A new handmade instrument each day in February 2010
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instrument-a-day 28: Baba Yaga’s BalalaikaFebruary 28th, 2010
It's made from a wooden mortar and pestle and some scraps of guitar string. I strapped a rechargable battery to my thumb to use as a slide, just like Baba Yaga used to do.
That's it for instrument-a-day for this year, but Jason, Chris and I will be performing with some of these instruments on Wednesday at Barbes in Brooklyn.
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28 more noisy noises at barbes, march 3February 28th, 2010
A performance with handmade instruments at Barbès in Brooklyn, Wednesday March 3, 2010 at 8pm.
Like last year, I’ll be joined by Jason and Chris of the Glass Bees!
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instrument-a-day 27: clock gongsFebruary 27th, 2010
I collected a bunch of old clock gongs, bells, and chimes from ebay.
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instrument-a-day 26: tick-tock metronomeFebruary 27th, 2010
Metronome, wire, and two circuit-bent pocket voice recorders named "tick" and "tock".
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instrument-a-day 25: man-who-sold-the-world-o-phoneFebruary 27th, 2010
I was listening to David Bowie’s "The Man Who Sold The World" and wanted to reproduce its distinctive percussion.
You may recognize the beads from last year.
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instrument-a-day 24: guitar drone wheelsFebruary 27th, 2010
A modification of the handheld drone wheel (instrument-a-day 13) – now solidly mounted on the guitar.
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instrument-a-day 23: dollarwhistleFebruary 26th, 2010
It's a pennywhistle made from a can of Coke, which costs a dollar. A little slanted block of wood is glued in the mouthpiece to direct air to the fipple. I only made two holes because it was in danger of falling apart the whole time.
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instrument-a-day 22: tiny kalimbaFebruary 26th, 2010
A teeny tiny thumb piano made from guitar wire clippings and a little tube clamp, on top of a contact microphone.
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instrument-a-day 21: blinkyFebruary 22nd, 2010
One of my earliest memories is of lying on the carpet under the christmas tree watching the colored shadows change as the bulbs blinked on and off, and listening to the small tinkling sounds of the tiny metal thermostat timers inside each bulb. For this instrument, I stuck contact microphones onto a bunch of blinky bulbs to magnify those sounds.
The sound in this video is in stereo.
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instrument-a-day 20: paulownia rattleFebruary 21st, 2010
The paulownia tree, also known as empress tree or princess tree, makes little seed pods that are natural rattles. I picked this one up in Prospect Park.
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instrument-a-day 19: bang on a can ensembleFebruary 20th, 2010
This actually sounds surprisingly good, considering my lack of rhythm! In case you were wondering, the ensemble members are (clockwise from top left) black beans, chickarina, tuna, italian beans in tomato sauce, and more tuna.
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instrument-a-day 18: paper clipsFebruary 19th, 2010
It's a bunch of paper clips screwed to a chunk of wood with a piezo contact mic. It sounds kinda like 1960s electronic music. Kinda.
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instrument-a-day 17: pickup gloveFebruary 19th, 2010
I took some scrap wire and wound it into coils, which I sewed to the fingertips of a knit glove. I tossed some extra magnets under the guitar strings, and then waggled my fingers over the strings while tapping the strings (still tuned to Open D) with a drumstick. It works ok, not great. The next version will use much finer, more sensitive coils, and probably only on the thumb and two fingers. It's hard to use all five!
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instrument-a-day 16: guitar marxophone (marxotar)February 18th, 2010
As I said before, I love the sound of the obsolete Marxophone, but they're expensive on ebay. I made this guitar-marxophone with hex nuts glued to street-sweeper bristles stapled to a chunk of wood. The marxotar straps to the guitar's tailpiece and strap button with zipties, and can be attached and removed without any damage to the guitar.
Despite my unpracticed fumbling with the guitar marxophone and Open D tuning, I think this thing has a lot of promise. Hey manufacturers! You can have the idea, but I want credit and some free product! (Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if someone else has already had the same idea.)
