Hungarian Zither

[@Happy-Hunter89]

Cool episode. I play a Mountain (Appalachian) dulcimer, and this instrument reminds me of that in many ways. Way more strings, but a similar sound and playing method. I'd love to see an episode on the Mountain Dulcimer at some point. I also play the Ukulele, while my wife plays Mandolin and is waiting for her hurdy gurdy to be built. We love this channel!

[@TheStringdom]

Yes! I'm planning to do a series on American instruments, dulcimer, autoharp etc. It might not be SO soon, but it's on the horizon. Thanks for the kind words and thanks for watching. Please share if you get the chance, gives me some encouragement :D

[@jasonsummit1885]

I also play the mountain dulcimer. My grandpa made one and I have it now. My brother got a six string one that was made by Edd Presnell

[@chiron14pl]

I saw the strong parallels between the mountain dulcimer and the hungarian zither. I also play an autoharp, which descends from the table harp, which itself descends from the zither family

[@zsofiakovacs6620]

I've played that instrument back in Hungary when I was a child, there are several tipes of it, depending what region are you specificly, and that's how the tuning is changing too. Zithers can be opened boxes like in the video, or or closed ones with a bottom just like in the guitars case. There are several sizes just like leader, tenor, bass, doublebass. I was playing a tenor, which was tuned to C. But the forms has at least the variety of the above. This is a flat belly zither, but there are bellied ones where the instruments outer side is rounded a bit, and there are gilded ones with carved ornaments, just like horse heads at the end of the instrument, etc. There are three kind of strings on it, the seven closer to the musician is where you are playing, the thicker strings give depth to the instrument, while the 6 other what is getting shorter pair after pair, we call them guest strings. Because they are only used in specific songs, for some atmospheric sound, and we don't use them regularly like the other ones. I pretty miss my Zither, he wasn't tuned for a long time now,and wait for me at home in Hungary. Maybe sometimes I will bring him with me back to the UK when I'm going back to visit Hungary.

[@tanwoog6613]

What a beautiful smile on your beautiful face oh my goodness. Hello zsofia happy weekend I hope you doing great?

[@KainRazielMT]

Do you happen to know of the one in the video is tuned to E-A? I have a "hasas" citera I inherited from my mother. Although, the string arrangement is quite unusual: There is only one neck for all strings. 16 strings in total. The fretboard arrangement is 4+2. As far as I know, this is an incorrect arrangement, as most citeras are either 3+2 or 4+3. Because of the single-neck arrangement, the highest I can tune any individual string is C5. Any higher than that, they snap.

[@viridian_meridian]

It almost has the tonality of mandolin with drone strings. I like it! Thanks for the insight.

[@TheStringdom]

Thanks for watching!

[@daleturner]

Mighty nice!! Thank you for this in-depth video!! I have a small one of these, and I love it!

[@HankleburyTV]

How beautiful is THAT?

[@PseudoPseudoDionysius]

Wonderful as always. X

[@TheStringdom]

Thank you!

[@Aquapod9]

Always nice to see a new video from y'all!

[@TheStringdom]

It's nice to have the time to get it out on the airwaves, I've been a bit slack and/or busy lately. More to come, so stay tuned!

[@parthasmukherjee4774]

🙏James, thank you for all the documentations! You are doing a great job! Bravo! Keep it up!👍

[@itobyford]

Appalachian dulcimer is similar to this - it has a slightly more complex construction, but simpler string/fret arrangement

[@TheStringdom]

True! I'm actually looking to do a series on American instruments, the dulcimer, the autoharp, banjo etc. Stay tuned!

[@hyoengjun2000]

Extraordinaire!!

[@TheStringdom]

Merci beaucoup! :)

[@FJMLAM]

Fascinating!

[@Diana1094]

Do you maybe know the song on 7:05? Good job on the video btw, hope you continue the series for a long time.

[@ItsCoyote]

Veres az ég/The Sun sets red. It's a Hungarian song from Moldva/Bukovina region.

