The name  means "to make noise, hum or buzz". The gadulka is an integral part of Bulgarian traditional instrumental ensembles, commonly played in the context of dance music. Sometimes referred as the "Balkan fiddle"

sample mp3(streamed from balkanfolk.com ) so you can make an idea how it sounds like

The resonance chamber is pear shaped similar to a lute  forming a bowl or gourd and it's often  carved out of a single piece of wood. The player holds it up right hanging  from the belt or on the lap if sitting.  Of byzanthine procedence it is rather similar to the Greek lyre.  Gadulka strings are steel, either plain in the smaller gauges or wound with steel or bronze in the larger ones; they are basically guitar strings. The strings are secured to the tailpiece by their ball ends!It has three melody strings and up to 16 strings  thinner metallic  steel sympathetic strings that make resonance upon the tones, making the gadulka sounds more clear (the natural sound of gadulka is quieter than the violin though less crispy and pleasant to the ear). The strings are played with the nails.  The tone of the gadulka is obtained by gliding the strings with the bow made of flexible forked willow twig and tied with horse hair and waxed with rosin.

Unlike many other stringed instruments, there is no nut at the top of the strings: the strings are simply stretched between a tuning peg at the top and the tailpiece at the bottom, passing over the bridge (the playing strings) or through holes in the bridge (the sympathetics). The tailpiece is typically made out of bone, and secured to the carved projecting "end pin" by stout steel wire. The end pin also serves to hold the bottom of the instrument to a strap or belt worn by the player. It is bowed with an underhand grip.The top (soundboard) is also carved  with a shallower arch. The overall construction is quite heavy compared to, say, a violin, though some gadulkas are exquisitely built. The instrument generally lacks any real decoration or ornamentation, apart from the design of the peg head.
 

For more information we recommend to read as always the Gadulka wikipedia article

In Bulgaria  it's used  in folk traditional and ritual songs.Though apparently crude and unwieldy, this instrument is capable of great heights of technique and sensitivity in the hands of such masters as Nikola Parov, Giorgi Petrov or Mihail Marinov. In Bulgaria it is usually played in ensembles with the kaval (end-blown flute), gaida (bagpipe) and tambura (a type of guitar) or tapan (a large drum). Dance rhythms range from the relatively straightforward 7/8; to the 11/8 Kopanitsa  to even 22/16
 

Tuning

While various tunings are (and have been) used, the standard tuning for the gadulka is A-E-A for the three melody strings a pitch that gives more opportunities for solo instrumental performances but the tuning differ in different regions; the sympathetics (resonating strings) are tuned chromatically to cover all notes besides A and E

The 3 stringed Gadulka is pitched normally in these different regional ways: Thracia tuning: 1st string – A1 2nd string –E1 3rd string – A, Dobrudja tuning: 1st string – A1 2nd string – A 3rd string – E1  or Lingourie tuning: 1st string – A1 2nd string – E1 3rd string – D1

Example of gadulka tuning with three melody string (black) and 10 resonance strings (in red)

Only the upper strings are bowed while the other strings accompany only to resonate the sound rendering that echo-like haunting sound of the instrument.

Teaching yourself..?

We recommends  "The Gadulka book" a book that includes the history of the instrument, its regional types, shapes, tuning scales and techniques including a lot of graphical material for easy learning. You can purchase this book from the store at Folk Factory.

Below you can see a video of a gadulka being played

Where to buy

In ebay you can find some gadulkas listed, from kid very cheap ones to actually playable instruments. Be sure you don't buy a souvenir one, that can go really cheap but though make sounds are not ready to be played. 

• Ebay (here you can find a few playable ones for quite a bargain price... but beware souvenirs!!)

Check also these stores, they specializes in Bulgaria culture and instruments and list them :)

Above: Gadulka available at Balkan folk

• Balkan Folk
• Bulgariana.com
• Shop Bulgaria

I don't know the quality of these instruments or if they're playable, so I recommend to contact the sellers directly before purchasing, they are just links I've found when looking for gadulkas for myself. Hope to have one soon to make a proper review. We´ll keep on adding information about instructional material and where to buy them on future updates.

Need more inspiration?

Visit the website of the master gadulka player of traditional Bulgarian music Nikolay Kolev

Feodor Pratšu playing Jouhikko © Museovirasto

Jouhikko  (pronounced yo-hee-ko) is the name given to a distinctively  type of bowed lyre from Finland and Karelia  (an instrument old as human civilisation itself)  though it resembles in some ways types of Baltic Psaltery from further east such as the Slav Gusli, and types of psaltery/lyre hybrids found in the archaeological record from Novgorod, Opole etc. It may be descended from these instruments rather than from the Round Lyre, strictly speaking this would make it a bowed psaltery rather than a bowed lyre, but whether a psaltery with a hand hole should be re-categorised as a lyre is a matter for musicologists... The origins of the jouhikko remains still a bit obscure, though obviously ancient.mPerhaps the earliest definite depiction of this kind of instrument is the stone carving from Trondheim Cathedral, Norway, dating from the second quarter of the 14th century Jouhikkos are usually strung with horsehair string,

It is related with the Finnish instrument Kantele that we previously covered in another CMI article.

