MAKE Magazine Vol 4: DIY Musical Instrument Projects!

MAKE: Magazine V0l 4 is onsale now. It includes 9 "Do it yourself" Musical Instrument projects inluding:

• Cigar Box Guitar
• Circuit Bending
• Air Scratch
• "The art of Digital Music"
• Mint tin amp

League of Eletronic Musical Urban Robots

I stumbled into the coolest website tonight. You have to check out the LEMUR website. These guys have created robot musical instruments that are controlled by computer. They have combined my passion for making music out of found objects with my formal training in robotics. WOW, if only I had thought of that. This also reminds me of a physical version of Animusic. (the second Animusic DVD is due out at the end of the month.) If nothing else, check out the GuitarBot video.
In fact, you can now create your own robot with the MidiTron Electronic Interface (I'm ordering my first unit).
Another cool resource is Artbots (but it's not really musical)

Play the Virtual Gametone Instruments

Want to spend a few moments being creative online? Check out the Gametone Instruments online. You can also see a collection of their instruments. MonkeyC also has an online instrument collection.

New Drumming Search Engine

Check out the the new drumming and percussion search engine: drums.com They have indexed all of the leading drumming resources on the web to provide a comprehensive and quick search tool.

RANT: Six Monthes in Jail for Posting Lyrics Online!?

I'll tell ya, I am not the biggest fan of the corporate recording industry, especially when they can't get their heads out of a hole long enough to see the future. Now it seems that they've taking to sentencing a French lyrics website operator to 6 months in jail for posting "copyrighted" lyrics. As a musician, I clearly understand the copyrights owned by both the publisher and the songwriter, but to press the legal rights for this seems insane in my book. I remember the days of sitting down with a piece of paper and 'reverse engineering' a song to learn the chords, notes and lyrics (in the days of 8 track tape players and vinyl, no less). Should we make today generation go through the same pain? (learning the skill of listening and writing, not using 8 track tape - may it rest in piece). It's my belief that there is little harm in posting the "correct" lyrics, if anything it's one more viral marketing opportunity. I would say that the sheet music for a song is different entity, but lyrics? Come on. It's the naughties baby, and the world is evolving around us (well everything but the huge record companies it seems).

Freenotes - a great pentatonic instrument

One of my favorite instruments for non-musicians is the Freenote by Richard Cooke. I own the wing in the key of A, and I frequently bring this to flute circles where folks can easily jam on the wing while someone else plays the Native American Flute or another rhythm instrument. This is a great instumement for kids, as you don't need any music theory too make music on them.

2005 Northern California Experimental Music Festival - Sept 30-Oct 2

Looking for something totally different? Check this out:

"The 2005 NORCAL NOISE FEST marks the 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY of this festival happening in the Sacramento area. Back in 1995 when the few proud noise artists from the EMRL CREW started the concept of NOISEFEST at the now legendary Guild Theater, they never realized that this festival would continue on to see its 10th birthday, and claim the title of the LONGEST RUNNING NOISE FESTIVAL type happening in the Country and possibly THE WORLD..(we have yet to find another .. ) ."

For more info: 2005 Northern California Experimental Music Festival

Iner Souster and the Experimental Instruments He Lives With

Iner's blog is a unique, ecletic collection of homemade instruments. You have to check this out!! This guy makes very cool instruments out of recycled materials. I would love the opportunity to hear these live.

Back in the Saddle

Alright, already... so what if it's been almost two years since the last post. I've been busy...
But I have recommited to publishing new and interesting tidbits as I discover them.
Since my last post, I have started drumming. It started in earnest a year ago when I purchased my first large Djembe and took it to the Northern California Flute Circle camping trip. Over the last year, I have regularlly attended several drum circles in the San Francisco bay area: Peninsula Pulse & Rhythms of the Earth.

I have also been entranced by the sound of the Egytian Riqq and the Tar, which I've begun playing over the last year. You'll hear more about resources for these drums.

Today, I discovered an organization dedicated to training musicians and music facilitators in the art of improvization. It's called Music for People . Unfortunately for me, they are on the east coast, but I am very interested in their mission and hope to be able to attend one of their training course. They have a four year certification program for facilitators, but they also offer weekend workshop in improvization for both musicians and non-musicians. Check it out.

