Instruments that are Played in Unusual Ways
Part of teaching our students about music is to introduce them to a wide variety of instruments, no matter what they are studying. We do, of course, cover the instruments of the orchestra, and the unusual instruments in various compositions, such the glass harmonica in the Carnival of the Animals. But, here at the school, we also have a wide variety of more unusual instruments that are fun to share.
Theremin
How do you play an instrument without touching it?
The theremin is a product of the Soviet government-sponsored research into proximity sensors. It was named after its inventor, physicist Leon Theremin, who first designed the device in 1920 and patented it in 1928. Theremin granted commercial production rights to RCA.
The instrument consists of two metal antennas that sense the position of the performer’s hands. One hand controls the pitch, and the other the volume. It is played by moving the hands towards and away from the antennas. The signal is then amplified and sent to a speaker.
The theremin produces a completely unique sound that is often associated with eerie situations. It has been featured in movie soundtracks such as Spellbound, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and First Man as well as in the theme songs for television shows such as Midsomer Murders.
Theremin and theremin-like sounds started to be incorporated into popular music beginning in the 1940s. The first rock band known to have performed live with a theremin was Lother and the Hand People in 1965. Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin used a pitch-only version of the instrument in performances of both Whole Lotta Love and No Quarter. The Rolling Stones used the theremin in several tracks on both their albums Between the Buttons and Their Satanic Majesties Request. Rush featured the theremin in their song BU2B.
Talk Box
The talk box is a very unusual instrument! It allows musicians to actually modify the sound of the instrument they are playing, applying to it the sound of speech so that it appears that the instrument is actually singing.
A talk box is usually an effects pedal that sits on the floor. It directs the sound of the instrument into the musician’s mouth by means of a plastic tube next to their vocal mic. The musician then controls the sound of the instrument by changing the shape of the mouth or position of the tongue, actually “vocalizing” the instrument’s output into the microphone. The resulting effect makes it sound as if the instrument were speaking.
The talk box can be used with any instrument, but it is most commonly associated with the guitar. One of the very first examples is the performance by Joe Walsh in the song Rocky Mountain Way. The Eagles featured the talk box on the track Those Shoes. Perhaps most famous for using the talk box is the guitarist Peter Frampton. He employed it extensively, but his best-known work would probably be Do You Feel Like We Do. Other musicians using this unique instrument include Bon Jovi in Livin’ On a Prayer, Aerosmith in Sweet Emotion, and Bruno Mars in 24K Magic.
Otamatone
The otamatone is an electronic musical synthesizer shaped like an 1/8th note. The pitch of the tune is played by placing a finger on the ribbon controller in the stem, and the volume is controlled with the other hand by opening and closing the mouth. The ribbon controller is deliberately delinearized to resemble a guitar, so there is a shorter distance between higher notes than between lower ones. Opening and closing the mouth creates a “wah-wah” effect, and shaking the neck will create a vibrato.
The Otamatone was created in Japan by the CUBE toy company and the Maywa Denki design firm. It’s unclear if the developers meant it to be more than just a toy, but some musicians have taken it quite seriously. There are amazing performances available on YouTube, and Juanjo Monserrate even received a golden buzzer on Spain’s Got Talent in February of this year for his outstanding performance.
Singing Bowl
Singing bowls come in a wide range of sizes, from a few centimeters to over a meter in diameter. They are often played by striking them, but can also be played by rotating the mallet around the outside, producing a sustained musical note. Sometimes, they are filled with water.
The beautiful sounds and vibrations produced by the bowls are meant to help you relax. Singing bowls are used widely not only for meditation and relaxation, but also for music making and for personal spirituality. They have become popular with music therapists, sound healers and yoga practitioners.
The original form of this instrument is believed to be the standing bells played in China. These early forms, called nao, were the shape of a stemmed goblet and were struck on the outside with a mallet. The manufacture and use of bowls specifically for singing is believed to be a relatively modern phenomenon. Bowls that were capable of singing began to be imported into the West in the early 1970s and have become a popular instrument in the musical genre often marketed as “Tibetan music’.
Glass Harp
Singing glasses are played by running moistened or chalked fingers around the rim of glasses. Each glass is tuned to a different pitch either by being ground to a specific pitch, or by filling it with water until the desired pitch is reached. Learning how to tune and play glasses is part of our curriculum here at the school. We include it when we are studying the glass harmonica used in the Carnival of the Animals.
Such musical glasses have been documented in Persia as early as the 14th century. Many European composers through history have also used these glasses. The instrument was very popular in the 18th century. In 1746, Christoph Willibald Gluck performed in both London and Copenhagen on his instrument of 26 goblets filled with singing glasses, which he called the “angelic organ”. He performed Handel’s Water Music on glasses in 1760. There were even books published in both England and Germany on how to properly play the musical glasses.
The interest in singing glasses did not stop there. The famous rock band Pink Floyd used them during their 1975 recording of the song Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Two concerts of the same song were recorded in Venice, Italy in 2006, featuring performances on musical glasses. A colourful set of water tuned glasses were even depicted as being played with a pair of metal sticks in several key scenes of the very successful Korean TV drama Queen Seon Deok in 2009, where the main anti-heroine performed her own haunting theme melody.
Mbira / Kalimba
The Mbira is a lamellophone, which means it has tongues or “lamellae” that are played by plucking. It has a very unique sound because, unlike string and woodwind instruments, the overtones of a plucked lamella are inharmonic. These inharmonic overtones are strongest when the tine is plucked, and die out rather quickly leaving an almost pure tone.
The instrument is native to Eastern and Southern Africa and has existed for thousands of years. There the instrument consists of a wooden board, often fitted with a resonator, and having attached staggered metal tines (originally bamboo) that are played with the thumbs and sometimes forefingers. The art of crafting and playing the Mbira was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020.
A modern interpretation of the instrument was commercially produced and exported by the ethnomusicologist, Hugh Tracey, beginning in the 1950s. Named the “Kalimba” after an ancient predecessor the mbira family, the instrument quickly became popular outside of Africa. In the 70s and 80s, musicians such as Maurice White from the band Earth, Wind and Fire and Thomas Mapfumo used the kalimba on stage accompanying modern rock instruments such as the electric guitar, bass and drums. These arrangements often included songs drawn directly from traditional mbira repertoire.