Above: Alto jouhikko kit available at Ancient music (UK)

I have myself an alto Jouhikko I purchased from Kate and Corwen from Ancient Instruments (UK) -by the way very talented couple themselves- and by far the most affordable source for the quality of the instrument. As a lover of the kantele the jouhikko makes an excellent couple to this other instrument being partners in many pieces of finnish music. This is a video of Corwen himself explaining a bit of the instrument:

Learning to play it:

First you  need to hold the instrument upright between the knees. The typical Jouhikko has a long, narrow outline, with only a small hand hole which is offset to one side, allowing only one of the three strings to be stopped. There are Jouhikkos with two strings only but they normally have three being the middle string is a drone, the string furthest from the hand hole is used to play the first note of the scale.

The bow need to be moved parallel to the bridge and trying always to bow the drone sting and bass or melody string  in a sort of of bouncing movement. The jouhikko only has a range of six notes. You can change the note by stopping with the back of your fingers (traditional way) or with the inside of the fingers if you place your handover the first string (melody) in order to be able to change the drone with the knucles (for intermediate players). It takes some time and practise to play the notes relaibly in tune, and also the instrument tend to come out of tune quite easily, so it helps that you have a good ear and get fast enough with the microtuners (a recommendation if you purchase this instrument)

Most Jouhikkos are in D key (with a tuning of D - A - E (being D the bass, A the drone and E second note on the scale). In alto jouhikko (A - E - B) You can play typically a major and minor scale. As you can see in the following video  showing you the basics of how to play the jouhikko by performer Pekko Käppi.

Above: Video explaining how to play scales in the jouhikko

If you purchase it from Ancient Music , it comes with a little print brochure in english called "introduction to the Jouhikko"  written in english  with the basics to keep and start to play your instrument. Though brief, it´s consistent and carry quite a lot of information and background.

The actual reference to learn to play this instrument is The Bowed Lyre Book is a visual guide and tutorial book written by Rauno Nieminen

Above: Book: The Bowed Lyre Jouhikko

Written in Finnish on one side and clear English on the other. The book has the history, playing and setting up guide for the It includes a cd of  rare archive recordings of the last players of the old tradition in Estonia, recorded on wax cylinder/phongraphs, though old and scratchy in sound in combination with the included written notation it provides much information.The book is available from Finland through the Finnish Music institute (37 Eur + shipping)  or you can read  more info from Rauno's website:
http://raunonieminen.com/sivusto/

For beginners (as myself) I also highly recommend to visit this Jouhikko website, though it's in finnish you can easily use an online translator, and it has even some videos and lessons of basic traditional jouhikko music as example, as well as explanations about the history and the instrument parts and construction. You can even play "online" the jouhikko in the website interface :) to understand how it works and videos to play the same melody in different styles with examples.

Above: How to hold the jouhikko bow (explained this jouhikko website). You can add a bit of pressure with the thumb to make the string of the bow tighter. Remember always to put rosin on your bow before playing (to avoid scratchy sound)

I confess I never had experience with bowed string instruments before... and I did know it was going to be complicated but though it's quite difficult to evolve fast (at least for me) it's rather easy to get started and this is quite encouraging.  Gerry Henkel from kantele.com that also had made some jouhikkos himself told me... that they are like a horse that need some taming and that the jouhikko finally decides to sing for you itself. And he's right. There´s something really ancient and earthy and and primitive n the way these horse strings sound somehow rather dense like a rudimentary viola. Nothing as clean and polished as a violin but indeed a sound of other times settling in nordic folk music.

Jouhikkos are in the midst of a potent revival in Finland and is being incorporated in modern bands as well (including me LOL!)

You can read more information in the  Jouhikko wikipedia article

• Finnish site about the  Jouhikko
• Jouhiorkesteri
• Finnish Jouhikko maker
• Estonian Jouhikko maker
• Eric and Corwen English Jouhikko maker
• Russian Jouhikko maker
• More info on Simon Chadwick's Jouhikko with photos, audio and video demonstration
• Rauno Nieminen's official website

Above: My kantele (made by kantele.com) and my alto Jouhikko (It works well  tuning it to G, A or Bb Key) (from Corwen Ancient Instruments) , a pretty couple of traditional finnish instruments. High D jouhikkos are the most commonly found.

