Rubab

Some information from Wikipedia:

Rubab or robab is a lute-like musical instrument originally from Afghanistan but is also played in the neighbouring countries, especially Pakistan. It derives its name from the Arab rebab which means "played with a bow" but the Central Asian instrument is plucked, and is distinctly different in construction. The rubab is mainly used by Tajik, Pashtun, Kashmiri and Iranian Kurdish classical musicians.

The rubab is a short-necked lute whose body is carved out of a single piece of wood, with a membrane, covering the hollow bowl of the sound-chamber, upon which the bridge is positioned. It has three melody strings tuned in fourths, three drone strings and 11 or 12 sympathetic strings. The instrument is made from the trunk of a mulberry tree, the head from an animal skin such as a goat skin, and the strings either gut (from the intestines of young goats, brought to the size of thread) or nylon.

The rubab is attested from the 7th century CE. It is mentioned in old Persian books, and many Sufi poets mention it in their poems. It is the traditional instrument of Khorasan.

In Tajikistan a similar but somewhat distinct rubab-i-pamir (Pamiri rubab) is played, having a shallower body and neck. The rubab of the Pamir area has six gut strings, one of which, rather than running from the head to the bridge, is attached partway down the neck, similar to the fifth string of the American banjo.

How it looks:


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Feed-Drum

You cannot make 10-20 hits in second? Then this drum definitely for you ^_^_^

Some information from Wikipedia:

The Feed-Drum is an imperial bass drum with a system of electronic conditioning of the skin conceived by composer Michelangelo Lupone and produced at CRM - Centro Ricerche Musicali, Rome. Through the principle of feed-back, the signal produced by the excitation of the skin was returned to the skin itself in the form of acoustic pressure. The result was the infinite prolongation of the sound. The system controls the damping of the movement of the skin, and therefore the decay rate of the sound, and permits isolation of high frequency modes by the combined action of nodes present on the skin and the amount of feed-back input energy. The design on the skin surface is a simplified map of the oscillatory modes based on the Bessel functions. The map was limited to 13 diameters and 8 nodal circles, the latter divided into even semicircles (to the left) and odd semicircles (to the right).

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Harpejji

One more variant with tapping style of play.

Some information from Here:

The harpejji is a member of a small family of stringed musical instruments known as tapping instruments. Tapping instruments are descendents of the electric guitar but are optimized for a style of playing that involves tapping on the strings to produce a note. One of the primary benefits of this style of playing is that it only requires one finger to make each note, unlike strumming which requires at least one finger on each hand to make a note.

By freeing up more fingers, the player has the freedom to play arrangements that are physically too difficult to play with the more traditional playing techniques. Unlike all other commercially available tapping instruments, the harpejji has a keyboard-inspired playing interface that many will find easier to learn, more comfortable to play and more interesting to explore.

The harpejji is played on a stand, horizontally or on a slight incline or decline. A decline position allows the audience to see more of your playing, whereas an incline position makes it easiest to reach the top frets.

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Guzheng

Looks like modified gusli or hammered dulcimer without hammers.

Some information from Wikipedia:

The guzheng, is a Chinese plucked zither. The guzheng is a similar instrument to many Asian instruments such as the Japanese koto, the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum, and the Vietnamese đàn tranh.

The guzheng should not to be confused with the guqin (another ancient Chinese zither but a fewer number of strings and without bridges).

The origin of the guzheng can be traced back to two other Chinese plucked zithers, the se. The guzheng has existed since the Warring States Period and became especially popular during the Qin dynasty. The number of strings on the guzheng has always fluctuated, as we have as few as 6 to as many as 23 strings during the Tang dynasty. The earliest record of the guzheng or gu-jirn in Shi Ji is attributed to the historian Sima Qian in 91 BC.

