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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Floppy drive

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

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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):


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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.

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Hang

One from the newest musical instruments. Its old is just ten years, but it already gets millions views at youtube.

Some information from Wikipedia:

A Hang is a musical instrument in the idiophone class created by PANArt in Switzerland. The Hang is made from two deep drawn nitrided steel sheets that are attached together creating the recognizable 'UFO shape'. There is nothing inside the Hang but air. The top (Ding) side has a center 'note' hammered into it with 7 or 8 'tone fields' hammered around it. The bottom (Gu) is a simpler surface that has a rolled hole in the center with a tuned note that can be created when the rim is struck. The Hang uses some of the same physical principles as a steelpan but with a nitrided surface and structural change of having two clamped shells with a small opening so that the instrument is a Helmholtz Resonator. The creation of the Hang was the result of many years of research on the steelpan as well as the study of a diverse collection of instruments from around the world such as gongs, gamelan, ghatam/udu, drums, and bells. Metallurgical and acoustic research by the makers has led to significant changes and refinement in structure, design, and process over the years since the first Hang was offered. The Hang is sometimes referred to as a Hang drum. The 'drum' label, however, is discouraged by PANArt: "Treating it as a drum and promoting the name Hang Drum ... has created a ripple effect of misinformation that leads to damaged Hang, physical injury, and mental and emotional turbulence."

The Hang is typically played resting on the player's lap, and can also be played on a stand. The Hang is generally played with the hands and fingers instead of mallets. This lighter playing tends to produce a complex overtone-rich sound that could be considered 'softer' and 'warmer' than the 'bright' sound of a mallet based traditional steelpan.

The Hang was developed in 2000 in Berne, Switzerland by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer. It was introduced at the Musikmesse Frankfurt in 2001. Its name comes from the Bernese German word for hand. The two deep drawn steel hemispheres of the Hang are hardened by a process known as gas-nitriding. The side considered the 'bottom' has an opening (Gu) in the center which allows the generation of the bass note through Helmholtz resonance. When it is played in a dampened way it can change in pitch similar to a talking drum. On the 'top' are seven (in the bass version of the Hang) or eight (treble version which is no longer produced) notes arranged in a 'Tone Circle' in zig-zag fashion from low to high. All are tuned harmonically (with fundamental, octave and the fifth above the octave) around a low note (Ding) at the center of the Tone Circle. Each creation is numbered and signed.

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Marimba

I think marimba and xylophone are different instruments because they have different structure and different sounds. So i should to describe xylophone at 1st because it's much simplier, but i haven't time now to search information about it so i describe marimba.

Some information from Wikipedia:

The marimba (also: Marimbaphone) is a musical instrument in the percussion family. Keys or bars (usually made of wood) are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys (similar to a piano) to aid the performer both visually and physically.

The chromatic marimba was developed in southern Mexico and northern Guatemala from the diatonic marimba, an instrument whose ancestor was a type of balafon that African slaves built in Central America.

Modern uses of the marimba include solo performances, woodwind ensembles, marimba concertos, jazz ensembles, marching band (front ensembles), drum and bugle corps, and orchestral compositions. Contemporary composers have utilized the unique sound of the marimba more and more in recent years.

When playing the marimba it is preferred to strike just off center or right on the edge (for the "black keys") for the fullest tone, while striking the bar in the center produces a more articulate tone. Playing on the node (the location where the string passes through the bars) is sonically very weak, so it is only used when the player or composer is looking for that particular muted sound.

Part of the key to the marimba's rich sound is its resonators. These are metal tubes (usually aluminium) that hang below each bar. The length varies according to the frequency that the bar produces. Vibrations from the bars resonate as they pass through the tubes. In instruments exceeding 4½ octaves, the length of tubing required for the bass notes exceeds the height of the instrument.

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