The Alan Sondheim Mail Archive

Hi - I've used Blender for years and love it. I was just offered the 
Blender Master Class book for review which I accepted; it's from No Starch 
Press, which I have a lot of respect for (as well as use their book). 
Anyway, they're offering a discount as follows -


P.S. In case you'd like to let anyone know, we're running a promotion 
through February 28 for 40% off the book when people buy direct from our 
site (print books come with DRM-free ebooks). The coupon code is 
WILLITBLEND. Here's a link to the deal and a link to our tweet -

http://nostar.ch/Blender_promo

https://twitter.com/nostarch/status/304671309122637824

(This is Alan again - You might want to order an early copy which is 
relatively cheap.  I find the new Blender interface difficult so I'm 
excited to get this (I loved the early hacking versions, as well as the 
menu-driven 'traditional' ones).

- Thanks for looking, Alan

sung lisu studies

http://lounge.espdisk.com/archives/1055 (best)

http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/lisu1.mp3
http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/lisu2.mp3

two sung lisu studies with different scales
and techniques, but with similar fingerings.
the instrument is northern Thai, similar to
shamisen but with three wire strings, each
the same guage - so that tension alone
determines the tuning. i have two consonant
strings, and one a fourth higher, resulting
in the possibility of a drone and two
strings fingered, or oddly, the consonant
strings fingered differently so that the
result is a strange chording - in this case
everything depends on the finger reach. the
sung lisu is a wonderful instrument to play
- there are no frets and the neck is long
and thin; see
http://www.alansondheim.org/sunglisu.jpg
for a picture. i found the instrument in
an antique flea market in Colorado, without
a bridge or pick, but otherwise in perfect
condition.