The Aquaggaswack is an  odd  music instrument with an equally odd and difficult to spell name. This interesting musical instrument was first made  as mentioned by Curtis Settino,  being composed of a medley of unique household instruments, all hung from a framework of metal  galvanized plumbing pipes in a way easy to assemble and break down into pieces to  be easy  to transport..  First version was built in1996 and it was featured in an issue of Experimental Musical Instruments back in December of 1998. A good example of how to create music recycling materials.
 

The first version of the Aquaggaswack dated in 1996 was narrower and only had 18 pot lids and no  outer sections. The second and improved version was  made in 1998, with 29 pot lids representing a majority of the notes in an octave, plus some quarter-tones. The center lids have mostly "bell"-like tones and the outer sets have a more "gong"-like tone. All the lids were obtained from thrift stores and friends and can be played with mallets, sticks and brushes.  At various times both versions of the Aquaggaswack also included a cymbal, jingle bells, a cowbell with clacker and a mine cylinder
 

In Spain  is currently  known as "Carrillón de tapaderos" and you can read some guidelines about how to make your own one in this article  (Spanish)

And if you are wondering about how it sounds like...  and looks like in action you can watch the following video.

Above: Aeloian harp made by Harp Maker

The Aeolian harp   (read the wikipedia article )  is named after Aeolus the ancient greek god of the wind. They're sometimes called "harmonic harps". They originated in ancient Greece and flourished through the Renaissance era becoming very popular n the Romantic Era.  The traditional aeolian harp is essentially a wooden box soundboard with strings stretched lengthwise across two bridges. It is placed in a slightly opened window where the wind can blow across the strings to produce sounds. The strings can be made of different materials (or thicknesses) and all be tuned to the same pitch (some are called "monochords") or identical strings can be tuned to different pitches. The musical sounds of an Aeolian Harp are the results are of vortex "swirls" flipping around in the back of the strings It's somehow misterious but also ethereal, haunting and inspiring. Aeolian harps are still hand-crafted today. Some are now made in the form of monumental   outdoor metal sound sculputures. In fact if you place a standard up in a windy hill you will most likely hear this eerie ghostly wind moans.

Above: Outdoors Aeolian harp sculpture in California

So how does it sound untouched by human fingers?

-Click here to listen a livestream of an aeolian harp at the University of Ulm (Germany).
-Internet radio broad cast with sounds of the wind harp

Wind harps transpose the spirit of the wind into spontaneous, multi-layered music in time to nature's rhythms. Their vibrant voices sing pure harmonic tones that range from deep, pulsing bases to soaring sopranos.The sound is random, depending on the strength of the wind passing over the strings, and can range from a barely audible hum to a loud scream. If the strings are tuned to different notes  then sometimes chords can be heard. 

Below: Video of wind harp recorded it on a beach in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. The sounds are created randomly by the wind vibrating the strings. This is a track from my CD Windharp and Wavesong that you can find at nickpenny.com
 

Raw recording (with no effects added) of wind on a standard harp producing a similar effect.  

There are some builders that go beyond making bigger outdoors sculptures that you can place in your garden. Harmonic wind harps  make not only the typical door and window harps but also other bigger sculptures ready for outdoors,  for example the weather proof harmonic sanctuaries that can accommodate several people, an unique auditory experience! 

Above: Aeolian harp harmonic sanctuary

 
If you find these wind sounds  healing or relaxing, then you can buy  the cd Wind Songs is a distinctly unique CD, composed of eight tracks that feature a variety of harps, winds, and tunings. at harmonicwindharps. Sample of the album called "chakra tuning.mp3" 

How to build your own aeolian harp
Maybe you're considering to make your own aeolian harp!

Feeling crafty...? making an aeolian harp  doesn´t look so difficult... You can find already made plans to do it... or even improvise it. I'm about to try it myself so I´ll come and edit to inform you of my progress

The below graph was taking from this link where you can commission yours or see some pictures of the process on the making

The above drawing of an aeolian  harp was drawn by Bruce Taylor (using Windows Paintbrush) and posted on rec.music.maker.builders many years ago.

You´ll need zither pins and nylon strings that you can easily find in ebay and also any music  local luthier or instrument music store. Remember that the longer the harp is, the more easily it will sing in light breezes. You find some plans also to build it in ebay.

Above: aeolian harp woodworking plan

Here is a link to  Harpmaker.net book "Building the aeolian harp" that is sold electronically  and consists of a step-by-step tutorial explaining the complete process from material selection to tuning the completed harp and getting it to sing for you.  It includes 19 drawings, 22 color photos and all the information you will need to build your own harp.

And in this other link you can  also read an indepth  article about aeolian harp and read how to make your own with illustration:  how to build an aeolian harp

As you see in aeolianharps.com aside of the classical aeolian harps they make other models, including with plastic bottles and chairs... and also combining it with other actual and playing instruments like this example:

Above: Gourd harp made by Aeolianharps.com