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10 Jan 99 - 10:11 PM (#53300) Subject: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Duane D. I'm a fairly new Mudcatter and I don't know if this thread has come up before, but I was wondering if there are any other collectors/players of unusual musical instruments out there. When I first started going to folk activities around 1970, dulcimers, both hammered and fretted were considered rare in my locale. I own and play, among other things, a bowed psaltry and a pianolin. (The pianolin was made by the Marxochime Colony Instruments Co. of New Troy, Michigan.) |
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10 Jan 99 - 10:36 PM (#53303) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Ralph Butts My daughter has been fiddling around with a nose flute....Tiger |
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10 Jan 99 - 10:37 PM (#53304) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: gargoyle I suppose "strangness" is in the "eye of the beholder."
Those unfamilar with them - consider my "jew's harps" rather pecular....to most the rest it is "ordinary."
I'd be curious to know if there are any "bowed-saw" players out there....from childhood I've had a hankering to give a fiddle bow a try on a saw.
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10 Jan 99 - 11:40 PM (#53310) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Dan Keding Spoons. Not metal ones, wooden ones, made from red oak or osage orange. Just not into heavy metal folk. Dan |
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11 Jan 99 - 02:06 AM (#53339) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Sandy Paton C'mon, Art! 'Fess up! We all know you play a magnificent musical saw, and we deserve to hear all of the various types of tunes you've mastered. Dave Para plays the heck out of a leaf. I tried to learn the technique, but barely managed a squeak. I do play a pretty mean Limberjack, though, and a killer comb. Sandy |
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11 Jan 99 - 07:57 AM (#53373) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Big Mick Alright, Foster (as in Alan of Australia), it's time for you to come out of the bush and tell 'em about the lagerphone. You won't believe this one folks. ***grin***. I am going to build the Gun Lake version once I can walk the woods again to find the proper stick. So I am busy over the winter just collecting the beer caps. Confused? Alan will have to explain it. Mick Lane |
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11 Jan 99 - 09:57 AM (#53387) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Hank Well, I said a month or so ago in the insterments I'd like to learn but won't thread that the saw was on the list. Well, I've started to learn it. I was at a party with some kids, and a mother who brought her kids from KY was there and bowed a saw blade. She was good. Afterwords we all had to try it, and I was about the best at it. So now I'm looking for a cheep bow (and rosin) so I can start with my own blades. Nobody belived the mom above when she suggested you can play the spoons, except me, since I've done it more then once. So I had to get some (and one of her kids who was pretty good at them) and demonstraight. I'm gonna have to try the wooden spoon trick, I never though of it, but I too am not into heavy metal and maybe the wooded sound would be better for me. :) I'd like to learn a jews harp, but don't know what they look like even, much less where to get one. I've heard some recordings though and they sound neat. And air piano is anouther strange one. People do air guitar all the time, but on a recient trip I got a lot of smiles from other cars as I played air piano all the way. And the best part is I've never hit a wrong note yet! I wouldn't even attempt the songs on a real piano. To be honest, most people I know would consider my mandolin in the strange insterments catagory too. I love it though, and know that many of my fellow catters consider it the true staple of music that it is. |
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11 Jan 99 - 11:21 AM (#53404) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Mike Billo I've played the saw for years. Great fun. There is an annual Saw Players festival in Roaring Camp CA near Santa Cruz(music on the cutting edge that you can really sink your teeth into). I also play the bones, and my wife plays the spoons and washboard. We maintain a "how to get started" on these folk percussion instruments website at http://home.earthlink.net/~mbillo/ please visit. |
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11 Jan 99 - 11:22 AM (#53405) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Art Thieme STAR WARS METAL LUNCHBOX MOUNTAIN DULCIMER I've made a mountain dulcimer out of a Star Wars lunchbox (metal) fitted with a fretboard/neck (wooden). Has 3 strings. Is fretted with staples put into the wood with a regular stapler. (If you get 'em in the wrong place, and the intonation is wrong, you can simply pull 'em out by inserting a screwdriver under the staple and gently prying. Then (by ear) put another one in again. Do that while the one fretted string (the first string) is in it's proper place so you can check the intonation right away. I've also put an electric pickup on it & used it in school show for 22 years to show kids that we, like the pioneers, can STILL make music using what we have all around us. They did it from necessity. We do it for fun and for levity. Art |
