Sound Instrument
Common household items can make great instruments! Thanks to Shira Golding.
Any Object Will Make a Sound.
We’ve all seen someone drum on an overturned plastic bucket with their hands. We’ve all taken a spoon and lightly tapped it against a glass to make it resonate. And we’ve all heard the plumbing “sing” when someone takes a shower. PVC piping has also been successfully played by Blue Man Group. So you may find your sound instrument, as well as make it. Look at the objects in your kitchen: the empty soda cans, plastic storage containers, metal utensils, wooden spoons. Consider the colander, plastic straws, the turkey baster, the pot lids, butter brush or ceramic bowls.
Look in Your Desk
What sounds can you get out of paper clips—or paper? What about your pencils, the electric pencil sharpener, the stapler, your hole puncher? We know your comb can be put to good use. What about those rubber bands or that ball of string in your desk drawer?
Look in the Garage or Tool Shed
What sound instruments are in there, just waiting to be played? Consider your gardening and carpentry tools—the rakes, metal files, rulers, upholstery nails, and the tiny plastic boxes that hold nuts and bolts. What about that piece of discarded wood in the corner—or that corrugated box? How about that old bicycle bell or those rubber washers?
Left: the Hydronica, by Trish Valdez, bottles tuned in the Just Intonation system. Right: the Mazda Marimba, made by Harry Partch with light bulbs! (Photo: Harry Partch Institute at Montclair State University)
Inventor and musician Harry Partch created sound instruments out of many nontraditional parts and objects. Above left, the Gourd Tree. Above right, the Cloud Chamber Bowls. The bowls are made from cut Pyrex bottles and are played very carefully because of easy breakage. (Photo: Harry Partch Institute at Montclair State University)
Experiment!
Experiment with the objects you find by striking, rubbing or plucking them. Try destruction as a form of music. For instance, crumble up a piece of paper for that crackle it makes. Or tear fabric for the ripping sound. Another approach: combine objects to create a sound. Rake a metal spoon across a cheese grater. Press a wooden rolling pin over bubble wrap. Saw through a piece of corrugated cardboard with a plastic knife. Pull apart pieces of Velcro. Play a balloon with a couple of paintbrushes. Shake screws in a small plastic jar—an instant maraca! Put multiple objects together with string, rubber bands or wire. Don’t forget old toys and cheap kids’ instruments. The possibilities are endless!
Now here’s real inventiveness! Sound sculptor Glenn Weyant performs on his Kestrel 920, a sound transmogrifer that he built from a piece of hollowed-out lumber with a contact microphone inside. The lumber has “a dust pan, a deconstructed satellite dish mount, assorted screws, nails, bungee cords, wires and springs” attached to it. Weyant plays the instrument with his fingers, with mallets and with thin wooden skewers. (Photo: Thanks to oddmusic.com).
Above: Electric Junkyard Gamelan is an innovative band founded by musician and inventor Terry Dame. The band has instruments made out of clay pots, wash buckets, wine glasses and other commonly found items. Dame has invented the Rubarp and Big Barp (electric rubber band harps), the Sitello (an electric cello/sitar combo), the Terraphone (copper pipe horn), the Clayrimba (a three octave tuned clay pot "marimba") and percussion instruments made from farm implements, turntables and truck springs. Staten Islander, drummer and bassist Mary Feaster is a member of the band (See the spotlight article above.) Photo: Courtesy of Electric Junkyard Gamelan.
Make a Band With Your Friends
Get you friends or classmates involved. Find a combination of players and sound instruments that creates an interesting audio texture. Experiment with the beat, the volume and the rhythm of each sound instrument in combination with the other instruments. Collaborate. Compose a sound piece for the instruments, as a group. Can you visualize the composition so that the others can read your score?
Now Spice It Up! Make Staten Island Sounds an Instrument in Your Band.
Record sounds around Staten Island to play back as part of your band’s composition. For instance,try incorporating the sounds of lapping water from Clove Lake Park. Or the sounds of the waterfront, recorded on the promenade next to the St. George Ferry Terminal (the fog horn, for instance, or the sound of the ferry horn). Record a baseball game—or the dribbling of a basketball. Take sound samples from recordings of birdcalls. Any Staten Island audio environment can become a “sound instrument” in your band.
Perform It!
When you’ve worked out your collective sound and put together a composition, record it. Then post an MP3 file for your MySpace friends, or play it &rlive” at one of Staten Island’s great neighborhood performance venues: Everything Goes Café, Cargo Café. The Cup, Martini Red’s and Karl’s Klipper, to name just a few.
Left: Laure Drogoul’s The Apparatus for Orchestral Knitting, is “a souped-up, amplified knitting instrument that amplifies the sound of the knitting, mixes it and plays it back live.” Knitting needles have pick-up mics on them. Right: Harry Partch’s Cone Gongs, made from airplane gasoline noses. (Photos: left, thanks to www.blog.craftzine.com right: Harry Partch Institute at Montclair State University).
