Keep eating the mushrooms.

March 18, 2008 3:14 PM

Hands. Twin Tesla coils. Ruler. Ocarina. Ukelele. 7 String bass. Two guitars played at once. Tuba. Trombone quartet. Bassoon quartet. Previously here and here
posted by unSane (14 comments total)

Psst.. that's an 11-string bass.
posted by leviathan3k at 3:28 PM on March 18, 2008

That is the most ridiculous bass I have ever seen.
posted by spiderskull at 3:36 PM on March 18, 2008

It's actually a Warr guitar.
posted by doctor_negative at 4:01 PM on March 18, 2008

Also previously, and still open...

This is great though.
posted by My Bloody Pony at 4:13 PM on March 18, 2008

I particularly like the tesla coils and the WTF of the two guitars played at once.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:18 PM on March 18, 2008

Here's another good one, played on a Chapman Stick (similar to the tap style played on the 11 string bass. The Chapman Stick has high and low strings arranged in two sets for a wider range and different fingerings.)
posted by drivers99 at 4:47 PM on March 18, 2008

The two guitars things, while novel, doesn't look any more complicated than playing a piano.
posted by oddman at 4:50 PM on March 18, 2008

Oddman, you'd be surprised at just how much more difficult it is to think in two separate 2-D planes than it is to think in two individual "shapes" along an axis. I can play piano, I can play guitar, but two guitars at once is quite a feat.

I just wonder what it is about the Super Mario theme that is so great. Does anyone know of a musical-theory analysis of the piece? Why is it so compelling?
posted by TheNewWazoo at 5:28 PM on March 18, 2008

There's always Jason Cox's Super Mario World instrumental album (rar file). Quite an amazing effort.
posted by phirleh at 5:34 PM on March 18, 2008

The two guitars things, while novel, doesn't look any more complicated than playing a piano.

I can play piano, and I can play guitar. I don't know how I'd even begin playing two guitars at once.
posted by Jaltcoh at 6:30 PM on March 18, 2008

It was the hands that got me. I had to watch it over and over again. I was going to make the FPP just about the manualist but that would have meant losing the Tesla coils and the ukelele. Still, you should definitely check out his version of Bohemian Rhapsody.
posted by unSane at 7:15 PM on March 18, 2008

The Super Mario Bros theme is by Koji Kondo. The link has a lot of information about how he came to compose it. I think what makes it interesting to play is that it's rhythmically complex with a lot of unexpected little changes, but basically in just two or three voices. Add to that the fact that it's ingrained into many people's subconscious, and that you just don't expect (until recently) to hear it played on anything but an 8-bit console chip.
posted by unSane at 7:21 PM on March 18, 2008

The piece by the bassoon quartet is really amazing. There's just something about bassoons-- they have the ability to sound jazzy at times, and then have a great range to be able to do bass lines and melodies. Looks like the Oberlin Bassoon Quartet has a little more posted by the same user, as well.
posted by taursir at 6:59 AM on March 19, 2008

dopeness. thanks for the info on Koji Kondo! what a hero.
posted by alohaliz at 11:27 AM on March 20, 2008