Small acoustic instruments

I'm sitting here on day 6 without mains power (thanks to our neighbor for the generator power to at least run the pellet stove 13 hours a day) and I'm starting to get antsy to do some tunes. I was vaguely into chiptunes a few years back so I've got that kind of portable battery powered stuff laying around - DMG, Gameboy Advance, PSP (for running LGPT) and a mini KP. I was thinking it would be fun to fart around with this stuff, might scratch the music itch. But it doesn't seem like it would really fit with the sort of vibe of the situation.

I used to romanticize a bit about life without electricity so I have given this a little thought before. The instruments that I think of don't really get me that excited but they at least seem pretty practical for the situation:
- Flute/recorder - these seem like they could be cool, in theory anyway
- Harmonica - can you play anything besides blues and O, Suzanna on these?
- Backpacker guitar - I've always wanted one of these even though I haven't been into guitar for like 16 years
- Bongos - might not really fit the mood but something percussive might be cool

I guess I could always just get some new strings and dust off the acoustic guitar, although I struggle to avoid cliches on it. Maybe try to cover some Autechre?

Since the situation is temporary, maybe calls for a flute? It seems you could become decent with any instrument like a flute fairly fast whereas with a guitar you won't be much better by the time you'd get power again.

Unless you want to use it as an excuse to start learning guitar then go ahead

Also... maybe take the time to wander around the house collecting percussive samples from everything in your environment? So when you get back to the computer you'll have stuff you can use.

  On 11/23/2015 at 5:42 AM, sweepstakes said:

I guess I could always just get some new strings and dust off the acoustic guitar, although I struggle to avoid cliches on it. Maybe try to cover some Autechre?

There are many ways to avoid cliches with a guitar, imo. Different tunings are good (though it's easy to slip into psych folk territory :P), as is preparing it in some way e.g. tape on the strings, pencil at 12th fret for a koto-esque sound, or treating it more like a percussion instrument..

Pennywhistles are pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtmbzJNPsaQ

get a Kalimba, so much fun and really anyone can play one because there all tuned to a scale

i always wanted one of those ever since i saw this as a kid, a million yrs ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlBL9ckkB4E

(great movie, btw)

and i know you can just buy them now that theyve become somewhat popular in recent years, but i feel like if i had one it'd have to have been hand made by an authentic african person, rather than some neo-hippies in california. same thing with a didgeridoo (made by aussie aboriginals instead of neo-hippies). but thats just me

basically, just get an mbira/kalimba and/or didgeridoo, lovingly crafted (*assembled) by some californian neo-hippies, imo

Ocean drums are pretty IDM

as are cuica

yeah mbiras are the shit, got one a friend's dad bought me back from kenya.

You can just knock on the underside too and get like a weird spectral decay sound. same as using acoustic guitar as percussion I guess.

What modey said about acoustic guitars is good too. I have an insanely out of tune 3/4 size acoustic that's slowly turning boomerang shaped from being strung with steel strings. I usually wedge chopsticks between the strings and use more chopsticks like beaters.

Edit: unnecessary apostrophe

Jew´s harp = idm as fuck

Autoharps are lush too

  On 11/23/2015 at 6:38 AM, Danny O Flannagin said:

get a Kalimba, so much fun and really anyone can play one because there all tuned to a scale

 

Lol, this is fucking wicked. Going to buy one.

mandolin ?

Thanks guys, all great choices except pennywhistle but LOL at TNG clip

I stand by my recommendation. How can you argue with this hook?

Rubber bands at multiple lengths.

Also, the springy door stop thing. Find a way to change its pitch and you've got a weird instrument on your hands/fingers.

Would be cool if you could get a bunch of springy doorstops at different sizes and glue them to a board.

ACCORDION

also make instruments out of household/shed shite like Braintree says

yeah accordions are IDM as fuck

This instrument seizes the means of production

Kalimba

  On 11/23/2015 at 10:19 AM, th555 said:

Jew´s harp = idm as fuck

+1

rubber bands very good yea

kazoo maybe?

the first most-small cool instrument I could think of was not really an instrument but rather an old toy,

dunno what's it's name,

but it's essentially just two pieces of wood held together by a nail, you rotate one piece of wood against the other while applying some pressure, and it makes birdsong-like tones from the friction.. more expressive than it sounds like. My stepdad had some of these in his antique shop, probably best place to find is some Belgian antique/flea market I reckon.

^ found it, it's called Audubon Bird Call:

remembered it a bit wrong, it's metal vs one piece of wood