In late summer of 2006, a very dear friend of mine gave me her East German zither of the brand "Jubel Töne". I was astonished by her generosity and being given an instrument was so unexpected for me. And, I was overwhelmingly happy. Few things give me such joy as new instruments (last week I bought myself a trumpet).
I went to a friend who owns a violin store, and he ordered a tuning-key from Germany, which arrived two weeks later. This zither is normally tuned in quite "ordinary" chords, such as C, D, G, F & A, but I had the idea that I would tune it in, for me, more exciting chords, such as Fmaj7. This is my first try at playing the zither, and I will definitely use it more in the future.
I set out to only use natural sounds and no midi-instruments. I made the "bass-drum" by recording hand claps and then I transposed them down one octave. The bass is similarly my Italian accordeon (a Curtini), also lowered an octave. I think it almost sounds as a bowed upright bass sometimes.
I improvised a melody on the saxophone and after one round, I was lacking something to follow it with. I spontaneously wrote nonsense lyrics and sang them (which right now is a stretch for me, to have the courage).
Luckily, I found a place for my musical saw as a "take off"-effect in the end of verse 1. It's fascinating how an acoustic instrument can make such a strange sound.
And, then "Jubel Töne" was completed.
2 comments:
This is just lovely.
I've done a very different song with the zither sample, which I intend to release on a Creative Commons netlabel album in a few months. It's much more processed than this--and it's great to hear you do such a direct, non-processed version. Kudos!
Gurdonark: Thanks a lot! I just love getting feedback, almost whatever it is. And your feedback I really appreciate.
I'm looking forward to hearing how you've used the zither in your song!
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