The musical saw is just about the easiest musical instrument in the world to master.
Unlike the guitar or trumpet which have specific fingerings for each note, the musical saw is played “by feel”. If a note is out of tune a bit, you merely bend the saw into the correct note.
The musical saw is more popular than I thought (actually, I have NEVER thought about its popularity).
Actually, playing the saw is not so easy… have you ever tried it? Sure, making noises with it is easy, but to play precise notes, when there is no indication of where the notes are and when you have 1/4 tones and smaller intervals – that’s very difficult. Much more difficult than playing guitar or trumpet! Listen to a master saw player at http://www.cdBaby.com/paruz, and see if your playing comes any close to that.
From the link Misha posted, check out Auld Lang Syne.
http://www.cdbaby.com/mp3lofi/paruz-12.m3u
Reminds me of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
> playing the saw is not so easy… have you ever tried it?
I figured it’d be a hard instrument to learn. I don’t have a good saw to try though.
Jody,
To see a list of all the saws that were made especially for playing music check out http://www.sawlady.com
Go to the ‘What is the musical saw’ page and there you’ll find a link which says something like ‘different saws’. May be that will guide you towards finding a good saw?
Shit, they look like regular ole saws. I can probably get one from a neighbor, just to try. I doubt I’ll have the patience to figure out where all the notes are though.
I disagree with Misha – For me, learning to play the saw was incredibly easy – I got my saw at http://www.musicalsaw.com and followed their tutorial and made good progress within a couple of hours… and at the end of day 2, I was playing quite beautifully (if I do say so myself).
Part of the problem the previous poster may have encountered might have been using a regular saw instead of a musical saw.