Reed Ghazala - The Father of Circuit Bending

Even if you don't know what circuit bending is, you've definitely heard what it does. Although it's front and center in glitch, Avant-garde and noise music, elements of it can be heard in main stream genres too.

So what is circuit bending? The art of creatively rewiring, customizing, and shorting an electronic circuit. Usually it's tiny, low voltage electronics - guitar effects, children's toys etc. It's a really neat process, and something that tickles the experimenter in me!

Reed Ghazala is the acknowledged "father" of this practice. He might not be the first one to do it, but he's definitely the one to coin the term and spread it as a musical instrument. Here's a short documentary that's both informative and fascinating. Makes me want to go out and dig up all my half-dead electronics!

CD case/Circuit Board/Instrument

This is really neat...again, like many others like this, it is extremely gimmicky - but the gimmick is so cool that I would buy it.

Check it out - it's CD case that is also an instrument/circuit board that you can play!



While I suspect that this is expensive to make and difficult to create, I think it would be fairly easy to do a non-electric instrument - say, an integrated kazoo - and it would instantly add value to the fan.

Would you buy something like this, just because it's cool?

The Invisible Instrument

On this blog I've talked about Music Hack Day here, and here in the past. Seriously, this is a concept/conference that just keeps giving!

For those who aren't familiar with it - Put together music nerds with computer nerds, give them 24 hours to hack together a music related application/program, and you have... Music Hack Day.

The winner of the top prize for Music Hack Day NYC is really mind blowing (okay, I said that about other Music Hack Day creations, but it's all so true!), and it's called The Invisible Instrument. Created by Tim Soo, it combines the responsiveness of real instruments, the programmability and portability of digital instruments, and the fun factor of air guitar! Just watch the video, and you will want to try it yourself. The program is in development though, so if you like what he is doing, help fund the project by going here!

Shoes as an Instrument #2

Awhile ago, I posted a blog about a shoe that Nike made (purely for promotional purposes, not for production) - in which a set of shoes were fitted with MIDI triggers on the soles. That blog post his here.

Adidas has now come up with something very similar - but this time it's wireless and a little bit more collaborative. Check it out below!

a documentary about the crybaby wah-wah pedal

Chances are, if you're not a guitarist you won't know what a phaser, tremolo, flanger, and other effects pedals do.  Knowledge about product names such as Big Muff, Memory Man, Fuzz Face... even less likely so.

But if you know any guitar effect pedal, chances are it's the wah-wah... and more specifically, the crybaby wahwah pedal.  It's what makes Voodoo Child sound so psychedelic. It's what enables the wakawaka 70's funk/porno effect. It's everywhere, it's fun... and heck, it's the first guitar pedal I ever bought!

The crybaby is to wahwah what kleenex is to tissue paper - the ubiquitous, original product.  There is a fun little documentary about the crybaby that is circulating the internet right now, that you should definitely check out, if you're a fan of any music that has any electric guitars in them:


Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World from Joey Tosi on Vimeo.

No Instruments? We Have Iphones!

This is an interesting story of creativity coming out of adversity and constraint. Atomic Tom, a band based out of Brooklyn, recently had their instruments stolen. An unfortunately fairly common problem for bands. I can't imagine how bummed out they would have been - but it turns out they are garnering more attention than ever before, thanks to their creativity.

Using nothing but their iphones and a battery powered amp, they decided to make a video of them playing in the New York subway system. That's right - all of their instruments are music apps for the iphone. It's a fun little video, and the song is pretty good too.

Creativity trumps again!

"Take Me Out" by Atomic Tom

*UPDATE OCT 20* -- Turns out they didn't actually have their instruments stolen, they just said that to provide a better effect. I guess that's good news. Also, for those who are curious, we now know what apps they used:

Guitar - iShred
Drums - Drum Meister
Bass Guitar - Pocket Guitar
Piano - Piano Virtuoso

A Piano that Speaks English

Everything from traffic noise, violins, to our own voices are changes in the way the air around us move. When they create a sound, they are creating a wave that oscillates at certain frequencies. In theory then, by analyzing these frequencies and wave patterns and reproducing them with different mediums, you can recreate the sound of anything from animals to instruments, to pretty much everything. This is the theory behind synthesizers - they "synthesize" the frequency and wave patterns of instruments like violins, and reproduce them through pre-programmed sin waves.