Until 1961, the common guzheng had 16 strings, although by the mid-20th century 18-string guzhengs were also in use. In 1961 Xu Zhengao together with Wang Xunzhi introduced the first 21-string guzheng after two years of research and development. In 1961, they also invented the "S-shaped" left string rest, which was quickly adopted by all guzheng makers and is still used today, whether in the shape of the letter "S", "C", etc. This curve allows for greater ease in tuning the strings and, combined with strings of varied thickness, allows for greater resonance in both the deeper and higher pitch ranges. The 21-string zheng is the most commonly used, but some traditional musicians still use the 16-string, especially along the southeastern coastal provinces of China and in Taiwan.

The guzheng is tuned to a pentatonic scale, the 16-string zheng is tuned to give three complete octaves, while the 21-string zheng has four complete octaves.

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Bells

Popular in many religions. Cannot understand a reason but even if religion don't like music it still allows bells.

Some information from Wikipedia:

A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck. The striking implement can be a tongue suspended within the bell, known as a clapper, a small, free sphere enclosed within the body of the bell or a separate mallet or hammer.

Bells are usually made of cast metal, but small bells can also be made from ceramic or glass. Bells can be of all sizes: from tiny dress accessories to church bells weighing many tons. Historically, many bells were made to commemorate important events or people and have been associated with the concepts of peace and freedom. The study of bells is called campanology.

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Eigenharp

Some more electronic wind instruments with additional abilities. Most of information in video.

Some information from Wikipedia:

Eigenharp is a brand of electronic instrument made by Eigenlabs, a company based in Devon, UK, invented by John Lambert and released in 2009 after developing it for eight years.

Characteristics of all of the instruments are:

* A matrix of velocity sensitive multi-expressive keys, each of which act like a 4-way analog joystick. This allows the simultaneous pitch bend and modulation (or other parameters) of each played note individually.
* A stick-like vertical form factor akin to a sitar for the larger models or a flute in the smaller ones.
* A built-in wind controller, giving the larger versions of the instrument an appearance similar to a bassoon.
* One or two ribbon controller strips
* Macintosh-based control software, with an early Windows version now available.

Additionally, the larger models have:

* A series of percussion keys
* A built-in step sequencer with indicator LEDs for each key.

How it looks:

Eigenharp Pico



Eigenharp Alpha


Example of playing:

Shakuhachi

Some information from Wikipedia:

The shakuhachi is a Japanese end-blown flute. It is traditionally made of bamboo, but versions now exist in ABS and hardwoods. It was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of suizen (吹禅?, blowing meditation). Its soulful sound made it popular in 1980s pop music in the English-speaking world.

Shakuhachi are usually made from the root end of a bamboo culm and are extremely versatile instruments. Professional players can produce virtually any pitch they wish from the instrument, and play a wide repertoire of original Zen music, ensemble music with koto, biwa, and shamisen, folk music, jazz, and other modern pieces.

Much of the shakuhachi's subtlety (and player's skill) lies in its rich tone colouring, and the ability for its variation. Different fingerings, embouchures and amounts of meri can produce notes of the same pitch, but with subtle or dramatic differences in the tone colouring. Holes can be covered partially (1/3 covered, 1/2, 2/3, etc.) and pitch varied subtly or substantially by changing the blowing angle. The honkyoku pieces rely heavily on this aspect of the instrument to enhance their subtlety and depth.

Unlike a recorder, where the player blows into a duct—a narrow airway over a block which is called a "fipple"—and thus has limited pitch control, the shakuhachi player blows as one would blow across the top of an empty bottle (though the shakuhachi has a sharp edge to blow against) and therefore has substantial pitch control. The five finger holes are tuned to a pentatonic scale with no half-tones, but using techniques called meri and kari, in which the blowing angle is adjusted to bend the pitch downward and upward, respectively, the player can bend each pitch as much as a whole tone or more. Pitches may also be lowered by shading or partially covering finger holes. Since most pitches can be achieved via several different fingering or blowing techniques on the shakuhachi, the timbre of each possibility is taken into account when composing or playing. The shakuhachi has a range of two full octaves and a partial third octave. The various octaves are produced using subtle variations of breath and embouchure.

