I love tinkering about making sounds out of everyday objects. It feels like there’s something so primitive and instinctive deep down that drives this. Some people take it that much further though, like for instance these guys who made an instrument called a Helmholtz Double Siren. It looks like they’ve made it out of a bit of scrap wood and a brass cylinder powered by compressed air.

I suppose this is how all weird and wonderful instruments are made or invented. At least that’s the way it is to begin with until much fancier, more upgraded aesthetically pleasing materials are found.

In a similar vein, years ago I watched a programme on John Logie Baird, the inventor of the worlds’s first working television system. It showed him using what looked like really crude materials to build his invention. I realised then that you just use whatever there is at hand to do the job. It still amazes me to think how something that started out so basic an idea as now developed into something like the flat screen tvs of today.

Take a look at the strange drawing in this patent for an early electrical musical instrument. It was patented way back in 1893 by an inventor called Anacleto Montanelli.

The drawings in this patent are also pretty interesting. They’re by Leon S. Theremin who invented the Theremin.

The theremin produces such a wonderful sound. I suppose the most well known example of its use in popular music was by the ‘Beach Boys’ in their song ‘Good Vibrations’. What a great sound that is.

It looks simple to use but as with most great things there’s a real art to it. You control the pitch and volume by varying the position of your hands. Simple eh! Here’s a clip of Clara Rockmore also known as the Queen of Theremin. I can definitely see why she’s called the Queen of this instrument… Wow! she’s brilliant.