Difference between revisions of "Instrumentation"

Basic Information on Making Instruments

• Each harper should have good working knowledge of both the construction and performance of all types of musical instruments. Musical instruments fall into three general classes: wind, string, and percussion.

• Wind instruments produce sound by the vibration of air as it passes through a tubular structure. Wind instruments are divided into two categories: Woodwind and Brass. The shape and length of the instrument determines the tones produced.

• String instruments function through the vibration of strings of set tensions. The strings, made of animal gut, can be either bowed or plucked. By tightening or loosening the strings, the musician can affect the sound quality of the instrument.

• Percussion instruments are those that are struck by either sticks, mallets, or hand. They are used both to add tones and to keep rhythm.

• Construction of musical instruments requires both steady hands and a good ear for tone. Most Harpers acquire at least a smattering of knowledge in other crafts, having to be adequate in both woodworking and metalworking skills, as well as familiar with the tools associated with both of those.

Drums

• Select a round, thick piece of wood, like a section of a tree trunk, keeping in mind that the size of the wood determines the size amd the tone of the drum. Shave all of the bark from the wood and then chisel out the inside of the piece, leaving a smooth ring or cylinder of wood.

• The heads of the drum will require two pieces of hide. These hides should have been tanned and the hair scraped from them. Stretch them over the two ends of the wooden cylinder. To secure them over the drum, punch holes into the hides and run a piece of gut through the holes, tightening the hides over the sides of the drum.

• To change the pitch of the sound on the drum, the player can either loosen or tighten the hides, making the pitch lower or higher respectively.

Gitar

• The first step to making a gitar is to select the right wood. The wood used must be easy to bend into the different forms that will be needed to shape the gitar.

• The first cut requires two thinner pieces of wood, each long enough to make a side of the body of the gitar. These two pieces are dampened, and shaped over a hot metal form. This form consists of a solid metal piece that has two rises, a smaller and a larger, allowing the pieces to be molded into the shape of one side of the gitar. After the two pieces are shaped over the metal form they are placed on a jig with wooden rods sticking up to hold the newly formed wood in the shape that it has just been bent into, allowing it to keep its new shape as it cools.

• After the newly shaped sides have cooled, they are placed into a wooden mold, where a small piece is glued at the bottom of the gitar to hold the two halves together. A thinner piece of wood is used to line the inside of the sides at the top and bottom, but leaving a gap at the top. Another piece is cut to hold the top together too, but before it is glued, it is cut to include a triangular gap in which to fit the gitar neck.

• To make the back of the gitar, cut a thicker piece of wood, following the shape that was created with the joining of the sides. Both the back and the top, must fit snugly onto the sides that were formed without leaving gaps. Small slats of wood are cut and attached to the inside of the back to provide enough strength to support the neck.

• The top of the gitar starts with a piece of wood cut in the shape as the back, with a hole cut from the middle of the bottom section of the piece. The backside of the front panel must braced, but the braces will run vertically, rather then the horizontal braces of the back.

• A bridge is also fashioned; this is glued towards the bottom of the front of the gitar. This bridge is a flat piece of wood that has pegs carved into it to hold the strings.

• The neck of the gitar must be cut and carved correctly, otherwise the sound that the gitar produces will not be true. First, a triangular shape is carved into the bottom; this is the piece that will fit into the cut that was made at the top of the body of the gitar. However, part of the fingerboard, the top of the neck, will extend beyond this triangular shape to the top of the sound hole. Then the opposite end is carved at a slight angle, pointing downward if the neck is held with the fingerboard facing upward, making sure that it is long enough to hold four evenly spaced pegs on each side.

• The length between the base and the tuning area is then carved and smoothed. This length should be flattened on the top (the fingerboard side) and carved into a slight arch on the bottom (too much and it will be uncomfortable to hold). Four evenly-spaced holes are bored on each side of the tuning area, to hold the tuning pegs to which the strings will be attached. The eight tuning pegs are fashioned as round pegs with flat places on each one of them at one end and a hole bored through the other end. Another piece of thin wood is cut to overlay the fingerboard; it should be the same length as the neck, stretching from the sound hole to the start of the tuning area, with several upraised horizontal lines carved into it, to allow the different notes to be fingered. It is then glued into place.

• All of these parts are then put together. First the back is glued to the sides, making sure that no glue is showing, then held together tightly so that there are no gaps between the pieces of wood. This process is accomplished while the sides are still firmly held in the mold. The top is then glued to the sides and a heavy board is placed on top to hold the piece down on the sides without damaging the front. After the glue has dried any type of inlay or decoration can be added, but the crafter must make sure not to damage anything or cut too deep, since any alteration can cause the gitar's sound to be altered.

• The neck is then added, ensuring that the angle between the body of the gitar and the neck is not too severe, so that the gitar can be comfortably played. To attach the neck to the body, glue the triangular shape into the cut at the top of the body, with the piece of the fingerboard that extends past the triangle fitting cleanly against the body.

• After the glue has dried attach the strings. These are made from thin pieces of braided animal intestines, and attached to the bridge at the bottom of the gitar, ranging the strings from thick to thin, bottom to top respectively. The strings are tied to the pegs at the top of the neck, slipping the gut through the holes that were bored into the pegs, with the outside strings on each side attached to the lowest peg and working inward to each consecutive higher peg. The player can then tune the instrument by turning the pegs to tighten the strings.

