Favorite strange instrument.

[peruban]

Poll question: Favorite strange instrument.

I mean musical instruments that are rare or exotic.

[FloridaJudy]

1. The kangling

It's a Tibetan horn made from a human thigh bone. http://www.zanzibar-trading.com/store/default.asp?id=1570

Unfortunately, it sounds rather like a Yak with a bellyache. That's about as exotic as it gets.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Aeolian harp

Stringed instrument played by the wind...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolian_harp

[mcctatas]

3. Bagpipes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Td97OuQyYY&feature=related

[peruban]

4. I made sure to include bagpipes given last night's thread. n/m

[Rambis]

44. Good stuff

love the pipes!

[Xipe Totec]

80. I prefer the Gaitas

SUSANA SEIVANE & BAGAD KEMPER 1/2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7B3FTQ88-k

But Albannach is great!

[Tom Kitten]

5. Theremin

Of course! duh!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRc6f2oVdlw

[crispini]

8. +1

Love it!

[mikeytherat]

10. Even better - a kitten playing a theremin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ONJfp95yoE&eurl=http://www.geekologie.com/mt/mt-search.cgi?tag=pets&blog_id=1

mikey_the_rat

[deucemagnet]

42. :lol:

The best part was WTFkitty at the end.

[Bake]

26. I love the theremin!

Was it used on the original Star Trek theme? Anybody know?

Bake

[Sequoia]

63. I think it was first used in the movie: The Day The Earth Stood Still

[Sequoia]

64. African finger plucky thing.

[Felix Mala]

29. It's the sound that makes "Good Vibrations" so good.

[Rambis]

39. More Theremin!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR4-iTBWOOc

[Bake]

60. Star Trek Theme was NOT recorded on the theremin.

I looked it up on Wiki. It wasn't, but should have been!

Bake

[Bossy Monkey]

89. Ditto with honorable mention to Bulgarian bagpipes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu-Mw6j3RWw&feature=related (gaida mentioned above, though this one apparently is the larger kaba gaida)

[Adsos Letter]

6. Whenever I hear the didjeridu I have an urge to go walking...

naked... :D

[CreekDog]

7. Triangle

[BurtWorm]

9. Sackbutt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfSKZhCsVdQ

[DarkTirade]

12. You just like the name.

:P

[BurtWorm]

16. I don't know why they ever started calling them trombones.

:wtf:

[Symarip]

43. Because Trombones,

And those who play them, are sexy as all get out.

[BurtWorm]

49. And you don't think they'd be just as sexy being called sackbutt players?

I beg to differ.

[Symarip]

51. Point noted

Plus, sackbutts had those strange dragon head looking bells. I've changed my mind. I want to be a sackbutt wailer.

[Symarip]

11. I would argue that accordion and xylophones aren't all that odd

And how could you miss oboe?

Anyhow, I love the accordion.

[peruban]

22. I tried not to include standard orchetral instruments.

I love the oboe, and the clarinet as well. "Rhapsody in Blue" is one of my all time favorite compositions.

[DarkTirade]

13. You've got a rather narrow view of odd instruments. :P I'd probably have to go with the Crumhorn and

the Rackett.

Crumhorn
http://www.musikhandwerk.de/music/krummhorn_sample.mp3
http://www.recorderhomepage.net/crumhorn.html

Rackett
http://www.contrabass.com/sounds/at_rack.mp3
http://www.contrabass.com/pages/rackett.html

[peruban]

23. I tried to include all I could think of.

But polls only allow for ten entries and I used "other" for the last one because I know my limited list won't satisfy everybody.

[cemaphonic]

56. Yeah, I'm a big fan of those old, loud nasal reed instruments

Shawms too.

[DarkTirade]

58. The rackett I find interesting just because it's so tiny, and yet so deep

because of the multiple bores. :)

That, and many of them have more finger holes than people have fingers to cover them with. I've heard of racketts with anywhere from 9 to 14 holes.

[rug]

14. The glass armonica.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D9BBMDWoNM


Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQemvyyJ--g&feature=related

[BurtWorm]

17. That is a pretty amazing instrument.

Good call.

