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Looper's Delight
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rich-- more on the ebow hammered dulcimer thing. you hold the ebow at an angle so that the string guide ridge on the bottom of the ebow that's closest to you rests on the closest string of the pair of strrings (my hammered dulcimer has 2 strings per course). you have to hold it at an angle so that the ebow is as close as possible to the other string of the pair without touching it. this takes quite a while to get the hang of it. if you aren't close enough, it's hard to get it vibrating. if you are too close, you get a buzz (which i sometimes uses for emotional effect). on the shorter strings I lightly pluck the string with my pinky to get it vibrating and then the ebow takes over. on the longer strings i can get it going with the ebow without the pluck, on the shorter ones, the pluck helps. I start fairly close to the bridge and find I can control volume and envelope by moving further from the bridge as the string is vibrating. if you start further from the bridge, you're more likely to get the buzz. once the string is vibrating, little adjustments in angle and placement yeild a good bit of control over the sound. Since i often finer pick the strings with my right hand while playing a melody with the ebow with my left, I generally use the left side of the treble bridge for the ebow. it will work on any of the strings and i have used it with my right hand while using a hammer in the left. it's one of the most emotional sounds i've been able to make on any instrument. i cried when i first discovered it because it was so emotional sounding. also quite ethereal, other wordly and somewhat electronic sounding. i enjoy making sounds with acoustic instruments that are hard to figure out and that sound electronic. it leaves everyone looking around to see where it's coming from. I remember in the mid 80's I brought Glen Velez in to do some harmonic singing on a recording one of our songs, my recording engineer was looking all over the studio, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. Something very satisfying about getting new sounds from acoustic sources. One of my neighbors is the new conductor of the New York Philharmonic. another neighbor who is also a composer was going on and on to Maazel about how he could make all these sounds on his computer indicating he could make sounds the orchestra couldn't. Maazel looked right at the guy and said "Give me a great orchestra and I can make any sound. period. That stuck with me. I have also fooled with the bowed psaltery that Rick mentioned. I made some of them in the early 80's for a woman in my band, trapezoid, who played it. it's on a number of our albums from the 80's. very haunting and somewhat irritating. used to call it the "bowed assaultry." all of these sounds are great with looping, creating interesting textures without having to resort to the easy way--the dreaded synth. best paul reisler > >can you be a bit more specific about the ebow on the hammered >dulcimer? Where abouts do you hold it in relation to the bridge(s)? >can you use it on all of the registers? interesting >application...never thought of doing that one...till tonight, that >is. thanks. > >rich. > >>i use an ebow on hammered dulcimer with loops. it's quite an eerie >effect. >>i've used it on a few album recordings--Beth Nielsen-Chapman's Deeper >Still >>(not out yet) and a couple from my band, Trapezoid, "Remembered Ways" and >>"Long Time Down this Road." since these are recordings and not live i >>don't loop them. i use the ebow quite a bit in loops in live shows. i >>also use the ebow on acoustic midi guitar which can be pretty wild >>depending on the midi patch. regualr bow would be problematic on both >>instruments. ebow works by creating a magnetic field that keeps the >string >>vibrating. >>paul reisler Paul Reisler Trapezoid/Ki Theatre PO Box 38 Washington, VA 22747 540.987.3164 540.987.3166 fax zoid@pobox.com www.kitheatre.com