Really Old School Musical Instruments

Two musical insruments that could be resurrected

The medieval portative organ

https://youtu.be/Uk4iVold0eU

The Hurdy-Gurdy

https://youtu.be/BmfIP2oJW-4

alice's picture

Now is the time for learning to hand-make those instruments for sure, if anyone has the leisure and inspiration to. I have heard hurdy-gurdy music in folk circles in the UK but not v common. Trailing edge musical technology I guess =D

And the portative organ is something I have not even heard of before. Beautiful.

Teaching kids how to make guitars can get them hooked on engineering
Mark French, Professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology, Purdue University
https://theconversation.com/teaching-kids-how-to-make-guitars-can-get-th...?

"When kids make guitars, they learn the math and science, but also the importance of mechanical precision, the design process and basic manufacturing skills, which are central to what engineers do.

"For example, as they go through the different steps of building a guitar, they learn about the underlying physics. Electric guitars all have pickups, small devices that use something called electromagnetic induction to make sound, so they learn something about physics in these classes. And those little metal wires that go across the neck of a guitar, the frets, have to be arranged in a specific way. The way you figure out that arrangement requires algebra. "

Another instrument I would include, and which I plan on making, is a Psalmodikon.

It is essentially a monochord with a fretboard and is played with a violin bow.
It was created to be a cheaper alternative to a organ for Scandinavian and east European churches.

There is a good website on them here.

http://www.psalmodikon.com/index.htm

Hurdy gurdies take quite a bit of skill to make. I had a friend in the SCA who made one, but he also made many other types of instruments. Not a good project unless you have substantial woodworking/instrument building experience. There's a lot of simpler projects you can make, from fiddles, to harps to panpipes, to zithers to flutes to drums. Even kids can do some of those.

When I was a kid, I made flutes out of plastic plumbing pipe. They played fairly nicely in the first octave, out of tune in the second. As a teenager, my Dad and I built a lyre. That was interesting. It was based on the 7 string greek lyre, but used wood instead of turtle shell, and old metal guitar strings instead of gut.

As an adult, I built a very simple harp from a kit. I still play that one 17 years later. It's a nice little harp, especially when you realize the soundboard is cardboard! https://waringmusic.com/product/waring-harp/ Incredibly light and portable, too. I'm not very good at woodworking, but that was a very worthwhile project, and was a good way to find out I like playing the harp.

I sometimes think about building a zither (specifically a plucked psaltery) from scratch. I should be able to handle that, and I love the sound. Easier to build than a wooden lap harp from scratch, that's for sure. But I already have a small plucked psaltery, and how many instruments do I really need?