The world of music is full of wonderful instruments. You already know there’s the guitar and bass, trumpets and brass, strings like the violin, the woodwinds, etc. But the world of music is much wider and more interesting than just the common instruments you find in the orchestra. In fact, there are instruments out there in nearly every conceivable size and shape! That’s why this week we’re looking at some of our very favourite strange and uncommon instruments.
Some are merely extreme versions of instruments you’re already familiar with. Others look like something that jumped off a sci-fi movie screen!
Theremin
Speaking of science fiction, what better place to start than the theremin! Of all the uncommon instruments on this list, you might be most familiar with this one. The theremin is strange because you don’t touch it to play it. Instead, one creates the sound by moving their hands near two “antennas.”
Invented in 1920 by a Russian physicist, Lev Termen, the theremin was originally intended to become part of the classical orchestra. Although it never caught on as an orchestral instrument, its popularity got a bit of a boost in the 1960s when it was featured in Star Trek’s theme song and again in 1994 when the film “Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey” was released.
Bucket Drums
One of our all-time favourite non-traditional and uncommon instruments is definitely the bucket drum! Popular among busking musicians, toddlers, and everyone in between, drumming on a bucket is accessible to everyone. This art form was created out of necessity because it offered a combination of inexpensive instruments with the highs and lows of a full drum set. Some creative and enterprising drummers use “found sounds” that are difficult to tell apart from expensive instruments used in today’s popular music.
The Great Stalacpipe Organ
Organs are one of those instruments that lend themselves to strange variations. There are all kinds of materials one can use to produce sound with an organ, but the very best of them has to be the great stalacpipe organ. Found in Luray Caverns in Virginia, this unique instrument uses rubber mallets to strike tuned stalactites in the cavern. To find each pitch, the inventor, Leland W. Sprinkle, tested and shaved the stalactites, then wired them to the central keyboard. The building process took three full years, and the organ itself stretches across 14,000 square meters!
Hydrolauphone
As you might have guessed from the name, this instrument makes sound with water. However, this term doesn’t apply to a single instrument; rather, it’s more of a classification of a group of instruments, like the string section or the woodwinds.
These instruments offer a different kind of sensory experience while playing, as the music is produced by covering different water jets to create different pitches. Think of the hydrolauphone as a bit of a hybrid – an underwater flute crossed with a pipe organ.
Hurdy-Gurdy
One of our all-time favourite uncommon instruments is the strange and wonderful hurdy-gurdy! This squat, pear-shaped, fiddle-like instrument didn’t use a bow to sound the strings but the rosined rim of a wooden wheel instead. The wheel is turned by a handle at one end, and notes are made by pressing keys into the strings with the left hand.
This wonderfully bizarre instrument was first mentioned in the 10th century (then called an “organistrum”) and was played well into the 20th century, most notably by folk and street musicians in France and Eastern Europe.
Glass Harmonica
Using the same principles that allow for playing music on wine glasses, these uncommon instruments were originally invented by Benjamin Franklin himself. A series of glass bowls, tipped on their side, rotate. The musician touches the bowl rim with wet fingers to create each tone. Because of its unique design, several notes can be played simultaneously – even chords – creating some hauntingly beautiful sounds.
It was quite popular back in its day, and even some of the great classical composers – like Mozart and Beethoven – arranged pieced to include this wonderfully strange instrument. But sadly, as you can probably guess from its inclusion on this list, its popularity has dwindled over time.
Double Contrabass Flute
What do you think of when you hear the word “flute”? Most likely that light, gentle sound with a silvery finish, right? Sure, but did you know that the flute family is much, much larger than those little silver sticks?
In fact, the entire range of the piano can be played within the flute family, ranging from the piccolo, all the way to the double contrabass flute. At a whopping 8 feet tall, with 5.5 meters of tubing, the double contrabass flute sounds more like a fog horn. But it’s not surprising that you’ve never seen one; they are very rare, with only a handful in the world.
Clavisimbalum
An early keyboard instrument and ancestor of the harpsichord, the clavisimbalum looks sort of like a small piano. One of its earliest descriptions comes from a 1323 work by Johannes de Muris, who described it as “a keyboard of two octaves, of triangular form, with one of the three sides curved.
Its unique sound gives the feel of elaborate galas and balls held in giant medieval banquet halls.
Pyrophone
Our next of our uncommon instruments would be right at home in the wasteland of a post-apocalyptic film. Another take on the organ, the pyrophone, or “explosion organ,” is quite literally that; an organ powered by burning fuel. The sound is created when combustion and explosions vibrate tubes of varying lengths. To even play the pyrophone, at least some part of it needs to be on fire – always.
Zeusaphone
We started this list with an electronic instrument known as the Theremin. Therefore, it’s only fitting we end with another electronic instrument, sometimes known as the Thoramin. This instrument is more commonly called the zeusaphone, and between the references to Zeus and Thor, you might have already guessed this instrument makes music using lightning. Essentially, it’s a big plasma speaker that modulates a Tesla coil’s spark output (those big science-y things that generate artificial lightning), to an electrifying effect! That’s why the zeusaphone wins awards for best/most appropriate name, and most terrifying audience experience!
With the whole world and all of human history to choose from, there’s no way we’ve covered all the weird and wild instruments out there. Tell us what your favourite is in the comments!
Want to learn to play something a little more traditional? Check out The Music Studio’s lessons and classes, many now online!