Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

--- In Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com, Rick Blechta <rick@...> wrote:
>
>
> On Sep 10, 2007, at 10:01 PM, Bernie wrote:
>
> > > It's called a Ðàn Bâ`u and it's Vietnamese. I've heard that Mike
> > > Dickson is quite a player of this instrument, although I doubt he'd
> > > look as good in a dress as the young lady in the video.
> > >
> > > If you want to find out more, go here: http://community.vdict.com/
> > > showthread.php?p=126
> > >
> > > Rick
> > >
> >
> > I think we're looking at different instruments. The instrument
> > described
> > in the link would be called a Guzheng in Chinese. The instrument I'm
> > referring to is the first instrument shown in the clip. It only has
> > one
> > string, is picked with the right forefinger and the pitch is
> > changed by
> > using the left hand to manipulate a short bow attached to the
> > instrument. It has a bit of a theremin sound with an attack. It's some
> > sort of Chinese minority instrument (maybe Mongolian?). I showed the
> > clip to my Chinese girlfriend, but she's never seen one before.
> > It's not
> > a common Chinese instrument like a pipa or erhu or dizi.
> >
> > Bernie
>
> I used to teach music in the Toronto school system and we took in a
> lot of boat people back in the day. The father of one of my students
> played this instrument (he was amazing) and I was told by him that
> the instrument comes from his country. Some other links on the
> internet show it in action, no doubt, but the youtube clip definitely
> shows what I think is a Dan Bau: one-string, plucked and the tuning
> changed by pulling on a bamboo rod.
>

Oh, sorry Rick. I tried the link again and didn't realize it had sent me to the bottom of the page and a description of a Dan Tranh. So Mike D. can play the Dan Bau? What do the mothers of the little girls in his neighborhood think about that?

Bernie