Online edition of The Official Newsletter of the Jew's Harp Guild
- The Pluck-n-Post -
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Contents:A Word from the
Executive Director NAJHF 2005: Resonant Tones in a Parallel Universe NAJHF 2005 Festival Participants & Photos New Jew's Harp Guild Website Features Bulletin Board: Post Your Notes Online Newsletter Archive |
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 A Word from the Executive DirectorJanet Gohring — JHG Executive Director |
Hello Harpers, I hope you enjoy this special “Festival” edition of Pluck-n-Post. The 13th annual North American Jew’s Harp Festival was very enjoyable and a great time was had by all. A great big “Thank You” to all our volunteers who made the festival a success. Without each and every one of you, it could not happen. If you weren’t there, we hope you can attend in the future … you won’t regret it! The recap of the minutes from the annual post-festival Guild meeting are included in this issue. Many of the items I normally address in this segment are included there. I will be stepping down as Executive Director at the end of this year. After 13 years, it is time for me to pass this “flag ship” on to a new captain. Gordon Frazier has been nominated as the new Executive Director. If he is elected, I am confident he will do a fine job of leading our Guild and am very grateful to him for his willingness to accept this nomination. I hope each of you will give the new director as much love and support as you have given me. I have much appreciation for everyone who has helped the Guild and festival become what they are today … thank you all! Over the years, our small group of Jew’s harp aficionados has blossomed into a very well organized, and very well known organization. We have become one of the key groups who are keeping the Jew’s Harp alive and growing throughout the world. Each of you should feel very proud of your efforts. I certainly am proud to have been a small part of this success. So, with positive thoughts and hope, I look forward to many more years of helping this small, mystical instrument become even more of an enchantment to us all. Be well, be happy … and keep
twangin’
Following is a brief synopsis of the meeting held
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| I had no expectations as we headed out to Bay City, Oregon; I was a
festival virgin. I had been learning how to play the Jew's Harp, having listened with
interest and amusement to my pal Ingrid Berkhout playing her harp for years and whenever
possible for the city folk in Seattle. Always game for an unusual adventure, I forgot to
ask what might be going on, who and how many would be there, whether there would be a
chance to participate or just spend the weekend listening to the pros who I suspected
would be there. I just knew that Ingrid loved the festival and the people and tried to
attend the event whenever she could. So we packed up the camping gear and her considerable
instrument collection and set out to experience an amazing parallel universe. What I found out is that the event is attended by hugely talented musicians and folks who just love to jam and share their love for the versatile little Jew's Harp. I learned a huge amount about how to play, where to find variations of Jew's Harps all over the world, and what a role the instrument has played in a surprising number of cultures. There were plenty of opportunities to participate in jamming with a broad variety of instruments from a saxophone to a classical violin to guitars, mandolins and banjos, a didgeridoo, nose harps, clackamores, harmonicas, collections of unusual and delightful percussion instruments and always the beloved Jew's Harp. |
 Joan Broughton - Photo by Ingrid Berkhout |
| At one point, nearly the whole crowd, all ages and orientations, joined in
for some great improvisational jamming and people who weren't playing were dancing and the
whole scene was magical. My fondest moment came on Friday night when I decided to play the festival "gut bucket' bass [made by the late Eric Leffingwell-ed.] and fell in love. From that moment on, it was hard to separate me from that home made wooden marvel with the resonant tones accomplished with a line from a weed whacker. This is no galvanized washtub with a hole drilled in the center, my only previous exposure to such an instrument. This is something else entirely. At one point, one of the great sound people put a microphone under the base of it for my own personal gut bucket solo. What a thrill! There were almost enough opportunities to hear the real pros like Bill and Gordon on the harp and a performance by John on the mouth bow. On Saturday, volunteers were divided up into "bands," each with a variety of diverse instruments, given time to practice two numbers and expected to perform on stage that night. It turned out amazingly well. The "women's jam" led by Janet, an inspiring piano and vocal talent, was huge fun. Needless to say, I am a convert and convinced that from now on, if it's August and festival time, I will be there. Thank you, hard working festival planners and Jew's Harp Guild, I am most grateful for your efforts! |
 ^ Squish (panpipes) - Curtis Chamberlain (clackamore) Nikki (train whistle) |
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JHG website users will now be able to upload their own sound files and pictures to share with the world. Just complete the forms and use the uploader, and within a few days your files will be available to listen to or see (this is moderated... the reason for the delay).
The submission pages are:
http://jewsharpguild.org/soundsubmit.html
The results will be posted at:
http://jewsharpguild.org/audio/useraudio/
http://jewsharpguild.org/images/user_pics/
The Discussion Group has also been modified to prevent spam and I invite you all to post new topics.
Thanks to all for your patience through this process.
Mark D. Poss - JHG Webmaster
Please note: To protect our posters from spam attacks the @ sign in email addresses have been replaced with the word "at."
Q & A
| Q INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS: I’ve been enjoying your newsletter for years as I’m now mostly in Asia and it’s my connection with the outside world as it were. I’ve been playing on this magnificent instrument for the last 20 years but specializing in South Indian, Rajasthani, H‘mong and Balinese, Lombok harps the last 12 years in Asia. I was also on the last DVD of the fest in 2002 in Rauland, Norway playing on morsing, morchang (both performing and lecturing) and genggong klopokan; an archaic form of that wonderful instrument. However, I have a humble question; who is organizing the next congress in Amsterdam 2006? I was invited to play by Annelise who was organizing for der esbreker (the event location) but have now lost contact—it would be of great help if you could put me into contact with the current organizers of the event—I’m in Europe touring for most of the summer each year (now in Berlin) so now organizing for the next year. Thanks for your time, Namaskaram, Steev (steevjawharp at hotmail.com) |
A The Fifth International JH Congress will be held in Amsterdam July 28–30, 2006, at the new Dutch Center for New Music (Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ). See www.muziekgebouw.nl for more on the center, and watch for an article on the congress in the next issue of Pluck-n-Post. —ed. |
| Q With its distinctive sound and subtle complexity the Jew Harp is an instrument that should be raised in our community rather than lost in the sands of time. I would like to learn more about the instrument and hear from people who have experience with it. [The Guild] website features some of the only information on the web about playing the Jew Harp. I am having a hard time finding someone to teach me and my best friend how to play. We are having a very hard time with the volume of the instrument. We cannot make the tone very loud at ALL. We followed the directions and passed the harp around to several friends with the directions, but no one could get the volume that I have heard from other players. Any suggestions? |
A One reason for low volume is that players refer to an oft-used instructional graphic showing the placement of the common steel Jew’s harp against the teeth. In the graphic, the player is baring his teeth, lips curled back, like a wolverine in attack mode. This illustrates the placement of the frame, but does not illustrate a good playing technique. Once the frame is against the teeth, the lips should “uncurl” so they rest lightly on the upper and lower parts of the frame. This focuses the sound of the boing into your mouth cavity, preventing “leakage” which might be the cause of your problem; the less boing that goes into the mouth, the less there is to resonate. Let us know if this helps. (This is all assuming you have a decent instrument, by the way; see the “Tsk!” sidebar in the previous issue of PNP.) — ed.
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| Q Hi folks. Can you tell me the site for Freidrich Schlütter in Germany? I googled unsuccessfully. I also called him, but we don’t speak one another’s language, so i couldn’t take the letters over the phone. |
A Ja. It is: http://www.schluetter-trump.de, in German but with English translations of most pages. E-mail: maultrommel at tiscali.de — ed. |
Folks Looking for Folks
I’m a multi-instrumentalist (former 17 year veteran with mandolinist David Grisman). I perform and educate with a wide variety of found sound instruments and I’m trying to locate Ray Jacobs about his cardboard instruments. I played one at Artichoke Music in Portland, OR and wish to speak with him about acquiring or commissioning him to build one or two... would greatly appreciate any contact info. on him! Many Thanks, Joe Craven,
Blender Logic Arts |
Can you put me in touch with anyone in the Nashville area who is an experienced Jews Harp player? Thanks, Dean
Hinton |
I’ve prepared a 29-minute video of parts of the [2005 Festival] Saturday evening concert for airing on Portland cable access... I’ve also made a short video of slowed down waterfalls to the music “Minor Third” by Gordon Frazier and Bill Gohring [from the 1998–2000 Festival Highlights CD —ed.] that I would like to submit, kind of a Surreal Water video. I enjoyed the festival a lot this year, and hope to attend in the future.
The Minor Third video will show separately on cable access, being 3 1/2 minutes long it will be filler at the end of the 1/2 hour or hour. It usually takes 7–10 days for the station to program a video. You could check at http://www.tvctv.org/ and search for Jews Harp Festival for program times, but the area where it will play is the west side of Portland on channels 21 and 23, with rare times when it might play all of Portland on channel 11.
