Number Three

I finished my third instrument (second kit) this past week:  a bowed psaltery. 

I first learned that bowed psalteries were a thing while perusing the kit maker's site looking for something else and was immediately excited by its sound and, frankly, just the idea of it.  It's completely different from any other bowed instrument I've played in several ways.  First, the bow is the only (standard) interface with the instrument; it's not designed to be plucked (although, there's nothing really preventing you from doing so and I'm considering ways of incorporating plucking into playing it).  As a type of psaltery, each pitch has its own string, so to play a tune, one bows different strings.  It's a chromatic instrument, with the notes laid out like a piano keyboard:  the strings corresponding to the white keys are on the right side and the blacks on the left.  That means that the bow jumps around to different strings constantly and, depending on the music, quickly.  Many folks play with two bows, enabling harmony, since the left hand has nothing to do otherwise (unless one is not using a stand and so must hold the instrument).  All Western standard pitches between C4 and G6 are represented, but the strings are all steel and unmarked and so all look the same.  The black dots on the right side just outside the pins notate C and F, but it is still confusing -- a little like playing piano with one finger and no knowledge of the keyboard.  I've been able to get some interesting sounds out of it and even picked out "Sheebeg and Sheemore" and "Over the Rainbow," but I'm a long way off from mastering it.  I'll continue to experiment with it and hope to be able to share some music made with it in the next few weeks.  

About the bow:  having spent my life handling viola (and violin and 'cello) bows, I was dubious about the design of this, expecting it to be a cheap, simple, and coarse version of the more elegant and, presumably, versatile and appropriate violin family bow.  I was completely wrong.  It is less sophisticated, but it turns out that it suits the bowed psaltery far better than a violin or viola bow could, for several reasons.  First, it uses a thin floss of horsehair, rather than a wide, flat band; this is important because the space between pins where the bow engages the strings is not only narrow but varies in width depending on how close to the bridge one is playing.  Second, the strings are very responsive, much more so than a violin or viola, and so require very little excitement.  Indeed, the instrument sounds best (to my ear) when the bow just brushes the string, which is the opposite of a violin family instrument; even with a light touch, using a violin bow on the psaltery easily chokes the sound, rather than enhancing it.  Third, a violin bow is comparatively long and heavy -- it's not made for movement along the strings -- so the psaltery bow's relatively smaller size and weight make it much easier to do the longitudinal leaping about the instrument required to play any kind of melody.  Contrary to my expectations, I've found that my experience as a violist has had, so far anyway, little to no utility for the bowed psaltery beyond general musical knowledge.  

A little about the kit and my experience building it:  I was initially very excited about this and the kalimba kit, which I bought from the same manufacturer, but found the quality control and some of the materials to be poorer than expected in each case.  The milling appeared to be done on good machines, but the fit and guide marks ranged from imperfect to sloppy.  Even the pins were inconsistent in quality -- you may note that there is an empty peg hole for the high G on the right; I'm waiting for a replacement for an incorrectly manufactured pin that came with the kit.  Overall, it had the feel of being based on a tried-and-true template, but hastily put together.  To add to the issues, the instructions were confusing:  they seemed to take a "keep it simple" approach oriented toward a beginner, which would have been fine if the milling had been more accurate, but, given that it wasn't, more details and even adding a few steps would have rendered the imperfect cuts unimportant and thus might help a kit builder end up with a better quality instrument with the materials as they are.  

When I was in my twenties, I spent about five years rebuilding old pianos and so have some experience in woodworking and finishing, as well as some understanding of zither-type instruments (of which the piano is one) but I'm aware that I'm no expert.  There's no question that some of the issues I encountered in building this kit could have been circumvented had I had a more seasoned eye; indeed, I already have ideas for how I would approach it if I could do it over again or if (when?) I decide to attempt making one from scratch.  Too, I bought the kit as a training opportunity and an experiment; by both of these standards, it was time well spent.  In the end, what really matters to me is how the thing sounds and, at least to my inexperienced ear, it sounds quite lovely.  Looking forward, I see myself spending far more time making music with it than grumbling about its flaws.