{"id":566,"date":"2012-11-09T07:33:32","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T07:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leopardshark.com\/music\/?p=566"},"modified":"2016-12-06T16:25:07","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T16:25:07","slug":"the-sound-of-music-an-incredible-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/leopardshark.com\/music\/?p=566","title":{"rendered":"The Sound of Music! An Incredible Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, we have a lot of explaining to do. Our last post was back in July! (4 months ago). But first, a short celebration. \u00a0Whoohoo! \u00a0On Novemeber 6th, 2012, the marimba played its first music. We are far from done. \u00a0But we took a major step forward.<\/p>\n

Those first lovely notes were breathtaking. \u00a0The music from the bars just burst from the wood – so soft, so pure, decorated with gorgeous harmonics. \u00a0The notes have been trapped in the African wood for 9 months. \u00a0With an effortless mallot tap Paul liberated them. \u00a0Silky smooth tones rang out. For months we awaited the songs of hypnotic woodgrain undulating through rich red-brown Padauk. Majesty.<\/p>\n

I apologize for the poor recording of those first tones. \u00a0I quickly grabbed the first movie-capable device at hand. \u00a0Think of it like Enrico Caruso’s first recordings. \u00a0The beauty of the wooden bars push through the background hiss and poor lighting.<\/p>\n

Watch the video of one octave of our soon-to-be 5 octave Marimba:<\/p>\n

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So, what took us so long? \u00a0It has been 4 months since we were almost done cutting and tuning the keys. \u00a0 However, In July, Paul spent several weeks at Birch Creek:<\/p>\n

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Serious marimba playing<\/p><\/div>\n

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The relief and joy of a piece well played<\/p><\/div>\n

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Steel Pan<\/p><\/div>\n

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Percussion concert at Birch Creek, in the barn<\/p><\/div>\n

Less than 24 hours after Paul finished his final performance at Birch Creek in Door County, Paul and I\u00a0were headed to Slovenia for some hiking<\/a>. \u00a0It was a splendid trip. \u00a0We hiked from Alpine hut to Alpine hut.<\/p>\n

For two weeks in August Beth and I were canoeing the remote wilds of the Canadian Wabakimi<\/a>, taking our vacation.\u00a0 When we returned, Paul was already marching… playing snare in the Naperville North marching band. \u00a0The marching season just ended, and we are now spending some weeknights and Saturdays trying to finish the Marimba by Christmas.<\/p>\n

So… our current work….<\/p>\n

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The 8.5 foot long marimba<\/p><\/div>\n

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Just enjoying our accomplishment<\/p><\/div>\n

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Testing a single bar<\/p><\/div>\n

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Doesn’t everyone test marimba keys on their kitchen counter?<\/p><\/div>\n

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In Dave’s garage (borrowing his drill press), drilling the holes in the rails for the spacers that suspend the bars. 148 holes total.<\/p><\/div>\n

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We are not doing anything wrong, but it does seem we look a bit guilty<\/p><\/div>\n

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Testing a few bars in our assembly area, the space behind the couch<\/p><\/div>\n

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Wow. We are really building a marimba!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Just image all 5 octave, 61 keys, with resonators to sustain the sound<\/p><\/div>\n

So there you have it. \u00a0After several slow months we are now back to work. \u00a0This weekend we might be able to build the initial end pieces that support the rails. \u00a0However, we are still designing… While we were in Slovenia, unable to work on the marimba, we spend our evenings in the huts sketching out possible designs for the end pieces in our journal. \u00a0While some of the designs need to me modified, I think we were on the right track.<\/p>\n

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One of our original designs, from our Slovenian journal.<\/p><\/div>\n

If we work hard during Thanksgiving, we may be able to set up all 5 octaves for a test…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, we have a lot of explaining to do. Our last post was back in July! (4 months ago). But first, a short celebration. \u00a0Whoohoo! \u00a0On Novemeber 6th, 2012, the marimba played its first music. We are far from done. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/leopardshark.com\/music\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/leopardshark.com\/music\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/leopardshark.com\/music\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leopardshark.com\/music\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leopardshark.com\/music\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"http:\/\/leopardshark.com\/music\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":602,"href":"http:\/\/leopardshark.com\/music\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/leopardshark.com\/music\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leopardshark.com\/music\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leopardshark.com\/music\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}