Super Mario, Shame Nose Flute, Guitar Strings Revisited

It has been quiet on the blog front since Robin's return from the Amazon but be assured there has been plenty going on.
The majority of time has been spent in practice, and lots of it, for concerts that are coming up and also working on new pieces.

However, there also seems to have been a stream of guitars arriving at the house, three in total, all to be tried, tested, and enjoyed.
Although all three are lovely instruments, none have passed the Hill test and will be returned in the next few days.
I shall not only be breathing a sigh of relief, but also very pleased to reclaim the downstairs of the house.
Three guitars in large flight cases, plus three huge boxes and the accompanying packaging, all take up rather a lot of space.

While all this has been going on I have rounded up another couple of unusual Google searches for you.
They are always popular and also serve to remind me about some of the strange things I have written about over the years.

1) How to play Mario on the guitar?

As we have two young sons I am fully aware that the person making this search was far more interested in Mario and Luigi than the Mario I was discussing..., but I hope they enjoyed it anyway. Here is where they landed:
'Hill/Wiltschinsky Guitar Duo Play Mario Gangi'

2) Polynesian nose flute national instrument

The post I wrote in 2007, 'Shame (Flute) about the African Nose Trumpet', has been a surprise hit for me. This post gets so many hits, mainly from America, and I have yet to figure out why???

3) Opera tea cosy

This search landed on the post, 'Opera House Odessa, Snails and a Tea-Cosy', one you may well remember from earlier Google searches due to the tea-cosy element.

4) Recorder notes to old house

One of the more unusual requests but none the less, they found their way to, 'Notes on a Recorder to Notes on a Scandal'.

5) Bird paintings by Robin Hill

This final search left me a little baffled as the unsuspecting researcher landed on five different blog posts, none of which I can really figure out. So if any of you can offer up a theory then feel free to leave a comment!

i) 'Classical Guitar Sound Waves...'

ii) 'Monet for Nothing...'

iii) 'An Eerie Quiet in Hillhouse'

iv) 'Domenico Scarlatti and the Honky Tonk Piano - Revisited'

v) 'The Many and Varied Uses of Savarez Guitar Strings...'

Shame (Flute) about the African Nose Trumpet

I haven't as yet been able to establish why, but in the last few days there have been a number of new visitors here from America, all arriving at the same page.

They found their way to a post I ran back in October 2007, called, The Shame Flute, which you can read here.

Whether there has recently been a radio or T.V. programme featuring the said flute, I'm not sure, but whatever the source, the interest has spanned from coast to coast.
But I am very pleased to welcome all new visitors and hope you enjoy the Hillhouse experience!

This got me thinking about unusual and interesting facts connected to instruments, so, I did a bit of research.

Did you know, for example, that the flutes used by Inca chieftains were made from the arms and shinbones of their captured foes?
Worth remembering next time you happen to be asked to play one.

Or that drums on the island of Timor are carved in the shape of a human torso, because an ancient tribal hero could imitate the sound of the drum by thumping his chest.

Finally, that the national instrument of Polynesia is the nose flute, which is played with one nostril.

This last point reminds me of a rather harrowing time our eldest child recently had.
He was being interviewed for a place at senior school, by the headmaster.
This, as you can imagine, is a stressful situation for an 11 year old, especially when shown an unusual object and asked to guess what it was.

Poor son was at a complete loss.
He'd never seen the item before, and correctly surmised that he was being tested on his lateral thinking.
After much examination, and soul searching, he still had no idea, so decided to try injecting a little humour.
"It's an African nose trumpet," he declared.
Their was no response from the headmaster, and I spent the next few days reassuring son number one, that his response had been acceptable given his family background. (By that I mean musical and not raving mad...)

Anyway, he starts at the school in September, so I assume he either guessed correctly, and the item was in fact an African nose trumpet, or, and more likely, the head 'overlooked' the attempt at humour and dismissed it as youthful high spirits...