Mi Contra Fa

Battle on the Bay: Report

No written feedback on the lyre display, but folks seemed to think it looked good (and in truth, the most obvious bit of ugly is the reverse of the tuning pin bar, and you don't see it unless you flip the instrument over and look for it).  A few people got the joke of the documentation title ("Stoppiaþ! Hamor tīma!" for "Stop! Hammer time!")

I brought my Silvershell lyre along and played a good bit.  A few people were interested in seeing how it was played, and I was happy to oblige with a quick demo.

The class, "A&S Research for Beginners," had no beginners.  I kibitzed about performing A&S research with Richard Wynne for a bit, then a Caidian Minister of Arts and Sciences asked to hear my basic schpiel.  If I hadn't needed to run back home right after the class ended, we might have had a discussion on A&S, documentation and competition - she started to say that she would have structured the class by teaching the judging sheet, to my consternation.  I had consciously avoided linking authenticated research to judging, as if that were the only reason to do it.  I suspect there was some confusion on my part, but I had to run before we could really get into it.

My Little Lyre: Woodworking Is Magic Documentation

Who says documentation has to be stuffy?  Not me.   Download Quicklyre

Whistle update

I ordered 3oz beeswax from The Bee Folks for my whistle project. It came the other day, and I promptly began to try to jam it into the flute to make a fipple.

I heated it in the microwave in 15-second bursts until the 1oz cake was soft around the edges, then twisted off a piece to work with.  It was easily pressed into the tube until just visible through the blow hole.

Then, a comedy of errors involving trying to flatten one edge to create the narrow airway the fipple is supposed to do.  Finally, realized:

1. Force wax into whistle.

2. Let cool and harden.

3. Remove, shave off wax to form airway.

4. Reinsert.

was probably the way to go.

That seemed to be a better way to do it, but it still doesn't work.  I figure the culprit could be:

• The beveled edge of the blow hole might not be sharp enough.
• The D-shape of the blow hole isn't as D-like as it could be across the flat side. I could file that down.
• When the pipe was cut into lengths, the plastic sort of got dragged by the saw blade down across the diameter, so there's a lip there now.  The wax is shaped by the lip into a cylinder a little narrower than the actual inner diameter of the pipe. Maybe I need to clean that all up.
• There could still be some problem with the fipple

For a 'simple instrument,' this is surprisingly hard!

A Lyre Is Born!

It looks better in the picture than in real life, I'm afraid.  But it doesn't sound too bad!

The full story will be documented for the upcoming Storvik/Lochmere Battle on the Bay event.  Novice Tournament's beginner's competition was bumped to there.  I want to use Rage Comic faces in the documentation for some reason.