What does it sound like? Like a bagpipe?
It’s different. Many people think that it’s a wind instrument because it does sound somewhat like a bagpipe, because of the drone strings. It also sounds a little like a fiddle, because it’s technically a bowed string instrument. The dog buzzing sounds a little like a rhythmic one-note kazoo. The whole gets wrapped together into a cross between a fiddle and a bagpipe, with someone keeping time on a kazoo. Here’s a short sample of two hurdy-gurdies on a Baroque duet: Baroque MP3 That’s us, Cali and Alden. Cali is playing an Orca model, and Alden is playing the first Volksgurdy we built. Here’s a sample of one of our production models, the Chinook: Chinook sample. The first sounds are the strings being engaged on the wheel, after which Cali plays a Breton dance tune called “Kig Ha Farz”, which is played for dancing an an dro. This instrument is tuned in D, but with the chanters an octave lower than is standard for a D/G tuning.
