amazing session !

[Nikita]

yesterday night we were supposed to have a session in a pub in Lausanne : when we arrived there, the pub had closed ! so we had to find an alternative, and we ended up in my workshop. I could then play the hackbrett (usually it takes too much room in the pub, that's why I rather use the box... but we never had such things as rejection and musical racism against the instrument, as there seems to be in some dark, narrow-minded and very primitive places )
We had a great fun : 24 people in my wee workshop... I thought I might share a few photos with you guys and lasses ! ;D

[Dick Glasgow]

Oh yes Nikita, it looks like it was great fun .... wish I had been there. ;D

Thanks for sharing those photos with us.

Incidentally, the sound holes on your Hackbrett look absolutely huge, compared to most sound holes I've seen on Hammered Dulcimers, that is.

I wonder, does this make it very loud in your ears, or do you use very soft headed Hammers?

Cheers
Dick

[Nikita]

Yes, Dick, I really hope we'll get to session together someday !
As for the sound holes in the Hackbrett, I don't really know : it's the noraml size for a Hackbrett. But mine is a big one, four fully chromatic octaves... it can sound loud... if I play loud ! but I always try to play in a way I can hear the other musicians, at least the one next to me... and my hammer are double-sided, leather and wood. In sessions, when I don't know the tune, I try it with the leather side (it's very soft-sounding), and after I play it with the wood...

[gypsy]

i'm gonna stick yer picture in my bands collective faces........them that want 'personal' space, and complain bitterly if the FOUR of us have less than a 10X10 space to perform in. our tightest space has been 6X8, you should hear the moaning.........

[anniemcu]

Looks like it was great fun in spite of the snugness. And that Hackbrett is beautiful!!

[Dick Glasgow]

Annie, the snug sessions are usually the best ones! ;D

Here in Ireland, that snugness is in fact a prerequisite of every good session.

Which is, unfortunately, why you can have problems here, when you waltz in with a huge H-D under your arm!

So it always pays to check out the sessions here first, before taking a H-D in, cause there may simply be no room for it!

It's also a very good idea to actually ask if you can bring in your H-D first, as they are not always welcome!

[Nikita]

Ho yes Annie, my hackbrett is beautiful. here's a few photos where you can see it better :




And you should hear the sound !
And I'm like Dick : I think snugness is nice in session !

[Dick Glasgow]

Oh yes, what a great combination of instruments - H-D, Fiddle & Nickleharpa!

I'm GREEN with envy!

Your Hackbrett looks fantastic & I must say Nikita, that looks like a very descreet Damper system, you have!

[Nikita]

Yeah, that session was real nice too : Angelika Maier plays both hackbrett (salzburger) and nyckelharpa (but not in the same time...!) ;D : we played for three hours swedish, irish/scottish and swiss tunes, with a wonderful weather, in a small festival near Bern... ;D ;D ;D
my damper system is quite discreet : it's felt pads underneath the strings (you can see a white line near the tuning keys : that's it). You have to push on the pedal to have the sustain, like on a piano. but I don't use it very often, except for rumanian and klezmer music. I like the sustain...

[cooper]

Hey, I jammed with a Nickleharpa player this weekend! It looks like a machine gun too. I never thought I would meet two people who played that instrument here in Okie-homa.

BTW, lovely hackbrett!

[Dick Glasgow]

Hey Cooper, lucky you. I've fiddled along with one before, but have not yet had the chance to play my H-D with one!

Mind you, better for you that you are sitting in "Okie-homa" jamming with a Nickleharpa that looks like a machine gun, than for you to be sitting in Iraq, jamming with a machine gun that looks like a Nickleharpa!

Let's all hope & pray that there's an end to that conflict very, very soon!

Dick

[cooper]

admin said:

Let's all hope & pray that there's an end to that conflict very, very soon!
Dick

No kidding!

I wish I could have gotten a picture of all of the instruments that this lady played that night (she sang, played fiddle, nickleharpa, drummed and played the Turkish saz). There were three sets of live music for the dance ball and she changed instruments each time. I have to admit, I did not know the song that she was playing on the Nickleharpa, so I sat out on that set (so, I really did not play along with the instrument).

I have some photos on my MySpace page, but I did not get any from the third set (www.myspace.com/dustinjcooper). In fact, I was honored to be playing with these two musicians from Austin because they were really, really good.

[Nikita]

We had another amzing session : high in the alps (1776 m above sea level !), a whole week-end with irish stew, , guiness stout, drams of bushmills... see it on this site :
www.alpagedelavare.ch/20149.html
we'll do it again next year, if some of you guys are passing by !

[Dick Glasgow]

WOW! That looks like it was a wonderful weekend. The photos are great.

With those mountains all around, it must have been a bit like a weekend in Donegal ..... without the rain! ;D

You certainly wouldn't have been stuck for food with all those animals wandering around!

Speaking of animals, did you play "Shoe the Donkey"?

..... a whole week-end with irish stew, , guiness stout, drams of bushmills...

I'm curious Nikita. This is of course a purely hypothetical question, but tell me, if I was going to organise a Swiss weekend in Donegal, what typical Swiss food & drink would I need to have on tap?

Cheers
Dick

[cooper]

That is it! We are moving to Switzerland!