# Foreign/Exotic Instruments



## Kit H. Ruppell (Jun 14, 2010)

Anybody own or play an instrument typically found in another part of the world? I have several but these are the two I mess with the most:

Oud: Wiki Video

Saz: Wiki  Video


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## gdzeek (Jun 14, 2010)

I play the Ocarina, thanks to the video game world it isnt very exotic anymore though.


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## Aden (Jun 14, 2010)

I would love to learn to play the santur


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## Kit H. Ruppell (Jun 14, 2010)

Aden said:


> I would love to learn to play the santur



Persian or Indian?


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## Aden (Jun 14, 2010)

Kit H. Ruppell said:


> Persian or Indian?


 
Persian.

My friend's uncle is one of the last masters of the instrument that exists.


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## randomonlooker (Jun 15, 2010)

So if I was Indian and I said I played the Spanish guitar would that count? Sorry, I'm just playing with ya, I'm not Indian nor Asian for that matter, I don't know if it counts exactly, but I play the lute, an instrument from another age  
I found it about five hundred years ago, drew it on a napkin and had it built again.


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## Kit H. Ruppell (Jun 15, 2010)

randomonlooker said:


> So if I was Indian and I said I played the Spanish guitar would that count? Sorry, I'm just playing with ya, I'm not Indian nor Asian for that matter, I don't know if it counts exactly, but I play the lute, an instrument from another age
> I found it about five hundred years ago, drew it on a napkin and had it built again.


Uhhhh...people never stopped playing it.
And the oud is much older :V


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## Icky (Jun 15, 2010)

Is a marimba considered exotic?


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## Stargazer Bleu (Jun 15, 2010)

gdzeek said:


> I play the Ocarina, thanks to the video game world it isnt very exotic anymore though.



I have a extended range ocarina.  It is fun to play every now and then.


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## JMAA (Jun 15, 2010)

I would like to play the spanish guitar. Yeah, it's kind of my country's instrument, but I would start using one if I could.


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## randomonlooker (Jun 16, 2010)

Kit H. Ruppell said:


> Uhhhh...people never stopped playing it.
> And the oud is much older :V


 
Yes, they did pretty much stop playing it for two-hundred years, classical period through to the romantic era, only about sixty years ago was it really taken up again (of course there were some who played it) anyway ouds were never out of favour over there, always being played. Anyway they're all instruments, equally capable of producing music, where they come from is really not at all important because to an Chinese fellow a Clarinet would have been exotic to them (well, fifty years ago, now it doesn't really count anymore)


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## greg-the-fox (Jun 16, 2010)

I want to play this


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## moon-drummer (Jun 16, 2010)

I know how to play the taiko, the doumbek, and I own and am learning to play the ashiko. Hence my fur name


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## Adelin (Jun 16, 2010)

greg-the-fox said:


> I want to play this


 
You need to be born with a third arm if you want to play that. 

Is dulcimer considered to be an exotic instrument? Though i stopped playing since it felt like playing the guitar and it felt annoying while using the bowed one......I still prefer my violin, bass, and harp......though their not quite exotic are they?


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## GatodeCafe (Jun 24, 2010)

I do a little bit of koto. Found my grandma's in the attic and I'm sort of getting into it.

That said, the majority of my eastern textures just come from me playing the banjo. Clawhammer+'indian' scales=gypsy/flamenco raga wonderment. It's convincing as hell.


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## Kit H. Ruppell (Jun 24, 2010)

GatodeCafe said:


> I do a little bit of koto. Found my grandma's in the attic and I'm sort of getting into it.
> 
> That said, the majority of my eastern textures just come from me playing the banjo. Clawhammer+'indian' scales=gypsy/flamenco raga wonderment. It's convincing as hell.



You can almost imitate the sound of the Afghan rubab with nylon strings on a banjo. You have to play close to the bridge with a thin pick.


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