I just found out that the 2004 Big Sur Experimental Music Festival is happening on May 29-30, 2004 in Big Sur. Looks like this will be an interesting west coast event, not to be missed by anyone interested in experimental or improvizational music. The website has all the details on registering as a musician.

driving back from lunch today, i heard an interesting program on public radio called: American Mavericks. the program highlights american composers who are composing new music in a variety of genre's. the website is very interesting and includes a ton of links to the works of the highlighted individuals. it also includes a streaming audio link to preview many of the artists and performances. definitely worth a look.

if you've ever thought about creating your own musical instruments, you have to check out "the musical instrument makers forum". this online forum has plans, ideas, construction tips and other goodies to support you as you build an instrument. if you want to build something from a kit, i highly recommend checking out "musicmaker's kits, inc". they have a large selection of instruments that range in difficulty from easy to hard. i've purchased supplies from them in the past. they have an excellent catalog that they send out quarterly.
finally, i found a really cool site maintained by dennis havlena that has a bunch of free plans for making instruments like a bass guitar out of a washtub (not the old broomstick kind, but rather a real 4 string standup bass guitar). his site is a wealth of information for diy'ers.

junk percussion? i discovered some interesting sites dedicated to the reuse of junk for purcussion. the drum journal has a junk percussion page with some great ideas for making purcussive instruments out of other materials. there's even a yahoo group called junkmusic dedicated to this topic. rhythm web also has a microsite dedicated to homemade instruments including some great books on the topic. finally, folkurban music is another site with plans for making homemade instruments. i'll continue to post interesting sites as i find them.

strictly Ballroom looks to be a really interesting, avante garde concert series hosted at stanford university. check out the calendar for upcoming events (if you happen to be in the san francisco bay area). otherwise the site lists the names of various groups who have performed in the series in the past.

on the topic of clay instruments, i have to say that one of the most interesting clay instrument makers actively making and promoting clay instruments is barry hall. you can see barry's work on his site burntearth. barry is also the creator and moderator of a yahoo group dedicated to the creation of ceramic musical instruments. on the links page there, you will find links to some of the members websites. i am really facinated by the range of possibilities in making instruments out of clay, and barry is very creative with some of the new types of instruments that he is making.
in my personal collection of clay instruments i just acquired a new udo and i am getting acquainted with it. i also own a clay flute called the "tlapitzalli" created by guilliarmo martinez (from southern california). this flute is a reproduction of a mayan temple flute and i own one of the last flutes that gulliarmo made out of white hopi clay. guilliarmo doesn't maintain a website, but you can see and buy his work from the oregon flute store.

if you happen to be in the san francisco bay area, check out the "San Francisco Found Objects Festival" this coming weekend (9/19 & 9/20). show starts at 8pm each evening in oakland at the club: "21 Grand" [449B 23rd st. near 19th street BART in oakland]
during the performance musicians will improvise/sample objects submitted by the audience.
list of performers include:
- thomas dimuzio/rent romus/lance grabmiller
- seth warren/dave river/ian yeager
- big city orchestra/coelacanth
- professor cantaloupe (from LA)/hanuman zhang
- gene ehrbar (from portland)

i just got back from a wonderful camping trip with the nothern california flute circle. we had some incredible jam sessions around the campfire and some improvizational sessions during the day. i brought along a new gamelan tuned instrument that i purchased from richard cook. richard creates these instruments that he calls freenotes and even though they are tuned in a different pentatonic scale from the native american flute, it was still a very harmonious mix between the two instruments. i bought the wing in the key of "a" and we were able to improvise along with it on a native american flute in the key of a. richard also creates a unique instrument that he call a "spinner". the spinner is a set of gemelan tuned bars arranged in a barrel pattern and then hung from a rope. you wind up the rope and then randomly strike the bars as then spin past - very cool.

today i stumbled onto a very cool website for an instrument designer named chris forster. chris is now in san francisco and runs a non-profit callled the chrysalis foundation dedicated to the advancement of the art of microtonal music. i haven't met chris yet, but i look forward to attending a recital at their new studio. there are some very interesting intruments highlighted on his site, a definite must see.

i discovered that the oddmusic website is still up and running and that there is an active yahoo group dedicated to the discussion around odd intruments. this used to be the only only source for cool experimental musical instruments, however the internet has expanded this community. in the coming weeks, i'll add additional comments about other resources.