Electronically Modified, Blue Tooth Didgeridoo!
An incredible union of ancient spiritual craft with the newest digital technology, Kyle Evans has created an electronically enhanced didgeridoo who’s beautiful body competes with it’s voice for center stage. Read On!
Spinal Rod Box Made From Extra Surgical Equipment
A lamellophone (vibrating tongue instrument) made from extra spinal surgery supplies. The sound is amplified using a contact microphone and the pitches depend on the length of the threaded steel rods. I like what I see so far and I hope the creator over at Vulpestruments continues to experiment with homemade instruments. Read On!
Bacterial Orchestra
An evolving cluster of aggressive, and possibly angry, iPhones wants to take over the world! The experiment is called “Public Epidemic No 1″ and the goal is to create a world-wide audio illness, infecting one cell at a time. Read On!
Your Household Cactus Is Not What You Think It Is
Thanks go to Sam for pointing this one out - that cactus in your house can be plucked for some spontaneous musical fun. Read On!
Single-String Odd Musical Instrument Improvisation
The Oddstrument Collection presents Andrew’s odd instrument improvisation utilizing the sonic properties of a plastic cup (liquid removed) resonator and an elastic band (stretched). Read On!
20 Very Odd Musical Instruments You Can Play Online
American Public Media has produced a playable-online collection of Harry Partch musical instrument inventions for your extreme enjoyment! Read On!
“Sonic Banana” Music Controller (Max/MSP)
Eric Singer, a roboticist and experimental musician, engineered what he calls a “Sonic Banana.” The rubber worm-like tube houses 4 variable bend sensors which work together to create a malleable and “versatile performance instrument.” Read On!
Telharmonium
Here’s another amazing and somewhat old one: Google “Telharmonium”. It was basically a precursor to the Hammond organ, but being pre-vacuum tube, it’s tonewheels had to be large enough to drive all the phones in a city at once! A real steampunk monstrosity. Read On!
Dueling Banjos, Man Vs Machine!
I’d like to warm things up here at the Oddstrument. Without further ado, may I present Stuart, an amazing musician and singer, playing his equally amazing Kazookeylele (a mini grand piano/ukulele/kazoo) vs. the WaldFlöte. This crazy fellow lives in Edinburgh, UK. The WaldFlöte is a computer controlled MIDI retrofit of a 1890’s era 16 foot pipe organ. “It converts MIDI input into solenoid drive to directly press the keys on one of the manuals - there is no permanent modification to the organ.” Read On!
The Ancient Alphorn’s Mellow Melody
The alphorn (or alpenhorn) is a natural wooden aerophone traditionally used by the mountain folk in Switzerland (Alps), and elsewhere. These lengthy horns were used to communicate in mountainous regions and across vast distances as well as announce daily activities in the village. Herdsmen used these horns to communicate to each other during herding activities. Read On!
Instruments from the Stone Age
Any knowledgeable landscape artist or tile setter knows that any leftover rock or tile must be recycled into lithophones. No brainer right? Well, Tom of TinkerTunes.com did just that using some scraps of Indiana limestone and some leftover granite countertop. Not only is Tom an instrepreneur, he is also a furniture maker and turns old upright pianos into desks. His website, TinkerTunes.com, has some interesting musical content including a document of his experience with building “friction harps.” Thanks Tom! Read On!
What Instrument Would Dr. Seuss Play? A Daxophone of Course!
Rarely does an instrument’s form match up with it’s sound as perfectly and whimsically as the daxophone’s. Invented by Hans Reichel of Germany, the daxophone is a friction idiophone who’s vibrating mechanism is an oddly but tactically shaped wooden tongue which is attached to a block of wood. The vibrations travel from the vibrating blade to the block where a contact microphone amplifies the sound. The whole concept is similar to plucking a ruler half-way off a table. Read On!
Wave Hello to the Secret Power of Sea Organs
What’s more intimate than walking on the beach at sunset? Walking on the beach at sunset while listening to the sweet serenade of a wave-powered organ of course! and if you ever find yourself in San Francisco, Blackpool, or Zadar, I suggest you make a date to visit the local sea organ. Read On!
How to Build a Working Train Whistle out of Paper!
Sweet! This project is totally doable with household materials (printer, paper, thicker paper, white glue, scissors, and a razor edge). Just print out these paper parts, fold, cut, glue, and after 3 hours (including drying time) you will have a playable train whistle. Read On!
