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Unusual Instruments [message #84453] Mon, 30 January 2017 08:59 Go to next message
PianoGrrl is currently offline  PianoGrrl
Messages: 48
Registered: December 2016
Baron
I was looking through my David Bowie albums and found that the weird sound in Space Oddity was created by something called a Stylophone. I'd never heard of one before, but I looked it up on wiki and it got me thinking. What other instruments have kind of dropped out of use, or been forgotten?
Re: Unusual Instruments [message #84454 is a reply to message #84453] Mon, 30 January 2017 13:46 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Azuri is currently offline  Azuri
Messages: 315
Registered: November 2012
Grand Master
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sfBcWvVUbs

index.php?t=getfile&id=1957&private=0

This is a Nyckelharpa. The link above shows it being played. It is a keyed string instrument and makes a very unique sound.

Something I'm sure Bowie would have appreciated.
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Re: Unusual Instruments [message #84460 is a reply to message #84454] Tue, 31 January 2017 10:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18670
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)

I always thought the Armonica was interesting.

And of course, the Theramin.

Re: Unusual Instruments [message #84469 is a reply to message #84460] Wed, 01 February 2017 10:24 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Silver is currently offline  Silver
Messages: 116
Registered: December 2013
Viscount
So the Armonica was first played by Marianne Davies in London? I wonder if Ray Davies of The Kinks is related somehow?

I never knew Franklin was so into music that he invented his own instrument. That's cool to know.
Re: Unusual Instruments [message #84492 is a reply to message #84453] Mon, 06 February 2017 03:58 Go to previous messageGo to next message
PianoGrrl is currently offline  PianoGrrl
Messages: 48
Registered: December 2016
Baron
I thought the harpiscord was rare, but I've never heard of these instruments before. The Theremin looks really really bizarre, and an instrument played without touching it feels like something that should have been built in this century, not nearly a hundred years old!
Re: Unusual Instruments [message #84552 is a reply to message #84453] Sat, 11 February 2017 02:55 Go to previous messageGo to next message
vhfspeeks is currently offline  vhfspeeks
Messages: 82
Registered: November 2016
Viscount
I remember seeing on some old country videos someone playing something that looked like a table with strings across it, rather like a guitar turned on its side strings upwards with an underslung soundbox and a winding handle for tightening them. It seems to be a rare instrument, because I can't find it anywhere! What is it called, because trying to look it up is driving me insane.
Re: Unusual Instruments [message #84559 is a reply to message #84552] Sat, 11 February 2017 12:46 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Tadtone is currently offline  Tadtone
Messages: 43
Registered: December 2016
Baron
vhfspeeks wrote on Sat, 11 February 2017 02:55
I remember seeing on some old country videos someone playing something that looked like a table with strings across it, rather like a guitar turned on its side strings upwards with an underslung soundbox and a winding handle for tightening them. It seems to be a rare instrument, because I can't find it anywhere! What is it called, because trying to look it up is driving me insane.
Do you mean a pedal steel guitar? They're common in country music, just not really anywhere else, so I'd guess you don't listen to that much country. Hope that helps your sanity!
Re: Unusual Instruments [message #84595 is a reply to message #84453] Thu, 16 February 2017 15:13 Go to previous message
vhfspeeks is currently offline  vhfspeeks
Messages: 82
Registered: November 2016
Viscount
Thank you for saving my sanity! That's it, although I never knew it was common in country and it looks very different on a 1950's TV clip. You live and learn.
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