New member, new post

[Sabsi]

I am a fairly new zither player (zitherist? I hope that's not right, can't even say it. Zitherist.) but I do hope that this is the instrument I'll keep at. I grew up as a viola player with violin and cello on the side, went to school for viola, paid for a considerable amount of university through viola, but I managed to get a musical injury that didn't heal, and holding the viola is painful, so I've been searching for a new musical friend for several years. (Don't let's your children be violas, they'll think in alto forever, it's a curse.) Even ventured into the woodwind area. But I did tune this, sat down to play, and it finally felt right. I don't have any performance aspirations, I only play music because I like to. ...I do however want to play all the instruments with strings though. I will play an actual string if it holds tension, I want all the strings.

So I guess I decided I needed 38 of them and here I am. Well, actually I have 37 right now, I haven't committed to a way of tuning so I haven't bought new strings, but I'm likely going for Optima Bergfee. I'm leaning towards the Wiener tuning, but my accompaniment are in Munich and I really only want to replace the reds. So obviously instead I've just done nothing. :c (I... I am heavily thinking of half and half because I seem to like confusion.)

I've very recently started the book Zither Schule by Heinrich Pröll and it causes me great but necessary anguish. I did also get an olde one by a Friedrich Gutmann in New York but it's mostly just music. My biggest fear is growing content with only the fingerboard and neglecting the accompaniment and my biggest mystery is why A-A-D-G-C when a high E would be so flexible. (There must be a very good reason I'm unaware of because such possibility!) I have an A. F. Kochendörfer zither, which has been very kind to me. It's nice to meet you all and hopefully I won't be incredibly inactive.

[kenbloom]

Welome to the rather select group that choose the zither!! I too play many instruments both string and wind. The zither is wonderful for me as keyboards have always baffled me. The AADGC tuning really does make sense. Having the double A makes all kinds of suspensions so easy to play as well as doing some rather speedy scales going back and forth between the two unison strings. I tried doing a high E string. Finding a string to tune up that high is problematic and I found that, though it seemed a good idea at the time, it turned out to be less useful than I had originally thought. The path to zither knowledge is faairly weel trod and there are many folks here who can give you the advantage of their years of experience. Welcome and let us know what areas we can help yu with. that is a very nice instrument that you have!

Ken Bloom
http:/www.boweddulcimer.org

[Carmen]

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Zither!

Having the double A makes all kinds of suspensions so easy to play as well as doing some rather speedy scales going back and forth between the two unison strings.

As Ken said, you can play scales very quickly PLUS, use the unisone a sometimes and... Play in 2 or 3 voices as triad together, which makes it easy because you have your double aa.

Watch out if you tune your a up to an e that it doesn't break. The strings are made for their pitch, tuning them up a half tone usually isn't a big problem, but tuning it up a 4th might cost you your a-string and may not work.

If you have any question,.feel free to contact me. I am a prof. University trained Zither teacher (based in Munich, Germany) and am happy to help.

Cheers,
Carmen

[Rudy Mueller]

concerning the high e, I have an antique zither kept at our daughter's in Germany, and it has a six string griffbrett/fretboard. I also tried the high e above the a/a, but meh, gave up on that pretty fast. It is now back to 5 on the griff. It also had an a flat as the first string on the accompaniment, which I also took off. The griff strings on this instrument are not strung to a "machine", but rather, each griff string has its own tuning peg; this was no real problem.

rudi

[Andy]

Welcome!

Always nice to have another player. And you've certainly come to the right place, there's a wealth of knowledge in the forum here. Your Zither is beautiful! You're lucky to have such a nice instrument to learn on. I've only been playing for a few years, but I'll throw into the chorus too - always happy to share the knowledge and help wherever possible.

- Andy

[Sabsi]

Thank you all~
I do very much hope to keep at it.
I am honestly at the moment trying to get my treble clef reading skills better, I've been avoiding it my entire life, but I suppose I must now. I am trying to make digital copies of some older music I don't want to touch too much in my efforts to learn, and I'll leave some if it seems useful.

I did suspect further into learning the double A would make sense, if it lasted so long it must.
...Actually, while typing this, I have the sudden realization I think I've been playing everything an octave lower than intended, oh no

Welcome!

Always nice to have another player.

Have you seen a place willing to work on one? I live at the edge of San Antonio, but like, towards Boerne, not Austin. Antonio Strad in SA was kinda on the fence about it but didn't seem eager, but I don't live near the main one.
I don't really need work, I just, I want to keep a place in mind. But yay, kinda nearby person~


But again it is very nice to meet you all, and hopefully I will remain decently active.

[Andy]

Hello Sabsi,

I went to Terra Nova Violins (7795 Burnet Road) here in Austin when I was looking to have my Great Grandfathers Zither cleaned up and looked over. They did a nice job, repaired the fretboard coming up at the inner edge, cleaned up all the mechanics, tuning pegs, and gave it a nice polish. The Luther working there (David if I recall correctly?) was very nice and seemed excited to work on the instrument, which was a nice change since the other places I checked out wouldn’t even consider working on it.

Also, very exciting to have another player „close“, there aren’t many (any) that I’ve found yet.

- Andy

[Sabsi]

....I apparently only replied to this in my head.

Hopefully, I will find myself in the area and will look. I'm not TOO concerned at the moment, but I kinda would like to get a professional opinion.
You're also the closest I've seen. I was at a harpsichord concert here last night, and I was introduced to a few people who they were certain had to know another zither player, and they each looked at me like "wow. how did you even get yourself into that, amazing." Did find all kinds of rare instrument people though.

[attila57]

Amazing instrument you have, I just wish I had a similar one. Greetings from another newbie!

[KLongfield]

I am a new member. Last week I was given a Heinrich Stadlmair zither. It is in remarkably good condition; missing only one string. I want to learn more about this instrument and perhaps even learn to play a a tune or two on it. I look forward to exploring all the information here.
My background is in American folk music with my primary interest in the Pennsylvania German zither and Appalachian dulcimer. I have been building and playing these since 1974. I also play guitar, banjo, and autoharp.