#and shakuahchi is really fucking hard

[legobiwan]

I was going through your musician tags the other day and wondered which instruments you think The Lineage would possibly play? Let's make that the extended lineage, from Yoda to Ahsoka, including Rael.

Ohhhhh hahahahah first of all, I am so sorry anyone has to deal with my #musicianbullshit although the first thing about being a musician is bullshit, obviously. :D

I had a post a while back concerning my opinions on what instrument Dooku played, but I can’t seem to find it. Damn it, Tumblr!

Anyway, I’m going to assume non-gffa, real-life instruments because there are a lot of instruments in Wookieepedia and without knowing them, their mechanisms, their history, etc. intimately, I can’t make a sound value judgment (ha! that was a pun) as to how they would or would not fit with our favorite lineage.

Yoda: So the first thing we need to take into account with Yoda is his physical stature. He is not a large being, so he’s probably not going to play cello or any other instrument that requires wide breadth of motion. We need a small instrument, handheld and I think the perfect match for Yoda would be the mbira (sometimes referred to as a kalimba or a thumb-piano):

Hand-held, its range is limited, between an octave (8) and 23 tones. But within these limitations, the mbira can be re-tuned to different sonorities, or modes depending on the type affect one wants with the instrument and if one deals in microtones (not half and whole steps, which are the foundation for the Western classical canon but by no means the only tuning system out there), then the permutations get pretty exciting. In addition, using two hands, there are nearly limitless variations for polyrhythm, for instance, playing a duple with the left hand and triplet in the right. (A simple example.) And I think this fits Yoda perfectly because the instrument itself is so self-contained and yet has so many possibilities that belie its appearance, much like Yoda himself, and I think he would enjoy the challenge of creating new music within the physical limitations of the instrument.

Dooku: So I have no idea where that post went with my original Dooku idea, but what do we know about Dooku? A proud man with a strong connection to his Serennian ancestry and someone who is deeply interested in history. He’s a student of Yoda, so his instrument needs to connect in some way to him, but be distinct, aesthetic, and as non-tangible as possible. So in my mind, Dooku would play the hammered dulcimer.

The hammered dulcimer requires a deft hand, accuracy, and an awareness of the heft and location of each strike of the string. In this way, it resembles the finesse of the Makashi form, and I can’t imagine Dooku playing a “messy” instrument that would require him to use his fingers, hands, or even mouth (Force forbid). In this way, he can create, but keep a distance. In addition, the instruments themselves can be works of art, as shown above, which is in keeping with Dooku’s aristocratic bent and his appreciation for high aesthetics. The instrument itself is interesting, in that it is versatile, like Yoda’s mbira, in terms of the tuning and potential for polyrhythm, but with more strings come more possibilities, overwhelming possibilities, at times, and a traditionally Western-tuned dulcimer never quite encompasses the entire chromatic scale (the 12 notes spanning an octave), which somehow seems to fit Dooku. In addition, it’s an instrument with strong ties to folk traditions in Europe and Asia, but also has quite the reputation in Appalachia. This kind of fits with Serenno’s status in the GFFA, an Outer Rim world with strong traditions. The sound is quite haunting, quite beautiful, and I can imagine Dooku by himself in his large office, moon shining through tall transparisteel windows, playing an ancient Serennian folk tune.

Rael: Ohhh, Rael. Down home country-boy from Ringo-Vinda. I may be playing into some stereotypes here, but I really think Rael is suited towards the banjo.

Of course, many of us associate the banjo with the country, with folk music, which seems in keeping with Rael’s background on Ringo-Vinda and his whole “cowboy Jedi” aesthetic. What I also like about Rael and the banjo is that it is portable, it sticks in the string family in keeping with Dooku, and it is a much more complicated instrument than it is sometimes given credit for. The banjo can be an incredibly virtuosic instrument in the right hands, and I would have no doubt that an older Rael wouldn’t mind showing off to a few people in in the local cantina, all while keeping up his “image” as the displaced, country boy Jedi. 

Qui-gon: Qui-gon, on the other hand, doesn’t care about showing off. Because he is the second student of Dooku and had close contact with Rael, I can see him sticking in the string family, but with an instrument both more challenging and more esoteric. I feel like the Erhu would be a good fit for Qui-gon. 

Like Rael, Qui-gon would want to play something more visceral, more involved. The erhu is vaguely reminiscent of a violin or cello except that it has only two strings and a more mellow, almost human-voice than most western string instruments. Capable of great slides a wide range of emotions, the erhu easily flits from somber to gay, an all-encompassing disposition which fits well with Qui-gon’s preoccupation with the Unifying Force and all that lies within. 

Obi-wan: Unlike Qui-gon, Obi-wan has no desire to play a stringed instrument, likely because he once saw his Master with his erhu and decidedly immediately he needed to pick something else. In fact, a young Obi-wan may not have played anything at all. But we know from A Certain Point of View that Obi-wan does carpentry, so he is good with his hands and, I imagine, quite exacting in what he makes as that would seem to fit his personality. And because of this, I think he’d play some sort of flute (I know, I know, but I swear this isn’t self-indulgent nonsense, hang with me here a sec), as he could fashion one for himself easily from wood, or even bamboo. And I like the idea of Obi-wan playing (and making) a shakuhachi as a) it’s very difficult to make a good one and b) the damn instrument is hard to play well. 

There is a long history of breath-meditation in connection with the shakuhachi, not to mention its use by the wandering komusō (“priests of nothingness,” or “emptiness monks”) in Ashikaga Japan, which is very much in line with Obi-wan’s later exile on Tatooine. (Not to mention that some komuso were disguised former samurai and some sources said the bell of the shakuhachi was made thick and heavy enough to be used as a weapon. Again, this feels very much like Obi-wan on Tatooine and I can imagine him whittling away in the Dune Sea, creating some form of this instrument, doing breath meditation as he tries to heal, an outcast monk, now having nothing except his one duty to protect Luke.)

Anakin: Anakin, as we know, grew up a slave on Tatooine. While the cantinas boasted third-rate jizz bands (I will never be over that term), a little slave-boy is not going to have access to any kind of fancy instrument or training. But a little boy’s well-meaning mother might gift him with a small pendant, a piece of desert ceramic, perhaps, with small, weathered holes.

A small, unobtrusive ocarina, sweet little desert sounds for little fingers at the end of a long day. 

Ahsoka: And then finally Ahsoka. She’s an interesting case as she would probably have inherited the wind predilection from Obi-wan and Anakin, but a subset of Togruta were accomplished artisans, so I could see Ahsoka going for an instrument a little more complicated and technical than either Obi-wan or Anakin. And, to be honest, I could see Ahsoka having a “let’s start a band” phase at some point in the Temple. So because of this, I think she would play some iteration of melodica. 

Perhaps a melodica is starter instrument for the Togruta people, as it is in some countries in this galaxy. Easy to pick up, the melodica is at once strident and able to cross multiple musical boundaries, and I can very see Ahsoka accompanying some ribald vod drinking songs with the instrument, much to the delight of Rex and the others.