# Shot in the dark: Shawm



## M. LeRenard (May 2, 2008)

Somehow I feel that this thread is going to end up with zero replies, but...
I bought a shawm on my recent excursion into Morocco, and was expecting to be able to easily find a fingering chart for it.  Well, that's not the case: don't think many people play the damn thing anymore, and those who do are traditional musicians from countries like... Morocco, and so learn how to play it from other folks who can play it.
And the other issue is that I'm not exactly certain what kind of shawm it is (alto, tenor, whatever kinds of shawm there happen to be).  So my two questions are:
1)Based on the attached picture, what the hell is this thing I bought?
2)Does anyone on this forum know how to play it, and could you send me a fingering chart?

Thanks a million if anyone can answer even one of those questions.  I don't want to have to end up buying a 'how to play' book so I can learn this thing.


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## Toraie (May 2, 2008)

Info's really the only thing I have, sorry. And this is from my own knowledge.

Shawm's a woodwind/reed instrument from the Medieval Age, and so it has a pretty annoying, shriek-y, piercing LOUD AS HELL sound. I don't know if it's originally Moroccan (even though it's kinda not really Europe, where the Medieval Age was), but they may still use it in the music.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle did some heavy Medieval music research and based its OST off of it, so some of its soundtrack's songs have a shawm playing somewhere.

For fingering, it occurred to me that, since they still make it, they might have 'modernized' it somehow and added similar fingerings to, oh, the recorder, since they're essentially the same shape.  If you have another instrument of definite pitch (i.e. piano) you can try recorder fingerings and see if they match.

Alto and Tenor are based on pitch, and relatively, size, so you won't really know until you know its register.

Bet this is more than you expected, if not entirely helpful.


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## M. LeRenard (May 2, 2008)

It's originally Arabic, but the Europeans who ventured down there during the Crusades picked it up.  And yes... it is quite loud, because it's meant to be an open air instrument.  There's also a Chinese version called the _suona_, which is still used in modern Chinese compositions as a lead instrument (sometimes mimicking bird calls).
The guy I bought this one from told me it was a kind of shawm, and it's a lot like what the snake charmers in the Jemaa Al-Fna were playing.  When I blow in the thing, it sounds fairly mellow actually, until I cover up the bottom most holes, at which point it ups a register and turns more shawm-y.  I don't really know why it does that, so something tells me I'm just not doing something right.

A piano and recorder fingerings are a good idea, but I don't have a piano (or any other instrument I could use to tune it, either) with me.  If worse comes to worst, though, I guess I could always wait until I get back to the States and mess around with it using a tuner.  Seems like a pain in the arse, though.

As for Crystal Chronicles... I love that soundtrack.  I discovered the crumhorn from it, which is another instrument I plan to buy and learn someday.  But since the cheapest one I could find online was, like, $400, I think I'll wait on it.  This shawm, though, was more like $30, which I think is a great deal, especially since it's handmade.  It's just weird and hard to play, is all.


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## Toraie (May 2, 2008)

There are register-change keys on a clarinet, so why not shawms? :3 Prolly not doing anything _wrong_, you just don't know exactly what you _are_ doing.


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## M. LeRenard (May 2, 2008)

Maybe that's what those two oddly-placed holes at the bottom are for?
I dunno'.  It's amazing how complicated a hollow piece of wood can be if you don't what to do with it.


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