[@arno-luyendijk4798]

Actually, I discovered someone putting this instrument for sale and I thought at first that it was another version of the northern European hummel and scheitholt. It is of course, very related, also in the sense that it was/is a typical folk instrument. Interesting, interesting. Is there some standard tuning for this instrument, or does it simply apply on the users' needs?

[@jombones3324]

For such a mechanically simple instrument it has an interesting function and shape. It seems to have a pretty unique sound, even though the zither format is fairly dense with variation.

[@TheStringdom]

I think both of his instruments are very well made, helps with the sound I guess :)

[@KainRazielMT]

@@TheStringdom Four years late, but I can confirm this; I have a zither inherited from my mother (A-E, same tuning as the one Mátyás plays on) and another I ordered custom-made (Tenor, also A-E tuning) and the difference is night and day between the two.

[@Bushwhacker-so4yk]

How did you manage to visit Hungary, talk about instruments, and not cross paths with Arany Zoltán?!

[@user-xx6fv4tu2q]

Who is that?

[@Dante_Eydel]

@@user-xx6fv4tu2q Hes a multi-instrumentalist who focuses on old european instruments. he has a youtube channel, look him up.

[@ildikom]

and with Zoltán Juhász? He is a folk musician. He has a book about a comparative search of the folk music of the world. Check this out, plz. www.researchgate.net/publication/228793884_A_Comparative_Analysis_of_Eurasian_Folksong_Corpora_using_Self_Organising_Maps

[@SseNYraG6048]

Do you have the short mix that you played at 12:55? Can you maybe upload or send it please?

[@wilhelmseleorningcniht9410]

fascinatingly similar to the dulcimer here in the US, and rather alien in others. Really cool stuff, lovely to see how the family of fretted zithers continues in the modern day The early Pennsylvania folk zithers that became dulcimers after moving to the Appalachians are a bit interesting in this regard actually as many of them had anywhere from 5 to 8 strings typically, 1 or two melody strings fretted diatonically (I love the way the frets on this instrument are though) which is where the doubled melody string comes, and the rest unfretted drones similar to this instrument. Though obviously this instrument has many more drones, and that makes me wonder actually a bit of how much the family of concert zithers that evolved from these kinds of instruments in the 19th century might've influenced this Hungarian citera, considering a major path of development was making the frets chromatic and adding many more strings (a concert zither can have upwards of 40 strings) If I try to make a 19th century noter-drone style dulcimer, I might try and do the same chromatic fret trick this instrument has, I actually rather do like that. (when he talks about the stick used to articulate notes, that's what a noter is and that same technique applied to the dulcimer is the traditional noter-drone style, opposed to the more modern chord-melody style)

[@OfficialPurbs]

Brilliant channel! Very professional lookin

[@TheStringdom]

Thank you! I try my best on a humble budget :D

[@saskiameijer9967]

Hello! Lovely instrument. I have one in F# from Tibor Gats, never played it and wanting to learn but I can't find the right tuning of the bass strings! Can you help me? I was visiting Erdely a few times but mostly I heard the instrument in Hungary! So authentic and nice.

[@KainRazielMT]

Hi. What's the base tuning of your melody strings? Based on that, the drone strings can be figured out.

[@hustlinc3540]

where can I buy this instrument?

[@madbox01]

But how do you tune it????

[@KainRazielMT]

You see those protruding black knobs/bolts on the neck of the zither? You turn those to either fasten or loosen the strings. That corkscrew-looking tool you see throughout most of the video is the tuning key. That's how you turn those bolts.

[@thomasgill223]

I would like to think that this is exactly what Lance Armstrong does in his spare time.

You should hunt down Lajko Felix he is the best in citera

[@isetta4083]

Hungarian Zither? you mean Spicy Dulcimer?

[@TheStringdom]

Hehe I DID have a lot of paprika when I was there if that's what you're getting at!

[@TheErilaz]

Sounds a bit like a nyckelharpa.

[@juristuCDPC]

Truly a Mongolian instrument.

[@danibriefly165]

This channel is great, I can tell you really nerding out with this instruments. It’s awesome!