This has been an interesting discussion. I have one of those "Perepelochka" (transliterated from Cyrillic) models - actually it belongs to my daughter but I like to play it a lot. Has kind of that "toy" quality for being so small and high-pitched but I enjoy the delicacy of the timbre. It's fun to pick out songs in different modes.
Thank you for all the effort, Today's task will be to sit with tuner and log what each string is "playing" at now. Once I have that info, I'll get back in touch {interesting phrase , given today's world
} Not only does the music help us feel better emotionally, the forum allows us to feel connected
. My typing is interesting today...I spelled "does" as DUES!...Telling ME if I want to feel good I got to pay my DUES and play music ( and again, in my case, draw and paint)
Thank you so very much for all your effort and info, will post later today when I get the "log" done , I'll be back
Thank you,
Brian
OK... so we now know it was "hecho en Mexico" and that it originally came with a tuning wrench, tuning chart (which string is what note) and a 7/16" wrench for tuning. I've spent some time surfing and haven't been able to find an image of a complete piece of sheet music or the tuning chart.
Well, poop! That helps -- and it doesn't. Is there a maker's or brand name inside the sound hole or anywhere? I've only been able to find one "lap harp" in that zither/psaltery shape, but without song cards.
Back to square one. Do you have an electronic tuner so you can determine what notes the various strings are tuned to?
I can "teach" you how to play; it's really very simple. Each string is one note of a scale and there are two scales on the instrument -- from the longest string to shortest they should be: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do', re', mi', fa', sol', la', ti', do'. Just like that scale we learned in school, or the song from The Sound of Music "Do, a deer, a female deer; re a drop of golden sun..." etc.
We number those strings/notes from 1 to 15 starting with the longest string. Where the electronic tuner comes in is that we want those notes to be accurate, and start with some real world note like a C or G or D. But if you don't have a tuner you can probably just jump right in and see what happens...
Take a simple song like Frere Jacques. You know the tune. So do I, and zillions of other folks. For several reasons, it's a good song to use to start teaching yourself how to play this instrument. It is simple and repetitive.
The tab numbers for Frere Jacques start with the 3rd string from the left and are
Fre-re Jac-que
3-4...5-3
Fre-re Jac-que
3-4...5-3
Dor-mez Vous
5-6...7
Dor-mez Vous
5-6...7
Son-nez les mar-tine-s
7-8...7...6-5-3
Son-nez les mar-tine-s
7-8...7...6-5-3
Ding-ding-dong
3-0-3
Ding-ding-dong
3-0-3
Thank you Ken!! DUH!!! I never thought of posting a picture, thank you!! Tune charts would be perfect! I'll post a photo It is similar, but only tapered on one end..here is the picture....took 3 trys before we could get one small enough to upload... Again thank you and where would I find the slide under music for it???
Do you mean like the instrument in the picture? That is a Nepenenoyka -- a simple psaltery, not a harp. And they aren't at all easy to play when resting on your lap, either. Thousands of these have flooded the market from several 'Stans -- former Soviet states like Uzbekistan, Belarus, Ukraine, etc.
FYI, harps do not have strings which go across the surface of the soundbox; harp strings come out of the sound box and go to a tuning bar.
I've never seen tab for Nepenenoyka. There are "slide under the strings" tune charts which show when to hit which string; but that's about it.
I have one and with my world locked down I'm interested in trying it....but I can not find any tab for it. Its 16 inches long ANY suggestions ???
