Thanks! :-) And I totally agree, I should have included that! The luthier does a lot of work for the player in ways that aren't applicable to other instruments.... That is an excellent way to explain it. I confess: I Made a couple takes to try and get it down to under 10 minutes. Haha. still failed.

I do actually. I haven't had the opportunity to try one myself as I am in Europe and they don't really trickle in here. But from what I have heard from the good American players and what I can tell from recordings and pictures: Altarwind produces mediocre to poor instruments unfortunately. They are known to have design flaws that compromise playability and spotty quality control that is partly caused by them just working way too fast. They are unnecessarily heavy, do not sound fantastic due to very heavy bracing and thick soundboards and are not really reliable or comfortable to play. They will get you playing so if you can get one super cheap and you're looking at a 2 year waiting list for a for a forever gurdy, you can consider it but I would not buy them for anything close to full price. They cost about as much as a high quality European instrument and the work they deliver for that is in my opinion not up to standard.

@@Folkskelet oh, thank you so much for the great advice! i'll look elsewhere for the time being.

Thanks for your nice reply,I know a uk hurdy gurdy maker named nigel eaton use to make a small hurdy gurdy historical copy, furey model I think,guitar shaped for smaller hands etc. I think it was designed originally for children but I'm not sure, some musical instruments cater for juniors eg. violins,but I'm not sure about hurdy gurdys, I suppose they have to be custom built depending on the style.

Hi, I am going to try again, I think the app ate my reply. I don't know a lot about the different types of dwarfism aside from that it is a spectrum so I cannot really comment on specifics but you have a lot of options and I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to play gurdy. I know of several disabled gurdy players with some alterations to their instrument. You just have to figure out your needs by trying some instruments and work with luthier and even if you don't want to go custom: There are slim instruments, copies of historical gurdies for children, a couple minimalist/travel gurdies that might work beautifully without any alterations.

@@lightningspirit2166 Nigel Eaton is the son of Chris Eaton who is a retired gurdy maker. If you're in the UK, Chris Allen has some petite instruments and maybe Joel Traunecker in France is a nice one. He has a a very tiny minimal.gurdy that is totally ace and I remember a 3/4 size of his study model if I am not mistaken...

@@Folkskelet thanks for your detailed response,it's good to share such info for all abled bodied types,and encourage hurdy gurdy playing for all,🌸 bless.