My wife came back from a trip to St. Petersburg a year or so ago and brought me a nice, non-tourist, 3-string tenor (I think) Domra. Looks a bit like this:
This is a traditional russian melody instrument that looks a bit like an overgrown mandolin (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domra). Unfortunately I’ve not got a clue how to play it, or what it might be good for. Best site I’ve found talks about tuning one string to “H”??? http://www.balalajka.dk/english/domra.html.
Most likely I’ll just keep it for decoration, but was curious whether anyone knew anything about how to play or even if it might be adaptable for ITM.
There’s been a domra player curious about Irish music at one of our local sessions.
The alto domra’s strings are tuned EAD an octave above the guitar’s bass strings. It can be easily retuned to DAE to play the usual repertoire. The scale length is also workable, 485 – 505 mm, similar to the banjo, and as far as I can tell, it can have a loud and clanky sound too. Though maybe it’s hard to finger.
Now I need to convince that guy to retune and learn some jigs from tablature. Wish me luck with this Russian reversal… er, replacement.
Of course, you may want to avoid those sessions where mandolins, tenor banjos and even guitars are still treated with suspicion. Just say it’s a newly rediscovered, but very ancient, kind of harp and you’ll be fine.
Re. soundholes… if you want to know how soundhole size and shape affects volume and tone, then IMHO you want to bypass guitar, violin and uke makers and go to the real experts - mandolin makers.
On Mandolincafe you’ll get the definitive low-down, including explanations of nodes and all the other physics stuff involved. Mando makers have tried every possible soundhole configuration, and then some.
Keep in mind that some of these things are produced for the tourist trade, which usually means very approximate fret positions. If it refuses to play in tune, look no further.
Rob took the words right out of my mouth. Test it out before you spend too much effort on something that just won’t work. Remember that it has a floating bridge. If the intonation is off, get the bridge in the right spot before you make a decision.
Thanks for all the feedback and tips guys. Knew I could count on C&F to start me in the right direction.
Per my wife’s report this is not a “tourist” instrument, but the music shop owner where she got it could have just been feeding her a line.
The tone hole on mine is larger than that in the image I posted, that was just a similar on from online. BTW did you note that there are some additional, ornate, penetrations near the tone hole in the image (I’m pretty sure they aren’t inlays)? I’m far from being an expert with strings, but perhaps those might affect the sound.
H= B natural, now that is one I never would have guessed.
DAE sounds like it might be workable, but I think mine might be a Tenor, not an Alto. I’ve located a local Domra player/teacher though, so perhap as I can get some more information from him as well as a check on general playability of the instrument. A little worried about trying to pick up another instrument as I’m far from being multitalented with that sort of thing (and am very jealous of those like Rob who can play several instruments well). I’ve kind of got my hands full with whistle and flute right now, and the only string experience I’ve had is a week or two of guitar over 30 years ago, and an abortive year trying to learn bluegrass banjo (long story, but traces from another gift from my ever-suffering wife).
Hate to just leave the Domra lying around on a shelf though. There is a guy who comes to some of our local sessions with an upright bass, so I think the crowd here is pretty accomodating for unusual instruments.
Well, in that case there’s no harm in doing a basic evaluation first. Get the bridge in the right spot (so that the 12th fret sounds exactly an octave higher than the open string), then see if the notes are in tune going up the neck. If that’s OK, then you’re in business. If it were me, I’d then go to an on-line string calculator and enter the measurements of the instrument to see what gauge strings I’d need to tune it to D A E, the top three strings of the mandolin or fiddle. You can tune practically anything to any scale if you use the right strings. That done, it could play any of the whistle and flute tunes you know. It wouldn’t have the range of a mandolin, but the lowest note would be the D on your whistle music.
As far as the tone hole goes, it is what it’s supposed to be.
