Jouhikko Practice

 Keep in mind that I'm still very new.  My poor playing quality is not a reflection on my teacher!  

If you look around on YouTube, you will find a lot of people who play essentially the same instrument, but without the benefit of a teacher.  They saw those strings like they are sawing wood and they noodle 3 notes over and over.  And over.

And over.

And at first it sounds kind of cool!  Because that's a different instrument and a sound folks don't already know well.  But before long it gets really grating.  And then it turns into just a bunch of awful noise.  

That's the result of self teaching when folks have no clue about the musical potential on this instrument.  I know of no other instrument in the world that people will unbox and proudly upload a video of their first efforts, as if they are making music and want to share with the world.  

The other thing is that a disturbing number of people who do this are also playing instruments with extra-long scales and very low tuning.  They struggle to play notes in tune because the scale is so far outside the reach of a normal human hand.  But they are having fun, showing their stern faces, and imagining themselves as Vikings with instruments that don't have any evidence in a Viking context, so at least they are happy.

Find the really good players and you suddenly realize just how different they are from the "look at me with my new thing" crowd.  (And the good players don't have a bunch of runes and norse pagan symbols added to their instruments.  Just sayin.')

I intend to build a few more in the coming months.  I'll try to document a build and share it here.  In particular, I want to make one based on my interpretation of the bowed lyre in the carving at the cathedral in Trondheim.  It is dated to the early 14th century.  It isn't the oldest depiction of a bowed lyre, but is the oldest I've found that uses the small handhole, rather than a symmetrical yoke.