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Other Stringed Instruments
Balalaika
The balalaika is a stringed instrument from Russia that has a triangular body. The thin neck has up to 16 frets. There are usually three strings, with the melody string (usually made of steel) tuned a', and the other two strings (usually made of nylon) tuned a fourth lower, to e'.
Since the 1880s, balalaika orchestras have had many different sizes of balalaikas, including a 5-foot tall contrabass balalaika with a spike at one corner to rest on the floor.
Bouzouki
The bouzouki is a Greek stringed instrument often used in popular music, especially since the end of the 19th century, when rebetiko music from the Aegean seaports became popular. The strings are usually made of metal. The instrument is about 3 feet long, and is played with a plectrum, or flat-pick.
The body of the instrument is shaped like a pear, and usually is built up from ribs. Today, some instruments are built like mandolins, with a carved or flat back; these instruments are now very popular in Western folk music. The fingerboard, which can have up to 26 frets, extends on to the belly of the instrument. Today, there is often a plastic scratch plate on the belly of the instrument. The Greek instruments usually have 3 courses of strings, tuned d', a, and d. The instruments used in other types of western folk music usually have strings in 4 courses, tuned like the first four strings of the guitar (e'', b'', g' and d') or a tone lower.
Charango
The charango is a small guitar originally developed in the Andes; it is now very popular all over South and Central America. Traditionally, the back is made from an armadillo shell or from wood. There are typically five double or triple courses of strings, tuned as follows: e''/e'', a'/a', e'/e'', c''/c'', g'/g'
Cumbus
The Cumbus was developed in Istanbul in the early 1900s by a man called Zeynel Abidin Bey (in 1934, when all Turkish citizens had to take a family name, he became Zeynel Abidin Cumbus).
The cumbus is very sturdy and remarkably loud. The neck can be detached from the body via a large screw mechanism. Today the body is made of aluminum, and the soundboard is made of Mylar; the soundboard is held in place by a bolted tension ring.
Spirit Guide carries all four of the cumbuses made in the family shop of Zeynel Abidin Cumbus in Turkey for Mid-East Manufacturing: The Cura Cumbus, the Banjo Cumbus, The Standard Cumbus, and the Tambura Cumbus.
Dilruba
The dilruba is a bowed instrument with steel strings. It is held upright on the lap, against the left shoulder, and is played with a bow like the small bass fiddle.
The dilruba has 16 adjustable frets (frets are metal, and are tied down with gut) arched over the wide neck. The four playing strings are stopped with the fingers. Down the near side of neck there is wooden ledge holding pegs for ~18 sympathetic strings that run through tiny holes in the bridge.
In India, the dilruba is used in classical music. There are 3 cities in which they are manufactured in three northern Indian States, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and West Bengal. Locally available Toon wood is used in the manufacture of the dilruba.
Esraj
The Esraj is very similar to the Diliruba (see above).
Kemençe
The kemençe is a small, pear-shaped, three-stringed fiddle of the Aegean islands. It is commonly carved in one piece. the belly of the instrument is slightly convex, and there are D-shaped soundholes. It is held on the knee (if sitting) or hanging from the left hand (if standing). The strings run from pegs inserted from the back, and there is no fingerboard or nut. The first string can be stopped with the player's nails from the side. The second and third strings are usually tuned to deeper notes, and are played simultaneously with the stopped string as drones.
Laouta
The laouta is a Turkish instrument much used today in Greek folk music to accompany other instruments. It has a round-backed body with many ribs, and the belly is usually beautifully decorated with borders. There are usually four courses of strings, tuned in fifths down from approximately a. Sometimes the lower courses have a string tuned an octave higher.
Oud
This information was taken from the entry "oud" in the Wikipedia online encyclopedia.
The oud is a small, pear-shaped, stringed musical instrument, still in use in traditional Middle Eastern music. The oldest pictorial record of a lute dates back to the Uruk period in Southern Mesopotamia, over 5000 years ago. This instrument appears hundreds of times throughout Mesopotamian history and again in ancient Egypt from the 18th dynasty onwards in long and short neck varieties. The oud was introduced into Europe by Ziryab, where it evolved into the western-style lute. The distinguishing features of the oud are: (1) no frets, (2) 11 or 12 strings, most paired together, (3) a pegbox that is bent back at a 45°-90° angle from the neck of the instrument, the body has a staved (ribbed), bowl-like back resembling the outside of half a watermelon, which gives the instrument a more resonant, complex tone than a guitar. There are usually one to three soundholes.