In theory then, you could reproduce the sound of say, a violin, with anything. That's right. You could make hitting lego blocks, clapping hands, even a car - to sound like a violin. Why? Because we are able to analyze the frequency of a violin and break it down to small components. If we have enough precise control over (lots of) lego blocks, then we could manipulate them enough such that hitting them would produce a similar frequency pattern as a violin. Sounds far fetched?

There's an interesting comparison that you're probably more familiar with - image mosaics. Or pictures that are made up of smaller pictures:

Not perfect, but it's clearly visible - and this next video is essentially the musical equivalent.

Created by Berno Polzer as a performance art piece "Wien Modern" is an installation for the World Venice Forum 2009.  Using a detailed analysis of a recital of the Proclamation of the European Environmental Criminal Court, "Wien Modern" uses a combination of piano keys to simulate the sound of a human child. Each piano key would be like the small pictures in the image above - and the human voice like the Mona Lisa.



I'd like to see other instruments do these sorts of things too!

*I've been busy recording my own music in the past couple months, so this blog has suffered. I'll try to get this going again ASAP, but thanks for your patience in the mean time.

Music from fabric: fabricmachine

This is an art installation that is also a musical creation. From the artists website:

Installation and performative Instrument: Two fabric loops, driven by a motor, create a division in space. Light sensors measure the opacity of the textile;
The way all pieces are sewed together for a fabric sound track is responsible for beats, breaks and rhythms. It makes your individual clothing hearable. without any special effects

So in other words, this installation/instrument converts the information on a piece of fabric into digitized instructions for sounds. I've certainly never heard of fabric being used as a basis for music, so this is really fantastic.

That being said, I wonder if there's more that you could do with this. If it truly is the case that opacity is the only thing being measured, then there seems to be lots of information in a piece of fabric that is lost. Colour for example, will only matter in terms of its capacity to let light through - much in the same way that colour reacts to a black & white photocopier: it get's mostly lost, although the shades are still there.

Other aspects of a piece of fabric, such as shape, weave, and even smell are lost in this current installation. I wonder how these things could be incorporated? You would need a different way of scanning the fabric obviously... hmmm!

Don't get me wrong, these aren't criticisms. I would never have thought of fabric in this way, and I think it's really cool that the fabricmachine is doing something new. Instead, these "criticisms" are the possibilities that this installation has opened my eyes to, and I think it's absolutely great!

fabricmachine, by Kathrin Stumreich

fabricmachine from Kathrin Stumreich on Vimeo.

Lego Sequencer

This is an instrument that blows my mind. I have no idea how this works!
It's a sequencer based on lego blocks. A sequencer is a software or hardware that triggers sounds in a controlled way, such that you can create beats and sounds. It's a vital part of electronic music. (for more on sequencers, go to the wikipedia page here.

What makes this one special is the way that the lego's ability to build on top of each other is utilized. To make this clearer, watch the video below of a more standard sequencer first:



As you can see, the balls are used to indicate when and what sounds are triggered. It's quite straight forward.

Now imagine balancing other balls on top of those balls... or balancing bigger balls that cross over different slots all at once.

The lego sequencer lets you do that... and is programmed to change sounds accordingly. I have NO clue what changes it makes when you build on top of other blocks, but it does something. Furthermore, the colours also make a difference in the sound as well.

It's like sequencing with another dimension! Blows my mind.



For more information on the artist/designer of this sequencer, check out Yoshi Akai's website here.

Shoes as an Instrument

...Or more specifically, a MIDI trigger.

Although this video is part of a Nike Ad, it's pretty interesting. If you've seen my previous post on modifying the guitar hero controller into an instrument, it's a similar concept. Instead of changing guitar hero buttons into a MIDI trigger, the shoes have been modified with sensors that respond to how they are bent.

Gimmicky - yes - but fun nonetheless. I'm slightly disappointed that they didn't use dancers wearing the shoes, but check it out!

