exotic instruments

Started by Jeremy Blackman, November 03, 2003, 07:34:05 PM

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Jeremy Blackman

What exotic instruments do you like? Would you want to learn how to play them?

I'm dying to get my hands on a theremin right now. Also... harmonium and sarangi.

kotte

I don't know what it's called but it's australian...

jidderido...or something...no idea how it spells or if it's the right word.

Sleuth

Odnes Martenot perhaps

I like accordions if they're used in a certain way
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Ghostboy

Theremins are tough. I've never quite managed to 'play' anything on one, but I'd love learn how at some point.

I want a moog (sp?). An original one. That would be awesome.

godardian

I agree with JB about the harmonium. Listening to Nico's The End (which I have far too many times) will make you believe it's the ONLY instrument in the whole world.

The viola of John Cale.

Johnny Marr's mandolin at the end of The Smiths' "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want."

The cow-bell in New Order's "Perfect Kiss."

Of course, these instruments are all just "exotic" for pop music. I'm not one for tracking down the most obscure, never-before-heard-of tribal instrument for the sake of novelty. You can talk to Peter Gabriel or David Byrne (or Claude Levi-Strauss) about that, I suppose.
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freakerdude

One guy who has his own thing going is Charlie Hunter. He's a jazz bass/guitar player and is in his mid to late thirties. He plays an 8 string modified guitar with 3 bass strings and 5 guitar strings. BUT, he plays bass and lead / rythm at the same time. The frets are angled to be wider for the top 3 bass strings....really freaky. Anyway, you folks may not like jazz but he is more like a groove, funk, and acid kind of jazz musician. I have seen him 3 times and he is mind blowing to watch him play this modified wonder simultaneously. When it's just him and the drummer jamming......wow! You just can't believe the sound he produces with a bass line while wailing in lead or using organ effects on his strings.

To see him and two percussionists play was awesome. His combo of him, a drummer, and a vibraphonist (CH & Pound For Pund) was another one of his formations. Usually, it's him, a drummer, and a sax player. Jay Lane of Primus plays the drums on his older CH Trio album.

Check out his bass/guitar combo with the angled frets and imagine playing this all at one time.....you'd have that look on your face as well!  :shock:

Check it out
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BonBon85

One of the things I liked most about being a percussionist  back in my school band nerd days was how when I wasn't on the drum set I got to play such a variety of weird instruments. Some fun ones were timpini, marimba, vibraphone, and vibraslap (an instrument designed to emulate the sound of teeth rattling in a skull).

TheVoiceOfNick

Quote from: GhostboyTheremins

Yep... I would love to learn the Theramin... for those who don't know, listen to the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations... its also the spooky instrument you hear on halloween and in scary movies from the 50's...

SoNowThen

maybe you guys know what it's called, cos I sure don't....

I see this older oriental guy playing this crazy instrument all over the city. He has a case set up to collect cash and all, but he just has this proud look on his face, it sets him aside from the panhandlers, you really can't think of him that way. And the music he plays is just so damn beautiful. His instrument has a bow, kinda like a violin, and he plays on something that looks about mid-way size between a violin and a guitar, but (if I can remember correctly) it has finger holes all over it like a woodwind instrument (along with strings). The music is very haunting, again, like a cross between strings and woodwind. I'm too shy to approach the guy, he looks like he's so into it when he plays, and he never seems to take a break, I don't wanna interrupt to ask...
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Jeremy Blackman

Quote from: SoNowThenmaybe you guys know what it's called, cos I sure don't....

I see this older oriental guy playing this crazy instrument all over the city. He has a case set up to collect cash and all, but he just has this proud look on his face, it sets him aside from the panhandlers, you really can't think of him that way. And the music he plays is just so damn beautiful. His instrument has a bow, kinda like a violin, and he plays on something that looks about mid-way size between a violin and a guitar, but (if I can remember correctly) it has finger holes all over it like a woodwind instrument (along with strings). The music is very haunting, again, like a cross between strings and woodwind. I'm too shy to approach the guy, he looks like he's so into it when he plays, and he never seems to take a break, I don't wanna interrupt to ask...

I think that's a sarangi. Does it sound kind of like the cello music in Crouching Tiger?

SoNowThen

That might be it! Thanks, JB. I gotta go check out for sure, though. And it's cold as hell and snowing here right now, so I dunno if I'll be able to find the guy. But sometimes he shows up to play outside the Farmer's Market on Saturday, and that's right under my apartment....

Also, I haven't seen Crouching Tiger yet, so I dunno how the score sounds...

Is there a skinnier Asian-type of that instrument? Some guy at work said it looks sorta like the pic in the link, but not so thick at the top...
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Jeremy Blackman

Hopefully that's it. I agree with you, the sarangi is a great instrument. Sometimes I like the sound better than violins. Check out the Crouching Tiger score, it has similar sounds. Plus, it's Yo-Yo Ma.

phil marlowe

Quote from: GhostboyI want a moog (sp?). An original one. That would be awesome.
not very exotic but i'd die to have one of those too, rhodes is also very very cool.

just any kind of really old analog synthesizer gives me a hard on, some have simply everything of vintage effects and junk.

molly

Quote from: kotteI don't know what it's called but it's australian...

jidderido...or something...no idea how it spells or if it's the right word.

I know what are you talking about, but I don't know the exact name - something like that one you wrote, but not quite. It has very strange, exotic, misterious  sound, almost like it's not a music instrument.

RegularKarate

Called a Didgeridoo...

a lot of smelly hippies in my home town got hold of these and completely ruined them for me for a long while.

Pigface has a great song that's almost all didgeridoo