S q u e e z y t u n e s

Second Life Harpsichord

If had time for a Second Life I'd definitely buy a harpsichord - especially at only $2.25.

Olivia Ruiz

I don't know anything about Olivia Ruiz except I think she is French. Still this is song is well worth seeing. Does anyone know any more ?

Spinets in Suffolk

Back in September I went to an auction. But not just any old auction, this was at a stately home which was being sold (for £15 million) and the entire contents were being auction by Sotheby's (the worlds oldest international auction house).

Actually I didn't go to the actual auction itself, I just attended one of the viewing days. This meant we got really close up to all the exquisite objects - sit in the chairs, jump on the beds, rattle the silver and best of all - play the musical instruments !

Sadly there were only two instruments, the first being this extremely cute little spinet.

Unfortunately every single one of the strings was broken so no sound was forthcoming. It was a lovely little thing though, and had an estimate of £4000.

Next though was this handsome bentside spinet in fairly good working order. Most of the keys worked and some of them were in tune too so I was able to have a bit of a tinkle. The keyboard felt absolutely wonderful and the sound was too. This was a real quality instrument. The estimate was for £15,000 - £20,000 though so I didn't bother putting a bid in ! What a pleasure though to have a go on such a beast.

Virtual Pipe Organ

Continuing the series of virtual instruments available to buy on the virtual 3D world Second Life how about a gothic pipe organ ? A bargain at just $3.42 !

I'd love to hear from any people who 'play' Second Life and have any of these instruments.

Virtual Accordions

I'm not sure that I understand Second Life, it seems to be a virtual 3D world in which people  wander around as avatars.  There's a good article in Wikipedia, but to be honest I don't have enough time for real life let alone having a second one as well.

One thing that is interesting though is that you can buy musical instruments for your avatar, and even perform live.  There are quite a number of interesting virtual instruments available from a few different builders and I'll feature some of them next week. Here though is possibly the world's first virtual accordion.

Link: Second Life on Wikipedia
Link: Accordions for sale on Second Life Exchange Marketplace