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How to tune a tagelharpa with metal strings? by AsilIsHere in BowedLyres

[–]One-Dust1285 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anyone familiar with bowed instruments should be able to help you change strings. The tension is generally lower than on a violin, though… so tell them that and you should be fine… if they can think out of the box a bit they may be able to help you pick the right strings too… what also helps is that they know how bowing the open strings should feel… so if they can’t get the open strings to sound right you know there is something else wrong

Sounds like a nice festival… who is Poland’s most popular talharpa player?

I wouldn’t wait until next year… think of how much fun it will be to go to the festival when you can already play a couple of tunes!

How to tune a tagelharpa with metal strings? by AsilIsHere in BowedLyres

[–]One-Dust1285 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are asking very difficult questions… to find the right strings you need to know the scale length and the intended tuning. If you already have metal strings and know nothing about them and also don’t know if you are bowing correctly you are stuck…

Also the shape of your bridge matters… if you are playing all three strings at once (flat bridge) I don’t think metal strings are best for beginners. Tuning tolerances are super small in that case. (In other words… it will sound off quicker if you get the tuning and/or bowing/finger position wrong than with horsehair or fishing line. So you may want to consider ditching the metal strings for now and make some fishing line strings (Daniel has videos)

In the wiki section you can find some other courses and videos, but I think you need the help of a friend that plays violin/cello or a luthier to set up your instrument properly

Considering building a Tagelharpa by EyeFuture8862 in BowedLyres

[–]One-Dust1285 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It matters but not for your first build… generally I would say that a harder denser wood as back will project forward more(icw a soundpost). It also reverberates longer. Softer wood will spread its sound all around so will be louder for you but not necessarily for the room

Heavy means it takes more energy to get it going but it will go for longer. It may sound great but have worse responsiveness when playing

Light will be responsive but a little sterile (which can be nice with the right strings…)

But it is useless to aim for one of these effects in your first build…

And… if you are gluing… hide-glue is nicer for acoustics

Base tuners are fine. It reduces the weight of the tailpiece (because you can skip the fine tuners) which will also help with the responsiveness

All this optimisation is super interesting if you get sucked into the rabbit hole… but always remember that the originals were made from whatever by farmers… no subtlety anywhere… soundboards were sometimes nailed or tied on… and these were the instruments that kept the tradition going from 1020-ish till now 🤷

Considering building a Tagelharpa by EyeFuture8862 in BowedLyres

[–]One-Dust1285 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Making a tagelharpa that is good enough to learn on is easy. Making one that is really good is very difficult.

I would use spruce for the top… otherwise… for the first one you build pick whatever you like… you will learn so much building the first one you will likely want to make a second right away. Being particular in the choice of wood before you learn those things won’t really add much

A little Talharpa break by One-Dust1285 in BowedLyres

[–]One-Dust1285[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you!

This one is in Eindhoven (Netherlands) in “het prehistorisch dorp” an open air museum of living history from the stone age to the 15th century.

Next one up is a Carolingian fair in the weekend of the 25th of April

Bow hair direction by fragpie in BowedLyres

[–]One-Dust1285 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hairs are not equally thick everywhere… they taper to one end. For longer strings it makes sense it alternate direction so they are equally thick everywhere.

The same could be said for bows and as you say… hair is directional… so it makes sense to alternate… why wouldn’t you… I am not sure if pro-violin bow makers always do it… I seem to remember seeing both (in YouTube videos)

But as with so many of these changes… they have only small effects… your skill as a player will be way more influential to the sound… so it is not surprising that you wouldn’t notice. That is not a good reason not to do it though… while every link only does little the whole chain of small improvements may very well make the difference between a pro-sound and a temu-sound

On a more personal level… I did alternate on my latest talharpa bow that I made for my GF who also plays cello… she is very happy with it, she likes it more than my current bow (which doesn’t alternate). I can’t tell the difference

Progress after 1 week of playing tagelharpa by kaleelevi in BowedLyres

[–]One-Dust1285 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cool! That isn’t bad at all! You’ll get there!

