This is a beautiful recording of the Latvian national instrument called the Kokle. The concert is recorded in Finland back in 2008 and the sound is astonishing.
The sound is like a harp but played on an almost triangular wooden instrument laid across the lap. Enjoy the recording:
No blog on national instruments would be complete without the classic Australian instruments, the didgeridoo.
Originating over 1,500 years ago, the didgeridoo still remains in widespread use. Known for its peculiar hum, most people label it a wooden trumpet or drone pipe, but musicologists classify it as an aerophone. The Didgeridoo is made from eucalpyptus wood that’s hollowed out by termites.
When played well it has a haunting noise with constant pitch changes and low humming sounds. I myself have one of these at home and while being nowhere near a good player, I love to play around with the noises.
The Classic Didge
Iconic US guitar maker Gibson is facing a criminal probe over claims it broke environmental laws while importing wood. So is music the next threat to the world’s forests?
“Up here you grow up liking Fenders or you grow up liking Gibsons,” says Billy Jack, 55, sat in a Nashville music store eyeing up a trio of shiny new Gibson guitars.
But things have gone wrong. On 28 August federal agents raided Gibson’s Nashville and Memphis premises, seizing shipments of Indian rosewood and leaving the venerable guitar maker more than a little off-key.
The agents brandished search warrants issued amid suspicions that Gibson had violated the terms of the Lacey Act, an environmental law that requires imports to the US to comply with laws in the country of origin as well.
Is this iconic American symbol under threat? Read the story here: Gibson guitars
Brazil contains some of the most exciting music in the world, known for samba rhythms and expressive dancing, they are some of the most musical people anywhere on Earth.
The berimbau, an African instrument, is best known for its role in capoeira, a Brazilian martial art form. It also resembles the Indian instrument known as the malunga.
This Brazilian musical instrument is a percussion instrument made from a wooden bow, gourd, and a steel string. The steel string is secured to the wooden bow and the gourd is then attached to the bow.
The berimbau is about 4-5 feet in length so that the gourd can rest on the abdomen and the hands are free to hold the wooden stick to strike the steel string.
The tones of the berimbau vary from low, medium to high, depending upon the quality of the gourds used and the hardness and diameter of the wood.
Sounds that are made with the berimbau are in three main categories, an open string sound, a high sound, and a buzzing sound.
The damp, dingy tunnels below Waterloo station in London are hardly your typical concert hall. But last weekend, as part of the MIndful exhibition, artist Oliver Beer brought a choir down to create ethereal music by turning the space into a giant musical instrument.
To make the space resound, the singers needed to tap into the natural resonant frequencies of the building. “You sing a high to low range of notes and you listen acutely,” explained Beer, as he prepared for the inaugural performance. “At one point, if you sing really quietly under your breath, so that it’s just a whisper of a note, suddenly it gets amplified and the whole room zings with something you don’t believe you’ve created.”
As you can see – and hear – in the video, it’s not the first time that Beer has attempted to make a space sing. As part of an ongoing series of performances and films called The Resonance Project, he has visited monasteries, the glass tunnel in the Pompidou Centre in Paris and, most recently, the sewer tunnels in Brighton.
But this performance is the most intimate yet; it takes place in total darkness. Since the tunnels have an irregular shape, the resonant frequencies vary in different spots, so Beer asks the audience to walk around the choir. In certain sweet spots, the space rings.
Listen to the incredible sounds here:
hough some consider the Musical Saw an American folk musical instrument believed to have gotten its start somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains in the 19th century, the origins of the musical saw are actually not confined to one country. Some sources state the saw was invented in Argentina, or Russia.
Most of what we know today is about Europe, but it is believed that saws were played in all continents without the people knowing of other people doing so in other places. Carpenters and lumberjacks all over the world discovered that their tool could make sounds, thus, no country can really claim ownership over the invention of making music with a saw. Saw playing probably started at the end of the 17th century, when saws were mass produced with pliable steel blades.
The saw is generally played seated with the handle squeezed between the legs, and the far end held with one hand. It is generally played with the teeth facing the body. In the early 20th century the Musical Saw began to get very popular in America and Europe as well. It is also known as the Singing Saw, as it produces a very pure ethereal tone, and can sound similar to a woman’s high singing voice. It is a strange noise and a town near us has its very own saw player.
Read the story here: Musical saw
Kazakhstan has recently been made famous by the film Borat but it is also famous for music and this is a video showing some of their ancient national instruments being played in a performance in Japan. I hope you enjoy:
When musician Tuyet Mai discovered her young son did not even know the names of traditional Vietnamese instruments, she decided to teach children and adults how to play the 36-chord zither, the t’rung and the k’long put.
Everybody took turns to try a Vietnamese 36-chord zither for possibly the first time in their life, after Tuyet Mai had explained about it. It seemed simple enough to play, but coaxing out proper melodies was another thing altogether.
Tuyet Mai, a traditional music virtuoso, offers free classes on how to play not only the zither but also the t’rung, a bamboo percussion instrument from the Central Highlands, drums, the lithophone, the k’long put, and others.
The course, which began a few days ago attracts many people of various ages and backgrounds.
Nothing makes the artist or her family members happier than seeing the class packed. She proudly tells everyone that she has to turn down requests from many young people and tell them to join next year.
During trips to rural areas and foreign countries to perform, she has found foreigners who are in love with Vietnamese music and have written books about it. But many Vietnamese do not even know the names of these musical instruments, she laments.
This is wonderful story which shows that many people around the world are still interested in maintaining their own national instruments. Read here: National instruments
Recently I watched an incredible film that sparkled and thrilled me completely and I wanted to share this amazing piece of work with you.
“Throw Down Your Heart” follows American banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck on his journey to Africa to explore the little known African roots of the banjo and record an album. It’s a boundary-breaking musical adventure that celebrates the beauty and complexity of Africa – an Africa that is very different from what is often seen in the media today.
As Ugandan folk musician Haruna Walusimbi states in the film: “There is this negative thinking about Africa. There is nothing good in Africa. They are beggars, there is HIV/AIDS, they are at war all the time. But that is just a very small bit of what Africa is.” Béla’s trip provides a glimpse into the incredibly rich and diverse musical traditions of Africa.
At first glance, it might seem odd that the banjo is the catalyst for this journey. But in fact, the banjo is originally an African instrument. Ever since he started playing music, Béla heard stories about where the banjo came from. To many, the banjo is seen as a uniquely American instrument – and even conjures images of white Southern stereotypes. But the banjo is actually a descendant of an African instrument. West Africans have long played an instrument that looks and sounds much like the banjo.
When slave traders captured West Africans, many of the slaves brought that instrument, and the knowledge of how to make it, to the United States. On plantations in the American South, slaves were not allowed to play drums, but they were allowed to play the banjo. Soon, whites started copying it, and the banjo evolved into the instrument we know today – and became a part of American culture. Béla wanted to go to Africa to trace the roots of the banjo, the instrument that defines who he is.
Read about the film and screenings here and please listen to a sample: Throw Down Your Heart
This is a video of a guy called Davide Swarup as he plays the incredible sound of the hang drum. He is one of the finest exponents of this wonderful instruments. Enjoy: