MY SERIES OF LYRE LESSONS!
Posted on October 7, 2011 with 1 commentMY SERIES OF "ONLINE LYRE LESSONS"!
I now have uploaded two series of totally unique, instructional "online lyre lessons" on my "Klezfiddle1" Youtube Channel!
The replica Kinnor I am playing in all of my Youtube videos is cheaply manufactured by Mid East Ethnic Instruments
Once you have ordered your Kinnor, here are some details about my 2 series of "Online Lyre Lessons":
SERIES 2: 2009-Present
These latest series of unique, instructional lyre lessons, were thankfully recorded with my nice sparkly new, Hi-Definition laptop webcam...a significant improvement on the "Lo Fi" nastiness of my original series of lessons! Here is the first in the series, describing how to set up the Lyre and a few other essential basics:
Here are the links to the other lessons in this series:
HOW TO PLAY THE MUSIC OF ANCIENT EGYPT!
Here is my "online lyre lesson", describing how to recreate the actual sounds of the music of Ancient Egypt! How to improvise on a 3500 year old, Ancient Egyptian, myserious minor pentatonic scale..,
HOW TO PLAY THE MUSIC OF ANCIENT GREECE!
I have also uploaded four online lyre lessons on how to play the music of Ancient Greece!
Here is a step-by-step lesson on how to play the famous "Song of Seikilos" (c.200BCE - 100CE)...the oldest complete song so far found, in HISTORY:
Below is another video, describing how to play another precious remnant of the music of ancient Greece. This haunting, almost dream-like fragment of melody was preserved in ancient Byzantine manuscripts (Conspectus codicum):
V. Venetus Marcianus appl. cl. VI, saec. XIII-XIV
N. Neapolitanus graecus III. C4, saec. XV
F. Florentius Ricc. 41, saec. XVI.
It was written in the unambiguous alphabetical musical notation used in ancient Greece, & the melodic fragment is catalogued as "Anonymous, Bellermann 97":
A studio quality recording of this piece can be heard on track 11 of my CD album, "An Ancient Lyre"
Below is my lesson on how to play "The First Delphic Hymn To Apollo (c.138BCE):
I recorded "The First Delphic Hymn To Apollo" as track 9 on my album, "An Ancient Lyre"
Finally, here is a lesson on how to play "Hymn to The Muse" (2nd Century CE) by Mesmedes of Crete:
"Hymn To The Muse" can be downloaded as track 10 of my album, "An Ancient Lyre"
HOW TO PLAY MUSIC FROM THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES!
I have also recently discovered, that some examples of Medieval Music, work extremely well, when played on this incredible lyre!
Here is my lesson describing how to play the haunting, 800 year old melody to the famous troubadour song "Ja Nus Hons Pris"...composed by King Richard the Lion Heart, whilst awaiting imprisoned during the Crusades:
SERIES 1: 2007-2008
My first series of lessons, uploaded a few years ago, was a little "Lo Fi"...courtesy of the miserable little "bargain basement" Argos webcam/PC mic I had a few years ago...OY VEY! I had noooo money! ;o)
NB! A few important points before attempting to follow this series of instructional videos...
1) I got a little bit "muddled" with the actual keys I was describing in the first few lessons - being originally just a humble self-taught Klezmer fiddler, I can only think in terms of Klezmer fiddle key signatures, mostly based around a tonic note of D... and hence I gave the tonic note of the Klezmer modes described, as D instead of E!
2) I also have recently realised, that I described the Natural Minor Mode as the Harmonic Minor...