The plectrum (pick) for the oud is usually a little more than the length of an index-finger. Traditionally it is made from an eagle's feather, but today they are usually made of plastic.Oud players take very seriously the quality of their plectrums, often making their own out of other plastic objects, and taking great care to sand down any sharp edges in order to achieve the best sound possible.
Psalteries
The plucked psaltery commonly is shaped like a trapezoid with curved sides, with the tuning pegs mounted on the sides. Modern plucked psalteries mount the pegs perpendicular into the soundboard. The term psaltery is from the Greek psalterion. The instrument was most likely brought to Europe during the crusades from the Near East, or it may have been based on the North African Qanun. The earliest psalteries had gut strings. Later, steel strings were added for a louder, brighter sound. Illustrations from the 12th century onwards depict a number of different forms of the instrument. Plucked psalteries were well known throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. By the 18th century it had developed into several other instruments, including the hammered dulcimer. Historic illustrations show the plucked psaltery held against the chest with the narrow, pig-snout end pointed down, or resting on the lap. The strings of the plucked psaltery are plucked, either with fingers or with a quill or plectrum.
Rebab
(This article is adapted from the entry in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
The rebab (also rebap, rabab, rababah, al-rababa) is a bowed string instrument which originated in Eastern Persia, now Afghanistan, no later than the 8th century, and was spread via Islamic trading routes over much of North Africa, the Middle East, parts of Europe, and the Far East. It often has a spike at the bottom to rest on the ground, and is thus called a spike fiddle in certain areas.
The rebab is considered part of the lute family (oud in Arabic), but is played with a bow. It is almost certainly the direct ancestor of the European violin, via the medieval rebec. It is used in a wide variety of musical ensembles and genres, corresponding with its wide distribution, and is built and played somewhat differently in different areas.
The rebab usually consists of a small, usually rounded body, the front of which is covered in a membrane such as parchment or sheepskin. The body varies from being ornately carved, as in Java, to simpler models such as the 2-string Egyptian "fiddle of the Nile" may have a body made of half a coconut shell. The more sophisticated versions have a wooden soundbox and the front may be half-covered with beaten copper, and half with goatskin.
There is a long thin neck with a pegbox at the end and there are one, two or three strings. There is no fingerboard. The instrument is held upright, either resting on the lap or on the floor. There is often a spike at the bottom to rest on the ground, similar to the ordinary holding of a cello but while seated on the ground. The bow is usually more curved than that of the violin.
The rebab is heavily used in Afghan music. It is also played in other countries such as India, most likely tracing its origin to Afghanistan, and Morocco, where a tradition of Andalusian classical music has been kept alive by descendants of Muslims who left Spain as refugees following the Reconquista.
The rebab was adopted as a key instrument in Arab classical music, along with such instruments as the oud (ancestor of the lute), the ney (end-blown flute), and various percussion instruments. Much Arab music is based on the style developed in Andalucia during the Muslim occupation, and includes instrumental passages, usually with a strong element of improvisation, alternating with sung poetry.
The rebab became a favourite instrument of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire, and could be heard everywhere from the palace to the tea house. The Arab orchestra or group uses many drones, unisons and parallel octaves, giving a stirring, powerful sound, but it is mostly modal with little in the way of chordal movement. The rebab, though valued for its voice-like tone, has a very limited range (little over an octave), and was gradually replaced throughout much of the arab world by the violin and kemenche.
Rebec
The rebec is a pear-shaped, round-backed fiddle with three strings, usually tuned in fifths. The term is used for any of these instruments found throughout the Middle Ages. The body of the instrument is hollowed out in one piece with the neck. The neck is short, and has a pegbox curved toward the back with side pegs for the strings. There is no soundpost, and the sound can seem hollow compared with that of a modern violin. The wide fingerboard spreading out over the surface of the instrument is characteristic of the instrument.
Sarangi
(This article is adapted from the Sarangi entry in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
The sarangi is a bowed string instrument of India. It is the most important bowed string instrument of India's Hindustani classical music tradition. Of all Indian instruments, it is said to get closest to the sound of the human voice – able to imitate vocal ornaments such as gamakas (shakes) and meend (sliding movements).
Sarangi music is vocal music. The words are usually mentally present during performance, and performance almost always adheres to the conventions of vocal performance including the organisational structure, the types of elaboration, the tempo, the relationship between sound and silence, and the presentation of khyal and thumri compositions. Most sarangi players learn to sing before they begin to play.
Carved from a single block of wood, the sarangi has a box-like shape, usually around two feet long and around half a foot wide. The lower resonance chamber is hollowed out and covered with parchment and a decorated strip of leather at the waist which supports the elephant-shaped bridge. The bridge in turn supports the huge pressure of approximately 40 strings.
