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Success or what?

Sep 25, 2017
Success or what?

Hi folks, just a few words this time.

When i was 12 I started to learn how to play guitar. Three years later it was time for the five string banjo, which the guy I bought it from taught me to play. 

In 1970 I built myself a 9-string tin-can resonator guitar and I still use it now (!). I could never have thought that would be possible when I built it, but it turned out better than I'd hoped for.

In 1988 an old classmate, BejaHemgård, told me that the Folk Music institute of Kaustinen, Finland, were asking for new material for the five-string kantele, an instrument I was familiar with since I was quite small, since a family we knew used to have a few of those. 

Initially I thought five notes can't make up a good melody, but then I thought about "Oh, when the saints go marching in" , "With a little help from my friends" and even "Ode to joy" by Beethoven (well, one note goes outside those five, but you can play it an octave higher :) ) so I though I'd have a go. 

First I wrote a tune I called "Cat on Slippery Ice", then one called "The old cat" (I seem to be a cat person), then I soon had 20+ composition. I won't call them songs, since they're instrumentals, except för "Väinön Pölyfööni", sung on my CD by Helka Elo, old workmate (must post a photo of her with her lizard soon).

Later yet, after thinking these tunes would just end up as sheet music, I got a new workmate, a young guy by name of Jonte Knif (yes, yes, THE Knifonium one!) who played not only clarinet, but a bunch of mediaeval woodwind instruments, and I thought we might start recording these tunes, especially as his then-girlfriend, Minna Väätänen, was an excellent celloist: And time signatures like 7/8 13/8 etc posed no problems at all for her, so we started, soon joined by my old violinist friend Christer Bergstén, blues guitarist J.J.Nyberg (Once a Milk Cow) and later even Kim Hansson and Hanski Ramström on guitars and Kjell Frisk on more woodwinds, and Brita "Buz" Holmström on classical guitar (not all on the same track though!)...

Woops - this seems to become a long story! Hope you've enjoyed it so far!

I will try to answer all questions, even in Swedish, Finnish and German.

Bye bye for now!

Julian Markov
Hi Runaway, please try again. It should work. :)
Julian Markov (Sep 28, 2017)
The Runaway Kantele
It also says: "Let's have some fun!" I say: well, why not, but how?
The Runaway Kantele (Sep 26, 2017)
The Runaway Kantele
Strangely enough, when I go to "Forums" it says: Forums home page. This board has no forums.
The Runaway Kantele (Sep 26, 2017)
Aleks
It'strange. I do not have this problem. You had to login first with your password if you hadn't. :-)
I would suggest you to forget the link I sent to you. Login. Go to "Forums" and then to "Ethnic Musical Instruments". Thank you for your reply.
Aleks (Sep 26, 2017)
The Runaway Kantele
Thanks for the tip! When I clicked that link, though, I received the following message:
"You are not authorised to read this forum"
Quite friendly, eh?
The Runaway Kantele (Sep 26, 2017)
Aleks
Interesting instrument! You might want to write something more about the small kantele in the "Ethnic Musical Instruments" Forum section: https://ethnocloud.com/world-culture/forum/viewforum.php?f=7
Let more people know about it :-) Thanks.
Aleks (Sep 26, 2017)