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Glass armonica

Advanced glass harp.

Some information from Wikipedia:

The glass harmonica is a type of musical instrument that uses a series of glass bowls or goblets graduated in size to produce musical tones by means of friction (instruments of this type are known as friction idiophones).

The phenomenon of rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a wine goblet to produce tones is documented back to Renaissance times; Galileo considered the phenomenon (in his Two New Sciences), as did Athanasius Kircher.

Benjamin Franklin invented a radically new arrangement of the glasses in 1761 after seeing water-filled wine glasses played by Edmund Delaval at Cambridge in England in 1758. Franklin, who called his invention the "armonica" after the Italian word for harmony, worked with London glassblower Charles James to build one, and it had its world premiere in early 1762. A modern glass armonica built using Benjamin Franklin's design.

In Franklin's treadle-operated version, 37 bowls were mounted horizontally on an iron spindle. The whole spindle turned by means of a foot pedal. The sound was produced by touching the rims of the bowls with moistened fingers. Rims were painted different colors according to the pitch of the note. With the Franklin design it is possible to play ten glasses simultaneously if desired, a technique that is very difficult if not impossible to execute using upright goblets. Franklin also advocated the use of a small amount of powdered chalk on the fingers, which helped produce a clear tone in the same way rosin does for the bows of string instruments.

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Banjo

Some information from Wikipedia:

The banjo is a stringed instrument with, typically, four or five strings, which vibrate a membrane of plastic material or animal hide stretched over a circular frame. Simpler forms of the instrument were fashioned by enslaved Africans in Colonial America, adapted from several African instruments of the same basic design. There are several theories concerning the origin of the name banjo. It may derive from the Kimbundu term mbanza. Some etymologists believe it comes from a dialectal pronunciation of the Portuguese "bandore" or from an early anglicisation of the Spanish word "bandurria", though other research suggests that it may come from a Senegambian term for a bamboo stick formerly used for the instrument's neck.

Enslaved Africans, living in Appalachia, fashioned gourd-bodied instruments like those they knew in Africa. 18th and early 19th century writers transcribed the name of these instruments variously as bangie, banza, banjer and banjar. The modern banjo was popularized by the American minstrel performer Joel Sweeney in the 1830s. Banjos were introduced in Britain in the 1840s by Sweeney's group, the American Virginia Minstrels, and became very popular in music halls.

The modern banjo comes in a variety of forms, including four- and five-string versions. A six-string version, tuned and played similar to a guitar, has gained popularity. In almost all of its forms, the banjo's playing is characterized by a fast arpeggiated plucking, although there are many different playing styles.

How it looks:


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Trombone

Slide brass instrument. I like sliding instruments because they can make not only tones and half tones but all sounds in diapason.

Some information from Wikipedia:

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips (embouchure) cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate. The trombone is usually characterised by a telescopic slide with which the player varies the length of the tube to change pitches, although the valve trombone uses three valves like those on a trumpet.

The word trombone derives from Italian tromba (trumpet) and -one (a suffix meaning "large"), so the name literally means "large trumpet". Trombones and trumpets share the important characteristic of having predominantly cylindrical bores. Therefore, the most frequently encountered trombones—the tenor and bass trombone—are the tenor and bass counterparts of the trumpet. Trombone music, along with music for euphonium and tuba, is typically written in concert pitch while trumpet music is transposed to B♭, although exceptions do occur, the most notably being in brass band music. Most trombones are pitched in B♭, an octave below the trumpet and an octave above the tuba.

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Chapman stick

Nice instrument. Good choice for people who want to play guitar, but want more functionality from instrument.

Some information from Wikipedia:

The Chapman Stick (the Stick) is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. A member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick usually has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and has been used on music recordings to play bass lines, melody lines, chords or textures. Designed as a fully polyphonic chordal instrument, it can also cover several of these musical parts simultaneously.

