Did you know that playing the digeridoo has been proven to help breathing problems such as obstructive sleep apnea?

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Sound Healing: Didgeridoo Body Massage

The mbira is classified as a “lamellophone” which is the term used for all fixed-at-one-end vibrating tongue instruments (e.g. your cactus).

Does your cactus have what it takes to be a lamellophone? Give it a whirl but be careful as I hear they can be surly and quite sharp when confronted for answers.

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Your Household Cactus Is Not What You Think It Is

Sulk no more! Not all of Orlando’s paintings are heavyhearted. Orlando creates “musical paintings” where the music is birthed from the painting itself, serving a bilingual phenomenon for the patron’s consumption.

[See post to listen to audio]

I was fortunate enough to spend an afternoon with Orlando at his Santa Fe studio discussing his artwork. Orlando usually paints within a narrow color spectrum, only varying from the core by several degrees. His reasoning being that there are less contrasting colors for the eye and brain to “work out,” therefore creating robust and encompassing flavors that are pleasantly harmonious. Orlando wondered if the same concept could be applied to the construction of music. Would the notes hold together like color?

[See post to listen to audio]

Orlando took his query to the canvas by composing his music visually, based on colors, shapes, and sizes. Each of Orlando’s colorful notes are made up of five qualities.

Color corresponds to pitch, shape is loudness, size is duration, over-bars and under-bars are sharps and flats respectively. Position, along with the other variables, are determined by chance: the roll of a die and the plucking of a card. These notes were then stretched and embellished into listenable art via the musical production pipeline of composer Paul William Simons.

Without the code on the backside, the painting’s auditory reconstruction would be impossible:

Orlando is currently working on a series of paintings representing the accomplishments of several physicists, scientists, and prominent thinkers (Einstein, Archimedes, Schrödinger, Gamow, and others). Check out Orlando’s website for more paintings.

Thank you Orlando for making the world a more interesting place to explore!

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The Music of Paint: Odd Music Composed by Colors and Shapes

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).

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Single-string Odd Musical Instrument Improvisation

American Public Media has produced a playable-online collection of Harry Partch musical instrument inventions for your extreme enjoyment!

Some of my favorite instruments (that you can play by clicking the links) include the ever so versatile “Spoils of War” and the bamboo hive that is “The Boo.” Play the instruments first, then read about who this eccentric fellow was…

Harry Partch was an American instrument inventor, innovator, and composer who is known for his valuable contributions to the advancement of music theory and his original thinking regarding the relationship between music and speech. “Partch invented and constructed instruments that could underscore the intoning voice.” Wikipedia

Harry was an obscure figure. During the Great Depression, Harry spent 10 homeless years wandering the country on trains and hitchhiking, often transcribing the overheard pitches of strangers’ conversations in music notation in his journal. Harry Partch’s musical instruments can be classified as aesthetically captivating sculptures, full-body workout machines, and versatile tool boxes for creating incredibly original sound. Besides designing more than 23 new musical instruments, Harry is known for writing music using the notes from his 43-tone-scale rather than the standard 12-tone-scale used in Western music.

Photos from the Harry Partch Information Center

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20 Very Odd Musical Instruments You Can Play Online

The data is sent through a Max patch which processes the sound and “uses physics formulas to simulate air flow, creating a pumping effect” to play a virtual harmonica. Watch the “Sonic Banana” Harmonica video and visit Eric Singer’s website for some more interesting experiments!

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“Sonic Banana” Music Controller (Max/MSP)

[See post to listen to audio]

Wanting to discover “it” without “it” discovering you first, you carefully make your way through the trees toward the sound. Before you know it, something magical…

“Score for a Hole in the Ground” is a musical installation that, with the help of gravity and water, plays an autonomous, ever changing musical composition.  Water droplets, from a reservoir uphill, plummet down an underground shaft to sonically burst on metal disks.  The impacts are amplified by a gigantic gramophone-like horn which towers overhead.

Jem Finer, the artist and composer, designed his instrument around the similar, but ancient, Japanese ceremonial tool called the Suikinkutsu (literally meaning “water harp chamber”).  Interestingly, even when there is no water to fuel the metallic music, the horn, “acting in reverse as a “microphone,” picks up ambient sounds of the forest and passing planes.  Altered in tone by the acoustics of the hole they can be heard, if one listens very carefully, quietly reverberating underground.”

Jem’s idea, now built in the middle of the Kingswood Forest, UK, was proposed to the PRS Foundation for New Music, the organization who awarded the funding for the project’s realization.  An eloquent video was created to propose the concept.

Jem Finer is also the person responsible for the “Longest concert ever” – entitled Longplayer, which still has about 990 years left before it’s conclusion.

Sources: Score for a Hole in the Ground and Stour Valley Arts

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Score for a Hole in the Ground

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.

Thanks Tom.

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Telharmonium

About 1 minute before things started getting chaotic!

Two of my favorites. Cucumber saxophone and a coconut/carrot slide trumpet.

Butternut squash drum machine!

The volunteers where a huge help.

The beat boxing workshop across the hall.

The day ended with a panel discussion about why music matters and music and the brain.

One of three AVAM buildings. This one is covered in little shards of mirror, glass, and pottery.

Everyone loves junkbots!

