Playing
The hummel is placed on a table like a zither, to amplify the sound. The melody strings are sounded by being plucked downwards, either with fingers or a plectrum. The identically tuned melody strings are often fretted in unison or so to create a major third. It is even possible to play a sixth interval, through using the octave string. The strings are played with a plectrum and are often all played at once. This is common because the accompaniment strings are tuned to a suitable chord that is relatively open, for example all the strings may be tuned to D or A.
Read more about this topic: Hummel (instrument)
Famous quotes containing the word playing:
“Give me mine angle, we’ll to th’ river; there,
My music playing far off, I will betray
Tawny-finned fishes; my bended hook shall pierce
Their slimy jaws; and as I draw them up,
I’ll think them every one an Antony,
And say, “Ah, ha! y’ are caught.””
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The sailor is frankness, the landsman is finesse. Life is not a game with the sailor, demanding the long head—no intricate game of chess where few moves are made in straight-forwardness and ends are attained by indirection, an oblique, tedious, barren game hardly worth that poor candle burnt out in playing it.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily;
If good, thou shamest the music of sweet news
By playing it to me with so sour a face.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)