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Washboard, Teabox and other unusual instruments
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Or what do you do if you would like to play Ludwig van Beethoven, but your entire orchestra is on vacation? You grab a guitar and play it like Ludwig, if he had had one.
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Hi Juergen, awesome videos. This goes to show how related classical and rock and roll is. For the longest time I felt the same hypnotic effect inside when I hear a classical or rock and roll piece. Whether it is a classical piano run by Beethoven or guitar by Jimi Hendrix, the effect is the same. If you listen to ACDC “Thunderstruck”, and then listen to Bach’s Organ Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor, there are similarities in my opinion in those counterpoint instrumentation.
Enjoyed all your posts Juegen and look forward to future posts from you! Love German beer, maybe one day! All the best.
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Hi Jung, I have never consciously paid attention to the parallels between some classical music and rock music. But you’re right. Some classical piano pieces can be converted quite directly into guitar playing. I would like to hear Bach’s Toccata live in a large church. I know the piece of music, of course, but I’ve never heard it live. This is guaranteed pure goosebumps feeling. At the time Bach composed it, it was certainly something special. It still is today. The intro of “Thunder” is already quite crazy. I like it as much as „Touch too much” (that was the time when I was 12 or 13 years old. Party music) and of course “Hellsbells” (I liked to play that at Christmas to annoy my parents).
PS: you probably also know this cover version of sky
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I just came across this short video that explains pretty straightforwardly how a theremin works:
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Thanks David. Very interesting, very informative, very technical and very quickly presented. If the young man in the video had spoken a little slower, my brain would have had more time to translate the received speech frequencies into ordered thoughts. But I think I understood the essentials. And yet it is still a miracle for me how you can elicit such beautiful melodies from such an instrument.
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Interesting, thanks for posting about the Theremin, guys. I had heard of the Theremin, long, long ago, but I’m not remembering ever seeing one played before.
Having said that, I remember long ago thinking about other ways to design musical instruments. One big issue with most instruments is the UI, the user interface. It takes a lot of practice to get the digital dexterity to control the sound with your fingers. That’s still true with the Theremin, but I remember thinking about the possibility of an instrument where the hands never touch anything a number of times.
So thanks, now I know it already exists, and I’m caught up to the year 1920.
Still waiting for the connection that just plugs directly into the musicians head though…
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Chris, I felt the same way as you: I had heard the sound of the Theremin somewhere many, many years ago without being able to assign it to a specific instrument. A fascinating sound experience. My all time favorite movie soundtrack played on the Theremin:
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A very nice idea Chris, to make melodies, that spontaneously go through your head, audible by mental transmission. I think then I could also become a musician 😀. I often spontaneously come up with melodies or rhythms that I unfortunately can’t bring to life without an instrument. Here’s an interesting approach to synchronizing the interaction of music and body sensations. Now all that is missing is a suitable interface to make the body sensations audible, even without using an instrument. A fascinating thought: making a person’s feelings and sensations sound. Future music in the truest sense of the word.
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That’s pretty amazing David how a Theremin works. Technically if the person’s hand or body is serving as the other half (polarity) of the capacitor, if you turn up the juice enough you could haver a flash over, LOL, and the person playing the Theremin could get pretty toasted.
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Hi Juergen, Sky “Tocatta” is fabulous, I love it! When they start playing that brilliant organ piece on guitars, it floored me, it sounds so amazing! Truly sublime. Thanks for sharing that one, and no I never heard it before.
Do you know Ray Davies and Dave Davies of the Kinks are big Bach fans, and there is certainly Bach influence in their music. All those wonderful melodic Kinks guitar work have a little Bach in it. The Beach Boys “I Get Around”, “California Girls” among many others are influenced by Bach per Brian Wilson. The Beatles too like “Black Bird” and others.
I always try to imagine what Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart would sound like if they were transported by a time machine to the 60s or present. What kind of magic do you think they could weave with the electric guitar? I think that would be a wonderful plot for a movie. 🙂
I think there is some Mozart genius transferred to Mona and Lisa.