Cheers, Bob Nesbitt
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Websites
| I found your website very interesting, I came across it as I am researching my Tromans family from Rowley Regis, Staffordshire, England. Many of the Tromans family were Jews Harp makers and at one time Rowley Regis was known as the world centre for jews harp making. If you are interested in our discussions on the subject have a look at www.rowleyregis.com and search in the forums under jews harp and Tromans. It is believed the name Tromans comes from their occupation. |
Please visit my website about “Ne’Karombi” in Tana Toraja. You’ll also hear the instrument. Gary from Germany |
| Thanks for including the video link in PNP. The reason that the link below wouldn’t work is because the computer read the period at the end of the link ”...small.” as part of the link. The video comes in three sizes, you can choose according to what you think your readers would be most comfortable with. As always, it is a trade-off between video quality and bandwidth usage. Here are the links for the three sizes uncluttered by human punctuation: http://www.hilltribe.org/videos/08-video-english-jingnongjammin.php/small http://www.hilltribe.org/videos/08-video-english-jingnongjammin.php/medium http://www.hilltribe.org/videos/08-video-english-jingnongjammin.php/large You might notice that having a link ending in something like /small is pretty weird. It’s just a trick I have used to make Google’s spiders want to read the page. Anyway, I don’t know much about Jew’s Harps, but they seem much more popular than I had imagined. I get 1–2 people per day linking to that video via the link I put on Wikipedia. That’s more than I would have expected. Thanks for your interest and let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers, Jonathan Morris |
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From the DX Listening Digest 5-113, July 10, 2005 Incorporating
Review of International Broadcasting edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com
(used with permission):
LAOS [non]. Hmong
Lao Radio, via WHRI South Carolina, 11785, Sunday July 10 at 1317 with what sounded
like a Jew‘s harp, really neat rustic music. I just wish they would play more
of it during their weekly hours, Sat 1200 and Sun 1300. Excellent reception here, if not
in Laos
Glenn Hauser, OK
DX Listening Digest
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WorkshopsMouthbow (John Palmes); Care of the Jew's Harp (Bill Gohring); Intermediate Jew's Harp Playing (group); Bamboo Jaw Harps (Ralph Christensen); Geography of the Jew's Harp (Gordon Frazier); Twang Time Circle (group).
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Our thanks to photographers:
^ John Palmes om MouthBow Other MusiciansAlice Field, Banks, OR; Brianna, (unknown); Christine, (unknown); Curtis Chamberlain, Portland, OR; Gary DeLong, (unknown); Gene Ralph, Banks, OR; Jack Roberts, Carson, WA; Jim Nelson, Garibaldi, OR; Joe Wrabek, Garibaldi, OR; Judith, (unknown); Julie Woodward, (unknown); Michael, (unknown); Nikki Jones, Portland, OR; Sara Kaufman, (unknown); Squish, Portland, OR. [Sorry for the omissions; contact us so we can add you to the mailing list!] |
\/ Ralph Christensen - Bamboo Workshop
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Band Scramble
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Festival OrganizationJanet Gohring (information booth); Denise Harrington & Jim Nelson (local contacts, publicity); Jonathan Faddis (Saturday evening MC); Gordon Frazier, Larry Hanks, & Ingrid Berkhout (scheduling); Gene Ralph & Jim Nelson (sound engineering); Gene & Alice Ralph (signage, publicity); Bay City Arts Center volunteers (meals, maintenance, moral support).
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The Jew’s Harp Guild Pictorial Archive needs photos of your favorite ‘harps. Send (non-returnable) pics and info to:
The Jew's Harp Guild
c/o Ralph Christensen
2239 Fairfield Street
Eureka, CA 95501
Or submit them now at: http://jewsharpguild.org/picsubmit.html
| THE
JEW'S HARP GUILD CLOTHING AND RECORDINGS |
Send check or money order to: The Jew’s Harp Guild c/o Ralph Christensen 2239 Fairfield Street Eureka, CA 95501 |
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2005 Festival T-Shirt Featuring
a very cool full-color photo by Ingrid Berkhout of a Gohring harp on the half-shell. Sizes available: Adult M, L, XL (sage shirt) Youth L (sand shirt) US$15.00
each + US$ 3.00 S & H in USA - |
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Summary:Highlights 1998 - 2000 There’s nothing else like the North
American Jew's Harp Festival
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See the JHG STORE for makers, sellers. publications & jhg products
| North American Jew's Harp Festival 1997 Highlights CD The CD features 20 of the
best Public Domain, spontaneous music, There are only a few left! US $12.00 each International - 1 item US$ 5.00
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