Ringing Strings Bowed Psalteries
handcrafted by Rick Long
Clinton, Tennessee
(865) 660-4026
ricklong@ringingstrings.com
Photo by Robert Batey
Please use the word psaltery in the subject of your e-mail.
Learning to Play the Bowed Psaltery
Here are some video examples of playing the bowed psaltery -
I wanted to explain the basics of playing the bowed psaltery. I know there are some folks that have not seen a bowed psaltery played. Here are some pictures of the way I hold the psaltery when playing.
It is best to hold the bow with just your fingertips. This will give you a better feel with the bow and also a lighter touch. Bowing just toward you from each pin along the side will sound out a different note. The notes along the right side are like the white keys on a piano starting at "C" at the tip and going up to an "A" in the next octave. The black dot you see between two of the pins marks the octave at "C". Moving from one note to the next it is best to alternate the bowing motion. If you pull the bow on one note you will push on the next. This will give you a more flowing motion and make your songs sound smoother. This will also help greatly when you play a song that has a faster tempo. The pins along the left side are your sharps and flats, like the black keys on a piano. This is what gives you a chromatic tuning. You will reach across the top to play these. I find it easier to reach these if I tip the psaltery slightly toward the bow.
Notice in this photo that my hand is cupped so that I'm not touching the wood on the back of the psaltery. This is so the wood of the back is free to vibrate and will give you more sound. Another thing to notice is that I have the bottom of the psaltery planted against my abdomen. This will help in holding the psaltery steady while playing. This is especially important when playing a faster song where the motion of the bowing arm can cause the psaltery to move around slightly. All this will help to smooth out your playing.
Photo by Robert Batey
Photo by Robert Batey
Chromatic Scale
The Ash Grove
Using the back soundhole for an effect.
Endearing Young Charms
Amazing Grace
Rosining the Bow
Hi Everyone, I discovered something that I wanted to share with my bowed psaltery friends. I downloaded a free music editing program called Audacity. I'm sure some of you are already familiar with it. I was using it with a portable recorder to edit the songs I recorded. It is very easy to use and you can do a lot of things with soundfiles. One great thing for learning songs on a bowed psaltery is that you can change the key and pitch of any recorded music without affecting the tempo. I took the song "Silent Night" from my cd, which is recorded on the key of "D", and changed it to the key of "C" as an experiment and it worked great. This could be a good learning tool especially if you play by ear.
I bought a Christmas Karaoke cd about a month ago and there were only a few songs with which I was comfortable playing along. Most of the songs on there are in "Bb" or "G". The exciting thing to me is that I can change the key of those songs and with karaoke it's like having your own back up band. Think about how many songs are available on karaoke cd's.
The other great thing is that you can slow down the tempo of the song without affecting pitch. That's a great way to learn the song when you can slow it down to any speed you want while learning.
You can't go directly from the cd, you have to download it to your computer and then open the song file. I used an mp3 file of "Silent Night" to open in Audacity.
Something New
Copyright Ringing Strings Music 2004-2008 All Rights Reserved
These are some tunes I recorded at a jam session with my friend Terry Lewis. Terry is a great appalachian dulcimer player and we were able to get together at a demo I was doing at the Southern Highlands Craft Guild shop in the visitors center at Cumberland Gap Park. I thought you might enjoy hearing the bowed psaltery used in a setting other than a professional recording. You'll hear some noise from customers milling around, a mistake or two, and maybe a cough here and there. I hope you enjoy them.
11-5-07
There are some sound clips at the bottom of the page of the bowed psaltery and dulcimer playing together in a jam.