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Hi Jung, thank you for all the information. Honestly, I’m not the great expert on classical music. There are certainly classical composers that I like very much, but I experience music in an emotional way not so much analytically. Maybe it’s simply because I’ve never learned a classical instrument and therefore I simply lack the technical terms to describe what I hear. Or to put it another way: I can experience and enjoy music in a very differentiated way, but I often can’t put into words what I experience there. To hear so interesting that the Davies brothers were influenced by Bach’s music, just like the Beach Boys. At this point, an interesting question arises for me: Which was actually there first, the hen or the egg? Is there such a thing as a universal musical code that can be found all over the world, regardless of culture, language, education, etc.? A genetic code perhaps inherent in us humans, shaped in thousands of years by the sounds of nature and our natural environment, such as for example the sound of the wind, the thunder of the sea waves or the song of the birds, etc. A code that helps us to survive, allows us to understand what is happening around us and empowers us to establish social relationships. And there are people who can decipher this code intuitively particularly well and translate it in something wonderful like music. Were the Davies Brothers and the Beach Boys really inspired by Bach or are there parallels to Bach in their music, because they deciphered the universal code, just like Bach, for themselves and developed their own music from it? So because they followed a universal pattern? What I mean is this: It is claimed that the Beatles could not have read and written notes (sheet music?) at the beginning of their career. Their music first developed by listening, replaying and trying out. And of course they were also inspired by other musicians. I could imagine that they had no access to classical music during their youth. The young people in Liverpool in the 60s must have been interested in all sorts of things, classical music was probably not one of them. And yet, within a few years, the music of the Beatles has evolved from simple rhythm’n’blues to something very complex. Another example: Several years ago, somewhere in the depths of the Amazon region, a tribe was discovered whose members do not have any writing or imagery. They pass on all their knowledge, their cultural heritage through singing. Even the small children sing along and thus learn the knowledge of their parents. Ethnologists and musicologists were thrilled by how melodically pure and harmoniously accurate the singing was. They, too, simply used the universal music code.
Probably Mona and Lisa got a little more from this universal musical code than the rest of us.
(sorry if the topic is too complex, I also have problems translating my thoughts cleverly)
I like the idea with the time machine. That would certainly make a great movie. Imagine if Bach had grown up in Liverpool in the 60s and had no access to a church organ. No church, no organ, no pipes. But lots of buddies with electric guitars. Maybe he would have arranged his music pieces like this:
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The Beatles didn’t need to read music. Most people in history have heard
and felt and sang or played, and didn’t know how to read music. Most
people these days start learning to play and at the same time
learning to read music. When I’ve taught music, I teach them to
play by ear. I tell them it’s easier.They usually are taken aback by the idea, but then I ask them, can you
sing Happy Birthday? Did you have to read music to learn it?I’ve always thought music was innate, it’s wired into all of us. I’ve
always said music is language. We are built for both, or maybe they
just are two sides of the same thing. All music has rhythm, first
and foremost, and has pitch too.The oldest
recorded French piece of literature is the Song of Roland, from the
time of Charlemagne. We see it as a poem, but was it really a song?
Why do they call it a song? Either a poem or a song is a way to help
illiterate people remember it and pass it on, because they both have
rhythm, and a song at least would also have pitch. Rhythm and pitch
aid memory,I think there definitely is a universal
musical code. Bach, the Kinks, and the Beach Boys are all western
music, so the music theory for all of them is the same; they’re
closer to each other than to the folks in the Amazon, or to Indian
Rajas or Japanese hogaku.One more thought on the cultural
ubiquity of music. Growing up in Europe, even if you didn’t seek out
classical music, it was around you, it was in the culture. The
Beatles were all raised as Christians. Church music is classical
music. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard Bach at Mass.
Christmas music is related to classical music. I think the Beatles
were exposed to classical music, even if they didn’t pursue it.Very interesting thread guys. Sorry
it’s taken me a couple of years to reply…-
This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Chris Weber.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Chris Weber.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by
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That was a fascinating topic Jurgen, I think I had replied and I too, am from Canada…. and I agree with your concluding remark for the topic.
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Hi Jacki, thank you for your feedback and I’m glad that you liked the topic. Best Regards
PS: I know that you live in Ottowa, I don’t forget.
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Hi Jurgen, thanks so much for that, I really appreciate your thoughtfulness to this topic, and your insight is brilliant. And I love your description of “universal code”. I think the great song writers from the 60s like the Beatles possessed a remarkable intuition, the “unversal code” if you will, that enabled them to create such moving and captivating music. This I think was their genius. John, Paul, George and Ringo certainly had no formal music training, and yet they became some of the greatest song writer/composers of all time and influenced music just as much as the great classical composers from the past. I think as their expertise in music creativity flourished they took inspiration from their peers as well as from the great classical composers. It’s because of their remarkable musical intuition, “universal code”, they took that inspiration and was was able to move it forward and create even greater music. I think if Bach was transported to the future and witnessed the Fab 4, there are things he would have learned and gained inspiration from.
