Musician Plays an Amusing Ode to Odd Instruments

Musician Michael Hearst (previously) composed a rather amusing “Ode to Odd Instruments Too” that he performed on a variety of unusual instruments that were the subject of his song. Some of the instruments were handmade, while others were smart trades, gifts, and lucky finds at music stores around the world. A couple of instruments were even found on the street, which Hearst cleaned thoroughly before playing.

Instruments (in order of appearance):

Space Crickets (made by Dan Steinberg)

Aquaphone (made by Dan Steinberg)

Peavy Patriot electric bass guitar (purchased for $75 from a Navy dude in Norfolk, VA in 1990.)

Electric chord organ (Magnus Organ Corp. Bought on eBay.)

Plastic hand clapper (Post – Hovedsponsor for Dansk Cykelsport – found on street.)

Hohner Claviola (designed by Ernst Zacharias in the 1960s, built by Hohner in the 1990s.)

Yamaha Club Jordan cocktail drum kit (Produced by Steve Jordan. Traded from Jim Thompson.)

Knockman “Pororon” (Another Maywa Denki instrument/toy.)

Agogô bell (At least I think that’s what it’s called?)

Melodica child’s clarinet (Found it on the street. Yes, I cleaned it first.)

Hammered Dulcimer (Very kindly given to me by author Jane Smiley.)

Bagpipe practice chanter (Found this in a shop in Sibiu, Romania in 2001.)

Here’s Hearst’s first Ode, which has more of a deep bass “oom-pah” polka sound to it.

Instruments in the video (in order of appearance): Knockman “Chachak,” daxophone, Hohner claviola, bass melodica, stylophone, otamatone, Moog theremin, Elasticbrand Audioware rattle, porter’s bell. Also featuring Maddie the cat.

via Boing Boing

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.