freehand music

[lyht]

So, in another forum, someone mentioned typing with her freehand, (which sounds slow) and that got me thinking about other things like musical instruments. Now I am all kinds of worried for these poor Roshar musicians. 

 

@Iyht doesn't Shallan mention she can play zither or something the first time she meets Jasnah?

 

Yes, yes she does. Looking it up now:

 

 

I'm best with voice, though I have been trained on the zither and the pipes.

 

I am not sure how the zither is played, but I suppose it could be one-handed. I am now watching someone play "Let It Be" on a zither, and he is using two hands, one for the melody, and one for the chords/rhythm.

 

I don't know for sure what is meant by "pipes", but bagpipes (and other variants I am aware of) definitely take two hands.

 

I would imagine that sometimes a glove would be ok, but many times it would not. In the winter, In marching band in high school, we would be outside on the practice field marching around. And some of the musicians had to have holes in the fingers of their gloves to actually be able to play (poor souls). We had pipers in our band, and they were among the finger-holed crowd.

 

Shallan is skittish with wearing a glove on her safehand, can you imagine her with the fingers cut out?

 

Could it be that the instruments on Roshar (or at least Alethkar) are all quite different to compensate for Safehand / Freehand situation? I have looked a bit, and can't find anything that talks about it.

 

 

[Swimmingly]

Of course noone talks about it. What would they have to compare it to? Shin instruments?

[Left]

There might be special stands of something for like a flute.... Most music would be prety hard, but not hard. It would definitely limit how complicated and stuff it can get.

[Delightful]

Crazy theory, could pipes be like a xylophone? That would only take one hand.

And it looks like a zither could be played one handed as well. That would limit the complexity of Alethi music though, because you couldn't simultaneously play different rhythms or melodies alone.

I don't currently have my copy of WoK, but could someone look up if in the prologue, Alethi instruments are described in relation to Parshendi drums?

From WoR:

g. A quartet of women played flutes on a raised platform across from the lively hearth, but the music had long since grown tedious.

That music’s complexity had always surprised her, suggesting that the Parshendi were not the uncultured savages many took them for.

Parshendi music is more complex than Alethi - because they use two hands? And/or because they're playing it to a Rhythm?

Above, the drums cut off abruptly, like an instrument’s strings suddenly cut.

which matches a zither, or possibly another stringed instrument since Jasnah's metaphor doesn't specify.

.

So we definitely have pipes, flutes and zithers, plus maybe other string instruments, and Parshendi drums.

Just a thought- do we know of any Horneater instruments?

Edited July 10, 2014 by Delightful

[Swimmingly]

If I had to guess, I'd say nose-flutes, poetry, and drums that become beer mugs when you flip them over.