Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037, a documentary by Ben Niles. "Invention for 900 Hands", a nine-part series in The New York Times. "K 2571: The Making of a Steinway Grand", an article in The Atlantic Monthly. [more inside]
posted by Trurl on Nov 2, 2011 - 9 comments

Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" arranged for 8 pianos - performed by Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanuel Ax, Claude Frank, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang, James Levine, Mikhail Pletnev, and Staffan Scheja. [more inside]
posted by Trurl on Jun 24, 2011 - 24 comments

It's like Evolution of Dance—a collection of kicky songs, just substitute dancing for the tribal drumming of a self-crafted PVC pipe instrument. 19 songs in 8 minutes. [more inside]
posted by Taft on Apr 2, 2011 - 12 comments

Do you need a free library of high-quality, carefully-recorded samples of a wide variety of musical instruments? The University of Iowa Electronic Music Studios' Musical Instrument Samples page has got you covered, from alto flute to violin. [more inside]
posted by jedicus on Mar 31, 2011 - 32 comments

The Lur is an overblown ancient northern European wind instrument made of bark or carved solid wood, with an incredibly "noble" sound (usually). [more inside]
posted by swimming naked when the tide goes out on Dec 1, 2010 - 15 comments

Kent Jenkins rocked a homemade PVC instrument at a recent LMU talent show. The end.
posted by circular on Nov 23, 2010 - 31 comments

This is exactly what I imagined a Visi-Sonor would sound like. [SLYT] [more inside]
posted by mhjb on Jul 26, 2010 - 11 comments

Drawdio: A Pencil that Lets You Draw Music
posted by brundlefly on Apr 17, 2010 - 29 comments

Nine bands enter, only one emerges sober • Timelapsed, three college-age kids play the Theme to Tetris around a table on beer bottles • The Magic Blow_ob Ensemble plays Shostakovich's "Jazz Suite #2" on beer bottles • Two Polish Buskers play Greig's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" on beer bottles • The Bottle Band (also from Poland) performs "The Entertainer" on beer bottles • The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra plays the Victoria Bitter beer jingle on Victoria Bitter beer bottles • St. Luke's Bottle Band plays Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Reed Flutes" on beer and other bottles • The Bowen Beer Bottle Band [previously] performs "Do You Hear What I Hear?" on beer bottles • An ensemble wearing matching clothing plays "Mamma Mia" by ABBA on beer bottles • The J2O Bottle Blowing Choir performs "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (they are too young for beer) • [more inside]
posted by not_on_display on Feb 4, 2010 - 10 comments

Harpsichords sound pretty. Look pretty too. You can build your own. Even from Lego. (previously) But don't make it your trade.
posted by Joe Beese on Jan 6, 2010 - 17 comments

Jig Dolls as a percussion instrument, here played by Jean Ritchie [previously] and The Beers Family. There are modern exponents though - Limberjacking is NOT just for folkies.
posted by tellurian on Nov 2, 2009 - 4 comments

132 keys, two strip controllers and a breath pipe. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Eigenharp, instrument of the future.
posted by permafrost on Oct 8, 2009 - 26 comments

The Snyderphonics Manta . With a few exceptions like the rare Buchla Thunder and the ZenDrum, computer musicians were stuck with controllers disguised as traditional instruments, rolling their own, or using grids of generic rubber pads. The Manta, in the spirit of the Serge TKB's capacitance touchplate construction, attempts to do something new, and people are already doing interesting things with it. Videos: polyphonic keys, sequencer, technique, and lots more
posted by Señor Pantalones on Jun 18, 2009 - 7 comments

"For the first time in history a wireless motion-sensing wig is used as game controller." SLYT via Kotaku
posted by Rinku on Feb 8, 2009 - 20 comments

Pronounced "chin" ("stringed instrument") or "goo chin" ("old stringed instrument"), the qin / guqin throughout its long history has been the musical instrument most prized by China's literati. They categorized it as one of their "four arts", collected it as an art object, praised its beautiful music, and built around it a complex ideology (compare its image in popular culture). No other instrument was described and illustrated in such detail, so often depicted in paintings, or so regularly mentioned in poetry. And its tablature documents the world's oldest detailed written instrumental music tradition, allowing both historically informed performance (requiring silk strings) of the many early melodies, and practical exploration of the relationship between Chinese music theory and music practice. The guqin silk string zither work of John Thompson. [more inside]
posted by netbros on Dec 14, 2008 - 7 comments

Walter Kitundu is one of this year's MacArthur Fellows, a musician and artist who invents and builds new instruments from turntables, strings and the interactions of the elements. His recent invention, the Ocean Edge Device, uses the flow of the rushing tides to provide energy for on-board accordion and turntable instrumentation.
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Sep 25, 2008 - 7 comments

The Sterner Capo Museum For anyone who has found themselves reduced to the pencil and rubber band.
posted by Miko on Apr 3, 2008 - 29 comments

Is it a wok?! An UFO?! No, it's The Hang Drum! With its distinct serene sound, Hang, as it's also called ("Hand" in Swiss German), was created in 2000 in Switzerland by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer after years of research. It's a versatile instrument that can be customized to produce many different musical scales. Want one yourself? Unfortunately, only a few are custom-made each year by Rohner and Schärer. More Hang music? Listen to the Hang radio station. More: videos | music | known artists | a beautiful Hang used by musician Alan Tower
posted by Foci for Analysis on Apr 29, 2007 - 28 comments

You may have never heard of it, but you've damn near certain heard it. The Mellotron (FortuneCity link) is a keyboard instrument; each of its keys triggers a tape with a pre-recorded instrument on it. It was effectively the world's first sample player. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Sep 7, 2006 - 38 comments

Artistic guitars. Check out the Folk Legend, the Skeletar, and the MotorGuitar.
posted by Wet Spot on Dec 5, 2004 - 14 comments

The Optigan: OPTIcal orGAN. Long before synthesizers, ProTools, and Cubase, Mattel released a bizarre contraption called the 'Optigan' which operated by assigning each key to a track on an optical disc on which were recorded sounds of real instruments playing every individual note. This site is one guy's obsession with the instrument that may well be dead and forgotten if not for him. Check out his mp3s of his own, reasonably successful, band based around the instrument, to see how it sounds.
posted by wackybrit on Jun 30, 2003 - 18 comments

It's not political. But it's rather useful. Free (accurate!) tuning software for the guitarists out there.
posted by cheaily on Nov 13, 2000 - 6 comments