Wanna impress someone but your old boom box strategy has become too cliche?
Not to toot our own horn, but we might have just found the perfect instruments that are
sure to make your lady love swoon!
That is, if you ever learn how to play them!
Let’s dabble in these 10 Strangest Musical Instruments!
What’s up, fact-natics!
This is Discovery Amuse, serving up your daily dose of the most outrageous, outlandish, and
out-of-this-world fun facts!
Be sure to stay tuned for our number 1 pick that might just make you play concertos like
nobody’s business!
As long as you know the difference between rushing or dragging.
Andrew: 1-2-3-4 Terrence: Rushing or dragging?
Andrew: Rushing.
Terrence: So you do know the difference!
#10: Pyrophone Goodness gracious, look at those great balls
of fire!
Also known as the fire organ, the pyrophone was invented by Strasburg-born musician and
physicist Frederic Kastner in 1873.
As the name implies, it’s basically an instrument that creates notes through explosions and
rapid combustions encased in traditional organ pipes.
When Kastner learned that a hydrogen flame positioned at the bottom of a glass tube produces
a note, he combined this knowledge with his musical know-how to invent what he hoped to
be the next lit instrument to set the world ablaze.
However, the pyrophone didn’t quite spread like wildfire back in his day.
Fast forward to the 21st century, this experimental instrument was reimagined by musician Steve
Langton in 2008, when he built a phantasmagorical, larger-than-life version of the pyrophone,
and made it the centerpiece of his one-of-a-kind festival performance art.
Steve: Weighs about 6 tons, and takes 3 days for a crew of 5 people to put up, including
the light and sound.
His creation called the Pyrophone Juggernaut is a massive ship-shaped organ that’s dubbed
the largest hand-operated multi-octave fire organ on the planet!
Wow, that’s indeed one huge organ you got there, mate!
Keep watching because our top 1 pick literally crosses the line between strange and brilliant!
#9: Singing Tesla Coil
Nope, your ears are not fooling you, Those first few bars of The White Stripes’ Seven
Nation Army were actually played using…electricity!
Science definitely rocks!
The singing Tesla coil, otherwise known as the Zeusaphone, is a made up of a variety
of Tesla coils that have been modified to produce musical tones by modulating its spark
output using a software or an instrument like a keyboard or guitar.
The tones are a result of the passage of spark through the air.
Tesla coils were first used as a musical instrument by Illinois electrical engineering student
Steve Ward in his performance at a 2007 science fiction convention.
However, its most famous appearance was in Disney’s 2010 film, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,
where it was used to play “Secrets” by One Republic to… well, impress a girl!
Girl: You were listening!
If you boo isn’t utterly shocked by this electric performance, I don’t know what
will!
#8: Pikasso and Medusa
Wait, what?
Is that a guitar within a guitar?
What Inception-like musical sorcery is this?!?
ICYMI, multiple Grammy Award winner Pat Metheny is a legendary guitar player, who wanted to
level up his guitar game even further.
So in 1984, he asked Canadian master luthier Linda Manzer to make him a guitar with quote-unquote,
“as many strings as possible.”
And his wish was Manzer’s command.
Presenting; the Pikasso, an over-the-top guitar that has 42 strings arranged in four sections,
including a hexaphonic pickup enabling Metheny to create sound effects using his synthesizer.
And in case you’re still doubting Manzer’s guitar-making genius, she also made another
customized multi-string acoustic guitar called the Medusa, commissioned by a Danish guitarist
named Henrik Andersen.
The Medusa has 52 strings in total, has a wedged body and features a Laskin armrest
for a comfortable strumming experience.
But if we’re being honest, comfortable would probably be the last thing to describe this
musical bad boy!
Linda: Let’s not kid ourselves, this instrument is very complicated.
#7: The Marble Machine
Looking at this uber-complicated musical machine, you’re probably thinking its inventor has
totally lost his marbles.
Created by Swedish folktronica musician Martin Molin, the Marble Machine is a colossal box
that uses marbles to play various musical instruments.
The machine is powered by a manual crank that raises 5,000 steel marbles from a certain
height via programmable release gates.
These marbles fall and strike different musical instruments incorporated in the machine, including
a vibraphone, bass guitar, cymbal, and simulated drums using contact microphones.
In his YouTube channel, Molin shows the different ways he modifies the Marble Machine to create
various sounds however he wanted.
It’s literally like playing with a puzzle with its incredible woodwork, while creating
music like a one-man band!
#6: Earth Harp
Oh, wonderful!
Another Seven Nation Army cover!
Never gets old!
Now this version is brought to you by the grand musical-slash-architectural masterpiece
that is the Earth Harp.
Invented by William Close in 2000, at its core, the Earth Harp is a string instrument
that makes use of the environment as part of its set-up.
William: The title comes from the first time I invented this instrument, when I mounted
a series of chambers on one side of a canyon and ran the strings clear across to the other
side, turning that canyon into a giant harp.
