Why Pain?

[Rudy Mueller]

Good old Skt. Bonifacius grade school. Every class had 6 rows of eight studen6s (n 48 per class). And at that time (1944-1952) every grade had two classes....except ninth grade... for those who could afford to further their "catholic" education.

Some of these nun/teachers were "novitiates" barely older than the students! How does one maintain discipline in this situation? Solution?.....

PAIN !!!

As an eight to ten year old, my father tried to teach me to play the zither. "Rudi! Practice on these two a strings! Man, liker cheese cutters going through my fingers. I did not last long...and neither did my daughter who quit because of pain when I tried to teach her zither when she was in her teens.

Have any of you teachers out there tried, or had luck, transposing the initial lessons of either Kabatek or Darr to the "D", or even G or C strings on the griff, to avoid losing the student because of pain?

As they say in Manitowoc, keep 'er movin"

Rudi, da oida

[NutmegCT]

Servus Rudi!

Why not use nylon guitar strings in place of wire for the two As?

Tom M
der Aelterer

[Zitherlove]

I use "Let's Start - The Concert Zither" by Ilse. She starts on the c string, which is much more doable. I also teach my kids simple disney songs to keep them interested. You can find Ise's book here:

https://www.zither.com.au/products/

[Rudy Mueller]

Just ordered "Let's Start"; this sounds great. Several other interesting items on the site, I was almost like a kid in a candy store.

Americans enjoy a really favorable US/Aus exchange rate right now. Students and teachers, current and potential, should really take a good look at this site and beef up their libraries.

Happy New Year to all,

rudi

[Zitherlove]

Thank you! I purchased all of her books and they really helped me build my fundamentals.

[KC9UDX]

I have no trouble with my left hand fingers. I presume this is due to toughening them up playing heavy-strung acoustic guitar. My thumb is probably just tough from normal use as a thumb.

Where I struggled, and I've never heard anyone else mention this, is playing accompaniment with my right hand fingers. I get blisters that never seem to turn into calusses. I expect it will happen eventually. But until then I have to try to limit my practice even at times when I can actually make time.

IMG_20240720_065649680_1.jpg (151.07 KiB) Viewed 2268 times

The photo doesn't really show them well. The lighting doesn't make them apparent.

[Rudy Mueller]

Steel core strings?

[KC9UDX]

Steel core strings?

Yes. Bergfee Rot. 1 year old but probably less than 10 hours played so far.

[Rudy Mueller]

Bergfee Rot may be steel core. Check it out (Schneider)

I've only known two zither players able to endure steel....and both were professionals who needed steel for their magnetic pickups.

rudi, da oida

[KC9UDX]

Yes, they are steel core.

I bought these because I always preferred heavy strings on guitar. But obviously that's not the same and I probably erred because the strings "stick" to my fingers. That is, I need what I think is too much pressure to sound them (not Griffbrett, no problems there; in fact if I had lighter strings I'm positive I'd have trouble). But this could just be my inexperience, poor posture and technique.

No worries though, I'll get through this. The biggest problem I have is a total lack of time for practise!