additions to the interesting instrument collection!
ok, so given that my last 5 posts have gotten a grand total of 0 replies, even when it was to say i was coming to cali and seeing if anyone wanted to hang out, i'm assuming i'm basically talking to myself here now, but i feel like posting this anyways, so here goes.
back in april of last year i got a truly wonderful ukulele (see post here) and started to learn to play it. around the same time i was developing the urge to acquire and learn to play an number of other strange and interesting instruments as well. talked about it many times with my mother, who then surprised me for my birthday with this lovely antique:
(i got the tiny little banjo called a banjo mandolin, not the clown, lol) it is adorable and spectacular, and is the same size/number of frets as my ukulele, so very easy to learn
then, at an antique auction here in my new town last week, i picked up these wonderful things:
(this is called a number of things, the correct name being a mandolin guitar, but in the US it is mostly known as a zither. i'm too lazy to take my own pictures, so this is one from the 1920's, whereas mine is from the 1880's and is prettier)
(this is a very lovely little button accordion, about half the size or maybe even less than those giant piano accordion things, and is the same model that i bought)
they both need a little restoring since they are antiques and haven't been kept in playing condition for a little while, but other than needing a little cleaning and a bit of a tune and a minor repair or two, they are wonderful, and i've already managed to pick out the notes of a few songs on the accordion (including the lost woods theme from Ocarina of Time XD) the really fun thing is that our new house is from the 1890's and has 2 living rooms, so we're doing up one in all victorian and edwardian antiques to match the house, and is now officially our music room with my mother's antique piano along with all our new toys ^_^ i'll have to post about the house another time, but it is really cute and we're doing major work on the gardens to make them lovely and full of fruit trees and pretty roses. as a whole, life is pretty good right now.
oh, and i'm also starting at the oldest, best known fine art university in new zealand feb. 14th (because NZ is backwards and it's summer break here now) going to study jewelry making & metal-smithing, textiles, and sculpture. lots of changes going on around here, lol.
back in april of last year i got a truly wonderful ukulele (see post here) and started to learn to play it. around the same time i was developing the urge to acquire and learn to play an number of other strange and interesting instruments as well. talked about it many times with my mother, who then surprised me for my birthday with this lovely antique:
(i got the tiny little banjo called a banjo mandolin, not the clown, lol) it is adorable and spectacular, and is the same size/number of frets as my ukulele, so very easy to learn
then, at an antique auction here in my new town last week, i picked up these wonderful things:
(this is called a number of things, the correct name being a mandolin guitar, but in the US it is mostly known as a zither. i'm too lazy to take my own pictures, so this is one from the 1920's, whereas mine is from the 1880's and is prettier)
(this is a very lovely little button accordion, about half the size or maybe even less than those giant piano accordion things, and is the same model that i bought)
they both need a little restoring since they are antiques and haven't been kept in playing condition for a little while, but other than needing a little cleaning and a bit of a tune and a minor repair or two, they are wonderful, and i've already managed to pick out the notes of a few songs on the accordion (including the lost woods theme from Ocarina of Time XD) the really fun thing is that our new house is from the 1890's and has 2 living rooms, so we're doing up one in all victorian and edwardian antiques to match the house, and is now officially our music room with my mother's antique piano along with all our new toys ^_^ i'll have to post about the house another time, but it is really cute and we're doing major work on the gardens to make them lovely and full of fruit trees and pretty roses. as a whole, life is pretty good right now.
oh, and i'm also starting at the oldest, best known fine art university in new zealand feb. 14th (because NZ is backwards and it's summer break here now) going to study jewelry making & metal-smithing, textiles, and sculpture. lots of changes going on around here, lol.