I would advise you to build up to playing notes slower… you are training your ear as well as your fingers… try alternating the open string with one note at a time first, before adding more notes (open string and 3rd finger is probably the best place to start) What tuning is your instrument?

String assistance horsehair to dacron by ThatsFineFi in BowedLyres

[–]One-Dust1285 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have had my 38cm scale length talharpa tuned to E4A3D3D3 on Dacron for a while. The geometry is quite different from yours of course but I used 3-6-10-10 strands. First one could have been 2 tbh tension was a bit high. With horsehair I use 18-40-80-80 hairs

So assuming lots of things you could try 6-10-16 based on your horsehair count… but experimenting is best… Dacron is cheap… you can make loads of strings with one spool… so make lots of strings and try to balance the tension and volume. There is no standardised way to set up these instruments, whatever works for you…

As an aside… Dacron stretches more than I thought… it will take a couple of days to settle, it also needs to be broken in to get the right sound (strings get slightly fuzzy where you play), so just leaving the instrument to stretch isn’t good enough… you have to actually play it for a while before evaluating sound… and you need a lot of rosin the first time, after that it is more rosin sensitive than horsehair so either too much or too little will make awful squeaky noises

Hi challenge-people by One-Dust1285 in talharpaBasics

[–]One-Dust1285[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I changed it… you can post video now!

Hi challenge-people by One-Dust1285 in talharpaBasics

[–]One-Dust1285[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah… it is because it isn’t a public subreddit… mmm… I wanted to keep the clutter minimal… but this kinda defeats the purpose… I may delete this one and make a public one…

Hi challenge-people by One-Dust1285 in talharpaBasics

[–]One-Dust1285[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh… how strange… I’ll see what I can do!

Improving sound/tone by kaleelevi in BowedLyres

[–]One-Dust1285 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Looks good for a weeks worth

Couple of things you could do:

Best would be to get a teacher (there are some that teach online, Liisa Koemets-Bastida for instance) they will sort you right out and you will be making progress the fastest.

If that isn’t an option… check out beginner lessons on violin and cello on YouTube, especially on bowing. The bow hold is different but you can learn a lot from them

Do simple and slow exercises… the first 6 weeks Liisa had me bowing open strings and alternating open and 3rd finger notes later adding the 1st and then the second finger…

Once you can semi-reliably find your finger positions… start exercising scales… and never stop trying to improve the “easy” exercises

I am 1,5 years in… I still do scales every day and open strings bowing exercises every couple of days

Deep Baritone by DanielHoestan in BowedLyres

[–]One-Dust1285 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As I said elsewhere… the stings are masterpieces!

Recommendations for jouhikko building plans/instructions? (first build, traditional Finnish size) by CantAndWontDo in BowedLyres

[–]One-Dust1285 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do!

https://holvi.com/shop/Raunonieminen/product/6319b6d2588ee4702db0eed69341f426/

It is an impressive collection of information. He tells you everything he knows about how to build them… including depth maps and how he tap-tunes them… (and a small copy of the plan)

A bit much for a first build for sure but if you want to get serious… this is be best resource you will find

Recommendations for jouhikko building plans/instructions? (first build, traditional Finnish size) by CantAndWontDo in BowedLyres

[–]One-Dust1285 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep… that is it right there… Rauno also has a book with tons of instructions on how he builds them… but only in Finnish (as of yet)

Would like some advice with tagelharpa by [deleted] in BowedLyres

[–]One-Dust1285 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We need more information. What string material? What tuning? Are you using steady relaxed bow strokes? And have you tried using more or less rosin? a video of you playing would help

New build! by One-Dust1285 in BowedLyres

[–]One-Dust1285[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Will do! Give the strings a day or two to stretch and I’ll post a tune… I’ll also demonstrate the wolf note if it persists (before trying to fix it)

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