Super glue

[rbowman]

Save your nails, get some pipa picks:

If you scroll down, you'll even know what a pipa is.

[Muggles]

ahh Learn something knew every day.

[Muggles]

cool! Many moons ago I played a guitar and used a pick occasionally to play, but not Pipa picks.

[Tony Hwang]

Crazy glues were even used for stitching wounds aftewr surgery in 'Nam war. Saved time and lives.

[gregz]

Back in the 70s, at a NASA facility, they kept a glass bottle of it in the fridge. We took it out when we used it. Top had large opening.

Greg

[rbowman]

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Montana Folk Festival. There was the usual bluegrass, cajun, Acadian, and so forth but there was also international music. There were five venues and as I walk from one to the other I heard something interesting, a Chinese string ensemble. A woman was doing a solo on a pipa and it was fantastic. Then she was joined by the other two members and they did 'Horse Race' and another classical number.

I could tell she was using picks but was was also striking down across the strings for emphasis. I use steel finger picks sometimes with a guitar and trying to do that usually means the picks go flying off. After they were done she walked to the front of the stage to talk to someone and I saw the picks and the strips of adhesive tape holding them on. Sneaky Chinese!

Actually most of the technique is flicking down with the nail rather than plucking up.

[DerbyDad03]

We used a lot of RTV (white, right?) when I was in the Coast Guard for sealing cable connectors that were going to be exposed to the elements, as well as for sealing other stuff. It was pretty versatile.

My favorite sealant now is Dow 732, Clear. Waterproof, food safe certified, easy to remove if desired.

Thanks for reminding me...I just ordered a few more tubes.

[Muggles]

I used to love to pick the strings, but I never used the picks you attach to each finger, so I didn't have that problem of them flying off. Come to think of it, I only rarely used a pick.

[rbowman]

White is right. Years later I used two part silicone for making molds to pot components but that was a different animal. It was blue but the color might have been to show both parts were mixed well.

[rbowman]

I don't use the metal finger picks very often but they help quite a bit with a 12 string. Sometimes I'll use a thumb pick alone to accentuate the bass. Other times I'll use a flat pick. Depends on my mood.

I had a set of aLaska Piks but lost them someplace along the way. I should get another set. They're very close to using your own nails rather than the steel picks so it's a mellower sound.

[Muggles]

It's been so long since I've played it feels like almost a lifetime ago. I kind of miss it. My dream was to have a 12-string some day, but I never found the right one. I have small hands and short fingers, so I can't really play bar chords very well. There just wasn't enough of my hand to stretch across the frets, but the few times I did play a

12-string I loved the sound and ease of how it played. In college I played on a classical guitar ensemble and we picked the strings a particular way which was a bit odd compared to how I'd pick them when playing contemporary pieces.

Do you play a lot now?

[rbowman]

I'd messed around with them but most were pricey for someone who just plays to amuse himself. Then I saw the Epiphone DR-212 and figured for $200 I could try it. I've been impressed with the newer Epiphones and also have a Les Paul by them. That's another guitar I could never justify buying with 'Gibson' on the headstock. They do good work in Qingdao or DaeWon. I've got a real Gibson from the '60s when Gibson was churning out guitars for the folk music fad and it's not the greatest.

XXXL paws, so I have the opposite problem. I started mostly with blue and folk so other than the E pattern I don't do many bars. With big, fat fingers I can't play an A barred without muting something.

I never played classical. I played on nylon a couple of times and never really cared for the sound. Like a banjo, it always sounds better if someone else is playing it.

Not as much as I should. For whatever reason, I got interested in the tin whistle and have been spending more time on it but then I'll take the tin whistle tunes to the guitar. Unlike harmonicas no way are you going to do both at once. If I get real ambitious I might lay down the guitar track and then try to play the whistle over it.

[Muggles]

I also played piano and the short fingers made it a bit difficult to stretch to the full octave when playing, but I did have stacked keyboards for about 10 yrs. and they were much easier to play because the keys were smaller.

You having XXXL paws probably makes it easier in some ways, but I've heard other people say they had difficulty playing because of big, fat finger, too. OH well ... LOL It's fun to at least try. These days I've resorted to playing my harmonicas.

I had a great-uncle who played banjo and when I was a teen he loaned it to me for about a week, so I've played a banjo for a short few days. They aren't so hard to play with the smaller neck and closer strings.

I had to look up 'tin whistle'. It looks similar to a recorder. I've got one of those that I play occasionally. Are they anything alike in sound?

[rbowman]

I never did anything with keyboards. The city has a thing where pianos are placed at random locations so I should try (when nobody is around).

I've got a few Marine Bands laying around. It's handy since tin whistles are diatonic too and most tunes work on both.

I bought one about 30 years ago. It was a resonator since that was all I could find. I never thought it sounded right and eventually gave it to a woman who wanted to learn banjo. I've thought about trying again sometime.

They are both fipple flutes but the recorder is chromatic and has a more complex fingering arrangement. I've got an alto but I haven't done anything with it lately. Going back and forth is a little more than I can handle.

That's about as simple as it gets with only C natural being odd. Even where that shows an open hole for the 2nd octave D, you really can play it closed and there are other alternative fingerings. Usually there is a lot of ornamentation. The fingering is completely different from a bagpipe but a lot of the technique is borrowed from bagpipes. You can tongue a tin whistle but pipers don't have a way to break a two notes of the same pitch up so they'll quickly tap a lower note or do a cut, which is sounding a higher notes. A roll is a combination of the two. It's really fast and hardly is even a grace note.

The most common key is D because they're often used with fiddles and fiddlers love D but like harmonics you collect various keys. I've got a B flat Susato that's plastic and is the closest in sound to a recorder. The Clarke's are real tin and sound quite different.

That's got some strings but it's a slow air and there are some closeups where you can see him doing cuts and taps. He's doing quite a bit of ornamentation.

There's a little less ornamentation there in the intro but when Caitlín Maude starts to sing you can see where the whistle sort of follows the vocal style.

There are a lot of jigs and reels you can play on the whistle and any good Irish bar band needs one.

[Muggles]

wow ... those are beautiful. I especially like the first link you posted. Thanks!

[rbowman]

No whistle in this version but the tune works really well:

There's a reel also called 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley' that's a whole other thing.

Those are very typical of a lot of Irish music. The whistle is there if you listen for it. They're like harmonicas; you can spend money on some of the fancier type but a lot of music has been made with a $10 Clarke.

Like recorders there are also low whistles and the Irish flute both of which use the same fingering and technique so you can get some variety. I don't have a low whistle but some people have trouble with the spacings. I did make a flute to hack around with and am still working on my embouchure. I played a regular flute when I was in 7th grade but I haven't improved with age.

[Muggles]

I really enjoy listening to Irish music, but the minor key I have to be in the mood to listen to for very long. They all seem to have a haunting sound to the slower tunes, but I do love the sound.

[rbowman]

Well, the sound track for Irish history can be a little somber. I'll leave you with an upbeat one:

The whistle player lurks in the background but comes out for a verse.

[Muggles]

Nice! The whistle sounds a bit like a piccolo, and I also love the sound of that instrument, too.