This morning, to my pleasant surprise, I received an email full of wonderful instruments from the artist/sculptor Bruce Gray. I love it when this happens! Read On!
The hurdy gurdy, also known as the “wheel fiddle,” is similar to the nyckelharpa in that it’s notes are summoned using a keyboard which controls tangents (wood wedges) that depress the strings at defined intervals. Read On!
Light harps are interactive art installations that use laser beams to detect motion which, in turn, play corresponding musical tones. Jen Lewin, who created the instrument below, has been building light harps for the past 12 years. Her work has varied from indoor musical laser sculptures to on-stage performance pieces and outdoor installations. This light harp uses sophisticated motion detection to accurately mimic the player’s movement with sound. Read On!
These incredible microtonal MIDI keyboards have 211 keys per octave (normal pianos have 12 keys per octave) and each key can be custom tuned! Read On!
Music of the Spheres, Inc. is the “Stradivarius of wind chimes.” Handmade out of powder-coated, aluminum alloy tubing, the chimes range in size from the average garden chime to the extraordinary 14-footer. Read On!
nitro2k01 from Gameboy Genius has a theory: The cupper and aluminum works as a battery, much like the lemon battery taught in physics class. However because of the Al2O3 surface on the aluminum, which is released in an opscillating manner, you get spikes of voltage. This is what creates the sound. Compare it to the bubbles you get when you put a piece of a base metal in acid. Read On!
ADACHI Tomomi, an accomplished musician and instrument inventor from Japan, invented this spectacle called the “tomoring.” Springs, bars, wires, and strings are mounted on an acrylic board to be joyfully plucked, bounced, pulled, flicked, scrubbed and otherwise manipulated in any way imaginable! This odd instrument is completely physical (not electronic) with only piezo pickups attached to the body to amplify the sound. Read On!
If there was such a thing as a portable grand piano, this would be it’s compliment. Read On!
A standard hand saw can be used to play music! By tweaking/bending the blade in an “S” shape, one can hit the “sweet spot” with a mallet or use a cello bow to make the saw “sing.” The sound produced is very ethereal sounding - like a woman’s high singing voice or a theramin. Read On!
If you’re like me, you’ve probably made this sound accidentally while you were bored or drawing pictures of laser guns and aliens. This sound has a name, and it isn’t “rotating-space-crystal.” Read On!
From the National Music Museum: “This instrument is one of only two surviving over-the-shoulder cornets featuring three valves and five keys made by E. G. Wright.” Apparently cornets with both valves and keys were cutting edge at the time because they combined both old and new brass instrument technologies. Read On!
The Tesla coil is a very odd instrument indeed! With the right controller, this wild-beast-of-an-instrument can be tamed to hum a perfect tune. Read On!
The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra was kind enough to share these photos with The Oddstrument Collection. Enjoy. Read On!
Xylem is a very odd instrument. Xylem is a type of plant tissue which is responsible for the transportation of water and mineral nutrients throughout a plant. When water is absorbed by xylem, the cells cavitate, producing a clicking sound. Who knew you could listen in on a tree drinking? Read On!
The Hang (pronounced hong) is a type of percussion instrument similar to the steelpan. The hang was invented in Switzerland and there are only two makers in the world. Read On!
The dual-chamber didgeridoo is an illusive instrument to find on the internet but I did find this side-ways video of two people playing the same didge.. *jaw drop* ..at the same time! Think of the possibilities… Read On!
The glass armonica’s ghostly notes will cause insanity in its musicians and listeners! At least this is what was thought to be true in the 18th century. People were frightened by the armonica’s sound due to it’s strange interactions with the human brain and ears (more on this later). Read On!
Another wonderful homemade instrument from Ranjit on vimeo. The pitch of the note is controlled by a solenoid motor which changes the tension of the wire as it is strummed by an automatic strummer. Read On!
From Ranjit on Vimeo comes a very strange instrument. From Ranjit: Simple automatic instruments are constructed from local materials and objects on site. The system learns the sounds it can make by trying out its instruments, and then uses its range of sounds to try to reproduce the rhythmic and melodic qualities of sounds such as the voices of visitors. Read On!
Dewanatron is composed of two cousins, Brian and Leon Dewan. In this video, they are playing one of their homemade instruments, the Dual Primate Console. Each side of this instrument is operated by one primate. Read On!
Another water instrument created by Steve Mann (see hydraulophone) from Ontario Canada. A pagophone, meaning “ice sound” in Latin (similar to xylophone or “wood sound”), consists of ice bars of different lengths. The shorter the length of the bar, the higher the pitch. Acousitc pickups can be attached to the bars themselves or inside the mallets. Read On!
They are best described as self-cleaning, musical, water-fountain keyboards. Hydraulophones are very similar to woodwinds, but hydraulophones run on incompressible fluid (usually water) rather than compressible fluid (air). Hydraulophones are sometimes called ‘woodwater’ instruments. Hydrolophones have the characteristic of polyphonic embouchure, meaning that the player can dynamically “sculpt” each note by obstructing the holes (mouths) in different ways. Read On!
The quarter-inch pipes are between 6 and 9 feet long with a diameter of six-and-a-half inches. They produce the most beautiful tones I’ve ever heard, soft and sweet. The entire instrument, tuned to a pentonic scale in D, is about 16 feet tall, weighs 400 pounds and is currently accessible to the public in a huge maple tree, 1718 Palm Ave, Chico CA. Read On!
This guy, what a character, can do some amazing things with fresh produce; bell peppers, carrots, asparagus, you name it, he’s played it (or ate it). Read On!