]

hi. i am interested to read the replies on this topic! - and also have a bit to share.

Felecia: a beauty, your new gurdy ! Congrats!

regarding sympathetic strings -

though i've never had a gurdy, and have only played one once (recently thanks to Mitch!), i can say from my experience studying Hindustani Classical: the sympathetic strings on sitars and such are tuned with all the notes in the scale  depending on the raga ( literally "colour, hue" but also "beauty, melody"; much more than a "scale").

with this sort of tuning the notes of your meloday ring out as you are playing. it adds an etheral quality. since you already have drones with some sypathetic tuned to the tonic and probably the fifth, you might like to try adding in at least the third and the sixth of your scale, or whichever notes are most important for a particular piece depending on its mood.

i still hope to be getting a gurdy some day, often sit here wishing; and having cruised the net quite a bit looking at "gurdy," i've posted some stuff to a blog, and have actually started drawing up some plans for a "barrel gurdy"

- - so here you go (re gurdies & barrel gurdy sympathetic strings) -

 - of interest to this group would be "hurdy gurdy" one of my blogs:

http://rceezwhatnext.blogspot.com/search/label/Hurdy Gurdy (10 posts with photos & videos)

(contributions appreciated)

 

- and - i might be building something (?) - -

barrel gurdy

http://rceezwhatzmore.blogspot.com/p/barrel-gurdy.html

> there should be a minimum of 8 sympathetic strings on top (one octave higher than noted), tuned to a diatonic scale. ideally would have 12 strings to have chromatic tuning, especially useful for Indian raga.

 

     PEACE!

  Rob Cherwink

mail: r_che...@comcast.net

home: http://robertcherwink.com

blogs:

whats up  nuclear blog > http://rceezwhatsup.blogspot.com

what it is   photo blog > http://rceezwhatitis.blogspot.com 

whats more  art & studies blog > http://rceezwhatzmore.blogspot.com/ 

what next  news & random blog > http://rceezwhatnext.blogspot.com/

youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/robertcherwink

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1213823206

twitter: http://twitter.com/r_cherwink

[Cor Westbroek Google]

Hi All, 

Who wants to miss this video ?????, in dutch,  but it's the music that matters....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq7MSLC1x_g

I'm happy to say that the standard of playing improved the last 75 years.

Bye, Cor

[Felicia Dale]

Thank you all for your very helpful suggestions! I really appreciate
all the input and I look forward to try tuning my sympathetics this
evening.

Felicia.

[Rob]

Hi!

This is from Mel Dorries (sent to me off list): "We do rather like
sympathetic strings around here for the fullness of tone and overtone
they introduce to an instrument. We set ours up on the Maestro to
accent the most common notes like g, d, c, a, b flat, e flat with a
sat least 2 -3 strings for g, d, and c in different octives. Much is
personal preferance and accomodation to the key one wants to play in
primarily."

[Augusto de Ornellas Abreu]

What is the point of having sympathetic strings tuned to a same note, but on different octaves? Won't they vibrate sympathetically the same way?? Isn't this how they are supposed to work, why tuning them to different octaves?

On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 12:27 AM, Rob <r_che...@comcast.net> wrote:

Hi!

This is from Mel Dorries (sent to me off list): "We do rather like sympathetic strings around here for the fullness of tone and overtone they introduce to an instrument.  We set ours up on the Maestro to accent the most common notes like g, d, c, a, b flat, e flat with a sat least 2 -3 strings for g, d, and c in different octives. Much is personal preferance and accomodation to the key one wants to play in primarily."

    PEACE!

 Rob Cherwink

mail: r_che...@comcast.net
home: http://robertcherwink.com
blogs:
       whats up  nuclear blog > http://rceezwhatsup.blogspot.com
       what it is   photo blog > http://rceezwhatitis.blogspot.com
       whats more  art & studies blog > http://rceezwhatzmore.blogspot.com/
       what next  news & random blog > http://rceezwhatnext.blogspot.com/
youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/robertcherwink
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1213823206
twitter: http://twitter.com/r_cherwink

On Feb 8, 2012, at 4:24 PM, Felicia Dale wrote:

Thank you all for your very helpful suggestions! I really appreciate all the input and I look forward to try tuning my sympathetics this evening.

Felicia.

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[Norman Sohl]

Hard to answer that without going into the details of string acoustics, however there is plenty on the web (and some good books) that cover the subject.  Here is my humble simplification-

·         Any even, well made string will vibrate at several frequencies at one time when excited. This is why different material strings sound differently when tuned to the same note – the strings are producing roughly the same set of frequencies but in different amounts which makes them have different timbre.

·         This set of frequencies is usually a “harmonic series” based on the fundamental vibration of the string (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_(music)).  The harmonic series of a sympathetic string tuned to c includes the notes c, c’ (octave of c), g’, c’’, e’’ g’’, etc.

·         This means that a sympathetic string tuned to c can sound when excited by a tone at any of those frequencies.

·         The power of a harmonic usually drops off as the frequency goes up, so you may not be able to hear some of the higher harmonics.

·         Thinner strings resonate at higher harmonics more easily than thick strings.

 

To answer your question,  this means that two strings tuned an octave apart will resonate at slightly different notes.

I imagine that the tuning of other harmonics is chosen in order to fill in the set of other possible resonances.  Because of this you don’t need a string for every note, assuming that you have selected your sympathetic tuning to match your instruments key.

-Hope that helps more than it confuses!

--Norm

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