Musical Instruments

[Paul42`]

Wondering if anyone had any thoughts on a simple (small) musical instrument that could be forged? Not really sure what I'm looking for but any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[primtechsmith]

some of the wood wind family would be easy.....The flut is basicly a series of finger holes, an oval shaped ohle on one end(that is capped off). That may be something cool. A lot of your other instruments have valves, reeds, mouth pieces, pads, etc.

There are a lot of percussion items too....the triangle, symbol, cow bell (worked for Blue Oyster Cult "Don't frea the reaper"...)

There is also a weird thing called a sistrum(not sur eof spelling. It looks sort of like a tennis racket with things in it that rattle. Used mostly for rituals. Pretty old instrument if I remember correctly. You would have to check it though.

I have thought it would be fun to forge our a big Kazoo...by big I mean about 8 times the actual size, and make it workable with an air hose attachment. That is in the pile with my big mouse trap and every other small item I think would be cool made out of steel a lot bigger.

Good luck with it.
Peyton

[rokshasa]

you could make a set of bells or some triangles with scaled tones, i've also seen iron bass (large metal box with a neck and strings attached).

[Don A]

I think that a jew's harp / jaw harp would be an interesting project.

Jew's_harp.jpg

Might take a little experimentation to figure out, but they can't be all that hard to make.

Don

[NRunals]

Chimes might be nice to make, you could use some high carbon to get a brighter tone.

[clinton]

saw a guy do a demo of a mouth harp here is a picture of the finished harp

[John B]

Hanging chimes, from hollow section suspended from a forged frame, can be tuned by altering length, and struck with a forged striker.

Many years ago I made some handchimes for a group at my daughters school, all they consisted of was a piece of 1" square thin wall (Speed frame)tube, of varying lengths, which they held with one or two hands,

a 1/8" wide slot was cut in through opposite sides which vibrated to give resonance when struck with a rubber covered striker, the length of the slot giving the note's frequency

the striker was attached to the body of the tube by a rubber band so that when the tube was raised or lowered rapidly (once) the rubber struck the (not split) side and a note was emitted

Google "handchimes" and there are pictures and links to you tube videos of them being used.

[Tobago]

With the references to jew's harps and kazoos and being an old Jean Shepard fan I can almost hear a chorus of when the Saints Come Marching In playing in the background.

I'd agree that a good jew's harp cold be forged.

Excelsior,
Ted

[Francis Trez Cole]

how about a harp. I have seen banjo's made from a metal box (cake tin). Then there is the ever popular pipe organ

[Timothy Miller]

This is beyond the scope of blacksmithing but it is too cool

[Sam Salvati]

IIRC Jr Strasil mentioned a piano with tone makers made from driveshafts.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Bells

Cymbals

Steel drum / pan

Gong

Chimes

Xylophone

Flute

Whistle

[RLD]

check out the hang drums on utube. there made from old propanne tanks

[blafen]

In front of the house I am renting there is a gong made from old oxygen tank with the bottom cut off and an eye welded to the top so it can hang from a little structure made of header beams.

[Sam Salvati]

African finger piano, some are very beautiful.

[Bentiron1946]

African thumb harps are fun little instruments.

[chichi]

The mouth harp is cool. How is the piece that is twanged affixed to the harp?
Thanks,
B

[Thomas Dean]

Next door at anvilfire is a demo/blueprint of a Treble Cleaf (we NEED 'spell-check here! ) I have made these and the really cool thing is that no matter where you strike the 'bell' you get a different note. I made one for a lady a few years back and played a real song on it before I handed it to her. She was real impressed...kinda suprised myself too :rolleyes: