Humans have been making musical instruments from whatever items are close at hand for thousands of years, and we aren’t showing any signs of slowing down yet, least of all artist [Nicolas Bras] and collaborator [Sandrine Morais.] They have been designing and constructing quite a number of DIY instruments over the years, with this demo video highlighting a whopping 72 of them in the space of just seven minutes!
Clearly, [Nicolas] is one of those people who can play literally anything, and shows his skills off very well indeed if you ask us. Particularly fine sounding is the pilchards tin guitar found at 2:52 in the video, and the electric pipe beat box at 2:10 is also pretty fun.
Pretty much all the usual methods for producing sounds mechanically are covered, namely air resonating within a shaped enclosure (flutes, and such), string vibrations which might be sensed electrically (guitars, zithers, etc) and percussive instruments which vibrate an enclosed air mass (like the udu) or vibrate other things (like plates or bars). Looking over the YouTube channel, we can’t think of much they haven’t tried to make music with!
If all this sounds familiar, well, we covered [Nicolas] that time he was traveling for a gig and his instrument collection got lost in transit.
Thanks [Keith] for the tip!
Bicycle guitar :D
Agreed. That bicycle slide guitar was fantastic.
As a guitar player, I found myself partial to the stringed instruments, but some of the “woodwind” instruments had a nice sound. The “drone low whistle” (#69) reminded me of the opening notes to the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields.”
Most of the “brass” instruments have a decidedly “Dr. Seuss-ish” look to them. If you disagree, you are a cartunctuous schlunk.
Surname is Bras, plays plastic wind instruments :)
Very impressive! There’s a lot of work in making those instruments, and a lot of skill in playing them musically. All too often saucepan lids being banged together sound like… saucepan lids being banged together.
I am also an artiste with self made instruments….
*pulls out comb and paper*
bzzzt bzzzt bzzzzt bzztbzz bzztbzz
You recognized that right?
Beethoven’s fifth symphony
Wow! You\’re good!
Play some Skynyrd, man!
How about “Ace of Spades” played on a spade….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tAEAyHgCec