Harp

• To construct a harp, first select the wood. Sketch the outlines of the parts onto the wood in preparation for cutting.

• To shape the soundboard, cut out a deep rectangular box and hollow it out, leaving the ends and one side. After that has been finished twelve holes are bored through the side that remains. Next to each of these holes another hole will be bored, but not all the way through the wood. Notches are cut at one end on the top and at the other side of the soundboard prepare to fit the other two pieces onto the sound box.

• The pegs are small pieces of wood, each carved into a cylinder with a hole bored in one end. They are glued into the hole that was bored into, but not through the wood.

• The neck is carved next, a straight piece, except for a curve to fit into the notch that was cut at the end of the soundboard. At the end of this curve a little peg is cut to fit into the notch carved into the sound box. A notch is also cut at the straight end for the body to fit into. Twelve holes are bored into the neck to match the holes on the soundboard. These holes are bored through the side of the neck and pegs are fit into them. The pegs are similar to those on the soundboard, small cylinders with a flat part on one end, and a hole bored through the other end.

• Next the body is carved, a curved piece of wood with pegs at both ends to fit into the soundboard and the neck. The body will be longer than the neck, with both the neck and the soundboard fitting in at an angle. The body stabilizes the end where the neck and the soundboard are farthest from each other.

• After the three pieces are glued together, it is time to make the strings. Take runnerbeast hair and twist it counterclockwise, adding hair at the end if more length is needed. Tie the hair through the hole on the peg through the neck. Then put the string through the corresponding hole and tie it to the peg next to that hole, making sure that the string is tied tightly.

Recorder

• The recorder's construction is similar to the flute, except for the fashioning of the lip hole and the playing mechanism. Prepare the wood as for a flute, but hollow out the entire body of the recorder.

• Using a flat chisel, make a slit in the recorder about three fingers' width from the desired location of the mouthpiece. This hole will not be as wide as the rest of the recorder, but must lead to the inside of the tube. Then bore eight holes down the front of the recorder, making sure that the openings are smooth.

• After this is done, a small cylinder will need to be cut, to direct the air. This cylinder or "box" must fit inside the recorder at the mouthpiece end. The blowhole itself will be cut so that there is only a rounded top and the bottom is flush with the box inside the recorder.

• The finishing of the recorder involves a thin carved piece of wood. This piece is glued to the mouthpiece so that it tapers to a flat point, causing a slight vibration when air is blown over it.

Transverse Flute (no keys)

• To make a flute, first find a good piece of wood that is relatively small and round, making sure that it has no imperfections. Pare the bark from the wood and carve it into the desired shape. Include any decorative markings, leaving space for holes down the front and a hole towards one end as a mouthpiece.

• Next hollow out the inside of the flute using a curved, long handled chisel. Heat the chisel to allow it to burn a path through the wood, starting at the end away from where the mouthpiece hole will be. The end near the lip hole should remain closed.

• After hollowing out the inside of the flute, create a hole to blow across to produce sound. Use a sharp pointed tool, heated, and bore the hole about a hand's width from the end of the flute. The hole should be about the size of a thumbnail. The hole can then be shaped with a knife, leaving the side opposite the lips rather thick.

• To make the rest of the holes, measure down another hand's width. Again using the heated point, bore eight holes in the flute, evenly spaced over the body of the flute, making sure that each hole is made cleanly.

Violin

• Construction of a violin is very similar to that of a gitar, though with a slightly different shape and a much smaller size. The crafter molds and prepares the sides in the same way. The front and back panels are carved as for a gitar, but without the sound hole on the front, and cut to more of an arch than the flat-bodied gitar. The front panel must also be modified to add two curved, long holes on each side to replace the sound hole. A tall piece of wood is attached to underlay the strings on the front panel, giving them more tension, less area to play upon, and a higher pitched range.

• The neck is also similar, except that the crafter includes a scroll at the top instead of the tuning board. The bored holes for the tuning pegs is located below that scroll on the sides rather than on the top as on the gitar. The pegs are the same, but the holes bored into them are closer to the flat piece on the end.

• After these parts have been made there are a few additional features are constructed. First are the four ribs: these are shaped over a heated form as the sides were, but in the shape of a "U". Small blocks are glued on the sides of these. They are then glued to the inside of the back piece, placing glue only on the blocks.

• A bass bar and a sound post are the next steps. The bass bar is cut into the shape of the lower half of the violin and then glued onto the inside of the front panel. The sound post is nothing more then a cylinder of wood that will be fitted when the violin is put together.

• To assemble the violin, first glue the sides to the back, making sure that the ribs rest on the inside of the sides. The the sound post is placed inside the violin at the same position where the tall piece of wood that will hold the strings is on the outside of the front panel. Glue the front panel to the sides, wedging the sound post between the front and the back panels. To finish the actual construction of the violin the neck is glued into the top of the violin, and strung with the gut strings running from the bottom of the violin over the tall piece of wood attached to the front panel and then finally tied to the pegs.

The Bow

• The violin's strings are sounded by a bow, rather than the fingers. The wood is carved into a long, thin curve, with a notched piece sticking out at both ends. The surface that will contact the strings is made by braiding several pieces of runnerbeast hair, leaving a loop at both ends. This piece should be just long enough that the bow must be bent a little to slip the two ends into the notches, keeping it tight.