I didn’t have a chance to record any of the sounds but someone has a video of the whole thing so I’ll see what I can do to get it. Probably 75-100 people showed up for my event. Once things warmed up, vegetables were being slain left and right… the sweet smell of ginger root and fresh carrot permeated the air…. voices, sounds, and laughter with the occasional burst of a coconut/carrot slide trumpet pleased the ears… by the end of the extravaganza, chunks of unidentifiable vegetables were everywhere!

People were liberated. Having access to a seemingly endless supply of vegetables and being able to destroy and transform those vegetables for the sake of creativity and self-expression was thrilling. The humdrum of chopping carrots and skinning potatoes for dinner was skewed and transformed into an unusual and wonderful setting where people were not attached to their normal routines, but instead, were gifted with a zone of creative freedom that was truly… fresh. The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra would be proud!

Cauliflower resonators are always a big hit at parties!

One of the best parts of my experience was meeting and talking with Ranjit, the very talented creator of many things, who hosted the junk instrument workshop (my favorite part of the day). Couchsurfing in Baltimore was out of this world!!! and by far the best way to travel if you’re into meeting new people and experiencing a new place at the local’s level of interaction. The AVAM is a magical hub of expression and the staff and volunteers are young and very cool. Ask for Felice Cleveland, the director and educational coordinator, if you’re ever at the museum. She will surprise you. I met so many great people while in Baltimore and if you’re reading this, thank you! and best wishes!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures (more here). Oddstrument is in for some pretty big changes soon… stay tuned, get your pens ready, and thanks for reading.

Cheers!

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Vegetable Instruments, Baltimore, and the AVAM

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Toccata et Fugue in D Minor on a Bottle Organ

For someone who has no audio tech or circuit bending experience, my time with the Tenori-on was more casual and frivolous than technical oriented. I was able to play with the Tenori-on for three weeks and this is what I discovered.

[See post to listen to audio]
More Tenori-On Music

My first out of the box impression of the Tenori-on was its small size. I guess I expected this gadget, with so much hype and promise already built up, to be bigger. This quickly changed as I realized the great possibilities of such a portable musical tool and that it’s small size is crucial to it’s purpose. You see, the Tenori-on and it’s internal speakers can be powered with batteries, meaning that you can play it anywhere. This is one of it’s best features as I was able to play it while lounging on the couch, while hanging out in the greenhouse, and while having my coffee on Saturday morning at the Aztec. I could even express my musical desires using my car’s robust sound system using the Tenori-on’s headphone jack. The range of situations where the Tenori-on can be played are fantastic and, as I had hoped, it’s built to withstand the everyday hustle and bustle of transportation. I was surprised that it didn’t come with a travel pouch but those are easily made.

My favorite thing about the Tenori-on is it’s simplicity. The LED grid makes it very easy to see what’s going on. A person without any musical experience can easily predict how adding a new note will effect the overall sequence based on the position of the activated LED. There are six modes of playing which can be combined to form complex patterns: Score Mode, Random Mode, Draw Mode, Bounce Mode, Push Mode, and Solo Mode. These modes take different inputs, for example, the Draw Mode allows the user to draw shapes and have them played repeatedly. The Push Mode allows the user to add layers of tones who’s size and scope are determined by how long the node is held down. Slowly over time, these nodes expand into other surrounding nodes, creating ambiance.

The Tenori-On can be connected to a computer where it’s MIDI output can be recorded and processed. This opens up opportunities such as controlling other musical instruments and devices with the Tenori-on. Multiple Tenori-Ons can even be connected together for collaborative music construction.

I found the default set of 256 instruments and tones to be disappointingly generic. I was hoping for more odd sounds like bird calls, yodeling, gongs, and gunshots, but apparently Yamaha wasn’t aware of this. Yamaha includes a User Voice Manager which let’s you import and assign your own sounds to the grid. To my surprise and disappointment, effects like flange and envelope filters are non-existent, leaving only basic functions such as changing octaves and note lengths. Also, community created applications and modifications to the Tenori-on’s interface software, such as adding new modes, is not possible.

One thing that really hurts the Tenori-on is it’s $1200 price tag. For the professional musician and DJ, other options exist that have more functions for and for a cheaper price (Kork KP3, Monome . I don’t think Yamaha was looking for cost effective functionality with the Tenori-on. Instead, the Tenori-on is more like a toy for adults rather than a viable tool for music professionals.

I would improve the interface by implementing a touch screen rather than the LED grid so that instruments and functions can be found by name rather than by their position on the nondescript grid. Setting these aspects aside, the Tenori-on is a great effort by Yamaha to leap into the future of digital music interfaces. Whether or not the mass consumers are ready for the Tenori-on experience is another issue entirely.

Specifications can be found here and the manual is here. To buy the Tenori-On, visit the Tenori-On USA Website

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My Review of the Tenori-On

The hubgong website has audio recordings and a very strange video which you should watch (7.8mb WMV). Thank you Greg for pointing these out!

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Hubgongs

Daito Manabe via Uncertain Times

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Music Controlled Face

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Vegetable Instrument Workshop at the AVAM!

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.” It resides in Edinburgh, UK. Check out the project’s schematics.

And now more Kazookeylele!

Thanks for the tip Abram

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Dueling Banjos, Man Vs Machine!