Neil Brook’s latest DVD, “Tutor for Hurdy-Gurdy in G/C”

[R.T. Taylor]

 

I just received a copy of Neil Brook’s latest DVD, “Tutor for Hurdy-Gurdy in G/C”

 

I popped it in the DVD player and was hooked on watching it for the next hour and a half.

 

Neil gives you a great overview of how to approach learning to play or practice some basic skills. It is organized into chapters titled introduction, tuning, coup de trois, coup de deux, coup de quatre, trompette and minor keys.

 

Although Neil state’s “This dvd sets out to demonstrate the basic skills needed to play the instrument.” It is great for someone starting out on the Hurdy Gurdy and for others that want to brush up on some skills that might be a bit rusty. As an example while teaching Drops of Brandy he includes a right hand rhythm that uses the disassociated technique for right and left hands.

 

There are plenty of close-ups to see the details of fingering and ornamentation. To make things clear he plays the tune with and without the right hand rhythms and at normal and slow tempos.

 

The DVD comes with sheet music for the following tunes.

The Keel Row

Muneria da Ruada

Drops of Brandy

La Volta

Morisco

Frere Jacques

The Horses Brawl

Bransle de L’Officiale

 

I think Neil kept away from the more Trad French tunes so that you can concentrate on the skills and techniques.

 

Neil is playing one of his new Wren Hurdy Gurdys with 3 melody strings. Quite a powerful and clear sound. I wonder if it is for sale.

 

You can find a little demo from the DVD on Youtube at….

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j00bZx4d8g

 

While you are on Youtube also check out one of the demos on the art of cottoning from his Hurdy Gurdy Maintenance DVD.

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

 

You can find out more or order the DVD  in PAL or NTSC at

http://hurdy-gurdy.org.uk/accessories.html

I find the DVD educational and enjoyable to watch at the same time.

 

Thanks for creating such a useful teaching tool for the Hurdy Gurdy community.

 

r.t.

ps.

Thanks for including Muneria da Ruada. It's a great tune for circ circasian dances and I use it to teach people how to take a tune and play it as 2 time bouree, 3 time bouree, waltz, march, congo, cha cha etc. This way you can learn one basic tune and practice a variety of right hand rhythms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GurdyGeoff]

Very well put. I have also received a copy of it, and can thoroughly
recommend it, not just to newbies. Being completely self-taught, there
are little tips and techniques in there that would be useful to all.

Geoff

[Augusto de Ornellas Abreu]

Is it already for sale? Cool

you included a Muiñeira? Just for your curiosity, that's a traditional Galician (from NW Spain) dance rhythm (quite similar to an Irish jig), and Galicia has a long HG tradition, one of the longest in history. There are stone sculptures of HGs on the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral (St. James of Compostela) there.

and, just so you know, Galician HG tunes are played completely without the buzzing string - they are not fond of its sound at all, and traditional Galician HGs ("zanfona") don't even have a chien.

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[Leonard Williams]

Augusto--
        Is there a good source, such as a tunebook, of Galician music suitable for HG?  I love the sound, and my early style gurdy has no trompette.

Thanks and regards,
Leonard Williams

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[Augusto de Ornellas Abreu]

Leonard

I can try and scan my sheet music (all of them are copyright free anyway) and post them somewhere.

All of them are in G/C, ok? Drone in C mostly.

[Sam Riffle]

Hi Augusto,

I would be really interested in some Galician music, as well. I'm pretty new to this, but my teacher just taught me a Galician piece two weeks ago, and I would really like to learn some more. Would it be possible to post the music to the group?

Thanks!! :)
Sam

[Dennis Sherman]

I've seen somewhere (but can't seem to find at the moment) a PDF of the first edition of "Cancionero Gallego" by Jesus Bal y Gay and Eduardo Martinez Torner.

I did find a reissue for sale, 30 euros, at http://www.une.es/%28A%28WIxJCjghywEkAAAAMDUwOGU1YjctN2M4OS00NDY0LWFlN2MtZGI3NTE5MTg4YTUx2Pg12rpAUM_-4hWL0_RCGS2mw7k1%29%29/Ent/Products/ProductDetail.aspx?ID=102517&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1,

If that URL gets munged too badly to work, try http://www.une.es/ and search for "cancionero gallego".  The box and button at top right labeled "Buscar" is search.  Use the checkbox too, to search only in books, and it comes up at the top of the list.

 

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

[Augusto de Ornellas Abreu]

This cancionero is more of an interest to Ethnomusicologists...

There is sheet music to hundreds of traditional tunes, but with no context, just truncated snippets of transcribed tunes passed on by oral tradition.

It is not very user friendly and it is hardly an actual tunebook. I do have a copy myself, but I rarely use it.

[Leonard Williams]

Augusto--
        I play D/G, but transposing is not a problem.  Thanks!

Leonard

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