A Stick looks like a wide version of the fretboard of an electric guitar, but having 8, 10 or 12 strings. It is, however, considerably longer and wider than a guitar fretboard. Unlike the electric guitar, it is usually played by tapping or fretting the strings, rather than plucking them. Instead of one hand fretting and the other hand plucking, both hands sound notes by striking the strings against the fingerboard just behind the appropriate frets for the desired notes.

For this reason, it can sound many more notes at once than some other stringed instruments, making it more comparable to a keyboard instrument than to other stringed instruments. This arrangement lends itself to playing multiple lines at once and many Stick players have mastered performing bass, chords and melody lines simultaneously.

The technique is very similar to that of piano in as much as the player covers both bass and melody notes together with both hands and each note is struck with one finger of one hand. Typically, one hand plays the melody on the treble strings and the other plays rhythm on the bass strings.

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Shamisen

Some information from Wikipedia:

The shamisen (三味線?, literally "three flavor strings"), also called sangen (三絃?, literally "three strings") is a three-stringed musical instrument played with a plectrum called a bachi.

The shamisen is similar in length to a guitar, but its neck is much much slimmer and has no frets. Its drum-like rounded rectangular body, known as the dō, is taut front and back with skin in the manner of a banjo, and amplifies the sound of the strings. The skin is usually from a dog or cat, but in the past a special type of paper was used and recently various types of plastics are being tried. On the skin of some of the best shamisen, the position of the cat's nipples can still be seen.

The neck of the shamisen is usually constructed such that it is divided into three or four pieces that fit and lock together. Indeed, some shamisens are made so that they can be easily disassembled and stowed to save space. The pegs used to wind the strings were traditionally fashioned out of ivory, but as it has become a rare resource, they have been recently fashioned out of other materials, such as various kinds of wood and plastic.

The three strings are traditionally made of silk, or, more recently, nylon. The lowest passes over a small hump at the "nut" end so that it buzzes, creating a characteristic sound known as sawari (somewhat reminiscent of the "buzzing" of a sitar, which is called jivari). The upper part of the dō is almost always protected by a cover known as a dō kake, and players often wear a little band of cloth on their left hand to facilitate sliding up and down the neck. This band is known as a yubikake. There may also be a cover on the head of the instrument, known as a tenjin.

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Barrel organ

Well i'm not sure it could be called a musical instrument but it's original enough for describing. And those barrels were first tools for saving music.

Some information from Wikipedia:

A barrel organ is a mechanical musical instrument consisting of bellows and one or more ranks of pipes housed in a case, usually of wood, and often highly decorated. The basic principle is the same as a traditional pipe organ, but rather than being played by an organist, the barrel organ is activated either by a person turning a crank, or by clockwork driven by weights or springs. The pieces of music are encoded onto wooden barrels (or cylinders), which are analogous to the keyboard of the traditional pipe organ.

The pieces of music (or tunes) are encoded onto the barrel using metal pins and staples. Pins are used for short notes, and staples of varying lengths for longer notes. Each barrel usually carried several different tunes. Pinning such barrels was something of an art form, and the quality of the music produced by a barrel organ is largely a function of the quality of its pinning. This complex encoding of music was an early form of programming.

The organ barrels have to be extremely sturdy in order to keep their precise alignment over the years, since they play the same programming role as music rolls and have to deal with more mechanical stress given the greater number of rods and levers involved. Damage to the barrel, such as warpage, would have a direct (and usually detrimental) effect on the music produced.

The size of the barrel will depend on the number of notes in the organ and the length of the tune to be played. The more notes, the longer the barrel. The longer the tune, the greater the diameter.

Since the music is hard-coded onto the barrel, the only way for a barrel organ to play a different set of tunes is to replace its barrel with a different one. While not a difficult operation, barrels are unwieldy and expensive and so many organ grinders do not have more than one barrel for their instrument.

How it looks:

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Example of playing:

Thousand

One thousand of pageviews! Maybe it's not so many for two months, but i'm glad ^_^_^



And i just want to post it here. I want to return back in time and place this video in post about khaen. Guy is a really good player.

