What's the strangest percussion instrument you've played or heard of? A while ago I read about the binsasara, which is a bit like a skipping rope with clappers on it. You hold one end in each hand and let the rope dangle in a U shape, then flick one of the clappers, which sets them all going in a kind of domino effect.

Apparently Penderecki used a binsasara in a piece premiered by the LSO. Their chief percussionist James Holland went to enormous lengths to get one. At the first rehearsal, Penderecki (who was also conducting) asked Holland what he'd found to make a sound like a binsasara. "Well, a binsasara, actually," said Holland. "Oh," said Penderecki. "Couldn't you have found anything else?"

"There's no pleasing some people," Holland wrote afterwards.

The binsasara certainly sounds odd! I probably can't beat that, but I find it funny how other random objects can be used as percussion, e.g. sandpaper. A couple of months ago, I was in a concert in the Royal Albert Hall where I had to play a balloon. We got some VERY strange looks when the whole percussion department suddenly started blowing them up; nobody quite understood what we were doing!

I think my most random object, when playing in an opera gala in a tent at one end of a field, was the tent itself! The orchestra was playing the Anvil Chorus but nobody had an anvil. However, the conductor lent me a hammer and I thumped the scaffolding of the tent (well, marquee actually) with it. Of course it resonated round the whole structure and was picked up by every mike in the sound system. I believe it was quite effective from out front ...

I once tried using a wooden stage as a wood block - it wasn't exactly very successful! A percussion group that I'm in once had a shortage of guiros in rehearsal, so we resorted to playing the radiator, which happened to have ridges! It was definitely different!

Heck, turn my back for twenty seconds, and there you all are ridiculing, ridiculing, I say the foundations of Japanese society!

Can't remember all the details, because I donated all my expensive books on the subject to the library of my last university, but the binsasara is only partly about sound. Its appeal is at least as visual as auditory. Nowadays the binzasara are short and the dances tame, but long ago, they were used by the jugglers/musicians/dancers/acrobats who traveled around Japan performing at festivals and markets. They waved the binzasara high and low in their dances, sort of like a cross between a rugby rattle and that eastern European gymnastic dancing with long ribbons!

Italian site showing binzasara and dancers

Another oldie but goodie in the Japanese percussion scene is the hyoushiki or clappers (joined with a string) which you can see in this photo of young men practicing for a festival click click

More prosaically, at this time of year, if you are on neighborhood committee duty, you get to go round the town in groups calling out "Beware of fire!" and clapping your clappers. Twice round the block and back to the committee hall for a beer is the general rule!

My girlfriend spent five years working in Japan so I don't think I'd be allowed to do that

Your information and link (and spelling correction) about the binzasara were fascinating - thank you very much.

My gf played the koto while she was in Japan, and I think she tried the shamisen at one point too. She also brought me a shakuhachi - bought secondhand from the janitor at the school where she worked! - and I've tried playing it once or twice. Unfortunately I find it nearly impossible even with the mouthpiece (I can get about six notes) and COMPLETELY impossible without the mouthpiece (I get a lot of huffing and some spit but not much else).

However, since none of these are percussion instruments I'd better stop talking about them in this thread. Don't want to lose my "Warn 0%" status So ... flexatone, anyone?



Nice one!

I've just finished reading James Blades's autobiography and I get the impression that every time Benjamin Britten wrote an opera, Blades (a trained engineer, fortunately) had to invent about half a dozen instruments for each new sound that Britten had decided he wanted. There's no mention of radiators but I think you were showing the true Blades spirit there

Funniest bit in that book, though, is the time he was searching for digs somewhere and found a house where the landlady had put up a sign in the window saying "Young men taken in and done for"

That was, of course, our intention - to show Blades spirit! We did resort back to guiros the next week for some reason! Incidentally, I LOVE the flexatone - great fun to play!

Have you ever tried to keep to a written pitch with it or have you just needed to making sort of swooping rattling noises? I've never played one but I imagine the former would be pretty tricky.

I've only ever had to make 'swooping rattling noises', but I think that's the main purpose of the flexatone. I have never seen a piece where the flexatone is expected to remain on the same note, firstly because it would be near impossible and secondly it seems to defeat the point to stay on the same pitch on an instrument which has been constructed so it can change pitch very easily. Then again, you could say that this argument means that no pitched instrument should ever just hold the same note!

This would need checking but I'm sure there's a section towards the end of Alfred Schnittke's Faust Cantata where the flexatone either has to play a melody or at least glissando between two definite pitches. A spooky effect - one of many in an absolutely brilliant piece

Sounds difficult, but would probably sound amazing. Sadly, I don't actually know that piece, I don't think!

<gets on hobby horse>

Well, the Cantata is basically the Faust legend, as taken from a 13th century German text, and it starts after Faust has had his 24 years of fun and the devil has come for his soul (the devil being represented by an alto and a counter tenor singing in duet).

The most incredible bit is when the devil actually takes Faust's soul. His students are in the same house and they hear a storm building up, and then there is a lot of banging and crashing and screaming, and after a while they go into the room where Faust has been and find a horrible sight - blood, limbs, teeth, bones, brains all over the place, but no sign of the torso, which they then discover is shuddering on top of the dung heap in the garden.

And how does Schnittke deal with all that musically? He sets it to a TANGO! With an amplified alto as soloist and the chorus and huge orchestra banging and crashing away behind her. It's quite brilliant, and I would recommend to anyone with a strong stomach that they get the CD and play it Very Loudly.

<dismounts from hobby horse, emotionally drained>

I definitely like the sound of that! I must try and listen to it sometime! I'm sure the flexatone is the climax, lol...

check out a percussion concerto called UFO if you want to see strange instruments

We're doing it at the moment - it's got a boiler tank hanging on a gong stand, dog tin of food balanced on a tom tom, etc ... quite ... funky really

Blimey. Who wrote this one?

The percussion piece I really want to play is Ionisation by Edgard Varese, with about 50 instruments (including several sirens and a lion roar) and 13 performers. That sounds like quite a party

I recall a concert at church once where someone played a set of mugs - she had about 30 of them, laid out like a xylophone board - I think they were all tuned to the correct notes with water. Some of them had amusing slogans (e.g. "Best Mum in the World", "You don't have to be mad to work here..." etc). I don't remember what she played, but at the end, she drank the contents of one of the mugs to much applause

Hazel

didn't Evelyn Glennie (now dame) play the shopping trolley once??

I don't think I've ever heard about that one!

Another Instrument to keep my daughter away from along with Petra's Dandilions Goes to count the mugs to make sure they are not all in her room

I think EVERYTHING becomes a percussion instrument as soon as you start learning percussion! It keeps us percussionists occupied!

Hope you enjoy this one!!
www.jdnet.co.uk/FrumpyBabes/2006_08-MozartsobrePatins.wmv

I love it! I think if I ever tried to do it, I'd just go into the bottles by accident, though. I suppose the sound of bottles breaking could just be an extra sound effect!

Thats wonderful!!

I suppose looking round the house for things to get a sound out of is cheaper than the latest must have.....A Mandolin

A mandolin?! Percussion's MUCH better!

Hmmm! It's a request from the leader of the Folk Group she plays in.

Flanger Splash?

Octoban?

Rocktagon?

Or this:

http://www.paiste-only.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=93

Now that's impressive!

That is quite impressive!

Lol...

Also... Check out some Crotales, if you can!

I've never had a chance to play them. Maybe in the future!

Lol... Neither have I - I'd quite like to, though!


(Btw, DrumKat - do stick around, it can get quite boring being the only drummer!)

I am planning to stick around (have you noticed the pun you used?). We drummers must stick together. (I think I might be getting carried away with the pun now!) It's nice to have somewhere to talk percussion!

Lol indeed!

The pup is very well-used!! But funny nevertheless!

What sort of drums do you have? What kinda music do you play?

I have most of a drum kit which I've borrowed from a neighbour (minus hi-hat and bass drum pedal, so currently pretty unplayable). I don't actually drum all that much at home (except for on tables and the like!) but I'm in orchestras at school, and I'm in the county youth wind orchestra and percussion ensemble. I play whatever music I'm given - I'm not fussy at all! What about you?

I play anything too! If you wanna be a session drummer, you have to! Lol...

As for my drums... I've got a Premier Series kit and a Vintage Premier (1940's) kit...



Premier Series:





More photos (and photos of the Vintage kit) at www.manek.org.uk!

Blimey. But what happens if you need to play a cymbal?

Seriously, though, what's that drum at the bottom left? And only two tom-toms?

If I need to play a cymbal, I hit it...

The drum at the bottom left is a 12" Black Panther Brass Piccolo Snare - an second snare drum...

Only two toms - I much prefer playing a 4pc kit!! It's easier to play, there are fewer drums to buy and transport, it's easier to set up, it's more ergonomic, it leaves you with more setup options and it makes you a more inventive and creative player - just a few of the many reasons to play a 4pc kit!

Isn't it better to have the extra tom, and you can just choose if you want to play it or not?

No...

It would just get in the way! And stop the setup from being so ergonomic etc...!

Bravo. *applauds*



What's the main reason for having that? The different tone? Greater volume?



Looks like it would be even easier to set up if you omitted about 27 of the cymbals OK, I can see it works for you, though having recently written a kit part which made liberal use of three toms I am now in a confusion of self-doubt

3 toms is good!

That's the thing about drum kit... It's the most customisable, personalisable instrument going...!!

The piccolo snare contrasts with the main snare - it's a bit louder, and it's got a higher pitched, harsher "crack" sound... This is down to the fact that it's metal (and the main snare is wood), the fact that it's smaller (12" and the main snare is 14") and the fact that it's tuned higher... It's tuned REALLY high - you could use that drum as a trampoline (as long as I weren't looking - if I were you wouldn't live very long!) and the wires are cranked really tight as well...



As for the part you wrote which used three toms...

Since most drumming is not notated note-by-note, it doesn't matter whether you use 4pc, 5pc, 6pc or whatever... Playing from charts, or simply not playing from anything, you won't have fills notated at all, and only groove "suggestions" are written down, which means that parts are easily adaptable...



And the cymbals?? Well, not meaning to patronise or cause any offence, but I'm kinda fed up of people who aren't drummers (or even people who are drummers!) trying to tell me that I have "too many" cymbals... This is not the case - if anything, I don't have enough! Each cymbal has its own unique tone and sound, and I do use every single one... Honestly!!

No offence taken, and certainly none intended. I'm very impressed by how creative you obviously are with the cymbals.

Your other points were very interesting. I have a friend who uses only a piccolo snare in his kit - I suppose it depends on the sound you want to make, and you obviously have very clear ideas about that.

I think I may have overdone the fill writing in my kit part .... Oh well, the drummer will no doubt change it all anyway

Thanks!

(As it happens I may have two more cymbal "in the pipeline" as it were!)



Yeah - there is a trend atm to use smaller-sized drums as main snares... I believe that 13x4" is quite a popular one... I actually have two 14x5.5" snares, a 12x5" and a 12x4"... And could be looking at a 13x4" and a 14x7" as well!! In the words of top UK drummer Doc Spoons - "you can't have too many snares"...!

And you're right about my "clear ideas" too!! I know exactly how I want each part to sound - before I even sit at the kit! Lol...

I agree, in fact I prefer having the snare used for fills than toms. It cuts through much more.
Absolutely true.

As this is the 'Odd Instruments' thread, I wonder if anyone knows the name of the strange electric/xylophone 'thingy' that Rofl Harris used...?

That would be the Stylophone. The keyboard was made up of metal pads and you pressed these with a sort of pen thing, thereby creating a sort of electronic quacking sound at the required pitch.

If they're about to make a revival, I'm outta here.

Lol! Don't worry, I'm not planning to try and reintroduce them!

Good. "Put the guns down, guys, this one's okay."