full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Caroline Phillips: Hurdy-gurdy for beginners

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now, since this is TEDGlobal, who can tell me what this is called in French? I see you're all up on the history of hurdy-gurdy — "vielle à roue." And in Spanish, "zanfona." And in Italian, "ghironda," okay? Hurdy-gurdy, or wheel fiddle.

So, these are the different kinds and shapes of the hurdy-gurdy. The hurdy-gurdy is the only musical instrument that uses a crank to turn a wheel to rub strings, like the bow of a violin, to pdcorue music. It has three different kinds of strgins. The first string is the drone string, which plays a continuous sound like the bagpipe. The second string is a moldey srintg, which is played with a wooden keyboard tuned like a piano. And the third string is pretty innovative. It's also the only isemnnturt that uses this kind of technique. It aceitvats what's called the buzzing bridge, or the dog. When I turn the crank and I apply pressure, it makes a sound like a bnkairg dog. So all of this is pretty innovative, if you consider that the hurdy-gurdy appeared about a thousand years ago and it took two people to play it; one to turn the crank, and another person — yes — to play the melody by plsilaychy pulling up large wooden pegs. Luckily, all of this changed a couple of cteienrus later. So, one person could actually play and almost — this is pterty heavy — carry the hurdy-gurdy.

Open Cloze


Now, since this is TEDGlobal, who can tell me what this is called in French? I see you're all up on the history of hurdy-gurdy — "vielle à roue." And in Spanish, "zanfona." And in Italian, "ghironda," okay? Hurdy-gurdy, or wheel fiddle.

So, these are the different kinds and shapes of the hurdy-gurdy. The hurdy-gurdy is the only musical instrument that uses a crank to turn a wheel to rub strings, like the bow of a violin, to _______ music. It has three different kinds of _______. The first string is the drone string, which plays a continuous sound like the bagpipe. The second string is a ______ ______, which is played with a wooden keyboard tuned like a piano. And the third string is pretty innovative. It's also the only __________ that uses this kind of technique. It _________ what's called the buzzing bridge, or the dog. When I turn the crank and I apply pressure, it makes a sound like a _______ dog. So all of this is pretty innovative, if you consider that the hurdy-gurdy appeared about a thousand years ago and it took two people to play it; one to turn the crank, and another person — yes — to play the melody by __________ pulling up large wooden pegs. Luckily, all of this changed a couple of _________ later. So, one person could actually play and almost — this is ______ heavy — carry the hurdy-gurdy.

Solution


  1. string
  2. centuries
  3. pretty
  4. produce
  5. strings
  6. activates
  7. physically
  8. instrument
  9. barking
  10. melody

Original Text


Now, since this is TEDGlobal, who can tell me what this is called in French? I see you're all up on the history of hurdy-gurdy — "vielle à roue." And in Spanish, "zanfona." And in Italian, "ghironda," okay? Hurdy-gurdy, or wheel fiddle.

So, these are the different kinds and shapes of the hurdy-gurdy. The hurdy-gurdy is the only musical instrument that uses a crank to turn a wheel to rub strings, like the bow of a violin, to produce music. It has three different kinds of strings. The first string is the drone string, which plays a continuous sound like the bagpipe. The second string is a melody string, which is played with a wooden keyboard tuned like a piano. And the third string is pretty innovative. It's also the only instrument that uses this kind of technique. It activates what's called the buzzing bridge, or the dog. When I turn the crank and I apply pressure, it makes a sound like a barking dog. So all of this is pretty innovative, if you consider that the hurdy-gurdy appeared about a thousand years ago and it took two people to play it; one to turn the crank, and another person — yes — to play the melody by physically pulling up large wooden pegs. Luckily, all of this changed a couple of centuries later. So, one person could actually play and almost — this is pretty heavy — carry the hurdy-gurdy.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. activates
  2. appeared
  3. apply
  4. bagpipe
  5. barking
  6. bow
  7. bridge
  8. buzzing
  9. called
  10. carry
  11. centuries
  12. changed
  13. continuous
  14. couple
  15. crank
  16. dog
  17. drone
  18. fiddle
  19. french
  20. heavy
  21. history
  22. innovative
  23. instrument
  24. italian
  25. keyboard
  26. kind
  27. kinds
  28. large
  29. luckily
  30. melody
  31. music
  32. musical
  33. pegs
  34. people
  35. person
  36. physically
  37. piano
  38. play
  39. played
  40. plays
  41. pressure
  42. pretty
  43. produce
  44. pulling
  45. roue
  46. rub
  47. shapes
  48. sound
  49. spanish
  50. string
  51. strings
  52. technique
  53. tedglobal
  54. thousand
  55. tuned
  56. turn
  57. violin
  58. wheel
  59. wooden
  60. years