A fun and easy way to join the band! Throughout Europe, Asia and the Pacific, except Australia, no pre-Columbian traces have been discovered in the Americas. Until introduced as a trade item by Europeans, none were found on the African continent. It is found everywhere in Russia. Bamboo and wooden lamellate types are found in the Pacific, SE Asia and in China except in Northern China (where the classical form of the Jew's Harp was an iron idioglot lamellate type). Through European colonization, the bow-shaped metal Jew's Harp was introduced into the Americas, Africa and Australia mainly by the Dutch and English for North America. In Siberia and Mongolia, the Jew's Harp was used to both induce trance and to heal the sick. Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer is said to have used the Jew's Harp therapeutically in psychotherapy.
The rigidity of the reed. It affects the tactile feel of the playing, or to be exact — from the impact. Jew's harps of different hardness are better suited for different purposes, but do not be guided by this parameter alone when choosing. The only thing that this figure can be useful for is knowing how tight to hold the instrument and how hard to pluck.
This instrument is considered to be one of the oldest musical instruments in the world;1 a musician apparently playing it can be seen in a Chinese drawing from the 4th century BC.2 Despite its common English name, and the sometimes used Jew's trump”, it has no particular connection with Jews or Judaism. This instrument is native to Asia and used in all tribes of Turkic peoples in Asia, among whom it is variously referred to as a temir komuz (literally, iron komuz), agiz komuzu (literally, mouth komuz), gubuz or doromb.
Khomus (Jew's harps) play a big part in Sakha culture. Concerts occur year-round, when performers imitate natural sounds such as a horse neighing. The unexpected (and unfortunately soundtrack-free) Khomus Museum has a collection showcasing international Jew's harp heroes from present and past. Ask the welcoming staff for a demonstration.
The Huns were a nomadic confederation of tribes who lived in the Caucasus of Eastern Europe and Central Asia between the 4th century CE and the 6th century CE. They were not a literate culture and left no written documents, so most of the information we know about them comes from other cultures (who didn't like them much on the whole). This also means it's hard to say what kind of melodies would have been played through this bone instrument.
For instance, among the Yi-population of South-China we will find a 4-lamella type, idioglot cut out of the brass cartridge-case of a bullet. - A decade ago it was the Norwegian Jew's harp smith Knut Tveit who forged in an excentric way by using the steel of a WW II-bomber, that was crashed on the Norwegian shore.
Fun Fact: The ironworks at Saugus, Massachusetts (near Boston), started producing Jew's Harps as early as 1650. De Zaphir windgong is een echt muziekinstrument. Ieder onderdeel is door gekwalificeerde ambachtslui volgens het oorspronkelijke Shanti ontwerp met de hand geassembleerd in hun atelier aan de voet van de Pyreneeën.
He made himself an electronic Jew's harp that doesn't need the attack no longer from a playing hand. He originated Jew's harps for children (see photo above), and he made himself a set of 13 Jew's harps tuned in a chromatic scale. An admirable design is his Grusha-Jew's harp, a pear-form wooden case that is constructed around the frame of a metal Jew's harp. The player can make an extra (pitching-up) sound effect by touching his finger (or his thumb) on a hole in this wooden case.
At Scoil na gCláirseach last month I presented a lecture and a workshop on the medieval Gaelic harp traditions. The lecture outlined my recent work on the setup and tuning of the medieval Gaelic harps, while the workshop later in the week explored the different strands of evidence for medieval Gaelic music.
khomus tutorial
what is a jew's harp used for
yakut khomus buy
bass jew harp