Improvised Instrument Love – Summer Festival Style

It you have read this blog long enough you will have figured out that I have a musical instrument fetish.  These days I spend more time trying to make noise that sounds like music then I actually spend listening to music.  This may or may not be a good thing, but it has been so much fun trying to make music on different instruments that I fall deeper and deeper into fascination with things musical.  I would suppose that it is my musical instrument fetish makes my ears tingle and go erect when I hear or see someone or something making a musical sound with something else that isn’t instantly identifiable as a musical instrument.

Improvised Musical Instruments

I have come across many homemade musical instruments in my travels, it is only now as I try to describe them that I curse myself for not having a camera by to snap photos of the usually amazing sounding creations or being able to find some of the pictures of the ones I was smart enough to capture.  I have seen some of the most imaginative of instruments, some notable, and still within easy grasp of my memory were instruments like giant drum sets made of big metal steel drums and a stand up bass made from a car hood.  It is easy to discount the quality of the tone from these “improvised” instruments but after hearing so many of them I would say that it would only be a loss.

There are two places that I have consistently seen the coolest looking and the neatest sounding improvised instruments.  One is one of my favorite places, Seattle’s Pike Market, and one other place that I have written about on this blog once or twice before, Oregon’s Country Fair.

Dang – I can’t find my Seattle Pics!

I’m a little at a loss for some of the neat instruments that I have caught in the wild in Seattle, but I do have some wonderful instrument pictures from this year’s country fair.

The band in the picture above (The Kitchen Syncopators) not only played very entertaining music but besides that they had, in my opinion, the best sounding “traditional” improvised instrument of the festival.

Dudes: If you are from “The Kitchen” and are reading this, please note that it took me a while to figure out who you were based on the materials I saw in your guitar case and your photos on the Internet obscure you a bit.  I had to search and match faces with my photos, which wasn’t a horrible task, but it might help to sell your music if you were easier to find

But First…

Isn’t that a beautiful instrument.  This is the second time I have seen this instrument, and the reason I know that is exactly because it is simply stunning.  I was lucky enough to see two vintage National guitars at the fair.  I’m guessing they were made about the same time, this one won the beauty content for me.

This thing sounded great…

Now… my other half bought a washtub about a year or so ago to make a big drum.  We haven’t yet made our drums, but the bad boy in the picture above made me ask the question, “Oh darlin…? Would you mind if I put a hole in your wash tub?”

I had seen another washtub bass at the fair, but this one, a much simpler model sounded nothing less than terrific.  This model had no fancy frets, it had what looked like a simple broomstick, notched at the end to grab hold of the edge washtub.  The bass player just tightened and loosened the string (which looked like a standard hemp rope) by just pulling back or moving forward the stick.  Like I said, it was a great sound.

Honorable Mention

Here is another band that I happened to catch at the fair.  I thought I had snagged a better photo of the washtub bass that the man in the left of the picture is playing.  This one seemed much more professionally made and didn’t quite have a sound that grabbed my attention, so I’m not surprised.  What did grab my attention was the garbage can banjo the man to the right is playing.  Although, I’m not a banjo connoisseur, that was definitely a banjo sound.

And there was more…

One of my favorite things to experience at the fair, other than the small improvised instruments, are those instruments instruments de’art that can be found on the grounds.  I don’t know if this one was new to the fair, or just moved to a new location this year but it was very cool.

This instrument is best described as the innards of a music box gone mad.  It had a few levers and things to pull and push and turn it into motion, as it’s little hammers struck various parts of the instrument.  The sound was of bells and fun.  The fair always seems to have one or more of these types of instruments around.  It is great to watch people sneak up to them and start playing away.

A Jug Band of My Own

I just got off the phone with my other half.  I brought out the “heavy cute” as I mentioned the wash tub again…

Poop…

Oh how weird.  I had planned to end this post with a link to the video excerpt from Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas where they play “Ain’t No Hole in the Washtub.”  Sad but I can’t seem to find where I can get a link to it.  How sad.   I guess I will leave you with something just a little less cooler.  A link to instructions of how to make your own washtub bass: http://tubotonia.freehomepage.com/Lewark.html.