Instruments out of everyday items

I recall some topic on someone making a straw oboe but I guess it fell off the first few pages. <.<

Anyone else here like experimenting with random household items (e.g. straws) to make random instruments?

Lately I've been grabbing handfuls of plastic straws and making oboes out of them. <.< Still haven't bothered actually looking up or experimenting much on finger-holes. But I can basically lip a whole octave anyway. =|

I just made a natural 5-straw trumpet with paper cone in ... well, I'd suppose Cd (quarter-tone down) or something. I can lip it to a B or C. I'd make it a piston/valve trumpet too but that'd be considerably more difficult.

Anyone else? XP

(Yeah, I know, wasting so many non-biodegradable materials isn't good for the environment... I used about half of those straws as drinking straws beforehand though.)

our physics classes at my high school do instruments out of household stuff...

...aw, really?

Geez, that sounds like fun. <.< Alas, no acoustics in our HS physics classes; just optics and mechanics.

Here, Lao -> http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/abstract-instruments-exceptionally-wierd-unusual-11432.html

*I* started it.

I have one straw at the moment... one with a reed anyways. It is McDonalds. I have two slighter larger straws that fit over it, one with tone holes (strawboe), and one without that can slide in and out (strawmbone.)

I also tried the ruler... it is dreadfully difficult to articulate, and I can play my ceiling fan with a violin bow. Large saucers and glass cake-dish lids also makes tons of juicy noise. I made a bass with a small box and thick rubber band once... worked quite well. I also made a violin... using smaller rubber bands, and another rubber band wrapped lengthwise around a pencil for a bow. Sometimes when my parents are away I grab my crappiest violin bow and go down to the garage and play my step-dads work saw... works surprisingly well.

I can play music on my hands... handwhistling, I have about 2 octaves... does that count?

It's called "percussion" :P

I love playing with creaking doors!

I have now officially invented the Strawnter and claim all rights to its invention.

It consists of at least one straw, preferably of McDonalds or equivalent diameter and properties, one small paperclip, and a generic trombone mouthpiece (because every household should have at least one laying around)

The tip of the straw is cut into a triangular point and inserted point-first through the shank the of mouthpiece. A paper clip is bent at three angles so that it pinches the straw at one tip length past the tip of the straw. This tip, complete with pinching paperclip is recessed as far as possible into the cup of the mouthpiece. Insert mouthpiece rim entirely in mouth, rest against gums, and supply a decent amount of air. Voil

Earlier this year, I tried 'making' a horn with several different results, but I have found that 20 ft of garden hose (I think it's 20 ft...) makes an okay C horn. Combined with a mouthpiece, you can get a fair number of the overtones. The tone itself is pretty trashy, but multiphonics on it just sound wonderful, because the rubber will muffle some of the vibrations.

I did that when I first started trumpet! :w00t:

I found a garden hose about ... eh, .... well, no idea how long it was, but it was in F#, right above an F horn, I think. But this was before I played horn, so I wasn't good with the partials. The intonation on the hose was pretty poor, I couldn't lip the out of tune partials in tune and the intonation varied from octave to octave. Thing sounded really cool when I went for maximum volume, really buzzy and brassy and dark.

Hornpipe on the Hosepipe

[youtube=3rbi1hxUQXE]Malm

yeah, it sucks to have to flush it out with water (on account of there being no water keys)

At the Opnung music festival (I think 67, when they premiered the "Grand, Grand Overture" someone did the Leopold Mozart horn concerto on 2 hosepipes (since it would have required a natural horn w/ two crooks).

If the whole hose acts as a tube, then a) the sound is coming of the edges, which are far away from the microphone, and b) he gets pretty damn precise pitches and with very good articulation, which I imagine will be tricky on a garden hose since it's made of hard rubber, and thus is depressible if you press it, which you have to, in order to close the holes adequately enough to produce the sounds. Also, the holes are very close to each another, while the tube is quite long, which makes little sense. It may be true and I may be overlooking many many things, but all I see is a video. I'd love to see it live so the person could explain me how it works :)

how about justice yeldham and his "glass rock noise" :D

Einstuzende Neubaten (or something like that) uses loads of made-up instruments otherwise...this band called A (MySpace.com -