I think all the great song writers from the 60s and onward admired the great classical composers, a little “it takes one to appreciate one”, and some intentionally took inspiration from classical music into their own music, and most I think unintentionally took inspiration. The great classical composers like Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin were just like John, Paul, George, Ringo etc…. and intuitively had a sense for using secrets in the music structure to create profound emotions! They discovered effects of modes, majors and minors, counterpoint…etc and documented them in their own music that would stand as pillars in music history. The Beatles are just continuing the development of music, just like in science and math, scientists today build upon the foundations of science and math principles discovered and formulated by their predecessors. In the late 60s, the NASA scientists took the foundations of science and math already known and used a healthy dose of creativity and intuition to craft a space vehicle and mathematical trajectory calculations to land man on the moon. Songs like Hey Jude and Stairway to Heaven are like that in my opinion.
David Herrick and I had a lot of fun discussing this kind of stuff here and so glad for your input here as well. Have you seen this video before? It gets into how inspired and intuitive the Beatles were in their own song writing. David Bennet shows how the Beatles intuitively created music that was just full of music theory techniques that really enhanced the emotional impact their songs had.
https://youtu.be/HmjRM3AziTY?t=1
I think in the new songs MLT just created, there is a ton of intuitive song writing there that captivate and move in their own music. “Summer Rain” is a fine example, I’m blown away by the way they effect your emotions in different parts of the song. MLT demonstrates brilliant mastery of composing, “musical secrets or universal code”, in their own songwriting to create that emotional impact. Kudos to them.
BTW, thanks for that last video, Bach: Tocatta and Fugue in D on all those electric guitars. Awesome. 🙂
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Hi Jung, thank you very much for the very detailed answer. I think our approaches to understanding the origin and impact of music complement each other very well. Your point of view is that of a musician. You hear chords, recognize harmonies and consciously perceive different keys (key signatures). I rather follow more of a cognitive psychological approach: how did music come to man? How do we perceive our world and construct a whole cosmos of shapes, colors, sounds, feelings, ultimately music and give the whole thing a meaning?
I find it very exciting to talk to you about this topic and would be happy if we could continue the exchange of ideas. Maybe not in the context of this topic anymore, but certainly elsewhere. Perhaps as an independent topic. For example: „Mona, Lisa and the meaning of music“ 🙂 .
PS: Thank you very much for the video. Very interesting and insightful. And the main theme of the video “How much music theory did the beatles know” is answered in the video itself: The Beatles had an awareness of music. They didn’t need any theory at all, they just tried, played, copied techniques from other musicians and continued to play.
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Hi Jurgen,I’m coming a little late to the party, but I think this drum juggling is pretty cool.
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Hi Diana,
no you are not to late for the party. A party is only over when the last guests have left. Thanks for the great video. The performance is so funny that I had to laugh first. I’ve never seen anything like this. How long did the man probably practice until the sticks flew back to him and how many hours did he probably spend collecting the things again? I like it very much.
And how do you rate this man? Do you think he could become MLT’s new man on drums?
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How about this guy?
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David I’m thrilled. I don’t understand how you can do something like that. I would hit the keyboard from a distance, but individual keys? Impressive.
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This might be the world’s largest musical instrument, although it can only play one song:
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How ultra cool is this David! I was just waiting for a racoon or squirrel to jump out of the woods to snatch that ball.
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Hi David, I’m amazed again. How long did they saw it and how many trees lost their lives? Jung I unfortunately have to correct you: that is not ultra cool, but very ultra cool.
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Hi Jurgen, yes very ultra cool indeed. I think a good bushcraft project with a very big pocket knife next time one goes camping, though you may find yourself in the woods an awful long time carving all those wooden xylophones. 🙂
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That Forrest Xylophone is awesome! I wonder if they ever released multiple balls so it would play in rounds?
