I found that my canjo only stays in tune if it is laying flat -- picking it up and playing it like a guitar either muffles or moves the can resonator, or both. To solve this, I found a small block of scrap 2 by 4, cut that in half using a miter box and hand saw then put those under the thing to make legs.
This makes it a table top instrument which engages all of my stabilizing and movement muscles in my hands and arms in different ways -- some of that variety which I hear is the spice of live and all that.
I should back up a bit. As I recently decided to learn music and started doing my research, it seemed like simple string instruments -- one to three strings -- were the way to go. I do love minimalism and I had dreams of a minimal musical system with home made cigar box guitars and a recorder to use to tune them -- and, you know, play songs on. I have just a set up now, but in my enthusiasm for the idea got my wife wanting a keyboard, which led me to almost buying one until we told my mother-in-law which prompted her to ask us to take her old keyboard off her hands. For under $20, I now have four instruments I am learning to play -- flat canjo, one string guitar, recorder, and keyboard. I can play "Mary had a Little Lamb" on all of them. If my friends could see me now . . .
I have made a curated YouTube playlist with some videos about three string, two string, and one string instruments. I am shooting for this being my last time on YouTube for a while, unless I am searching for something and it comes up as the most plausible way to learn.
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Beginning to put up shelves in the garage to get it organized. But it is a massive Tetris problem to create enough room to work to set up the first shelve unit. But once that is done, I should be able to clear up enough space to make the other one much easier.
