If I Had Two Hammers

Excited to have you participate in this year's KlezNorth's tsimbl class! Please make sure to come to class with your tsimbl tuned to A=440.

Below are videos of the tunes we'll cover in the class-- Nariman Asanov's Freylekhs and Yikhes, with a "bonus" tune - Bessaraber Khosidl (note - Yikhes and Bessaraber Khosidl are two of this year's "Festival Tunes" that everyone at KlezNorth will be playing). In each case I've played the tune at speed followed by a slower version breaking down all the pyrotechnics. If it helps, you can slow down the videos by clicking the gear at the bottom right of the frame and changing the playback speed. Thanks to Asher Rushefsky for videoing these!

You can also click here for transcriptions of the tunes. The transcriptions are of the melody, without the tsimbl arrangement. And I've added a document called The Melodic Adornment Toolkit for Tsimbl. And now here's a draft of a summary of accompaniment patterns (please don't share, it's a draft for an upcoming book): Tsimbl Accompaniment Patterns.

Don't worry if the arrangement eludes you, but it would be great if before class you can familiarize yourself with the melodies and have an appreciation of what a "fancy" arrangement might sound like. I'm playing on a small Hungarian-tuned tsimbl. If you have a different tuning system, other opportunities and challenges will present themselves. Feel free to transpose sections into an octave that you are more comfortable with. If I play it in the key of Dm and you're more comfortable in Am, that's fine too!