Unusual Musical Instruments

skier

skier

Line Up and Wait
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Skier
I know we have a number of musicians on this form. I think I've seen a number of guitar posts. Maybe some piano. Maybe some discussion of other instruments. Does anyone play any unusual or historic instruments? Zither, Lute, Clavichord, Hurdy-Gurdy, Didgeridoo, Theramin, Musical Saw, Nyckelharpa, Harp, something else I've never heard of before?
 
I have a harmonica somewhere.
 
Harpsichord, but I suppose that's cheating.
 
Besides "normal", I can play basic harp and have played some 1870s reed/pump organs...is pipe organ strange enough to make the cut? What about vibraphone or marimba?
 
does it count if I've rebuilt nickelodeons?
 
I have a cigar box guitar that my friend built, but I can’t play a lick. (See what I did there? :)). It looks nice hanging on my wall, but my buddy gets some great sound out of them.
 
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skier said:
I know we have a number of musicians on this form. I think I've seen a number of guitar posts. Maybe some piano. Maybe some discussion of other instruments. Does anyone play any unusual or historic instruments? Zither, Lute, Clavichord, Hurdy-Gurdy, Didgeridoo, Theramin, Musical Saw, Nyckelharpa, Harp, something else I've never heard of before?
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Have a friend that plays a Hammered Dulcimer.
 
I’ve wanted to learn to play the lasso de amore but I haven’t yet found an instructor who can teach a classical repertoire.
 
The only music I make is with an IO-540

@NealRomeoGolf don't you play the cello or something?
 
I used to play the recorder (a type of wooden flute popular in the Renaissance and Baroque eras). While not all that unusual, what is unusual is that I used to make them for a living (until I got tired of being poor and re-started my electrical engineering career).
 
Jim K said:
The only music I make is with an IO-540

@NealRomeoGolf don't you play the cello or something?
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I was originally a music major in college and somehow became an accountant. It's a long story and talking about planes is way more interesting.

I've hung out (I'm using that term loosely) with some legendary cellists before but not the most well known to most, which is Yo-Yo Ma.
 
We did inherit an authentic German accordion but I don't know how to play it. I can make sounds with it but I've never sat down with it long enough to try to play a song.
 
SkyChaser said:
Besides "normal", I can play basic harp and have played some 1870s reed/pump organs...is pipe organ strange enough to make the cut? What about vibraphone or marimba?
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I had to learn to play marimba and vibraphone/xylophone/orchestra bells and the rest of the classical percussion suite (timpani, etc). Really didn't care for the keyboard instruments that much even though I can appreciate the talent it takes to play complex 4-mallet and 6-mallet pieces. I would rather play piano.
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
I was originally a music major in college and somehow became an accountant. It's a long story and talking about planes is way more interesting.

I've hung out (I'm using that term loosely) with some legendary cellists before but not the most well known to most, which is Yo-Yo Ma.
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I got to play bassoon in an orchestra that was accompanying Yo-Yo Ma (and a violinist whose name escapes me) in the Brahms Double Concerto when I lived in the Boston area in the 1970s.
 
I own the following: Grand Piano, several electronic keyboards, a violin, 3 accordions, a trumpet, a didgeridoo, several Australian and Latin percussion pieces, and a whole drawer full of harmonicas. I at one point owned a 10 rank pipe organ, but I never got it put together.
 
C678A687-8F1D-4EB7-ADEA-C0F13446E487.jpeg 6536EF8C-B52F-4B6F-8EC4-9A3131DAA9FB.jpeg I learned to play on this violin starting at age 5. I still have it, today these things are worth $5k and up.
 
Played the Oboe for a decade and realized it was a dead end for me. Did make me a decent duck caller though.
 
Pugs said:
Played the Oboe for a decade and realized it was a dead end for me. Did make me a decent duck caller though.
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Why on earth would you give up being an oboe hero with all those groupies throwing themselves at you?
 
I don’t have one, but I played a theremin once at a sci-if convention. It’s an electronic instrument that reacts to you hand’s position between two antennas. Creepy sounds, it was used for the music for Star Trek.
 
I don't have an usual instrument, but I do have some unusual stories as a musician and some famous people I met and a few I played with on stage if it sounds interesting.
 
My Granddaughter plays the Tuba (not the Sousaphone) which seems about as tall as she is. I asked her why the Tuba and she said it was the shortest line when they had selections for band at middle school. Wound up as first chair in the Orchestra and line captain in the Marching Band in a pretty well known High School Band program.

Cheers
 
bflynn said:
I don’t have one, but I played a theremin once at a sci-if convention. It’s an electronic instrument that reacts to you hand’s position between two antennas. Creepy sounds, it was used for the music for Star Trek.
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The Beach Boys also used one.
 
I play the plastic pipe organ and the Whirly tube:

The Whirly Tube, also known as the lasso d'amore, corruga tube, corrugaphone, sound tube, musical tube, or Bloogle Resonator.

 
I played every percussion instrument back in high school. The wiedrest ones were a brake drum with metal mallets, putting a cymbal upside down on top of a timpani and rolling it with cloth mallets while changing the timpani pitch, and strumming the edge of a 3 foot gong with a symphonic bass bow string.
 
EdFred said:
The Beach Boys also used one.
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No, they did not use a real Theremin. They used a later "Electro-Theramin" which uses mechanical controls to make a more reliable pitch/amplitude input rather than using your hands in the vicinity of the Theremin's antennae.
 
bflynn said:
I don’t have one, but I played a theremin once at a sci-if convention. It’s an electronic instrument that reacts to you hand’s position between two antennas. Creepy sounds, it was used for the music for Star Trek.
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Best song using a theramin:

Theramin starts about 6 minutes in.
 
Man...or Astro-Man? uses, or used to use, a Theremin in their live shows. I saw them last week and among the many technical issues they had, the Theremin was not cooperating. The guy who usually plays it pulled it apart and started handing out pieces to the crowd.

Nauga,
or Conrad Uno.
 
david.h said:
I played every percussion instrument back in high school. The wiedrest ones were a brake drum with metal mallets, putting a cymbal upside down on top of a timpani and rolling it with cloth mallets while changing the timpani pitch, and strumming the edge of a 3 foot gong with a symphonic bass bow string.
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Yup, all sorts of fun accessories in the percussion section! Rain sticks, djembe, sleigh bells, whip crack devices. I think we had something that was essentially a piece of guitar string pulled through a bass drum head. Not to mention about 30 different types of drum sticks/brushes.
 
Took piano lessons, guitar lessons, owned a 4 string banjo, 5 string banjo, harmonica and mouth harp… and STILL cant even play a radio.

There’s a reason I’m a pilot! My hat’s off to those of you with the gene! Bravo! I tried, God help me I tried…

EDIT: No wait! A three engine start on a 727 panel… switches clicking to a rhythm! Does that count? Tools’ 727 3-engine start engineer panel opus… very popular in the early 2000’s.
 
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