Suikinkutsu, Water Chimes for Dirty Hands
The suikinkutsu, literally meaning ‘water harp chamber,’ is an underground Japanese water instrument which is usually located in temple gardens and places of ceremony. The water chime consists of an upside down pot with a small hole through it’s bottom. The upside down pot is buried underground, with a porous rock layer above and an impermeable layer below. Read On!
Vote for Your Favorite Garden Instrument!
The Garden Instrument Contest is now over and all of the entries are in. Read On!
Pyrophones and Explosion Organs!
Pyrophones, also known as explosion/fire organs, are musical instruments which are sounded by explosions, fire, rapid combustion, rapid heating, and other thermoacoustic devices. The combustion occurs inside of the actual resonance chamber (the pipe). Fire organs are said to have been around since the 1700s! Read On!
Computer Controlled Wine-Glass Thing
Here’s a curious percussion machine created by yaaaratheone for a Physical Computing class at Union College, NY. Read On!
The Cristal Baschet (Crystal Organ)
The Cristal Baschet, also known as the crystal organ, sounds very much like it’s crystallophone similitude, the glass armonica. Both of these instruments are friction idiophones, that is they produce their sounds when their glass ‘keys’ (in this case, 54 chromatically tuned glass rods) are vibrated, usually by a wet finger. Read On!
Miniature Japanese Aerophone
The Japanese magazine, Science for Adults (Otonanokagaku), has some absolutely astonishing musical instrument kits including this miniature pipe organ. Songs are programmed into a paper card which controls the organ’s airflow as it is fed through the instrument. Read On!
Bill G. Loyd’s Giant Wind Bells
Browsing through Madrid, New Mexico today, I stumbled across some wonderful wind bells/gongs on display at the Range West gallery. These bells, made by the Truchas, NM artist Bill G. Loyd, are cut from recycled gas tanks (e.g. scuba tanks, CO2 canisters, O2 firefighter tanks, etc.). Read On!
Latex-Glove Bagpipes and More from Catalonia
L’Atrapa-sons is a television program from the Tv3 network in Catalonia. Check ‘em out. Read On!
Call This Number! Odd Instrument Telephone Speaker
Call +4790369389 to have your voice blasted into the luscious lands of Norway! Telemegaphone Dale is a 23-foot-tall wind-powered loudspeaker sculpture that picks up incoming calls and projects them into the nearby surroundings. This Telemegaphone, created by the Swedish designers at Unsworn Industries, is located on a mountain overlooking the village of Dalsfjord in Western Norway. Apparently, a “massive” amount of people have been calling. Read On!
“Acoustic Radars” and Listening Trumpets
Before the advent of radar and hearing aids, hearing “trumpets” and the like were used to amplify distant sounds. Acoustic radars were invented during war time to locate ships in the fog and approaching airplanes. These listening devices not only enabled the listener to hear subtle, distant sounds, but also allowed for great accuracy in pinpointing the direction of the sound source due to the increased spacing and size of the giant “ears.” Some of these devices are very accurate, for example, the German RRH is able to detect the size of an approaching aircraft formation 8 miles away with the directional accuracy of 2 degrees. Read On!
Wild! Pitch-Bending Thumb Piano
This is a wild reinvention of the classic thumb piano (kalimba). By turning a spool, the user can change the lengths of the reeds while they are vibrating. The design is such that almost any thin strip of metal can be inserted into the instrument (last half of video). Read On!
Double Horn Pipe by Wouter Baeck
From Wouter Baeck, an amazing musician, sculptor, painter, and musical instrument creator. “An ancient instrument came to live. Based on a thin long straight bamboo reed tied up with a thread on a small bamboo mouth piece. Protected by a gourd. Double pipe made out of bamboo or elder wood, and always with an animal horn as resonator.” Read On!
Bin Zasara - A Traditional Japanese Odd Musical Instrument
A bin zasara (a.k.a. bin sasara, sasara) is a traditional Japanese percussion instrument. Due to the bin zasara’s self-vibrating nature, the instrument is classified as an idiophone. The instrument consists of many rectangular wooden slats, made from tonewood (wood that carries sound waves well e.g. maple, ceder, bamboo, walnut) strung together by some sort of rope or flexible wire. Read On!