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11 Jan 99 - 11:41 AM (#53418) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Susan-Marie I spent some time living in west Africa (Gabon) and got a harp made from antelope skin and wood. There's a head carved into the top of the body of the harp and the player is supposed to put his/her ear to the head's ear while playing. The gut strings are tuned to a scale missing "do". I just mess around on it for fun but I'm thinking someone in Mudcat can tell me why the tuning is missing "do" - is this a special kind of tuning? There are eight strings tuned to re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, re, mi. Any ideas? |
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11 Jan 99 - 05:20 PM (#53489) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bob Bolton G'day Duane and All,
With a particular interest in improvised traditions in Australian Bush Music, I have dabbled .. and often specialised ... in: Regards, Bob Bolton
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11 Jan 99 - 05:53 PM (#53492) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bill Cameron Lagerphone, eh? Crutch tip? I know it,slightly different, as a "Newfie boot", and of course it has an old rubber boot at the bottom. When not in play, it can be erected boot-end up to make a distinctive standard for your festival campsite. ("Just look for the boot".) Bill |
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11 Jan 99 - 05:56 PM (#53493) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Barbara KELPHORN a dried piece of bull kelp from the beach with ends cut after drying. Mouthpiece in the small end, hole in the ball makes a bell. Makes a shofar-like sound, and like other instruments, can get limp from too much playing with. Also have a banjo around here the daughter made at a workshop several years back, made from cardboard (square sounding box) mounted on a lawn sign stake, with tuning pegs pounded into it, bamboo skewer frets and fishing line string. The question is not whether it is a musical instrument, but whether banjoes are. Blessings, Barbara |
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11 Jan 99 - 08:36 PM (#53523) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: M Anderson I play jawharp, bones, noseflute, regular stange stuff. I also play a classical whanger. It's made from a juice can, steel string, and a dowel rod. Great fun, very expressive. I can be a bit sour if you use a grapefruit juice can. Mike Anderson |
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11 Jan 99 - 09:02 PM (#53534) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: dulcimer I use a Stanley Traditional saw, off the hardware shelf, and a used fiddle bow. Rosin the bow and the saw. I hold it at the top with the end of a broom handle; put the saw blade in the slot cut by the saw. For spoons, I'm into walnut spoons designed by MARTIN. |
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12 Jan 99 - 12:10 AM (#53570) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bill D well, occasionally
ukelin, whistles made of stall warning devices for small airplanes..bags & bags of'em(small reeds..set in pink plastic)..each has it's own basic tone, but you can 'lip them up' getting 3-4 notes from each..I guess I have maybe 20,000 to experiment with
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12 Jan 99 - 12:45 AM (#53575) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Alan of Australia G'day, Just for Big Mick, if you click here you will eventually find a link to the Foster's Lagerphone.
Cheers, |
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12 Jan 99 - 01:37 AM (#53585) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Art Thieme I made a PANJO----a 5-string banjo neck on a bedpan---for Cathy fink several years ago. One o' my prized posessions is a photo of Pete Seeger playing it in Cathy's kitchen. It's in a frame on my wall as we speak. Art |
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12 Jan 99 - 04:03 AM (#53599) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: catspaw49 RE: Art's STAR WARS DULCIMER Nice variant on the "stick dulcimer" which a lot of mountain folk used to have if they couldn't afford the travellin' dulcimore maker. I've made a bunch of them with a bean can on the end. Then one day I was finishing a Courtin' Dulcimer and it occured to me, Why not a Courtin' Stick? A 2x4 with coffee cans did the job. Gets a lot of laughs and don't sound bad. catspaw |
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12 Jan 99 - 11:44 AM (#53664) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bill D I saw a photo in an Australian book of songs in a library of 'dulcimer' made of a 5 gallon kerosene tin...single string, fretted, I believe, with a metal bar...giving a sort of Hawaiian sound...like the commercial 'Tremoloa' (sp?)..Anyone else ever see that book? |
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12 Jan 99 - 08:04 PM (#53743) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Banjeray Not really considered all that "strange" is my homemade teardrop lap dulcimer. I'm still in the learning stages I guess, but have worked up nerve on several occasions to play where folks could actually hear me. |
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12 Jan 99 - 09:05 PM (#53760) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Paul Jay Having grown up in the hills of Arkansas I knew a great folk musician named Jimmy Driftwood who played a guitar his father make out of the wood from the wagon seat their family had originally come to Arkansas in. He also played a Mouth Bow which he taught me how to make and play. It's probably on of the oldest types of string insturments in the world. We made ours from a barrel stave sanded down thin and attached a wire through a hole at one end and through the other end onto a tuning peg(friction). One plays it by holding it up to your cheek with your mouth open. You then vary the volume inside your mouth for the "notes". On a good day I can get about 6 or 7. Buffy St.Marie used to play the Native American version of the Mouth Bow on several of her records. |
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12 Jan 99 - 10:15 PM (#53778) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Art Thieme The saw I played was the best one I've ever found. It was made by Clarence Mussehl of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. I bought it from him around 1970. Before that I played a store-bought cheapie---usually better than the thicker ones that were too stiff to bend easily. Clarence ran the Mussehl & Westphal company & started selling his saws in 1921. He passed away in 1986 (I think) at the age of 83. The company still sells the saws. The best one is the 28 inch blade (easier to bend than the 26 inch blade). I've always played mine with a bow made from a curved stick strung with nylon clothesline/cord (thin)--heavily rosined. Send for a list of what's available: MUSSEHL & WESTPHAL----Steve & Mary Kay Dawson-----W0626 Beech Drive-------East Troy, Wisconsin--53120
Sevral kinds of saws are musical: Always run the bow over the straight edge of the saw. (The other side always plays sharp.) Art |
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12 Jan 99 - 10:39 PM (#53781) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: catspaw49 Can't let this stuff pass Art... Would people with excessive "flatulence" need a RipSaw? To play good music, would negative people live in Nassau? Do us "Kitchen Musicians" need a TableSaw? In the Bible, was Esau especially musical? If I have a bad cold, do I need to play a HackSaw? If you're playing & singing rounds, need a CircularSaw? To transcribe music do you need a ScrollSaw? If you sing in the park, do you use a BenchSaw? Feel like I've been Quartersawn after this! catssaw, er, uh, that's catspaw |
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12 Jan 99 - 11:00 PM (#53787) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Roger in Baltimore I see the nose flute is popular (at least with the players, if not the listeners). Been there, done that. I keep a wooden "train whistle" in my bag for all "train songs." I also play the Mc Nally "Strumstick". Mc Nally sold his design of the Backpacker Guitar to Martin a few years back. The "Strumstick" is a about 20" long. It has a small sound box, a fretted neck and three strings. The neck is about an inch wide. The frets are set like a lap dulcimer and the strings are tuned to an open chord. You can effectively fret any string at any fret an yield a harmonious chord. Being small it is highly portable. Being small, it has a sound much like a wounded wasp (or perhaps a jaw harp or mouth bow), very thin, but still musical. I have a set of wooden spoons that are permanently attached at the handle end (really made from one piece of wood). They are nearly as versatile as a regular set of spoons and much easier to play. Of course, rhythm instruments tend to make for the strangest animals. I do not own one, but I have played a rain stick. I have numerous "eggs" filled with sand. I have also played the tuned drums made by carving "tongues" of various sizes in a wooden board mounted on a sound box. You strike the tongues with a rubber tipped mallet. Very nice sound. It's not an instrument, per se, but I have a friend who mounted a rubber chicken head on her Kaypro capo. She calls it, of course, her capon. Roger in Baltimore |
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12 Jan 99 - 11:13 PM (#53789) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: alison Speaking of shakey eggs, I have a shakey banana (always get some wise comment when I play that... ususally to do with it requiring batteries!), a shakey lemon and a shakey apple. The lemon has the best sound, if you play the banana lengthwise there is a bit of a delay, so I play it sideways.... which probably isn't as funny to watch.... Slainte alison |
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12 Jan 99 - 11:32 PM (#53797) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: gargoyle What is "nose flute?" Seriously - is there such a thing? Is there a "homepage?" I feel like a "greenhorn" asking An explanation of its derrivative would be appreaciated, Random House, Funk and Wagnals and Music Encylopedia do not have listings. |
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13 Jan 99 - 12:09 AM (#53804) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Art Thieme NOSE FLUTE was invented by he New Crusty Nostrils---some say as an I.U.D. for Catherine The Great. (Or was that the Jews Harp?) |
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13 Jan 99 - 12:39 AM (#53810) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Barbara Actually, gargoyle, there are a number of nose flutes, but the kind most people here are talking about is a plastic gimmie that is designed to butt up against the bottom of your nose and cover your mouth except for a whistle hole. YOu exhale thru the nose apperture (no colds allowed), and shape the tone and pitch with your open mouth. Makes a very silly noise, a straight tone with very little vibrato that sounds something like a slide whistle. The nose connection is usually a flat rectangular shape with a flange that seals it to your nose, and the mouth shield part is an slightly curved oval to fit it to your mouth. maybe 3 inches each way. You have probably stared down at them when you cruised the harmonica-jewsharp-fingerpicks-and-other-little-instrument-bits case in your local music store. Next time keep a straight face and ask, and I bet they'll have one. However, the some cultures of the East, India and others, believe that the breath of the nose is more pure than that of the mouth and have designed a number of 'normal' looking flutes to butt up against the nose rather than being played by the mouth. So those also are 'nose flutes'. Blessings, Barbara |
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13 Jan 99 - 05:49 AM (#53836) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Roger the Zimmer As the old music hall comedians used to say:" I was musically precocious- I was playing on the linoleum when I was only 4" |
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13 Jan 99 - 07:05 PM (#53902) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bob BoltonBob Bolton G'day Bill D, That photograph was probably in John Meredith and Hugh Anderson's book 'Folk Songs of Australia and the Men and Women who sang them' (if you're interested in Australian books, including this one, I recently [yesterday?] listed some available from the Bush Music Club, Sydney, in another thread asking about "lyrics to an Australian song"). I cover the "Kerosene Tin Dulcimer" briefly in a booklet (not in the preliminary booklist mentioned above) on "Traditional Bush Instruments" along with many other improvised instruments ... the product of living on the other side of the world from musical instrument manufacturers - and, often, a few hundred miles from the nearest town. I have been meaning to make a replica, but we no longer get kerosene in square tins ... a round 18 litre (~ 5 gallon) drum doesn't sit so neatly on the lap. I guess my best substitute (living, as I do, in Leichhardt or Sydney's 'Little Italy') will be one of the very large square tins in which imported olive oil is packed ... an interestingly 'multi-cultural' turn to a traditional Australian makeshift! Regards, Bob Bolton Regards, Bob Bolton |
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13 Jan 99 - 08:08 PM (#53913) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bill DBill D thanks BobBolton BobBolton..(*grin*..poor Max, this programming stuff is fraught with pitfalls) yes...when I was looking at possible ways to make that dulcimer, I saw commercial, square tins of various oils as reasonable substitutes... I am going to go back down to that library and see if the book is still there after almost 20 years...what I REALLY need is another strange instrument taking up space in my besement! But I really do appreciate the book title...will make it all much easier. |
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13 Jan 99 - 10:34 PM (#53939) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: catspaw49catspaw49 Hey Bill and Bob...If you're in need of another strange instrument in your basement......Following the dulcimer theme build a 4 player table dulcimer. Even otherwise shy people like to try it out and when you get a few people swapping around after awhile you're laughing so damn hard it doesn't matter how well anybody plays. I think I've gotten more people involved with that thing than any other method Ive tried. Kids love it, old folks love it, uptight people love it...It's raucous, hideous sounding, and no one sounds too good therefore no one sounds to bad. catspaw |
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13 Jan 99 - 10:49 PM (#53944) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: JimBunchGutBucketeer I have been playing the gut bucket, or washtub bass, on and off since the mid 70's when I was in Undergrad at Univ. of Michigan. All my friends played "real" instruments such as the banjo, guitar, and mandolin. I added the gut bucket, jaw harp, bones etc. We busked at the Ann Arbor Art Fair for change on year and made enough for pizza at dinner. Recently, I have brought my gut bucket to the jams at the Washington Folk Fest. I had a great time though I don't know how much the other musicians liked it (Nobody asked me to leave). Anyway, If you can't read music for it, or tune it, its probably my kind of instrument. Jim in Silver Spring |
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13 Jan 99 - 10:51 PM (#53945) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: AliceAlice I have two instruments that are common in India, but are uncommon in the US. People always ask what the harmonium is when they see it. Harmonium and shruti drone box |
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14 Jan 99 - 11:40 PM (#54153) Subject: This is only a test From: DonMeixner xyz |
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14 Jan 99 - 11:45 PM (#54154) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: DonMeixner I don't play strange instrumentsso much as I play instrument strangely. By the way Art, your Star Wars steel lunch pail with thermos in excellent condition would be worth a car payment, or plane fare to a warm place or a couple weeks worth of groceries. Don Meixner |
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24 Jan 99 - 07:05 PM (#55517) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Nick G. I am in a band and all the instruments are strange to my fellow Americans. I play the "bugarija", our lead player plays the "prim" and two other guys play "brac's." They're not really strange to me since I have heard these instruments since the time I was in diapers. I hope this type of music is still around when I'm in diapers again some day. |
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24 Jan 99 - 07:55 PM (#55527) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Guy Wolff Years ago I was lucky enough to get a mandolion body with a five sting banjo neck.Inside it says Patton aplyed for 188?....I am a heavey metle spoon player.Mine are from the kitchen at a Waterbury Ct. colledge from 1972.Years latter Lui Collins gave me another pair for my birthday but those are my back up set.I also have a great set of castanets that have taken meny a song cicle by suprise. Sorry about my spelling...I once made a sighn at my pottery shop BANGOS AND BANGO LESSONS.When someone asked what a bango was I said it was the traditional way of spelling banjo..Ah new traditions.... |
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24 Jan 99 - 08:29 PM (#55534) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: phinque Washboard and spoons. The spoons are 1 piece of wood attached at the top. I saw a great spoons player who used regular spoons (2 sets) and rubberbanded them together at the top so that they didn't slip. Since then, I don't feel like I'm cheating while playing the attached o |
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27 Jan 99 - 10:42 AM (#55923) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Roger the zimmer I remember the Corries (Scottish Folk group) in the 60s/70s built many of their own instruments including a couple of twin necked beasts doubling (from memory) mandolin/lute or mandolin /guitar which the called "combolins" and featured on an LP called, I think, Strings and Things. They claimed it was to cut down on the number of instruments they carried (around a dozen) , but admitted it just added two more as the new ones had their own qualities different from the intended constituent parts. As they were self-built they were probably unique. They also featured on some records "English guitar". As they were Scottish this may have been intended as an insult! I have not seen such a description elsewhere, does anyone know what it meant? |
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28 Jan 99 - 02:32 AM (#56035) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Art Thieme Don, (on my dulcimer) I know!! All that junk is worth a fortune now. I bought the Star Wars lunchbox for $1.50 at a Salvation Army thrift store. But I think I depreciated it some when I punched a hole in the metal to put the neck wood into the box like a dowel rod would run through the body of the banjo-head rim. (I anchor it with 2 screw-eyes going through the metal on the other side of the box and screwing 'em into the wood.) I threw the thermos bottle away to make room for the rubber chicken I always pulled out of the lunchbox when (as it always did) the kid's attention wandered. (I always said that kids and drunks in folk clubs had the same attention span!) Art |
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28 Jan 99 - 01:10 PM (#56110) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bill D I added a pic of a couple of my unusual instruments to the web page I have been messing with...click here to see Marxophone & Ukelin
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28 Jan 99 - 02:32 PM (#56124) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Jon W. Great pix, Bill. I think I mentioned on an earlier thread I was building a wood-topped 5-string banjo. I finally finished it (almost) last night, enough to string it up and play. It has a great clear sound, more cutting than a guitar but with almost the same sustain. I think I'm going to really enjoy playing Irish/Celtic melodies on it. The extra sustain will add to the drone qualities of the music. Jon W. |
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28 Jan 99 - 05:22 PM (#56163) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Art Thieme Jon W, No value judgment in this at all. Please, don't think that at all 'cause it's not intended that way fer sure.I'm just a bit of a nit picker. But I do believe that your wood-topped instrument, even with a 5-string banjo's neck, would ,by definition, actually be a GUITAR. Even the "PANJO" I made from a bedpan would, technically, be a guitar and not a banjo. A guitar being: A box wityh strings.(basic definition) A banjo is: A drum with strings.(basic definition) Does this seem right to you folks out there?? Or am I wrong about this? Art |
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29 Jan 99 - 01:59 AM (#56232) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: cleod (in the Philippines) Nose flutes has been around forever here, played by the Ifugaos (a tribe of aborigines in the northern part of Luzon). I've got a Muslim version of the mouth bow -- it's made entirely of wood and has a mellow, twangy sound. I bought it in this shop that specializes in ethnic instruments, mostly drums (made with lizard skin!), rainsticks, some of those shakey eggs, and something that sounds like the sheep-herding tambourine mentioned earlier. If anyone ever drops by this part of the world, I'll bring you to the shop -- I've heard there's this group that uses those instruments and plays in local nightclubs... sla/n cleod |
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29 Jan 99 - 09:52 AM (#56239) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bert Art, The definitions that I once heard, a long time ago, didn't differentiate between soundbox materials. Lute. has strings parallel with the soundbox and has a long neck. (includes guitar and banjo) Fiddle. has strings parallel with the soundbox and has a short neck. Zither. has strings parallel with the soundbox and no neck. (includes autoharp, the hammered dulcimers, piano, etc.) Harp. has strings at 90 degrees to the soundbox. That's all I can remember for now, I sure we have some students out there who know more. Bert. |
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29 Jan 99 - 10:58 AM (#56254) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Jon W. Art - my banjo is a drum. It just happens to have a wooden head instead of a skin head. I got the moral authority to build it that way from an article on banjo makers of the Appalachians in a book named "Foxfire 3." While the vast majority of banjos are made with skin heads, some are from wood and some are from metal (cookie tins being preferred). Actually, the truth is I just didn't want to spring for the expensive hardware it takes to tighten a skin or plastic head, nor did I have confidence in my ability to properly stretch and shrink a rawhide head. Maybe next time. Bert - seems to me a fiddle also has to have a bow. Otherwise a mandolin would be a fiddle. Jon W, also picking nits. |
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29 Jan 99 - 11:04 AM (#56256) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: |
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29 Jan 99 - 11:07 AM (#56258) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Rex Rideout One odd gadget I treasure is a version of the jews/jaw harp. This one is entirely made of bamboo and is about ten inches long. I'm told it may have come from Thailand. A nice bit of carving with two thin strips of bamboo fitted in close to the twanger part. The volume it produces is astounding. Rex Rideout |
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29 Jan 99 - 01:15 PM (#56281) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: sue Well, I do have a digeridoo (how do you spell that again?) but I don't know how to play it. The gentleman who gave it to me, however, is very skilled. No matter how many times he shows me how, and no matter how beautiful the sounds he creates, all mine ever sounds like is someone spitting into a pipe...perhaps it's broken? *grin* Regardless, it's good for a laugh, and my 7-year-old always howls with glee when mummy "plays" a song! sue:) |
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29 Jan 99 - 02:31 PM (#56295) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bert Jon W, Yes, the dividing line betweeen long and short is arbitrary. Such is our language. No, a fiddle doesn't HAVE to have a bow, although most of them do. And some of the one string, stick fiddles that I've seen have surprisingly long necks. I guess that something like a mountain dulcimer would be classed as a fiddle but I don't know for sure. A mandolin would be a lute. Bert. We need someone more knowledgable to step in here. |
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30 Jan 99 - 08:07 AM (#56408) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Banjer Picking nits, interesting concept!!! How many strings does the average nit have? Does it have a long or short neck? Is it fretted or smooth? Does anyone have a picture of a nit that they can share with us? |
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30 Jan 99 - 08:42 PM (#56518) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bill D sure...here's one acting like a permanent capo!.. nit.gif you can read about it here |
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31 Jan 99 - 02:29 AM (#56558) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: catspaw49 Just amazing. Strange instruments eventually gets us to the great pigeonhole classification project. I'm waiting for the debate over whether they are folk or traditional to start soon. Just a joke group, just a joke.***smile*** The problem here is that instrument development did not happen in only one place, at only one time, in a linear fashion. Whenever the cultural crossovers occurred there would also be some wacky combinations appear. The last time this nuttiness swept upon the world was turn of the century U.S.A. Perhaps it was their form of Y2K. Over about 40 years we saw some mondo bizzarro combos. The only stringed instrument that survived the period to prosper in this century, is commonly known as the autoharp...and alas, we screwed the pooch immediately, 'cause it ain't a harp!!! It's a chorded zither. But then who in the hell would buy an autozither? Okay, possibly Duane and Bill, but for the rest of us, the word is just too weird. Alright, let me try to be serious for a moment. Everyone has touched upon some points, but the musicologist types will tell you that instruments where the sound is produced by the vibration of string(s) are called "Chordophones." Chordophones are then divided into five major categories: Bows, Lyres, Harps, Lutes, and Zithers. It is now time to break out the NoDoz cause most of us will fall asleep through all the various mutations into sub-sub-sub categories, and once again encounter zither prejudice when we find the Aeolian Harp is really a form of "long" zither. In the major categories, the relationship of string to some kind of "body" provides the class difference. A bow is a string or strings attached at each end to a curved stick. Well, duh. Moving on, a harp has strings running at some oblique angle from the soundbox to the neck. A lyre is generally 4 sided and the strings run from the soundbox, across some type of bridge, to a crossbar supported by 2 uprights. Zithers have strings running across elevated bridges for the entire length of a resonant body(doesn't have to be hollow). Lutes have strings running from somewhere near the base of a resonant body, across a bridge, over the body to the end of the neck.
The banjo is a variant on an African long necked lute. Musical tastes within a specific culture, availability of materials, cultural exploration and spread, and other factors determined the rise and fall of many instruments, stringed and otherwise. For more info on that subject, find an anthropologist who will be happy to elaborate ( if you can wake them up). Personally I'm putting myself to sleep. Next up, we stick a bagpipe chanter into the mouthpipe of a tuba and a banjo down the bell...call it a harp of some sort, of course...then we throw the works onto a busy freeway at rush hour, and save the world from another wacko, semi-musical surprise. catspaw |
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31 Jan 99 - 11:09 AM (#56584) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: gargoyle And bowed saws vs hammered saws?
Thanks to this thread I have been "playing around" with saws ---- it began in the garage...and the quest for tonation has extended to hardware stores. Wooden handled saws definatly have better tone and a metal-tack-hammer has a good ring...a circular sawblade suspended by a stick has beautiful, but uncontrolable qualities. |
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01 Feb 99 - 08:53 PM (#56776) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: I really don't know why I'm posting this, but..........Saws belong to the Idiophone family. These are instruments made of naturally resonant materials and include bells, gongs, chimes, jaw harps (again,not a harp!), sansas(thumb pianos), cymbals, washboards, stomp boards, jingles, castanets, maracas, steel drums, tap shoes, and yes,saws! They can be "played" in just about any manner to get a sound. Friction, scraped, whacked and beaten, shaken(not stirred for Mr.Bond), plucked, stamped, etc. So yes,Virginia, you CAN have bowed, hammered, or even a plucked saw. During my first week of college orientation we had a talent night, obviously to help everyone relax and adjust and to see that the faculty and administration were just average folks. Somehow it didn't strike me as particularly comforting that the Dean of Men played the saw...badly. I guess he really believed that this skill would put him in good standing with the student body. Looking back now, I can see his reasoning. Unfortunately the guy was such a stiff in every other respect that rather than making him a cool guy, it made him a horse's ass. I'm sorry Dean Orwig. If you're out there I want to say NICE TRY...but no cigar. Maybe if you hadn't worn your dark socks and wingtips with the madras shorts...... catspaw |
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01 Feb 99 - 09:22 PM (#56782) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Duane D. catspaw, that's nittiness no nuttiness. |
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01 Feb 99 - 11:33 PM (#56802) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Cap't Bob Check out this homepage for some really unusal instruments that you can make for yourself. Most of them have a pretty good sound. The $20 hurdy gurdy for instance. Dennis is the fort fiddler on Mackinaw Island MI. His homepage is:http://edcen.ehhs.cmich.edu/~dhavlena/ Have fun, Cap't Bob |
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02 Feb 99 - 11:21 AM (#56849) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Once again, as I was perusing the Robert Johnson crossroads thread, I was once again reminded of our love for the word HARP. This time in the form of the Mouth Harp, an Aerophone, which is more closely related to a bassoon than a harp. I've used it for years myself, but have you ever conjured up the mental image of someone "blowing the harp?" catspaw |
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01 May 20 - 08:38 AM (#4049735) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Jack Campin A great read on this sort of stuff is Laurence Picken's "Folk Music Instruments of Turkey", which organizes the whole lot using the Sachs-Horbostel classification. This has the (to me, totally unexpected) effect of showing that most of the possible design space of musical noisemakers is occupied by children's toys. I particularly liked the really odd bit of the taxonomy occupied by a big bubble of wet potter's clay that you hit to make it go plop. |
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01 May 20 - 09:25 AM (#4049742) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Mo the caller Guggle box anyone. |
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01 May 20 - 09:29 AM (#4049743) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Mo the caller Some strange instruments turn up from time to time at a session in Audlem. A trio of one string fiddles (it took rather a while tor them to master them tunefully). Or the Bum-fiddle with a balloon instead of a body. Hurdy-gurdies are commonplace, but what's that instrument that looks like an old-fashion typewriter? |
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01 May 20 - 01:05 PM (#4049786) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Tattie Bogle Nyckelharpa? National instrument of Sweden, but gaining in popularity in the UK. It was World Nyckelharpa day last Sunday! |
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01 May 20 - 01:28 PM (#4049791) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: GUEST,LynnH I've got two indian 'dulcimers' or, as the label in one says, Benjo. They have keyboards (!) - one with typewriter keys, the other with 'normal piano style'. Problems? Strings for a start and then, on the one with 'typewriter' keys, the block with the anchor pegs is rather soft wood so that the iron or steel pegs slip rather than grip. |
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01 May 20 - 01:40 PM (#4049795) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Sarah the flute I play a variety of strange blowy things including the indeed wonderful nose flute which duets melodiously with the swanee slide whistle or Kazoo. I also play cornamuses and hulusi |
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01 May 20 - 03:02 PM (#4049810) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Jack Campin Some fantastic saw playing. Yeliz Bulgurcu doing classical Turkish music along with an oud and an ebow guitar. https://www.facebook.com/100000547749874/posts/3430578293637062/ |
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01 May 20 - 05:34 PM (#4049837) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Jack Campin We have about five Swiss exercise balls and space hoppers lying around. I have contemplated making an inflatable contrabass bumfiddle with one. The string(s) can be strimmer twine and the bridge a big funnel - not sure what to use for an upright, though. A dinghy mast would be ideal. |
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02 May 20 - 12:51 PM (#4049983) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Mo the caller Lynn, your suggestion enabled me to Google and be reminded of the name I heard. Bul bul tarang Vicky Swan visits Cheshire often enough for me to know a Nyckelharpa when I meet one. The contrabass bumfiddle won't be very portable, but please bring it to Whitby (whenever). Must see that. |
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02 May 20 - 02:21 PM (#4049998) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Jack Campin The Japanese version of the bulbul tarang is the taishogoto. It doesn't have much of a reputation. What's the Indian thing with a string fixed in the centre of a very small drum and held under tension by two springy strips of bamboo, so you can squeeze them as you pluck and get a glissando boing? |
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03 May 20 - 08:17 AM (#4050106) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Mo the caller What is an elbow guitar? |
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03 May 20 - 09:18 AM (#4050121) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Jack Campin EBow Makes your guitar into an electric cello, more or less. |
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03 May 20 - 09:31 AM (#4050124) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: gillymor I play some instruments strangely. I had an Ebow back the '80's and never got very far with it though I could see it had potential for for creating some interesting sounds but the guys in the blues band I was in weren't very enthusiastic about it so I traded it for an Ibanez Tube Screamer which is still going strong. |
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05 May 20 - 01:32 PM (#4050667) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Mysha Would Melodicas fall under the heading "strange instruments", or are the just "modern", for being less than a century old. If the former, the, yes, I do play some strange instruments. I had intended to upgrade to actual fully functional specimen, but because of the lock-down I can't cycle to the other side of the province to buy one, thus for now I occasionally play 24 key Soprano and Alto melodicas. Mysha |
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05 May 20 - 02:01 PM (#4050673) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: punkfolkrocker Ebow - had one for about 25 years.. Not strange, but very useful...!!! However, something I impulse bought late at night in an internet flash sale is more stupid than strange.. So daft, I've never even taken it out the box, or ever told anyone else before now... To be honest, I forgot I even had it... |
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05 May 20 - 04:40 PM (#4050711) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Jack Campin Is it an Otamatone? I may be the only person ever to play blues on a tilinko. A tilinko in C lets you play blues in G using the open C as a subdominant. And you've got a spare hand to play the washboard with if you hold it right. I also have a Haggis Caller - it's a haggis-shaped, haggis-sized, haggis-coloured ocarina you can use as a piggy bank, but part-closing the coin slot lets you vary the pitch like closing the holes on a normal ocarina. Mine has a range of an octave from E flat in continuous whoops. I get it out on Burns Night. |
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05 May 20 - 06:31 PM (#4050730) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Tattie Bogle My son had an ebow for Christmas one year: drove us mad with it until he moved out! Jack, I knew we could rely on you for plenty of strange instruments! |
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06 May 20 - 10:44 AM (#4050840) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: GUEST I play the fool. Tradsinger |
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06 May 20 - 11:05 PM (#4050929) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Pappy Fiddle Split Whistle. This is two whistles the kind you give children to see if they have any musical inclination. I got two, ran them thru the table saw - cut the left side off one, right side off the other - glued them together. Here's a picture of it: \/ Taping over some of the holes makes the one side the "bass" side. So I can play harmonies |
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06 May 20 - 11:17 PM (#4050930) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Pappy Fiddle I also have a vuvuzuela. A simple horn, very loud. South Africans take them to soccer games. With 20,000 people blowing them it's enough to crack your eardrums. |
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08 May 20 - 03:07 AM (#4051138) Subject: RE: Anyone else playing strange instruments? From: Bugsy I used to play on the linoleum, as a child. Cheers Bugsy |