Harpsichord

Thanks to Oramah Maalhur (шаурама) for this instrument. And maybe harp just means "musical instrument" in english? I see it word in half of posts.

Some information from Wikipedia:

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.

In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard. In a broader sense, "harpsichord" designates the whole family of similar plucked keyboard instruments, including the smaller virginals, muselar, and spinet.

The harpsichord was widely used in Renaissance and Baroque music. During the late 18th century it gradually disappeared from the musical scene with the rise of the piano. But in the 20th century it made a resurgence, used in historically informed performance of older music, in new (contemporary) compositions, and in popular culture.

How it looks:


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Bandura

Nice zither/lute/gusli-like instrument. In russian language it also means "big thing" ^_^_^

Some information from Wikipedia:

Bandura refers to a Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument. It combines elements of a box zither and lute, as well as its lute-like predecessor, the kobza.

The term is also occasionally used by when referring to a number of other Eastern European string instruments such as the hurdy gurdy and the 5 string guitar (commonly referred to by the diminutive bandurka).

The use of lute-like instruments by the inhabitants of the lands than now constitute Ukraine dates back to 591. In that year Byzantine Greek chronicles mention Bulgar warriors who travelled with lute-like instruments.

There are iconographic depictions of lute-like instruments in the 11th century frescoes of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, once the capital of a vast medieval kingdom of the Kievan Rus'. It is not known by what specific term these instruments were referred to in these early times, although it has been surmised that the lute-like instrument was referred to by the generic medieval slavic term for a string instrument - Gusli.

The instrument became popular in the courts of the nobility in Eastern Europe. There are numerous citations mentioning the existence of Ukrainian bandurists in both Russia and Poland.

How it looks:


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Nyckelharpa

And again we have wrong name of instrument. It's much closer to violin than to harp. I wonder why most of instrument have "harp" in their names...

Some information from Wikipedia:

A nyckelharpa is a traditional Swedish musical instrument. It is a string instrument or chordophone. Its keys are attached to tangents which, when a key is depressed, serve as frets to change the pitch of the string.

The nyckelharpa is similar in appearance to a fiddle or the bowed Byzantine lira. Structurally, it is more closely related to the hurdy gurdy, both employing key-actuated tangents to change the pitch.

A depiction of two instruments, possibly but not confirmed nyckelharpas, can be found on a relief dating from c1350 in one of the gates to Källunge church on Gotland. Early church paintings are found in Siena, Italy, 1408 and in different churches in Denmark and Sweden, i.e. Tolfta church, Sweden, c 1460-1525.

Traditionally, and presently, the nyckelharpa is played with a strap around the neck, stabilized by the right arm. Didier François, violinist and nyckelharpist from Belgium, is noted for using a unique playing posture. Holding the nyckelharpa vertically in front of the chest, one is able to move both arms in a more natural and relaxed fashion. The overall tone and sound of the instrument is affected by this non-traditional position. Using a violin bracket to keep the nyckelharpa away from the body so it can swing freely also causes it to sound more "open".

How it looks:




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Lyrics Wikia

Oh i forgot about small anniversary of this blog. I write it already two months. 61 instruments were described already and i still have many of them in my list.

But now i want to tell you about web service with lyrics of songs. This service has one bonus - you can find lyrics there not only manually. Some players, such as Clementine, Songbird and many others can download lyrics from that site automatically. And you always can add there those lyrics which you couldn't find there before. And then you will be able download lyrics from any computer.

You can look at sample here.

How it looks in Clementine:

Bicycle seats

This is the end of the weeks of unusual instruments. It was hard and not so good as i expected. But anyway - it was one from the most interesting weeks here. You can find music anywhere around you. All you need - to hear.

Well these seats were modified but it's still looks cool. Half of this instrument is a clarinet or oboe.

