odd instruments – OZTHOUGHTS

Aside from all the thousands of established musical instruments, which one would imagine would produce enough different sounds to meet any musician´s needs, there are always odd balls out there who absolutely have to have an instrument that will produce yet another sound, so here are a few that i have come across for your listening pleasure.

Constance Demby:

This extraordinary woman has invented a whole slew of new instruments as part of her life´s work as a New Age Healer, and her music and instruments have been used by all manner of people and projects beyond her own use of them as an aid to healing.

She has invented quite a few instruments, but I shall simply give you one of them, it is easy enough once you know of her to find much more of her music online or on her own website. So here we go with a wonderful instrument she calls The Sonic Steel Space Bass.

First though, here is her description of the instrument itself, so you know what it is you are watching and listening to.

The Sonic Steel Space Bass is a 10 ft sheet of mirror finish stainless steel with 5 octaves of steel and brass rods. The rods can be bowed, struck percussively, and the metal sheet can be rubbed to create various effects. Several tones can be created by bowing a single rod, resulting in a multi-tiered overtone series. A sound scientist determined that the sound waves on the lowest notes of the instrument are approximately thirty feet long.

The instrument emits deep, primordial, archetypal resonances that put audiences into altered states in which listeners report transdimensional experiences. In healing modality, the ultra low sub-sonic frequencies have been known to break up and dissolve long held encrustrations held in the embodiment, resulting in healings.

I have chosen a short video of her playing this instrument so that you can see what it actually looks like, however there are many full length examples of her music online, but as sound files rather than videos, and I wanted you to see what it actually looks like.

Wonderful sound isnt it? And I have to say it, but she is a very alarming looking woman. So now you know what it sounds and looks like, I suggest you might want to go to her website and listen to much more music. ( http://www.constancedemby.com). She is also well represented on Youtube, of course!.

OK, so that was the first of the odd instruments I wanted to show you.

The Bazantar:

Here we have an instrument that more or less represents the likely outcome of a mating between a double bass and a sitar. There is only one of these monsters in the world, as it was designed and built by Marc Deutsch for his own use. Continue reading “Some Curious Musical Instruments To Amuse You”

Way back in about 1919, a somewhat strange Russian by the name of Lev Termin invented what I am sure had to have been the first purely electronic musical instrument when he created an instrument he called the Termin.

He moved quite shortly after this to the USA, where he changed his name to Leon Theremin for some reason, and his invention was thereafter always known as the Theremin.

What is a Theremin?

Well I have found a good and detailed discussion online all about the Theremin, and it describes it at some length. So here I shall simply give you the brief description, and if you are seriously interested in this instrument, you will find a link to that website at the end of this post.

It consists of a box-like body with two antennas: one is a straight vertical rod which controls the pitch (usually on the right for right-handed players), the other is a horizontal loop (usually on the left) shaped somewhat like a cane handle which controls the volume. The pitch and volume of the note are controlled by the distance of the hands from the antennas which generate an electromagnetic field.

So, now you know the essential essence of the Theremin, next thing is, what does it actually sound like? To answer this question I have found an old bit of film in which Theremin himself, in scratchy Russian, describes and demonstrates his instrument.

For those of you who do not speak Russian, here is an English speaker demonstrating it for you…..

OK, so now we know what it sounds like, and more or less how it works and how to play it as well, so what does it sound like when used as an instrument to play music with? Well obviously it sounds more than a little ethereal, and spacey as well – but it does have a sort of haunting quality I find. Continue reading “Theremin – The First Electronic Instrument”