Three of the strings – the comparatively thick, tight and short ones – are bowed with a heavy horsehair bow and "stopped" not with the finger-tips but with the nails, cuticles and surrounding flesh (talcum powder is applied to the fingers as a lubricant). The remaining strings are resonance strings, numbering up to around 35, divided into 4 different "choirs". On the lowest level are a diatonic row of 9 tarabs and a chromatic row of 15 tarabs, each encompassing a full octave plus 1–3 extra notes above or below. Between these lower tarabs and the main playing strings lie two more sets of longer tarabs, which pass over a small flat ivory bridge at the top of the instrument. These are tuned to the important tones (svaras) of the raga. A properly tuned sarangi will hum and buzz like a bee-hive, with tones played on any of the main strings eliciting echo-like resonances.
Famously difficult to play and tune, the sarangi has traditionally been used primarily for accompanying singers (shadowing the vocalist's improvisations), but in recent times it has become recognised as a solo instrument used for full raga development, thanks to the single handed efforts of Pandit Ram Narayan.
The sarangi is also a traditional stringed musical instrument of Nepal, commonly played by the oppressed Gaine ethnic group.
Sarod
(This article is adapted from the Sarod entry in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
The sarod is an Indian classical musical instrument similar to a lute. The sarod probably originates from the Senya rebab, an Indian instrument played till the 19th century. However, some sarod musicians, notably Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, believe that the instrument existed in ancient India, citing instruments resembling the sarod found in carvings of the 1st century in the Champa temple and also in paintings in the Ajanta caves.
The sarod is similar to the Rabab of Afghanistan and Kashmir. The instrument was modified by Amir Khusru in the 13th century. Ustad Allaudin Khan also changed the shape to improve the tonal quality.
The design of the instrument varies with the school (gharana) of playing. There are three main types of the instrument, as detailed below.
One version (conventionally used by a majority of sarod players) is a 25-stringed lute-like instrument, whose body is hand carved from a single block of tun (Indian Mahogany) or teak wood, with a steel fretless fingerboard. The bridge rests on the belly of the instrument which is covered in goat skin. It is played with a plectrum or jaba made of coconut. Four of the strings are melody or playing strings, three are rhythm strings, and the rest are sympathetic and jawari strings, all made of metal.
Another version is that devised by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. In his version, the instrument is also made of teakwood but is shorter in length. It has fewer strings (total of nineteen) with four main strings, two jod strings (tuned to Sa), two chikari strings (tuned to Sa of the upper octave) and eleven tarab or sympathetic strings. The main strings are tuned to Ma, Sa, Lower Pa, and Lower Sa, giving the instrument a range of three octaves. The gauge of these strings differs from other schools.
And lastly, there is a version that was devised by Radhika Mohan Moitra and is used most prominently by Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta. This style of sarod can be made of teak or toon wood. It has 23 strings. The main difference in comparison to the Amjad Ali Khan style of sarod is that this style of sarod has a low Pa string, which can be used as a melody string or as a jawari string.
The lack of frets and the tension of the strings makes it very technically demanding to play, as the strings must be pressed hard against the fingerboard.
There are two schools of sarod playing. In the first, the tips of the fingernails are used to stop the strings; thus certain strength and stiffness of the fingernails is a prerequisite for accuracy of pitch. In the other school, the fingers are used to stop the strings against the fingerboard. The technique using the fingernails produces a ringing tone to the sarod, whereas the finger technique produces a flatter tone.
Saz
The saz is a "long lute" of Turkey; it is an ancestor of the Greek bouzouki (see above). It is a favorite instrument of Turkey, and is also played in the east up to Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea, and in Europe to Albania. The body of the saz is shaped like a pear, and from the side, the instrument has a distinct scoop thata is deepest at the level of the bridge. Most instruments are built of ribs, but the more expensive varieties may be hollowed out of a single log to thicknesses of less than 4 mm. There may be no soundholes. The frets are tied to the long neck, and vary in number and positioning.
An urban saz in urban Istanbul is typically fretted for a Pythagorean scale plus two extra frets in the first octave that are required in certain modes. Thus for the first tetrachord beginning with the open string, there is a fret between the semitone and the whole-tone fret, bisecting the nminor third to yield two successive three-quarter tones. The other extra fret performs the same function for the tetrachord starting a perfect fourth above the tone of the open string.
The saz has three double courses of strings (tuned with the middle course being deepest--for example, d', g, a), which are played with a hide plectrum.
Most of the information on this page comes from the following references:
Baines, Anthony (1992): The Oxford Companion to Musical Instruments. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia (found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page).
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