The Hurdy Gurdy

It is a musical instrument belonging to the family of the rubbed chordophones, very widespread in European popular music with numerous variants in different regions and times. Possibly derived from the organistrum of the tenth century.The hurdy-gurdy resembles a mechanical violin in which several strings vibrate by the friction of a coiled wheel (located in the instrument's sound box) that rotates thanks to a handlebar or crank.3The notes change when you press the keys of a keyboard equipped with a few spades that shorten the melodic string. The common hurdy-gurdy has two or three melodic strings or singers, from which several notes (about two octaves of a piano) are obtained, and two or three strings (strings) at the sides, which emit a single note. This sustained note independent of the melody is what has earned him the nickname of bagpipe zamorana or poor, due to the sustained note given by the bass drum (pipe) of the bagpipes, and because of this peculiarity is interchangeable by the bagpipe in many popular music styles, especially in France and Hungary. The current hurdles can have 23 strings, grouped into four categories: melodic, bass, rhythmic (or trumpets) and sympathetic (which vibrate without having to come into resonance)