:toast:

[Burma Jones]

47. Yet another example of Ben Franklin's Genius

score one for Philadelphia...

[LynzM]

83. Fascinating.

I had no idea! That's really neat, thanks for the cool stuff to learn! :D

[tjwmason]

15. Onde-Martinot

I went to a performance of S. Francois d'Assise by Messiaen during the summer, the orchestration includes 4 of them the effect was quite magnificent.

[redqueen]

20. Nice one...

I can imagine it was magnificent indeed.

[redqueen]

18. Other

The mbira or the talking drum... can't choose. The bodhram is up there too.

I can't pick just one.

[jobycom]

19. No word is more fun to say than didjeridu. Or to try to spell.

[Bertha Venation]

21. hurdy gurdy - I think that's the thing that Sting plays

on "Mine Ain True Love" from "Cold Mountain"

[LanternWaste]

24. Bass Clarinet.

Bass Clarinet. It's easy to be considered one of the top players of it in the state when there's less than twenty people who play it... :) (Exaggerations in all parts of that statement for the sake of bad humor)

[MineralMan]

45. Contrabass Clarinet

Even better. You'd be the only one in the state.

[LanternWaste]

62. Sometime I think the contrabass was simply...

Sometime I think the contrabass was simply two bass clarinet players who got together, took some serious bong hits after the game, and said, "c'mon-- let's see how far we can take this thing. We took it down to low A, let's go after low/low/low/ A" "Oh, dude-- that's a righteous idea!"

:evilgrin:

(True conversation, circa 1982 between two valve trombone players)

So now we know who the band geeks in this thread are.... :P

[MineralMan]

75. I played bass clarinet for a while,

before switching to the oboe. My high school didn't have a contrabass, but when I was in the state honor band (1962) there was a Bb contrabass available. So I spent about an hour fooling with it. I fell in love.

I still don't have one, but I've been tempted several times on ebay. I just don't have the $3500 or so it would cost. Plus, it would have to be the LeBlanc paper clip model. When my ship comes in, I guess...

[derby378]

25. Uillean pipes!

Irish bagpipes! Can only be played sitting down, and the learning curve is apparently pretty steep, but the sound it produces is beautiful. You can even enable and disable the drones at will if you just want the chanter to play solo, which makes it more versatile than Highland bagpipes.

[GreenPartyVoter]

33. Much quieter too

[kath]

81. I love the Uillean pipes - MUCH more pleasant to listen to than Highland bagpipes.

Any CDs with prominent Uileann pipes that you'd recommend? I have one of Liam O'Flynn's that I like a lot.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

90. Paddy Maloney

The master of the melodic Irish pipes! Lovely stuff, indeed, Listen to Mike Oldfield's "Ommadawn,"

[Bake]

27. If you had listed the Banjo, I'd have had to kill you.

Furtunately, you did not.

:hi:

Bake

[BurtWorm]

28. Harry Partch invented a whole orchestra of weird instruments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOHBqFevy0k

http://www.newband.org/instruments.htm#partch%20instruments

[cemaphonic]

59. Partch was some kinda genius alright.

Invented his own tuning system, and since standard instruments were mostly incapable of playing his scales, he invented his own instruments. And most of them are visually beautiful works of art as well.

[BurtWorm]

68. So's Tom Waits, by the way.

Nice avatar. ;)

[EnviroBat]

30. The Buttphonium...

Just a couple of well-tuned cheeks.

[lizziegrace]

31. Bassoon

since I play it. :)

[BrotherBuzz]

32. Stroh violin

The Cheap Suit Serenaders play one on a few of their tunes.

[Bake]

46. OMG, don't show that to our fiddle player!!

The damn thing's too loud already!

Bake

[cemaphonic]

57. A great instrument made sadly obsolete by modern technology.

Tom Waits uses them sometimes.

[BrotherBuzz]

67. So I understand, and remember, his piano has been drinking, not him

Al Dodge, with the Cheap Suits, plays the Stroh violin, but he also plays another violin/bugle instrument with just one string. It produces a very sing-song Oriental/Asian sound but looks very Occidental in construction and design. Any idea what it might be called called?

