Melodeon.net Forums

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Welcome to the new melodeon.net forum

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Whatever it is, it ain't free-reed...  (Read 4369 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Roger Hare

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 828
  • Urmston, Lancashire, U.K.
Whatever it is, it ain't free-reed...
« on: November 19, 2017, 08:35:29 AM »

Strictly speaking, off-topic, but someone here is bound to know...

I had an instrument described to me in the pub last night - played by Julie Fowlis on the R2 folk
programme. The description made me think it was probably a portative pipe organ. I had a look
when I got home. Here it is:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05mk7f1

Is it a portative pipe organ does anyone know? I'm not absolutely sure because the ones I've
seen previously:

1) Have the longer pipes protruding above the top of the 'box'
2) Are held and played at right angles to the body.

Ta.

Roger
Logged
For more about Manchester Morris, The Beech Band Folk Club or anything else,  please use the private messaging facility.
My (large) ABC Tune Book is here.

Lester

  • MADman
  • Mods and volunteers
  • Hero Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 9109
  • Hohners'R'me
    • Lester's Melodeon Emporium and Tune-a-Rama
Re: Whatever it is, it ain't free-reed...
« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2017, 08:37:12 AM »

1) It is free reed
2) It is a Shruti Box

John MacKenzie (Cugiok)

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2360
  • Fettling... Learning to reed and right.
Re: Whatever it is, it ain't free-reed...
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2017, 10:54:45 AM »

Yes. they are used by several people in Scotland, Siobhan Miller, and Emma Spiers, are two I know.
Note for Squeezy, that's spears, not spires ;)


SJ
« Last Edit: November 19, 2017, 11:39:09 AM by John MacKenzie (Cugiok) »
Logged
There is no beginning to my talent :)



: Hohner Club Modell 1. Bb/Eb, de-clubbed : Early Hohner Pressed Wood A/D : 1930's Varnished wood G/C:  Hohner Erika C/F: Bandoneon tuned D/G Pressed wood: Koch F/Bb; G/C Pre Corso

Prestidigitator

  • Respected Sage
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 448
  • Saltarelle, Hohner, Oakwood Baffetti
Re: Whatever it is, it ain't free-reed...
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2017, 10:57:57 AM »

1) It is free reed
2) It is a Shruti Box

Coo! That was quick - less than two minutes! Thank you very much!

Roger.

Looking at the Wiki entry, it seems they also have a Streb version.
Logged

Tone Dumb Greg

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4929
    • Dartmoor Border Morris
Re: Whatever it is, it ain't free-reed...
« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2017, 11:10:53 AM »

It's an Indian instrument related to the harmonium. I suppose, if you strapped a shruti box and a harmonium back to back and worked out a way to operate the bellows (impossible?), you could have an accordion on which the right hand was a PA keyboard and the left hand was a melodeon bass.
Logged
Greg Smith
DG/GC Pokerwork, DG 2.4 Saltarelle, pre-war CF Hohner, Hohner 1040 Vienna style, old  BbEb Hohner that needs a lot of work.

ACCORDION, n. An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin. Ambrose Bierce

Lester

  • MADman
  • Mods and volunteers
  • Hero Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 9109
  • Hohners'R'me
    • Lester's Melodeon Emporium and Tune-a-Rama
Re: Whatever it is, it ain't free-reed...
« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2017, 12:24:11 PM »

1) It is free reed
2) It is a Shruti Box

Coo! That was quick - less than two minutes! Thank you very much!

Roger.

Looking at the Wiki entry, it seems they also have a Streb version.

