Hey jabronis,I'm not a music man nor a musician of any sort, but my buddies and I randomly drew classes for a Pathfinder one-shot and I landed on Bard. I've decided to make him be a dude from Katapesh, but want to pick an interesting instrument for him that will be fun to play / RP around.Any suggestions? Also general /bardthread/ I suppose.
>>94753570How about a buzuq? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCDcVRDg9z0
The banjo is a percussion instrument with strings and a ridiculously wide tonal range. It only exists because of a hybrid of music traditions between three continents. That's pretty weird objectively. There's also the various bellows instruments, and you could invent one wholesale. Maybe a metal horn with a crank and vibrating waxen wheel? Tone depends on how fast you're spinning the crank.
>>94753605That's fascinating on both ends. I'm going to need to do some research on Banjos and Bellows alike! Sort of Helps that I think I want a bit of a 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' theme for my dude.>>94753598Wow! Thanks especially for the link. Helps to see and hear the thing. Immediately reminds me of the Bastion OST, which is a compliment.
>>94753570How about a nai, a pan flute? A bardic instrument of southeastern Europe.https://youtu.be/-ofhGzY0cqs?si=Q6M4l41AIguRylXW
>>94753750I didn't realize till just now how little I knew about panflutes. I legit thought there was just 'a panflute' and that's it. (This is why I tend to play Martials)I'll have to look into it. Thanks anon.
>>94753570Balliset
>>94753880What's even the point of having nine strings? Who plays a full octet chord, ever?
>>94753880https://youtu.be/79AQizzY9CY?si=oQTq8_a-dr-musPC
>>94753997For those not in the know, audio replaced but extremely funny. Also,>let's take this Chapman stick and ruin the sound with a loud ass desk fan! Brilliant!
>>94753570Stringed instruments are useful for travel because you can get a lot of sound variety out of them in a relatively small package, and because they make less demand of you than something with a reed or pipe, since your head is still free. But frets are crutches and severely overrated.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSu0yoTOJFU
>>94753570Do crazy gimmick instruments but claim that there's a centuries-old tradition of them being played in Katapesh. Like this beautiful monster, for example: https://youtu.be/p2kJMPfFOX8?t=660
>>94754237Wait. This isn't jank at all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxMxqZv4910
>>94753570Hurdy-gurdies and overtone flutes are both interesting for different reasons, but really you should consider one like the harmonica which you can easily hold in one hand
>>94753570You'd be surprised how well a dude can jam on the pipe and tabor. Go watch some on youtube, it's pretty cool.
>>94753570Banjo, unironically. >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPEUYKeAxoMFun fact: banjo resonators have a big brass ring inside them, which makes them heavy as fuck.
>>94753570Hurdy Gurdy. It's like a hand-cranked electric guitar.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypuaJLHK_LQ
I can share a whole host of different folk instruments that I've found maybe they can give you ideas. the Hurdy Gurdy, also known as a Wheel fiddle in different languages. It functions like a violin, except the strings are rubbed by a wheel spun by a crank, andplayed with keys on the underside of the bridge.it has melody strings, drone strings and trompette strings which buzz when cranked really fast (this helpsprouce a rythm) they were big in western europe around the rennaissance
>>94756518there's a large range of varieties for body shapes for the hurdy gurdies, from guitar shaped figuredor eight, to lute shaped, though early ones were usually just square bixes,also, the strings are wrapped with cotton where they contact the wheel, this softens the soundand they can be electric, but the acoustic ones have the bonus clanking sound of the keysas they're played
>>94756551last Hurdy Gurdy
>>94756560Scottish Smallpipes ( I own a set of these)we tend to think of Bagpipes as a the big Scottish things, but really the span Eurasia all the way into India, they're all over the place, Iran, Morocco, Spain, Malta, Polandhell, Greece alone has about ten different ones
>>94756580Uilleann pipes, they're Irish pipes, which in my opinion, the peak of the Bagpipes familyhere are two Japanese women playing themhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUPafrINN4w
>>94756605here's a Ukranian Highlander with his set of pipesbagpipes are generally a pastoral instrument
>>94756616Last set
>>94756624I should point out, that the Uillean pipes, as well as some other sets are bellows blown, rather thanmouth blown, which means that one can sing while playing themhere's a Nyckelharpa, which is a sweddish violin like instrument
>>94756647here's a Sam hyde looking swede with one
>>94756656of course you have the lute family of instruments, with the Lute, as well as a myriad variations of instruments, from Ouds,Sitars, Sazis, and the now universal Spanish guitar (which is what we think of when we say Guitar)
>>94756675strange thing is, the Lute family of instruments goes way back into ancient greece, even older probably, but they were only ever used as tertiary instruments, to accompany the main enssemble, Lyres werethe dominant string instrument up until the high middle ages. If you were ask someone to pick up music today, first thing that they think of is "guitar" but for most of time it was the Lyre
>>94756675the root of the word "guitar"dates back to Ancient Greece actuallywith the "Kythara" which is a large Lyre it may be traced back to an older word
>>94753570Some good suggestions in this thread already. Looks like katapesh is a setting with middle east vibes so I looked up some instruments from those cultures and found some neat looking/sounding stuff.Mizmar: That whiny kind of flute, sounds best paired wiith other instruments imohttps://www.youtube.com/shorts/MoZbWzxj6pwSagat (finger cymbals, good for dancing too)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD9o0OzAZxISimsimiyya: Cool looking lyre instrumenthttps://youtu.be/OSavg0aDscE?si=yxreYK-xMRIH-OpU&t=120Sitar: this is indian but whateverhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2B-KDVRlscAnd here were a couple other instruments I heard recently that I think would be cool to roleplay just because of how different they sound.One Note Flutehttps://www.youtube.com/shorts/fNkagBGrxQYJaw Harphttps://www.youtube.com/shorts/aGvBE010U74
>>94758203oh I wonder if embeds don't work on shorts. That's a shame.
>>94754100Everything but the last point is true.>All chords but open and barre are overrated.
>>94756518I hadn't considered a hurdy gurdy, but it's definitely activating my almonds.Could be pretty cool.>>94754796Another point for team Banjo...>>94754237Really considering this. It's definitely one of the benefits of being from a weird, cosmopolitan place! Kind of a theme of 'the bard is what matters, not the instrument alone'.>>94754447Will do!>>94758203Again playing to the cosmopolitan / hub nature of Katapesh...appreciate it anon.Occurs to me that drums and tambor in general seem really underused. Would definitely ad some Gypsy / Bazaar flair I think.
>>94753570For a one-shot, probably won't matter but I usually like to think about which situations the bard is going to need to play music in. A lot of tables kind of hand-wave it away but you're not going to be able to use a shield realistically with any kind of stringed instrument, probably any percussion instrument either. They are also generally fragile and flammable. My bards usually get proficiency in a stringed instrument (typically a lyre), which is used for out-of-combat music, and a trumpet or sometimes horn for in-combat music. You can play either of the brass instruments one handed, stowing and drawing are a lot easier, if you have to drop it instead of stowing it to draw a weapon or whatever in the same turn it's not as likely to get damaged, and it's going to be about the loudest non-magical instrument you can get and carry and use practicably. I've also run with a harmonica before but didn't really like the RP using a harmonica in combat-- seemed kinda ridiculous.
>>94753570Use a Toothttps://youtu.be/ASywAfBAVrQ?si=nAMIBSQDowLxmSlh
>>94753570Lithophone
The citole. Like if a ukulele wasn't awful to listen to.
>>94753570cant go wrong with a hurdy gurdy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgaxmF9VQ1I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s64NVBK73c8
