The thumb piano, also known as a kalimba or mbira (or many other names), is an instrument originating in Africa. It is a member of the idiophone family, meaning that it is an instrument whose sound is produced primarily by the instrument vibrating without the use of strings or membranes. Today’s thumb piano is made…
Per request of one of our readers, we are featuring the Banjo Uke, or Banjolele, for today’s Spotlights & Histories of “Unusual” Musical Instruments article. Thanks to our reader for suggesting this instrument – we had never heard of this one before, so it was a learning experience for us as well! If you couldn’t…
It’s been a while since our last posting in our blog series – Spotlights & Histories of “Unusual” Musical Instruments. Our featured instrument for this posting will be the cuica (pronounced kweeka). The cuica is from Brazil and falls in the friction drum category. This simply means that the sound from the drum is created…
Today’s spotlight is a rather light-hearted one – The Vegetable Orchestra based in Vienna. Yes, you read that correctly… a vegetable orchestra. This one-of-a-kind orchestra is comprised of musicians playing all fresh vegetables! The Vegetable Orchestra was founded in 1998 in Vienna, Austria and currently consists of eleven musicians, one videographer, and one sound technician….
We are so excited to be launching our first ever blog series – Spotlights & Histories of “Unusual” Musical Instruments! We hope that you enjoy the series, and that it is both entertaining and educational. For our first “unusual” instrument, we will be featuring the Cajon – a percussion instrument originating in Peru. Now, you…