Get Started Building Your Own Instrument

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Odd, Unusual, and Downright Weird Instrument Links

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Look to the Past For New Sounds

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Cool Percussion Instrument

The Hapi drum is a tuned percussion instrument that you tap to have it chime sweet notes. You can try it out virtually to see how it sounds. They come in pentatonic scales for their standard tunings, although other uncommon tunings are available. I would love to get my hands on one. It seems to me that it would be a great instrument to jam around on.

Check out the Hapi drum …

 

Instrument Causes Insanity?

Ah, the glass armonica. Is there ever a more pleasantly haunting sound? For those that are unfamiliar with this weird and wonderful instrument it is a super-duper, glass-rub-o-matic, Ben Franklin special. You see, old Benny had the brilliant idea of automating the whole rubbing the rim of a wine glass trick by skewering a bunch of glass bowls and spinning the whole thing like a musical rotisserie.

Try playing one yourself… virtually at least. The Franklin Institute has a fun little online armonica to play around with. But to truly get a sense of what it can do mosey on down to YouTube and just look at any of the dozens of videos of Thomas Bloch working it.

You can hardly ever mention the glass armonica on the net without people going on about lead. See, the glass armoninca has gained a reputation for causing insanity and other forms of psychic distress. The popular explanation among commentboard posters is that lead poisoning is to blame.

There are several reasons why I would discount this theory. First thing is to look at is the supposed vectors of lead transmission. Two possible sources of lead contamination on the armonica are in the paint and the glass. While paint was originally used on the bowls to distinguish the notes, gold banding replaced this practice some years before the armonica fell out of fashion. Paint was used in roughly the first 30 years of the armonica’s existence, a time when it enjoyed immense popularity.  Aside from this, the paint (if indeed it were lead paint at all) would be painted on the inside of the bowls as the whole point of the armonica is that you’re rubbing glass, not paint. The other supposed vector of lead poisoning, the lead in the crystal, is just as unlikely. While it has been shown that lead does leech out of lead glassware, the effect is most pronounced with acidic liquids, and long storage periods. The water an armonica player uses on their fingers is unlikely to leech out a substantial amount of lead, and while we all know musicians love to party, I doubt many armonicas were converted to champagne fountains.

Next we should take a look at the symptoms of lead poisoning. We must concentrate on the symptoms that appear in adults, as it is unlikely that there were many child armonica players. We also must confine ourselves to looking at the symptoms which manifest behaviorally which are: irritability, sleeplessness, nervousness,  and loss of appetite. Even if all these symptoms were present in one individual it would hardly seem like insanity brought on by the spooky tones of a weird instrument.  Moreover, these symptoms would not present themselves in the audience (having not been in physical contact with the armonica) who would presumably be as equally affected by the strange tones of the armonica as the player. Also we must consider the immediacy of the symptoms. The onset of lead poisoning through the culmination of what little one might ingest from trace amounts left on one’s fingers after playing the armonica would take many, many years of exposure. Because the effect would be so far removed from the cause, I doubt many would actually come to blame the resulting cluster of symptoms on the armonica.

I suspect that, as is typical of humans, people are seeing causality where none exists. Both in blaming the armonica for ill effects, and in pointing the finger at lead poisoning. The timbre of the armonica was once described as ‘celestial’. Just one listen and you’re sure to agree that it possesses an other-worldly sound. This makes it very easy for superstitions to grow around it, and become the target of blame for events that are synchronous yet otherwise random.

Check out Finkenbeine’s page on the Glass Armonica if you want more information or to purchase one.

 

You Put Your Violin Where?!?

Here’s an interesting thing you can do with a cane, play music on it. I came across in my web travels this wonderful gadget cane whereupon a working violin was stuffed into a cane. Now I can’t attest to the sound of it (though I have dug up video on youtube of a Pochette Fiddle which is very much related to a violin cane in size, and no doubt timbre), I’m sure the it’ll do in a pinch for when, say, you’re in a fiddle contest with Satan. Having a fiddle stowed away on person for such occasions could be a life saver. This whole business reminds me of The Steel General in Roger Zelazny’s “Creatures of Light and Darkness” who had a collapsable banjo that fit into a compartment where his heart used to be.

For the perversely curious here are some gorgeous pictures of a mid-19th century violin-cane. Also here is some information on the history and use of these canes. As well here are some more pictures of another such cane.

 

How Can You Live In an Instrument?

Continuing on the theme of an earlier post on unsual instruments here is this awesome musical house. It seems that someone decided to make their house into an instrument, or a house sized instrument depending on your perspective.

All the Architectural instruments are based around strings. The Architecture becomes the structure, bridge and resonator for these giant stringed instruments. Specially developed brass wire and piano wires are used as “the strings” of the instruments. The use of long string technologies developed by Bill Close allow for the instruments to be architectural in scale. The complex patterns of strings are extension of the architectural lines of the house and become an integral part of the visual experience.

 

Extreme Instruments

It’s been a while dear readers. I’ve had a lion’s share of my time taken by the arrival of my second offspring. But I’m here now to serve some music goodness.

I’ve found some wonderful examples of instrument making gone amok (much of it having to do with scale, hehe). For instance a real playable tiny grand piano or a giant accordian. If the size of an instrument is important to you, you might be interested to put something that is 36 inches to your mouth. If that’s not enough for you this one is 41 inches and requires two people to blow it. Still want more? Here’s a horn that needs 6 midgets to blow it.

There’s also the freaky instruments contingent. This guy built a giant bass banjo. In fact, for a whole whack of fun and wild instruments check out the gallery of www.oddmusic.com. This one looks like a metal horn of plenty spewing forth musical goodness. Speaking of the horn of plenty, ever wonder what vegetables sound like? Look no further the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra. They play instruments carved from all manners of veggy goodness. The Harpejji is apparently what happens when you smoosh a piano and a guitar together. And this is what happens when you mix a Hurdy-Gurdy with Furbies. Maybe some instruments just shouldn’t be made, but how fun would the music world be if no one tried to do weird and wonderful things.

 

DIY Musical Mayhem

For those with a DIY bent, Instructables.com has a group devoted to audio projects. While there are many projects related to iPod speakers, there are some projects more related to music production. Take the Looper for instance. Many a time when I’m diddling on the guitar I come up with a lick I’d like to expand upon. It’s a bit of work getting set up to record, then edit on my computer just to loop a lick so I can jam over it. I don’t want to break the mood, I’d rather just stomp on a button to punch in and out then continue on vamping. Check out the cool Bass stick too. Making your own instrument is an awesome way to bring fresh creativity to your music as you try to find a place for it in the songs you compose.

 

Build Your Own Instrument

For all those interested in building your own instrument visit Harp Kit. They have all sorts of kits and plans available for a myriad of traditional instruments. Harps, dulcimers, banjos, even a Hurdy Gurdy! I wouldn’t mind picking up a guitar kit so that I could build a fretless guitar to experiment with.

http://www.harpkit.com