[GreenPartyVoter]

34. I'll throw in a sitar since it hasn't been mentioned yet

[Kali]

35. Saz

any lute, really. Loves me any kind of guitar.:rofl:

[FloridaJudy]

36. The carrot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpfYt7vRHuY

[MilesColtrane]

37. The Bog Horn

It's the shit.

[Initech]

38. I gotta go with either the Sitar or the Synclaiver

Sitar:



Synclaiver:

[Aristus]

40. The krummhorn.

Popular during the Renaissance, it's pretty much disappeared today. It sounds like a big kazoo. I love it. I've got several CD's of krummhorn music.

[DarkTirade]

52. There's nothing like relaxing and listening to a nice renaissance piece... performed by a duck choir

:P

[TrogL]

41. Prepared piano

Some 20th century composers asked the performer to do things to the piano such as muting strings, putting tiny chains on them or adding rattles and bells.

[peruban]

55. The composer you speak of is John Cage.

One of his compositions calls for the pianist to rest for a full three minutes before continuing. He would also place bolts and other awkward objects between the strings. And people thought Phillip Glass was eccentric.

[LynzM]

48. Hubjo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-CCMnBpQoU

:rofl: I love it! Dude has some mad skills!

[DarkTirade]

50. And there are the strange metal ones... the waterphone and the hang drum.

Hang drum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQXn5ba0aT8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rXcdcDB2S8

Waterphone (which, despite having water in it, is named after the creator, Richard Waters :P)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAys8oqAAV0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSnr5RQJjbA

[LostinVA]

53. Bagpipes and bodhran -- love 'em both

[GoddessOfGuinness]

54. Bowed psaltry

About 2 minutes into this, the bowed psaltry plays:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBp8_yMU624&feature=related

[LiberalEsto]

61. The kannel

An Estonian zither or psaltry

[El Fuego]

65. I just like saying glockenspiel.

[harmonicon]

66. ukulele

[KamaAina]

71. Not considered strange hereabouts, where people sometimes play them at bus stops.

On occasion, even on the bus.

edit: header

[harmonicon]

72. yeah, but the other instruments listed weren't that strange either

so, I went with something that, like the other instruments, isn't almost constantly present in popular music. I play my ukulele almost every day myself.

[RushIsRot]

69. Mbira or thumb piano.

[MilesColtrane]

70. I played with a drummer who also played the schalmei.

It's like the platypus of instruments. It has reeds AND valves and bells.

Looks like something Dr. Seuss would have invented.

[KamaAina]

73. 'Ohe hano ihu (Hawaiian/Polynesian nose flute)

You read that right: nose flute.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nose_flute#Hawaii

'Ohe hano ihu in Hawaiian means "bamboo, breath, nose." It is made from a single bamboo node with a hole at the node area for the breath and three holes for the notes on the top side of the tube. It was often used in conjunction with chants and song. The Hawaiians believe that the nose is pure and innocent unlike the mouth which can say many things. So the breath entering and exiting the 'ohe hano ihu is purer than the mouth. In olden days a man would serenade his sweetheart with the nose flute in order to woo her heart and win her affections.

[laconicsax]

74. I'll take the ophicleide for the win.

Way cooler than the serpent, more of a real instrument than the sarrusophone.

[stuntcat]

76. the hammered dulcimer.. also bagpipes

:headbang:

[greendog]

77. Washboard

[Xipe Totec]

78. Redoba

I dare you to figure out what it is.

[Danmel]

79. The Rauschfife

Google it!
:)

[RetroLounge]

82. Other: Cowbell

duh.

RL

[mainegreen]

84. Hurdy-Gurdy: the medieval synthesizer

[leftofthedial]

85. pedal steel guitar

the most beautiful sound in the world

[tigereye]

86. Shawms

or any medieval instrument, actually







I love PIffaro - they seem to use more shawms than anyone else I have seen!

[MrSlayer]

87. Harpsichord.

Great sound.

[trusty elf]

88. The theorbo