And there are Shruti apps available for both iOS and Android

malcolmbebb

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2609
  • In dampest Dorset, on the soggy south coast.
Re: Whatever it is, it ain't free-reed...
« Reply #6 on: November 19, 2017, 02:04:38 PM »


This appears similar, but has a full keyboard. I thought Shruti boxes normally had just a few chords & drones.
Logged
Dino BPII.
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire."

squeezy

  • Quick starter (now lagging behind)
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1288
  • Hohner Cornelia (mixte D/G/o&s)
    • www.johnspiers.co.uk
Re: Whatever it is, it ain't free-reed...
« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2017, 02:15:43 PM »

Yes. they are used by several people in Scotland, Siobhan Miller, and Emma Spiers, are two I know.
Note for Squeezy, that's spears, not spires ;)


Don't worry ... there are plenty of other words that Scottish people pronounce wrong as well  ;) >:E
Logged
Squeezy

Sometimes wrong, sometimes right ... but always certain!

squeezy

  • Quick starter (now lagging behind)
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1288
  • Hohner Cornelia (mixte D/G/o&s)
    • www.johnspiers.co.uk
Re: Whatever it is, it ain't free-reed...
« Reply #8 on: November 19, 2017, 02:20:04 PM »


This appears similar, but has a full keyboard. I thought Shruti boxes normally had just a few chords & drones.

A shruti box just has valves you can open and close to produce different drones.  The ones with a keyboard are Indian style lap harmoniums.  The bellows on these differ from those found on accordions in that they only push (having a sprung valve on the pull) and they fill up a mid chamber, from which the pressure can sutstain continuous notes (a bit like the way the bellows fill the bag which supplies constant the air for Northumbrian pipes)
Logged
Squeezy

Sometimes wrong, sometimes right ... but always certain!

John MacKenzie (Cugiok)

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2360
  • Fettling... Learning to reed and right.
Re: Whatever it is, it ain't free-reed...
« Reply #9 on: November 19, 2017, 02:47:32 PM »

This.  https://www.shrutibox.co.uk/  is a Shruti box. You just open and close the external valves in a relevant key, and sing over it. The more accomplished amongst them, can manipulate the valves while singing, to augment the notes.


Sir John
Logged
There is no beginning to my talent :)



: Hohner Club Modell 1. Bb/Eb, de-clubbed : Early Hohner Pressed Wood A/D : 1930's Varnished wood G/C:  Hohner Erika C/F: Bandoneon tuned D/G Pressed wood: Koch F/Bb; G/C Pre Corso

Pierre-Emmanuel

  • Member
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 26
Re: Whatever it is, it ain't free-reed...
« Reply #10 on: November 19, 2017, 07:20:03 PM »

This.  https://www.shrutibox.co.uk/  is a Shruti box. You just open and close the external valves in a relevant key, and sing over it. The more accomplished amongst them, can manipulate the valves while singing, to augment the notes.


Sir John

Here's a great example of that : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThsStP1qkuc
Logged

Pete Dunk

  • Typo Expert
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3690
Re: Whatever it is, it ain't free-reed...
« Reply #11 on: November 19, 2017, 07:37:49 PM »

My favourite shruti box player is Jackie Oates and here it it used to great effect in a song called Past Caring.
Logged
Squeezing on the Isle of Oxney, UK
Primo (Serenellini) D/G
Isis D/G
Hohner B/E, G/C, C/F, Bb/Eb G/C/F
Liliputs D/G (G scale), C/F, Bb/Eb, Albrecht Custom D/G (G scale)

triskel

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3290
Re: Whatever it is, it ain't free-reed...
« Reply #12 on: November 20, 2017, 12:52:20 AM »

The first time I heard a shruti box being played, outside the Indian tradition, was by the Irish singer Nóirín Ní Riain at a singing session in Dublin in the early '90s, and I remember a wag commenting on her "electric handbag" at the time...  ::)

I think she's inspired a few more singers to take it up.

The portable Indian harmoniums started out as European designs in the 19th century, and they're hugely popular in Indian music.
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 


Melodeon.net - (c) Theo Gibb; Clive Williams 2010. The access and use of this website and forum featuring these terms and conditions constitutes your acceptance of these terms and conditions.
SimplePortal 2.3.5 © 2008-2012, SimplePortal