Diego Stocco Music from a dry cleaner video

I love Diego Stocco's creativity, the guy has a mind that works like mine, but he's out there making music from all sorts of awesome "Found Music" sources. Diego is my inspiration. Check out his latest video where he makes music with the sounds found in a neighborhood dry cleaning store.


 


More info and pictures are available at the Behance gallery:http://www.behance.net/gallery/Music-from-a-Dry-Cleaner/2161629


The Diego Stocco Youtube Channel

Cigar Box Guitar Festival in Pennsylvania this Saturday

WHAT: The second annual Pennsylvania Cigar Box Guitar Festival
WHEN: Friday, August 28 and Saturday, August 27, 2011
TIME: 10am-5pm
WHERE: Downtown York, PA. on the grounds of The York Emporium


DETAILS: The fest will host 14 acts on two stages plus demonstrations, instrument vendors and more. Headlining acts include Purgatory Hill, Shane Speal (from Cigar Box Nation) and psych-folk legends, Stone Breath. YouTube favorite and NY street musician, Keni Lee Burgess will give a free playing seminar as well.


There is a special Friday night jam session on the 26th for instrument makers and players starting at 6pm. The jam is $20 and includes pizza and beer. In addition, there will be cigar box guitar concerts in local pubs throughout the weekend.


BoingBoing blog on Cigar Box Guitar Festival

Otamatone

I saw this interesting musical instrument in the video by Michael Hearst that i posted yesterday. I thought that it was worth some additional investigation.


The Otamatone is an electronic instrument, designed by Maywa Denki. Some would call it a toy, but it's shaped like a musical note. I think that there are some real musical possibilities
This video gives you a pretty good idea of the possibilities:







Here's another video (in Japanese) which shows all of the possibilities:





And this one is my all time favorite video:





Sells for about $35 US




Links:
http://www.otamatone.co.uk/
Think Geek
Otamatone on Amazon

Thingamajigs Fundraiser Concert

To help support artists traveling from overseas and other parts of the country to join Thingamajigs for its Annual Music for People & Thingamajig Festival, a special fundraising concert will be held at Meridian Gallery in San Francisco. Local Bay Area artists will volunteer their time to perform music and demonstrate their special instruments to audience members and bring awareness to Thingamajigs' arts and education programming.


The Thingamajigs Fundraiser Concert features the music and original homemade instruments of Bart Hopkin and Tom Nunn, and will also feature Persian-Tuned Piano performed by Iranian artist Ramin Zoufonoun.




Date: Aug 19,2011
Time: 08:00 PM - 10:00 PM
$15 general; $10 students/seniors
Reservations: (510) 444-1322 or reserve@thingamajigs.org
For more information: 510-418-3447 or edward@thingamajigs.org


Thingamajigs Website

The Slaperoo by Andy Graham

I attended MakerFaire 2011 in San Mateo, CA this year. It's becoming an annual event for me and my son to check out all of the cool things that folks are 'hacking' in their garages. This year I ran into Andy Graham demo'ing his latest creation The Slaperoo.

Andy describes the The Slaperoo on his website as:

"Inspired by a long shipping crate with a highly tensioned steel strap, the SLAPEROO™ uses the same type of steel strapping (aka, the Slapper) to produce it's unique percussive tones.

"The rigid tubular body of the SLAPEROO™ is made of anodized 6061 alloy aluminum, which provides the strength necessary to handle the hundreds of pounds of tension required for the the Slapper to get its unique sound.

"The Slapper floats just above the length of the body, allowing it to be 'fretted' like a stand-up bass. However, rather than strumming, the Slapper is struck against the body with one or two hands. It can even be bowed like a violin.

"At the heart of the SLAPEROO™ lies a custom-designed transducer (pickup) that converts the vibrations of the Slapper into an audio signal. The 1/4-inch instrument plug in the back allows it to be used with any instrument amplifier.

Cost: $599 (list)

I have confirm that first of all, Andy Graham is a first rate musician. I saw him perform at MakerFaire 2010, and what caught my attention last year was his unique "multi-didj" stand which enabled him to play the didj while simultaneously banging out the beats on a full drum kit. That's Talent! Little did I know until this year, that Andy is also a talented inventor and entrepreneur. The Slaperoo is just one of several musical inventions that Andy has created over the years (including the DijBass and DijBow). But The Slaperoo has a unique sound. Admittedly, I was also fascinated by the sound of banging on the metal bands around a shipping container many years ago, (used to drive my lab mates crazy when a new crate arrived), but I didn't have Andy's inventor spirit then.

Here's a couple videos to intrigue you:

Video I took of Andy Graham playing the Slaperoo at MakerFaire 2011:

Additional Links:

• For more on Andy Graham Productions
• The Slaperoo Youtube Channel

Isle of Tune

Here's another new online sequencer, soon to be an app for Iphone. It's called "isle of Tune", and it uses an automotive motif to set your sequence in motion. You create roads, with cars. As the cars drive past various objects (houses, trees, lamp posts), different sounds are triggered. You set the sounds and tones of the various objects.

Seaquence

Check out this cool online musical sequencer. It's called "Seaquence" and it's an experimental, interactive sequencer. You can create and save or share your creations.

Here's a few that I created:

• http://seaquence.org/r9q
• http://seaquence.org/6lvx
• http://seaquence.org/95h

Youtube video of finches playing guitar

This is an incredible improvisation on guitar by a flock of finches:






Here's another video, not such great resolution:



I'd love to hear/see more videos of animals improvising on any musical instrument.