The strings are mounted onto a theater’s balcony or a structural landmark where it
is being played.
William then pinches the string and runs his hand along to produce the notes.
The strings can run anywhere from 100 to 1,000 feet, making it the world’s largest string
instrument!
William’s group the Earth Harp Collective has travelled all over the world, and has
played in some of the world’s greatest landmarks such as the Shanghai Grand Theater, Seattle’s
Space Needle, and even the Colosseum in Rome!
And everywhere he goes, he literally takes people to church!
William: It sounds like I’m in a cathedral when I play it, it’s just really beautiful.
#5: Great Stalacpipe Organ
At once seductive and spooky, the Great Stalacpipe Organ is located inside the Luray Caverns
in Virginia.
It was designed and implemented by Leland W. Sprinkle in 1956, and creates sounds by
rhythmically striking 37 different stalactites.
Man: The area that the strikers cover is roughly 3.5 acres, which then makes it literally the
world’s largest musical instrument.
It took Mr. Sprinkle three years to create this instrument, finding and shaving stalactites
to produce specific notes.
Each note is sounded by stalactites stricken by mallets activated by pressing the instrument’s
keyboard.
Man: So the music’s not coming out of here, it’s coming from the entire cavern.
Pianist: Exactly, one of the when I touch it, one of the notes, it goes throughout the
cavern to one specific formation which amplifies right back here to the cathedral.
The music emanating from the caverns sure is hauntingly beautiful.
I’m just hoping these caves aren’t actually haunted.
#4: Singing Ringing Tree
Somebody get Wes Craven on the phone, ‘coz I have his next horror movie soundtrack.
Built in 2006, the Singing Ringing Tree is another instrument that creates music with
a little help from mother nature herself.
It’s a three-meter-tall structure that’s part musical instrument, part art installation,
and part tourist landmark in Burnley’s English town.
It resembles a tree that’s made out of 322 galvanized steel pipes arranged in layers
that harness the wind’s power to produce slightly inharmonious choral sounds covering
several octaves.
The tubes’ ability to sing was made by tuning them according to their length and adding
holes to their underside.
Who knew Mother Earth could carry a tune!
Simon: I’ve never ever heard anything like that in my life.
#3: Sea Organ
Ohh, what is that sound I’m hearing?
Man: What you are hearing is the sea organ in Zadar.
Oh hey, thanks man!
Located in the city of Zadar in Croatia, the sea organ harnesses the power of waves coming
from the Adriatic Sea to create various whistling sounds.
The Sea Organ was designed by Croatian architect Nikola Bašić and was opened to the public
in April of 2005.
White marble steps were built concealing 35 polyethylene pipes and a resonating cavity,
like a usual organ.
When waves crash into the steps, the air is pushed through the pipes and creates different
sounds.
The beauty with it is that since no wave is ever the same, the music created is also unique
every single time.
What’s more, when the sun sets, you can enjoy the aquatic symphony with this cool
lightshow powered by solar panels!
Waves, sunset and dancing lights?
Sounds music to my ears!
#2: Theremin
I’ll be first to admit that when I first saw this man on America’s Got Talent, I
was like, “What the heck is going on?”
An instrument you play without touching?
And then I did some digging and found out that this instrument actually dates back to
1920!
And it’s quite versatile too!
From the “Flight of the Bumblebee”…
To “Smells Like Teen Spirit”…
The possibilities are as endless as the strings are invisible!
Russian physicist and engineer Leon Theremin, who invented this touchless instrument in
1920, also eventually created spyware for communist Russia.
The sound is created by manipulating the antennas’ electromagnetic fields through hand movements.
The sound produced is like the eerie warbling of a violin… or as I’d like to describe
it, like tubthumping mosquitoes.
But when done correctly, it can sound as epic as this!
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#1: Musical Road
From Denmark and California, to Japan and South Korea, musical roads have struck a chord
with drivers who like a different kind of road trip jam.
The best part is, zero musical talent is required!
Musical roads have been in existence as early as 1995, the first of which was the Asphaltophone
created in Denmark that played an arpeggio in the key of F Major.
These singing streets have special grooves carved onto them that, when driven over, produce
vibrations heard within the car and its surroundings in the form of a musical tune.
The car must be driven at a consistent speed to create the selected music.
Drivers must also hit the grooves head-on to get all the notes in full volume.
Let’s see if you can name this tune!
In Route 66 in New Mexico, musical roads are used to actually encourage motorists to drive
within speed limits!
Noice!
Woman: All you have to do is reduce your sped to 45 miles an hour then aim for thr strip
on the right side of the road and voila!
America the Beautiful!
So, which of these kickass instruments would you like to try your hand---or your wheels
at?
Let us know in the comments section below.
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Awesome right!
Now here’s something that will surely rattle your eardrums.
Check out our list of the 10 Scariest Sounds on Earth!
‘Til then, keep on learning, fact-natics!
And see you in the next video!