Another Way to Use a Glass Bottle

I've introduced a few posts that involve bottles before. Today's video is also based on a bottle, but it is different from the other videos in a significant way. In all the other videos, the bottle was either blown, or hit with a stick to produce a sound. In this video, the bottle is still blown... but it's used as a supplement to the voice. It's a really unique way to use an instrument.

Why do I see it as so unique? Because the bottle is essentially a supplement to the voice. The note that the bottle plays is always constant - by that I mean it plays the same note over and over again - but the melody doesn't sound that way because the vocal lines that are before and after it create a seamless melody. Furthermore, because the bottle has a different tonal quality than the rest of the vocal melody, the notes that the bottle plays feels like a punctuation, a moment of emphasis in the entire melody.

What's also cool is that because the bottle can't change tone - indeed, it's fairly constant in tone and timbre - but it's preceded and followed by the fluctuating vocal lines, the combination creates an "electronic music" feel to the whole thing.... even though it's just a bottle, a tambourine, and vocals!

By the way, this is by the Armenian artist Arto Tunçboyacıyan, who also played on a hidden track on a System of a Down album a long time ago. He's also played with Chet Baker and Al Di Meola, for those of you who enjoy jazz.

I wonder if there are other instruments that utilize a similar methodology? It really creates a neat feel to the song, and I would love to see other instruments used this way.

Violin Strings Are Made of What??

This may come as a surprise, but the best violin strings are made not out of plastic, nylon, or metal - it's made out of lamb intestine. It's been that way for centuries. It's a long process that involves several steps before they resemble strings. Some of you may have heard the colloquial term for these strings: catgut (I have no idea why it's cat gut, because it's usually a much larger mammal, from pigs to horses).

It makes me wonder: who thought of doing this in the first place? It's a strange thing to think of doing.

If you want to see the production in action, check out the video below!

How Music Works

...okay, so maybe the title of this blog entry is a little misleading: after all, we can't say we've figured out everything about music. Nonetheless, there's a 4 part documentary whose title is exactly that. It's a really good documentary, even if you already know all of the things it talks about. The presentation is simple and effective, all the while explaining a range of musical theory and historical anecdotes. Really great stuff. Obviously, it's a very Western centric view of music, but it seems to understand that.

The first part is melody, and it tracks the development of melodies and song structures over the centuries. It covers topics like the pentatonic scale, which is a scale found in almost every single culture. Neat stuff.



The second part is rhythm, and it introduces some basic time signature differences, and how rhythm shapes music.



The third part is harmony, and it explores the development of harmony, and what makes it sound good to us.



The fourth part is bass, and it shows how the idea of a bass instrument is relatively new, and how it plays a prominent role in modern music.



An important note! These videos are hosted on what looks like a Russian youtube-like site. I think they limit the bandwidth of each video some how, so sometimes not all the videos will load. Don't worry! Come back and try it again in a few hours, or on another day. It should work eventually.

A Guitar That's Meant to be Smashed

Here's an interesting product: SMASH guitars, by K's Japan. It's a guitar that's specifically designed to be... destroyed. It has grips in strategic places to better enable swinging and smashing the product, and is extremely light for the same reason. Furthermore, each individual part is made so that it breaks off easier! If you pick up the pieces and send it back to the company, they will recycle them and make a new one. You can also buy apps that produce visuals that are in sync with your smashing.

...and it actually works as an instrument, so it's playable too! All for around $50.
Want a more explosive version? They sell one that is filled with picks, so that when you smash it, you have an explosion of picks!

Strange concept, but I guess there's a niche market out there. What do you think?

SMASH by K's Japan

Virtuoso Theramin Playing

The theramin is one of the coolest instruments around, but I find that most people associate it with bad playing, or eerie sounds without real melodies. This is because there are very few true theramin players, and for good reason: it's one of the hardest instruments to play. (If you don't know what a theramin is, check out the wikipedia entry here. It's neat that it got used extensively in psychedelic music and such, but little do people know that it had a classical heritage - it was originally an instrument to play classical music!

So here's a few great theramin players: Randy George, who is a modern virtuoso, and Clara Rockmore, one of the original players of the instrument. You'll be completely surprised if you're used to thinking of the theremin as a soundtrack/psychedelic noise maker. It's really interesting how expressive it can be.