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Hey, nice ones guys, some pretty impressive juggling talent. That piano juggler really blew me away David with that last one, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No 2. It’s a challenging one for accomplished pianists, never mind with juggling balls. 🙂
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Hello again Jurgen,
Back to those crazy drummers. I think the juggler probably still lives at home with his mother because he never got a job. Just spent his whole life juggling drum sticks. Your manic drummer probably needs to increase his medication dose (very entertaining though). I think I’ll join you boys for a beer and the first round is on me. By the way, I’m a nurse in Salt Lake City, Utah. Excellent topic!! I’ve never heard of a theremin before. Very interesting. Hope to chat soon.
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Hi Diana,
the maniac drummer (his name is “Otto”) doesn’t need to increase his medication dose, he is always like that. I think Otto just has a very lively brain metabolism. Better give him no medicine.
Yes, the Theramin is a very impressive instrument. When I first saw and heard it, I was also completely fascinated.
That beer is a good idea. Ice cold beer, please. (What kind of beer do you have in Utah?) Or have I misunderstood that and you want to give us a round of pills because you’re a nurse? 🙂 What a fun coincidence. I also work in a hospital on a geriatric station.
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and a little musical trip around the world
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I think the Banjitar is an unusual instrument, at least for me, and an excuse to play this one, one more time.
There is no mention of a banjo used in the original recording by the Beatles, but MLT made it sound wonderful with the use of the twangy Banjitar:
I’m Looking Through You, “Instrumentation (most likely): Paul McCartney – Lead Vocals, Bass Guitar (1964 Rickenbacker 4001S), Lead Guitar (1962 Epiphone Casino ES-230TD) John Lennon – Rhythm Guitar (1964 Gibson J-160E), Backing Vocals. George Harrison – Lead Guitar (1961 Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster), tambourine.” – The Beatles: Beatles Music History
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Hi Jung, you surprise me again and again: what exactly is a twangy Banjitar? Does it have more sides than a banjo or another sound body? And besides, you also seem to be able to read minds. While searching for versions of “While my Guitar geently weeps“, I came across the video below. „Too bad, so originally presented“, I thought, „but unfortunately that does not fit at all into the topic of film music“. And now you open the appropriate topic. This is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. 🙂 So here is another version of the great Beatles title:
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Hi Jurgen, this is quite beautiful. I always liked music boxes, they are like a little box of musical magic, and they sound so elegant. In my earliest memory, I think I was like 4 years old maybe, my parents got a little music box house with a water wheel that you can wind up and it would play Beethoven’s “Fur Elise”. I was captivated by it, and it became mine and use to play with it all the time. I wish I could have music boxes of all my favourite songs!
As I understand it, the typical Banjo comes in 4 or 5 string versions. The Banjitar is a 6 string banjo, just like a guitar, so you can play it like you would a guitar and it would have banjo sound. I’ve never heard of a Banjitar before, and when MLT posted their “I’m Looking Through You” duo session, Lisa mentioned in a Q and A what a Banjitar is.
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Hi Jung, I was pretty sure you would like the musibox version of „While my guitar gently weeps“. „Für Elise” played by a music box certainly sounds enchanting. Music boxes have always fascinated me as well. You’re right, this awakens beautiful childhood memories. We used to have a wooden music box from Austria (you may remember „introduce yourself“: holiday on the farm, chairlift driving, “Wienerschnitzel mit Pommes”). On the lid of the musibox was the image of a high snowy mountain peak and when you opened the box, a beautiful melody sounded. I loved it. And then I have a music box that always hung over my own children’s bed. It had the shape of a birdhouse and when you pulled on a cord, a small bird started to seesaw (or to swing) and the children’s song “Kam ein Vogel geflogen” ( „A bird comes flying“ ) sounded. I still have this music box today and it also works.
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Ok, I thought that was just a banjo when I first saw it, and the banjo timbre worked really well with the song.
But it does have 6 strings, so that makes it a banjitar? Like a combination of the two?
Normally, iirc, a tenor banjo is 4 strings, and a regular(?) banjo has 5.
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This guy replaced all the hammers in his piano with tuning forks having the appropriate frequencies:
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Hi David, thank you very much for posting this video. I need your help: does the tuned piano now sound like a music box, like a harp or maybe like a „Glockenspiel“ (?carillon?) ? Cool.
Maybe the biggest danceable keyboard in the world?
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When I read your description “tuning forks” I was expecting like a Rhodes. But this sounds more like playing chimes.
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