Example of playing:

Floppy drive

Now you can use floppy drives only this way ^_^_^

How it looks (lol):

Example of playing:

Airpole

Some information from Here:

Airpoles are a series of flexible fiberclass rods that make a satisfying "swoosh" as they slice through the air. There are a few different types of Airpoles. The airpoles are one of Blue Man Group’s favorite invented instruments. Airpoles are made of a flexible boat antenna.

It could look like this (horse whip):


Example of playing:

Singing Tesla Coil

The music of lightnings.

Some information from Wikipedia:

The singing Tesla coil is a form of plasma speaker. It is a variation of a solid state Tesla coil that has been modified to produce musical tones by modulating its spark output. The resulting pitch is a low fidelity square wave like sound reminiscent of an analog synthesizer.

The term, "singing Tesla coil" was coined by David Nunez, the coordinator of the Austin, TX chapter of Dorkbot, while describing a musical Tesla coil presentation by Joe DiPrima and Oliver Greaves during DorkBot's 2007 SXSW event. The term was then made popular by a CNET article describing the event. Though they had been been doing public performances with the technology since March of 2006. Shortly after that, DiPrima named their performance group "ArcAttack" and became the first musical group to ever use this technology in live performance.

While early versions of musical Tesla coils generally used Zero crossing threshold detector as a method of producing music through their spark output, Scott Coppersmith was the first person to design a complete MIDI based Tesla coil system.

Now, MIDI is the most common method of music production. It works by means of a microcontroller that is programmed to interpret MIDI data, and output a corresponding Pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal. This PWM signal is coupled to the Tesla coil through a fiber optic cable, and controls when the Tesla coil turns on and off.

Steve Ward demonstrated a singing Tesla coil at the DucKon 16, science fiction convention on June 9, 2007, at which time it was suggested to him to nickname the device, the "Zeusaphone". It is a play on the name of the Sousaphone, giving homage instead to Zeus, Greek god of lightning.

How it looks:


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Drumbone

Combination of pvc instrument and trombone.

Some information from Wikipedia:

The Drumbone is a percussive spin-off of a trombone. Its sliding tube-within-a-tube design allows it to be lengthened and shortened during a performance, thus creating a variety of pitches. It can also be taken apart and used as two separate instruments which harmonize with each other. The song "Drumbone" which can be found on Blue Man Group's debut album, Audio, is a crowd favorite. The song and piece is played in all four theatrical productions of Blue Man Group and it is also featured on The Complex Rock Tour.

How it looks:


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PVC instrument

Just pvc pipes with different lenght but it has it's own sounds.

Some information from here:

The unique sound of Blue Man Group’s PVC instrument is achieved when polyvinyl chloride pipes are struck with closed-cell foam rubber paddles. The pitch of each note is determined by the length of the tube.

How it looks:


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Glass harp

As usual it haven't any relations to harp ^_^_^ From now on i begin a week of music from that things which originally weren't made as musical instruments.

Some information from Wikipedia:

A glass harp is an instrument made of upright wine glasses. It was created in 1741 by Irishman Richard Pockrich, who is known as the first virtuoso of the musical glasses.

The instrument was popular in the 18th century. Pockrich's contemporary, Ford, published Instructions for the Playing of the Musical Glasses while Bartl published a German version.

It is played by running moistened or chalked fingers around the rim of the glasses. Each glass is tuned to a different pitch, either by grinding each goblet to the specified pitch, in which case the tuning is permanent, or by filling the glass with water until the desired pitch is achieved.

How it looks:


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Pipa

I thought that pipa is just a chinese variant of lute, but now i understand that its sounds really different.

Some information from Wikipedia:

The pipa is a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the Chinese lute, the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12–26. Another Chinese 4 string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa.

The pipa appeared in the Qin Dynasty (221 - 206 BCE) and was developed during the Han Dynasty. It is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for nearly two thousand years in China. Several related instruments in East and Southeast Asia are derived from the pipa; these include the Japanese biwa, the Vietnamese đàn tỳ bà, and the Korean bipa. The Korean instrument is the only one of the three that is no longer used. Attempts to revive the instrument have failed, although examples survive in museums.