Here is Randy George playing "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley:


Here's Clara Rockmore playing "The Swan" by Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns:

Techno Jeep

This is a fun piece, where all the sounds are made from sounds that a car can make. Although there has been other pieces made out of cars/car parts, this one is in one take, with no edits! I have to admit, the first 40secs or so of the piece wasn't all that impressive....but wait until it kicks in. It'll surprise you.

Julian Smith - the one who composed this - talks about how he first had the inspiration when he heard the seats on the jeep make a weird noise. It's that kind of recognition/creativity that's really needed to make music, and I totally admire people who can "hear" musical potentials in everyday life.

The first video is the original vid. The second is a "making of" video, as well as the actual video. ....um, ya, I guess I could just post the second video, but whatever.

Techno Jeep, by Julian Smith:

Artis the Spoonman

Who has collaborated with Frank Zappa, Soundgarden, Phish, Aerosmith, appeared on Letterman and other tv shows.... and plays the spoons? "Spoons?" You say? Yes. Spoons.

I bet if I had said that this musician played the violin, cello, guitar, or any other mainstream instrument, you would have been less surprised. It's an interesting thought: As much as most of us claim to judge music and artistry on its own merits, we still harbour prejudices against non-traditional instruments. The classical instruments seem to get the most respect, then modern rock band instruments, and then perhaps electronica and DJ equipment, and then ....others, such as the spoons, get a bad rap for being a "lowly" instrument. I wonder why that is...

It's unfortunate that this prejudice exists, because Artis the Spoonman is an awesome musician. He is a street performer who is based in Seattle. Again, I believe we have a prejudice against street musicians as well, compared to "real" musicians who play in concert halls, or even bars. ...but I'll talk about that in another post...

So why is Artis the Spoonman so amazing? Well take a look for yourself! You'll be blown away by what can be done with a few utensils.



By the way, if you're a 90's kid, you will undoubtedly know a song that's actually about him. Ever wonder what "Spoonman" by Soundgarden was about? Here's what Chris Cornell had to say:

"It's more about the paradox of who [Artis] is and what people perceive him as. He's a street musician, but when he's playing on the street, he is given a value and judged completely wrong by someone else. They think he's a street person, or he's doing this because he can't hold down a regular job. They put him a few pegs down on the social ladder because of how they perceive someone who dresses differently. The lyrics express the sentiment that I much more easily identify with someone like Artis than I would watch him play."

He's quite prominently in the video as well, so if you've never noticed before, here it is!

Drums made of... Cheese?

Here's an addition to - what might end up being - the ongoing series in the "drums made of..." entries. Today, we have a drum kit made out of... cheese!

It's part of an art installation, so the focus perhaps is not musical in its entirety. Amusing to watch, regardless!

Cheese Kit Diptych, by Walter Willems. Drums played by Han Bennink:

Music in Nature: Music from a Tree

Here's something a little different. This is a project in which all the sounds were created by bowing, hitting, and shaking different parts of a tree. It's amazing how musical it sounds, even though there's nothing but sounds from a tree.

We've probably heard these sorts of sounds coming from trees before. I wonder what other sounds - natural sounds that are all around us in our daily lives - could be utilized into musical arrangements?

Diego Stocco - Music From A Tree from Diego Stocco on Vimeo.

For more details, go here.

Balloon Bass

One of the unfortunate realities of playing music is the cost of the instrument. Most traditional instruments cost several hundred dollars, and it is an expense that many of us cannot afford. Sometimes though, there are fun, tonal instruments that can be made at home for next to nothing. Such as an instrument made entirely out of a few balloons!

The name says it all - a bass like instrument, where both the string and the resonator/body is made out of balloons. It has 3 and 1/2 octaves, which is a larger range than most smaller instruments - and you can make one too!

I've never really made an instrument myself, most often because I feel like I need a garage full of woodworking equipment etc. This instrument makes me wonder what other kinds of instruments could be made out of stuff I have lying around! Do you have any ideas?





- If you want to see more detailed instructions about how to make the diaphragm part of the balloon bass, go here and watch this video.

For more details about the instrument, and the artist who is recording/performing with this instrument, go to his website here.