HOW MANY STRINGS DOES A ZITHER HAVE?

  From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

        DAY  USA  WORLD   Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9    1093     4732       1185        246       82

July    22     1205     7128        1293      1120      572

Aug    12     1504     6556        1242       835      130

Sept     9     1208      6222       1136      1168       82

Oct     21     1225      6849         571       703       85

Nov    25     2304    12025        620       518      118

Dec    30     3880    14748       1224       299     465

Jan     14       4142    15512        1151        189      712              

Feb      3       4005   14265       1209       107     398

          17         2537   11383        1195         89      165 

          23        2404   10293       1370       100     263

                  24        2525   10814        1433       144      110

Summary:  Somewhat stabilized, but better than early in the month.  The USA still had 75,299 new COVID-19 cases yesterday.

From the New York Times:

Here’s a useful way to think about Israel’s numbers: Only 3.5 out of every 100,000 people vaccinated there were later hospitalized with Covid symptoms. During a typical flu season in the U.S., by comparison, roughly 150 out of every 100,000 people are hospitalized with flu symptoms.

And yet the seasonal flu does not grind life to a halt. It does not keep people from flying on airplanes, eating in restaurants, visiting their friends or going to school and work.

Nursing home deaths have plummeted.  Seems to be related to early vaccinations. World daily new cases are also definitely declining: Like the two vaccines that are already being administered in the U.S. — from Moderna and Pfizer — Johnson & Johnson’s eliminated both death and hospitalization in its research trial: About 20,000 people received the vaccine in the trial, and not a single one was hospitalized with Covid-19 symptoms a month later. Further: J&J vaccine needs only one shot. Can be stored in a standard refrigerator.  The Pfizer version needs to be kept at minus 94 degrees F, and Moderna's at minus 4 F. While Pfizer and Moderna effectiveness is well above 90%, J&J is at around 66%.  The selling point is that it is 85%  effective in preventing serious cases. This is old info (August 2020), but J&J vaccines are cheaper (while free to most, someone is paying for them): Moderna:  $32 to $37 per dose (so needs to be doubled) Pfizer:  $19.50 per dose (so needs to be doubled) J&J:  $10 per dose....so cheaper by a factor of 7.5 compared to Moderna and 3.8 compared to Pfizer Note that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is even cheaper, but needs two doses, so about equal equal to J&J. Finally, again from the New York Times: A Morning read: No flat map of our round world can be perfect, but a new one aims to be better.

I don't play any instruments so have almost no knowledge about them.  I do know that a ukulele has four strings, and so does a violin and cello. 

This morning I was watching Classic Arts Showcase with Anton Karas playing The Third Man Theme on a zither, and I saw a whole lot of strings.   Did you know that a European zither can have 30 or 40 strings?  But 16 in Vietnam, and up to 70 in a country or two.

Maybe the earliest string instrument is the lute, which goes back to 3100 BC.  Started with maybe 4 strings, went up to 10 by the Renaissance, then 19 during the Baroque era, and now can be found up to 35 strings.  Peter Paul Rubens painted Lute Player in 1610.

Want to know what materials are used to make strings?  You can buy a handbook for the details.  Plus, many are wound and have other intricate designs.  However, here are some examples:

• Synthetic like nylon.
• Metals, nickel, steel, aluminum, etc.
• Gut
• intestines of animals, with sheep wrapped with silver or copper wire prominent in the past
• a whole range of other animals have been used
• rarely from cats

• 
  horsehair is still used for violins, but only dead horses from cold climates, and can cost up to $8000 per bow
• should not be cut from a live horse because it is used to shoo away flying insects, which can suck a cup of blood without the tail and leave diseases
• can be longer than 4 feet and weight, when dried, 25 pounds from just one horse
• note that most animals have a tail...for that reason

A harp has 47 strings, with 7 pedals.  Pedals?  Plus some strings are colored:

• C strings are red.
• F strings are black or dark blue
• All other strings are white or without color.

In the Orient, the Japanese koto (left, sometimes also considered to be a zither) has 13 strings, Chinese zheng 21 strings and Korean kayagum 12 strings.  The Japanese samisen has three strings and the Chinese erhu two.

The American diddley bow has only one string.  The banjo came to the U.S. from Africa, and  started with 4 strings, went up to 5, and the popular version today has 6, although the more proficient go up to one with 10 strings.  There is also a 12-string banjo.

While the 6-string guitar is the most popular, the bass guitar has only four, or five.  Then, you can find guitars with 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 18, 20 and 36.  The mandolin has 8 strings, although 10 and 12 versions can also be found.  The Russian balalaika only has three.

The piano is quite complicated, with 88 keys, but usually around 230 strings, although some go up to 330.  It can be considered to be both a string and percussion instrument.  I've never quite been able to understand how this works, because I've never taken a real music course, but the white keys represent musical tones A, B, C, D, E, F and G, while the black keys are half-step intervals, known as sharps and flats, between notes.  Together, they make up the 12 notes, called an octave.

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