The name "pípá" is made up of two Chinese syllables, "pí" (琵) and "pá" (琶). These are the two most common ways of playing this instrument. "Pí" is to push the fingers of the right hand from right to left, thus more than one finger can be used at a time striking multiple notes, and "pá" is to pull the thumb of the right hand from left to right, in the opposite direction. The strings were originally played using a large plectrum in the Tang Dynasty, then gradually replaced by the fingernails of the right hand. Since the revolutions in Chinese instrument making during the 20th century, the softer twisted silk strings of earlier times have been exchanged for nylon-wound steel strings, which are far too strong for human fingernails, so false nails are now used, constructed of plastic or tortoise-shell, and affixed to the fingertips with the player's choice of elastic tape.

How it looks:


Example of playing:

truncating of the posts

Pages with all pictures and videos too heavy. so i decided to truncate all posts excluding last one. But page became much more ugly. Maybe i should return old style? I need your opinions, my readers. P.s. i'm really afraid that no one will answer...

Xaphoon

Thanks to Lothmak for this post.

Some information from Wikipedia:

The Xaphoon is a single-reed keyless wind instrument, very similar in construction to the chalumeau, a European keyless single-reed renaissance folk instrument that was the ancestor of the clarinet. The sound of a Xaphoon is actually somewhere between that of a sax and a clarinet, and overblows in 12ths, like a clarinet. The originator, Brian Whitman, still makes the bamboo instruments by hand in his home on the island of Maui, Hawaii, using local bamboo cut from the forests of the eastern end of the island.

The Xaphoon Bamboo Sax, which is available in the keys of C, B♭, and D (as well as any other key via special order) uses a regular tenor saxophone reed. Its body is 31.75 centimeters in length (for the instrument pitched in C) and has nine holes (eight holes in front, and one hole in back, for the left thumb) that resemble those of a recorder. The Xaphoon's fingerings, however, are significantly different from those of either a saxophone or recorder. It has a range of two octaves and is fully chromatic.

In the spring of 2000, a molded ABS version of the instrument was introduced, which is marketed under the trade name Pocket Sax. Currently, it is available in the key of C, with its lowest tone being middle C. Its durability, rich tone, low price, and portability made it a suitable alternative to the harmonica or tin whistle for travelers who wish to bring an instrument with them in their pocket or daypack.

How it looks:




Example of playing:

ondes Martenot

Thanks for all people who help me with this blog. And thanks mr.Flasher for telling me about this instrument.

Some information from Wikipedia:

The ondes Martenot, also known as the ondium Martenot, Martenot and ondes musicales, is an early electronic musical instrument invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot. The original design was similar in sound to the theremin. The sonic capabilities of the instrument were later expanded by the addition of timbral controls and switchable loudspeakers.

The instrument's eerie wavering notes are produced by varying the frequency of oscillation in vacuum tubes. The production of the instrument stopped in 1988, but several conservatories in France still teach it. Since 2008, Jean-Loup Dierstein, with the support of Maurice Martenot's son, has been building ondes Martenot instruments based on the model used when production stopped in 1988.

The ondes Martenot is unique among electronic musical instruments in its methods of control. Maurice Martenot was a cellist, and it was his vision to bring the degree of musical expressivity associated with the cello to his new instrument. The ondes, in its later forms, can be controlled either by depressing keys on the six-octave keyboard, or by sliding a metal ring worn on the right-hand index finger in front of the keyboard. The position of the ring corresponds in pitch to the horizontal location along the keyboard. The latter playing method allows for unbroken, sweeping glissandi to be produced in much the same manner as a Theremin. The keyboard itself has a lateral range of movement of several millimeters, permitting vibrati of nearly a semitone below or above the pitch of the depressed key to be produced.

By depressing keys or moving the ring, no sound is initially produced. A control operated by the left hand and situated in a small drawer of controls on the left side of the instrument controls the musical dynamics, from silence to fortissimo. This control is glass and lozenge-shaped, and can be depressed several centimetres. The depth to which this key is depressed determines the dynamic level: the deeper, the louder. The manner in which it is pressed determines the attack of the note: quick taps produce staccato articulations, whilst more controlled and deliberate depressions are used to play legato.

