Campfire Instruments

[Omegarod]

My main instrument is the guitar, (I've been playing for 50 years), but this is my toy for the camp.... a ukulele that I made myself. Its also light enough to carry without even noticing it.

I have an iPod..... but I have never taken it with me on walks or camping.
a) In company it is unsociable
b) When alone it doesn't let me hear nature and the surroundings
But of course, your view may vary from mine.

Rod

 

[Shewie]

I wouldn't mind these two turning up to a meet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvQBWTvMrwY&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0H_0CAhyiM&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0CsLefLisE&feature=related

 

[Melonfish]

Ooh me and CalibanZwei have seen them live! AMAZING gig, her hand moves so fast its just a blur and thats in real life nevermind on video.
if you read up on em they're so damn good because they spent years and years just hardcore practicing then one day just upped and travelled to ireland to busk, never looked back.

my tin whistle is coming along, its starting to sound more like a flute now rather then a 4 year old with a bad recorder...

 

[Shewie]

Ooh me and CalibanZwei have seen them live! AMAZING gig, her hand moves so fast its just a blur and thats in real life nevermind on video.
if you read up on em they're so damn good because they spent years and years just hardcore practicing then one day just upped and travelled to ireland to busk, never looked back.

I've only caught them on Jools Hollands show a couple of times, swmbo was going to look for some gig tickets I think.

 

[toonman]

Generations in C and D are the lightest i carry.
I allso go with a "cavaquinho" (portuguese instrument that became the ukelele, youtube it).
There's no decent campfire without music, any primitive tribe can atest to that.

It's not an impediment to listening to nature and it doesn't have to be a loud mess, to everything it's time and mesaure.

 

[locum76]

I've yet to figure out how to take all my electronic music production kit camping. Eventually I think I'll get myself an acoustic bass and a Bhodran instead.

 

[w00dsmoke]

I occasionally play the didgeridoo but haven't mastered the circular breathing although I can do it. It's hard making one up in the woods too! pmsl I'm not going to carry a guitar in either just to badly play "stairway to heaven" and some P Floyd!

~~I also dabble with the ocarina... A lovely wee whistle thingy that has a haunting sound... But alas I'm one of those folk who wouldn't thank you for wilderness music unless it was very special and in the right place.

WS

 

[Bogman10]

Read this thread last night and then was just in there booking some tickets for the celtic connections when I spotted a 'whistle for beginners' class.
Five minutes later I was on amazon ordering Robin Williamson's Penny Whistle Book.

You guys have a lot to answer for.

P.S. there's an intermediate class as well - just in case anyone round here's interested.

You think these guys have wronged you? I ebayed up a Harmonica AND a penny whistle!!! I used to play guitar a fair bit, but haven't had the time to play. needed something to do besides Ice fish and snow shoe this winter....or so I told myself when ordering! : )

 

[Grooveski]

The Feadog whistle showed up and I can see why folk recommend them. Very rich sound and the high octave seems easier to play than the others. I still prefer the Clarke though, it's softer and more neighbour friendly.

The eye opener is that sheet actually makes sense. I've tried in the past to learn to read music but with the guitar and mandolin it just didn't click.

 

[gregorach]

Looks like we're going to need a fiddler for the next Scottish meet. Mind you, I recently picked up the octave mandola you can see hanging behind me in my new avatar, it's a similar kind of thing... But I never much like taking stringed instruments camping - the fluctuations of temperature and humidity play merry havoc with 'em.

 

[locum76]

It's hard making one up in the woods too!

legend has it that an old dried out giant hogweed stem and some wax around the mouth end works well....

 

[gregorach]

That's no legend - I've played a giant hogweed didj! Not the sort of thing you can knock up in the woods though - you've got to harvest the stem at the right time and then dry it completely. Once properly dried, it's perfectly harmless. It's a strange thing to play though - its a didj, but it's got no mass to speak of, so the resonance isn't anything like what you get from a decent bit of bloodwood or ironwood (which are very dense woods).

The true Australian didj is quite easy to knock up in the woods though - provided your woods have termites. "Just" find a suitably sized hollow sapling, cut it down, clean out the termites, cut it to length, slap a bit of beeswax on the mouthpiece, and the job's done. It's about the only non-percussion musical instrument you can make with nothing but an axe.

 

[morch]

I watched Rodrigo Y Gabriela on this years Hootenanny and was gobsmacked, first time i've seen them, even though i always watch Jool's Hootenanny must be the beer or just my age

They were amazing

Dave

 

[Grooveski]

...But I never much like taking stringed instruments camping - the fluctuations of temperature and humidity play merry havoc with 'em.

First time my dad took his guitar away with him when he was contracting abroad he didn't think to loosen off the strings. Opened the case at the other end of the flight to find the neck snapped from the strings contracting in the cold of the cargo hold.
Not a happy bunny. Stuck in a Iranian desert for three months with the remains of his beloved G45. All got fixed in the end but the idea was to practice to relieve boredom and it happened on the way out.

 

[gregorach]

Nightmare! This is why you should never check your guitar in as hold luggage. Well, that and the baggage handlers...

 

[Melonfish]

guitar as hold luggage? i'd rather lop off a limb!
blimey i get sick feelings every time i take a taxi home from somewhere that the guy is going to drive off with it in the boot...
the nightmares i have on that...

 

[Omegarod]

First time my dad took his guitar away with him when he was contracting abroad he didn't think to loosen off the strings. Opened the case at the other end of the flight to find the neck snapped from the strings contracting in the cold of the cargo hold.
Not a happy bunny. Stuck in a Iranian desert for three months with the remains of his beloved G45. All got fixed in the end but the idea was to practice to relieve boredom and it happened on the way out.

It wasn't the strings. Too much tension on the strings will lift the bridge before anything else happens.

Don't do this:
Neck breaks are caused by dropping. Stand the case upright on its end, and let it fall flat onto the ground. That's the way a neck is broken. It happens because of the whiplash effect on the mass of the headstock.

It can be avoided by packing socks and underpants tightly under and over the headstock in the top end of the case.

Baggage handlers. We'll..... there's no antidote for those.

Rod

 

[Grooveski]

Certainly sounds the part. Doesn't sound like it'd damage the case either which was the baffling thing at the time.

Anyhow, was thirty years ago and the guitar made dozens of flights afterwards with no further problems.

 

[Bogman10]

Well I have received the Horner Golden melody harmonica ( it doesn't sound so golden when I blow into it lol ). I think this will definitely take a lot of practice. So does every new skill so I am looking forward to it.

 

[Labrador]

Does one of these count?