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Harpsichords and Related Topics

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From:
Doug Brooke <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Harpsichords and Related Topics <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:48:06 +1100
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My new virginal is finally making sounds - a pine bottomed and framed,
otherwise all cypress pentagonal virginal after Berlin 427.

It does something I've never felt before, I can feel the vibration of the
soundboard right through the keys:  I have the usual sensations of
resistance and pluck in my fingers but this tiny light instrument sends
vibrations through everything including keylevers.

Is this a normal thing?  I would have thought that any feature of the
keyboard that draws attention to itself is flawed:  that is the best are
ones that are entirely transparent with nothing to distract a player but I
find this sensation quite thrilling and enchanting, intimate and personal -
at least for now.  Perhaps after playing for a while it will give me the
shits......

Some notes on its voicing that others might find useful:

When I put the jacks in initially I cut them to all to approximate length -
within 1mm of final length against a stop on my tablesaw. I quilled them and
gave them a very rough voicing cutting the quill to length and thinning it
out to give a workable action but still raucous tone, then cut them to final
length and made sure they repeated accurately in the instrument.  I then cut
out little steps on the jack tails to make sure they stood only on one
keylever and not across two.

Now I am evening out the voicing, started around middle c and focussing on
an octave either side, working up and down in octaves and fifths, not
spending too much time on each note, leaving them overstrong initially and
gradually working them down over several iterations and evening them out.
Testing them by playing arpeggios and pulling out the strongest note,
thinning it a little and moving on.  I find that my ear isn't tiring and I
can maintain focus better this way, lots of short snips of focus, lots of
stepping back and seeing the big picture (ie playing a chord) then zooming
in for a closer look at just one note before panning back out again.

Every now and then stepping outside this band and taking it an octave wider
again gradually picking up the whole stringband in steps of fifths and
octaves.  Working in 30-45 minute grabs.

I have found this a very good way of maintaining the mental landscape of the
overall sound and placing the note I am voicing into this context.  I say
this because I've found it very easy to get lost before by trying too hard
and spending too long on one note only to realise later that yeah it matched
a reference pluck well but fitted awfully into the whole...

Doug.

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