I wandered past the charity shop on Leytonstone High Road, as I sometimes do, and decided to have a peek inside.
I came home with a musical instrument. This is why I shouldn't be allowed out of the house unsupervised...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSfyyBGRqd-yPf6LkBfU6tYTTXGUHShuKeqQootqeSIHZdnGGF6Iyj4LZBIDeQRBZocxY0fId6mq8uWoFkHR5bzoOrRpo1DdVCzsLnAw3rpep9_-GJ2kjH9jz_AA5_rYjYIbZvJ4SsNxo/s320/2011-11-25+18.19.33.jpg)
At first glance, it just looks like a box.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdCcVi-eePiru7WLWdO4KOV-fWR5g3aBwgo3-olFSbQaDs5czjw2gPFxCkH0HdGYeYDIuJVvXrSz7JC9YdbIZXoO1_83giVIzG7ICV14S1CkvcZ7RzqnmzL9p9vlAGqg4NcVXoJLFiwL0/s320/2011-11-25+18.20.05.jpg)
A box with strange protrusions and fittings, mind, but a box all the same.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwklb5j4dcoiug5z4ox3VfWf5okK2ou9a7kOMIiQwcLhmIkHnDNxh9LULGMGWvHOF31EaTz62upxktMOdT3-z5cDEJgfw8z9r3QUOgZaE_6wOJlQULrytRwKu11cgZmOTfO-CjRe2l4ls/s320/2011-11-25+18.22.11.jpg)
But this is what happens when you get it open!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUHp_f2zY3MnCfSrXzJ_pCXflROLsOhxAJ13FzdP9F1ce_ywjlAeQxRuRxhsJVK8c8ADLsk1h-Kjn0C26RM1ssaQR5QjHKiMdDtLqwmzoQ1AmJ8RsqW7CG0FgtJ-Pm1OzAyHi92MDjG0/s320/2011-11-25+18.23.18.jpg)
The "lid" goes all the way vertical...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_dfG3-e8QlQO_YajCJT-m541g44FVHujlwuiIQ95gFHvF05eehsJHlsNQYAErYxB06NZ0vqgTiQzfUNbHmA5DY2VG7f4orCbKH6k4AH0qbhpxXlQZVU2gdQuksW54nWX1p0jw-h10UI/s320/2011-11-25+18.24.20.jpg)
...then folds backward. Release the little metal tab at the top...
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWCyXvt_VIcRWqvIjzltvzEjBLGqTikHMaU6lTRe_3kpTBapeYub2E1fljxRBaM68zoLqy9s5UyPs5SKOlw_WWbvjdWtdMJsbNS7gyaMRNXb0n_9n-Uxm49mqzYP08qhEtdwbycyRjRE/s320/2011-11-25+18.24.32.jpg)
...and you get a bellows!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGmiAlF3ol5YCNfC3mAlue3iiQJylcxIwB6gOKq8VhQijvhk2ghKi5DYzJhRSUm6AEHgbHbM0ehFuFCPqQrWjw9tCvGpDcwRQvV2foVgCojoWVHeAptMBaBaKVzpxY9R2nOnSGTxfQ1Gg/s320/2011-11-25+18.24.49.jpg)
The bellows are operated with one hand while the other plays the 3/4-size keys.
I don't have enough hands to play and pump and hold the camera.
Brother James's Air by artsyhonker
From what the internet tells me, this is a very simple portable harmonium. More complicated ones have drone stops which, when activated, sound a drone note constantly, and some also have couplers or even separate sets of reeds to give various different textures.
I'm quite pleased with this: I finally have a keyboard instrument that can play more than one note at once which fits on my bicycle. The fact that it doesn't require electricity is an added bonus. I think it will be really good for folk music and some bits of community music, and it suits me a lot better than trying to learn the guitar would (though that is still on the wishlist). But to be honest, I probably would have bought it anyway; I have a soft spot for weird and wonderful instruments, even if they're not all that practical.
There are a few very low and very high notes where the tuning is a bit of an issue, and I'm wondering exactly what is involved in maintenance of an instrument like this. It looks like flathead screwdrivers are required for taking it apart, but I haven't done more than give it a superficial dusting.
(Some of the alignment is messed up in this post, but to fix it I would have to re-upload all of those pictures, so I'm not going to. Sorry. It's staying crooked.)
4 comments:
It looks to me a bit like the kind of instrument often used to accompany Hindu worship and other Indian music. I hope you will be very happy with it. Should be very useful.
Revsimmy,
Yes, I think the portable harmonium is often used in Indian music; I meant to put that in the main body of the post but left it out in haste.
I'd have bought it if I'd been there! Way cool.
Tuning will be a little tricky. The sound is made in the same way as in a harmonica, by air being pushed (or pulled) past reeds in close fitting slots. Tuning the reeds is done by filing/weighting them, but the really tricky part is setting them back in the slots where the fit is, naturally, going to be very close.
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