This stuff keeps getting better. Below is a video of a virtual jam session among eight musicians from four continents speaking three languages — and it turns out great. The music might not float your boat (new-soulish lyrical hip-hop if I had to describe it), but the concept and the execution are fantastic.
There was obviously some planning for this, but from what I can gather, at least a portion of it was left open-ended. The technology available here is very cool, but nothing so expensive that regular folks (like these guys) couldn’t afford it. Lyrics and a link to an MP3 are on the original YouTube page under “More Info.”
Next to Foster’s beer, shrimps on the barby, and adorable animals, the didgeridoo is one of Australia’s best-known exports. We’ve all seen and heard this giant, resonant stick in Outback Steakhouse commercials, but where does it come from?
According to Wikipedia, the instrument was originally played by Indigenous Australians in what is now Northern Australia as far back as 1,500 years ago. Traditionally, it was made from dead, hollowed-out Eucalyptus trees. This tradition continues today, though it can be made from many materials (I personally knew a kid in high school who made one with a five-foot piece of PVC pipe and beeswax).
To produce notes, the player buzzes his or her lips while they’re in the skinny end of the instrument (often rimmed in wax) and adjusts like a trumpet or bugle. Classification by western standards is difficult. It doesn’t use a reed, so it’s not a woodwind. And while it isn’t made of metal, it’s played like a trumpet or trombone. Some musicologists consider it an aerophone-type instrument. It’s most often used for its atmospheric, ambient sound and rarely takes a leading role in music. Still, this is an inexpensive instrument (they go for as little as $14) and easy to learn. Check out some videos below.
Forgive us if we’ve beaten the musical iPhone App (and iPod Touch, and now iPad!) thing to death, but these apps created by programmers, equal parts musician and computer geek, can be really, really cool.
Today’s might be the coolest yet: we’ve seen four-track voice recorders before, seen touch-operated instrument synthesizers before, but never a multi-track voice-to-instrument recorder. Confused? Check out this video:
The Voice Band app converts your vocal mumbles and burps into instruments. Bellow a vaguely off-key melody into the guitar mode and you’ll get the corresponding power chords. Layer some bass on top of it with another bellow (up an octave of course). You can even create a drum track with your voice (though the guy does look like he’s about to run out of breath and pass out in hi-hat mode in the video. And, of course, you can record multiple vocal tracks on top of it all.
This App takes a bit of practice and a sense of pitch to work, and the bloke in the video above obviously practiced a lot to make it seem so easy, but for $2.99, it’s worth messing around with. Get it at the iTunes App Store.
A sad but inspiring story from National Public Radio this week on the passing of teen ukulele prodigy Killian Mansfield, who found comfort in the instrument while battling a rare form of cancer:
January 17, 2010 – By age 15, Killian Mansfield of Woodstock, N.Y., was a prodigy on the ukulele. This despite one huge obstacle: When he was 11, Mansfield was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called synovial sarcoma.
Even through multiple surgeries and chemotherapy treatments, Mansfield maintained his passion for music. That passion is the force behind an album called Somewhere Else, a project that was completed a few months before he died in August.
Yet another example of the therapeutic power of music–something we can all find solace in during hard times. Head to NPR for the full audio from All Things Considered and a few tunes from Killian’s Somewhere Else.
Readers, we need your submissions! We want to hear about the music making experience that you are most proud of. Send us stories of your musical accomplishments and we’ll print them in the Harmony section of our next issue! Don’t be shy, we’ll consider any and all stories for publication. Send what you have to: Harmony@MakingMusicMag.com.
Last week was Winter NAMM 2010 in sunny Anaheim, California. It’s the music industry’s biggest trade show of the year, every year, and everyone from instrument makers to musicians to shop owners to magazine publishers show up to take it all in, and hopefully make a connection or two. For those of you who couldn’t make it this year, there’s plenty of great footage available on YouTube and elsewhere.
Harmony Central has a few great videos up on their YouTube channel. Here’s a wrap-up from the first day of the show:
This is a new and welcome concept: TC Electronics debuted their PolyTune chromatic tuner at Winter NAMM last week. As far as we can tell at MM, it’s the first pedal tuner that allows guitarists to tune all six strings at once. Just strum the strings, and it indicates which ones need to be tuned.
It’s accurate to within 0.5 cents of a note, which is not quite as accurate as most other tuners (which typically can get within 0.1 cents) but it’s close enough for rock ‘n’ roll.
I got some feedback after last weekend’s post, in which I included a video of an introductory lesson about how to play the harmonica. It seems that there’s still some confusion about how exactly this instrument works. Let’s try to clear it up.
According to Harmonica.com, the harmonica is a diatonic instrument and the first four holes to the left are tuned to a chord. The instrument can only play within one key–not chromatically. This, at the base level, is why it’s difficult to make an unpleasant sound with a harmonica.
The “train song” is one of the easiest tunes to play on the harmonica, and one that is most commonly associated with the instrument. From the masters:
To play a train song, first you need to imitate the “chug chug” sound of the train wheels. You can do this by a simple BLOW BLOW DRAW DRAW pattern on the first 4 holes of the harmonica.
Next, you need to add the sound of the train whistle, by drawing in at holes 3,4,5
Then, to give that accompaniment+melody(so to speak) effect, you need to practice enough so that you can go from the train “wheels” to the train “whistle” without missing a beat.
So there’s a bit more to get you started with this inexpensive, easy-to-learn instrument.
Ready for something more advanced than the simple instruments we detailed in the last post? Making Music has you covered. “Musical Cousins” in the Jan/Feb ‘10 issue of Making Music helps you choose a new instrument based on the one that you already know. Picking up something new can offer the musical challenge you need to break out of a rut, or at least open up a whole new sonic palette for you and your band.
Already a six-stringer? Try a lap steel, banjo, or ukulele. Saxed out? Take a stab at the oboe, clarinet, or similar woodwind. Check out the full article here.
Welcome back everyone, and a happy new year. Still looking for a resolution (or did you already give up on your first one)? Pick up a new instrument! There are at least a half-dozen easy-to-learn (but hard-to-master) instruments that you can pick up and start strumming, blowing, or banging away at in an afternoon.
You already have one sitting in your kitchen: spoons! As one YouTube teacher put it, “spoons are what a drummer does at a party when there are a bunch of guitar players around.”
The mountain dulcimer (covered in Making Music Nov/Dec 2009) is fairly simple as well. It’s a dronal instrument, meaning that it’s tuned to sound pretty no matter what you play. Check out this primer:
Here’s a quick lesson on harmonica technique. It’ll help strengthen your tongue, which can always come in handy even if you never pick up the instrument.
More to come later, but take these examples as a basic inspiration.