The small drawer of controls also contains flip-switches to control the instrument's timbre. These function in much the same way as a pipe organ's stops can be added or removed. Like organ stops, each switch has its own sound color which can be added to the chorus of other timbres.

How it looks:




Example of playing:

Harp Guitar

One of the best plucked string instruments. I think it should be more popular than usual guitar, but people even don't know about it...

Some information from Wikipedia:

The harp guitar is a stringed instrument with a history of well over two centuries. While there are several unrelated historical stringed instruments that have appropriated the name “harp-guitar” over the centuries, the term today is understood as the accepted vernacular to refer to a particular family of instruments defined as "A guitar, in any of its accepted forms, with any number of additional unstopped strings that can accommodate individual plucking." Additionally, in reference to these instruments, the word "harp" is now a specific reference to the unstopped open strings, and is not specifically a reference to the tone, pitch range, volume, silhouette similarity, construction, floor-standing ability, nor any other alleged "harp-like" properties. To qualify in this category, an instrument must have at least one unfretted string lying off the main fretboard. Further, the unfretted strings can be, and typically are, played as an open string.

Duduk

Some information from Wikipedia:

The duduk is a traditional woodwind instrument of Armenian origins, that is popular in the Caucasus, the Middle East and Central Asia. The English word is often used generically for a family of ethnic instruments including the doudouk or duduk in Armenian, the düdük or mey in Turkey, the duduki in Georgia, the balaban (or düdük) in Azerbaijan, the narmeh-ney in Iran, the duduka or dudka in Russia and Ukraine. This instrument is not to be confused with the northwestern Bulgarian folk instrument of the same name - Balkan duduk.

Kazoo

Simple but funny and nice instrument. And really simple for playing.

Some information from Wikipedia:

The kazoo is a wind instrument which adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when one vocalizes into it. The kazoo is a type of mirliton which is a membranophone – a device which modifies the sound of a person's voice by way of a vibrating membrane.

While blowing is the term typically used to describe the technique required to play a kazoo, a more accurate term would be humming into the kazoo. Blowing with the lips closed around the mouthpiece of the kazoo will not make sound – one must vibrate air from his or her lungs by humming into the instrument in order for the kazoo to make any sound. Increased air flow and harder blowing will result in a more effective and authoritative sound.

Svirel'

Some information from Wikipedia:

Svirel is an old folk Russian wind instrument of the end-blown flute type. In the Old Rus’ this instrument was made either of hollow reed or cylindrical wood branches. A legend says that Lel', son of the Slavic goddess of love Lada was a svirel player. In spring he would make his svirel of birch branches.

Traditional Russian svirel has not yet been studied well enough. Specialists have long tried to relate the present day’s pipe instruments to their Old Russian names. Most often the chroniclers used three names for this type instruments: svirel, sopel (sopilka) and tsevnitsa.

Gudok

It was hard to find this instrument cause name of instrument translates as "toot".

Some information from Wikipedia:

The gudok is an ancient Eastern Slavic string musical instrument, played with a bow.

A gudok usually had three strings, two of them tuned in unison and played as a drone, the third tuned a fifth higher. All three strings were in the same plane at the bridge, so that a bow could make them all sound simultaneously. Sometimes the gudok also had several sympathetic strings (up to eight) under the sounding board. These made the gudok's sound warm and rich.

The player held the gudok on his lap, like a cello or viola da gamba. It was also possible to play the gudok while standing and even while dancing, which made it popular among skomorokhs. Initially in the 12th century (and probably before), the gudok did not have a neck for pressing strings. This suggests that it was played by stopping the strings from the side with fingernails (similarly to the Byzantine lyra), rather than pressing strings onto the instrument's neck. Later in the 14th century some modifications of the gudok had a real neck for pressing strings.