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 Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:35 pm
The woman smiled. "Thank you. It's very simple to play, once you get used to it."
She ran one hand lovingly over the wood of the instrument before returning it to its place on the wall. Then she took down another instrument, this one similar to a Gaian guitar but pear-shaped and with a much longer neck - nearly twice the length of something Miyuki and Andarien might have seen before.
"A lute," the woman explained. "A bit trickier to play, but it doesn't sound quite as nice, I think. This I've been playing for about five years, off and on."
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:44 pm
Miyuki was sure she hadn't heard the woman play that. Still, it was an interesting instrument, of sorts.
"I don't think I heard that one," Miyuki admitted.
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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 5:52 pm
The woman laughed softly. "I didn't play it long." She held the instrument close and strummed it softly. It had a gentle sound, but less airy than the dulcimer. But after only a few short strums, she put it away again. "Yes ... not my favourite, by far ..."
"Sounds okay to me," Andarien spoke up, his brow creasing slightly.
She laughed again. "It's the feel, not the sound, for me."
Andarien grinned sheepishly. "Ah. I see."
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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 6:13 pm
"What do you mean by the feel?" Miyuki asked, "Does it have to do with how long you've been playing a certain instrument?"
Since they had been told the woman had been playing the dulcimer since she was very little.
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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 6:39 pm
The woman shook her head. "No ... no, it's how you hold the instrument and the proper position for playing. It's so bulky, I have to admit my shoulder aches at times when I've played it a while."
"Like when Nana gets me to practice archery," Andarien nodded. "I get it."
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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 8:23 pm
Looking more carefully at it, Miyuki could now see what the woman meant.
"I see...." Miyuki murmured taking note of it.
She wondered if other instruments were like that. She knew if one practiced the wind instruments a lot it could give you a bad case of chapped lips.
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Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2012 6:32 pm
The woman smiled and placed the lute back on the wall. "Yes, well ... anyways, this is the next one that I played today ... the rebec."
She took down another instrument from higher up on the wall. This one looked a lot like a violin, except that it was shaped like a teardrop and had a v-shaped hole in the middle rather than two f-holes on the sides.
'My husband and I are working on modifying it to make it easier to control," she explained, taking down a bow as well. She showed them how to hold it, putting the round end to her chest, just below her shoulder. "It slides around too much ... I was thinking of having him make one that tucks into the shoulder properly, or against the neck or chin, but that would also require a few other changes as well."
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Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2012 9:15 pm
"Like a violin," Miyuki murmured, "Our cousin Shiro has a violin and it's tucked under his chin. It looks kind of like the rebec, except it's shape and holes are different."
Then she glanced around, realizing she hadn't yet seen one, in fact most of the instruments she didn't recognized and hadn't yet seen one that she had.
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Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2012 9:23 pm
The woman blinked and replaced the rebec on the wall. "Something like this?" she asked, leading them to the far side of the same wall and taking an instrument from its stand on the floor.
It was shaped exactly like a violin, except about twice the size, and there was a long wooden spike on the very end where normally a violin would be tucked against the chin.
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Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2012 9:26 pm
Miyuki looked with interest, it looked exactly like a violin except, larger.
"Yes, but smaller, and there's a chin rest right here," she pointed to the end, "What is this one called?"
She wondered if the spike was so it could be kept steady on the ground.
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Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2012 9:29 pm
"A viol," the woman replied, looking back at the instrument. "That's why I asked about it, because the name is very similar. But you say ... instead of the floor rest, a chin rest? What does that look like?"
Her mind was now on how to make changes to the rebec to make it easier to use - clearly, if they could use the design of something they already had and simply modify it slightly instead of changing the first instrument a lot, it would be much simpler.
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Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2012 9:40 pm
Miyuki wondered how much Shiro knew about musical instruments because it could not be a coincidence that there was an instrument that looked just like a violin, called a viol.
"The chin rest?" Miyuki asked as if to ask for clarification, but she continued anyways, "The rest has a bit of a dip like a wide shallow cup."
She used her hand, cupped to show where the chin would be resting in it.
"I've seen Shiro hold it like this," she mined though she knew she probably didn't have perfect posture for a violinist, "I'm not really good at describing it, but Shiro, who is back in the city, I'm sure he brought his."
It was probably the only thing that wasn't fully work related that he did. Even then Miyuki found that statement a bit questionable.
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Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 6:49 pm
The woman smiled. "Would you be so kind as to ask him if he might visit us, if he has the time?" she requested. "I think my husband would be very interested in seeing his instrument. Do you have other musicians in your party as well? We are always eager to find new ideas ..."
Andarien blinked up at the woman. "You mean you and your husband made up these instruments?"
She laughed softly. "Only some of them. Most of them are modifications of older instruments, and there are a few that are as old as anyone can remember."
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:38 pm
Miyuki had to really think about it, at first she was going to say no when she remembered her cousin.
"Naida also plays music, but I don't know if she brought her instrument," she admitted.
And didn't even know what Naida played, only that she did and from what she heard was the few times Naida could sit still for longer than five minutes. In fact she could go a whole hour being calm.
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Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 5:47 am
"Lancaeriel does, too," Andarien pointed out. "She plays that string thing ... a lyre, I think she called it." After a moment, he added, "But somehow I think there's nothing she doesn't do at least a little bit."
"And what does Naida play?" the woman asked Miyuki curiously.
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