This is a blog documenting my studio progress in my bachelor of creative technologies
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Instrument Building!
On the third week were were introduced to a new temporary lecturer by the name of ________. Immediately i knew that this man knew exactly what he was talking about and from the get go provided a huge range of advice and skills that would definitively come in handy. We learnt about the foundations of what lies behind sound/music such as the uses for membranes, resonance, and how to create simple methods of amplification using things as cooking woks. We were also shown quite a few different videos on YouTube of people who had ingeniously gone about creating their own music using patchwork construction. Most interesting of these videos for me was the video which involved a man who utilized something we can all relate to from our childhoods, the tin can telephone which created a very interesting echo effect that to this day I still have not manage to understand. He had knowledge in almost every field of music all the way down to Shaolin monk throat singing. Truthfully, at the start of the week when we were shown the makeshift instruments I really just couldn't take it seriously, but by the end of the week I realized that sound is such a strange anomaly that can be explored much further than whats on TV and embedded in mainstream society. It is a subsonic realm that many are not familiar with. By having the opportunity to create my own instrument, or rather I should say MANY instruments. I realized that it is a tool that is easily molded into many different varieties and forms. I went through countless ideas ranging from a motorized wheel among many other designs but I found myself always in a desperate attempt to copy an instrument that has already been made and used before. I was always focusing on drums, or something I could hit to create pitch. However after 4 days of deliberation I decided to mix 2 instruments together including a flute and a didgeridoo to bring to life something different from the rest of the horns and balloon sounds. I wanted to create a acoustic device using my fingers and was aiming for a high pitched echo-like sound. In part i did create my intention, however I must also state this this did not entirely go to plan. In fact, i create a whole new noise. The reason being is that the placement of the 'reed' was extremely hard to nail. The sound produced was very eery but gloomy and soothing, on the downside it was very quiet so I had no idea how it would sound on the mic. During our groups jam in front of the class I was amazing to hear the sound of my instrument amplified in such a way. It truly was amazing and nothing I had ever heard before in my life. And to think that I produced this music brought about a feeling of accomplishment. Overall the exercise was fun, however since we were all creating our own instruments I felt the groups to be unnecessarily as we were off on our own most of the time either constructing or researching. However I was happy with our performance. (video to come)
On the third week were were introduced to a new temporary lecturer by the name of ________. Immediately i knew that this man knew exactly what he was talking about and from the get go provided a huge range of advice and skills that would definitively come in handy. We learnt about the foundations of what lies behind sound/music such as the uses for membranes, resonance, and how to create simple methods of amplification using things as cooking woks. We were also shown quite a few different videos on YouTube of people who had ingeniously gone about creating their own music using patchwork construction. Most interesting of these videos for me was the video which involved a man who utilized something we can all relate to from our childhoods, the tin can telephone which created a very interesting echo effect that to this day I still have not manage to understand. He had knowledge in almost every field of music all the way down to Shaolin monk throat singing. Truthfully, at the start of the week when we were shown the makeshift instruments I really just couldn't take it seriously, but by the end of the week I realized that sound is such a strange anomaly that can be explored much further than whats on TV and embedded in mainstream society. It is a subsonic realm that many are not familiar with. By having the opportunity to create my own instrument, or rather I should say MANY instruments. I realized that it is a tool that is easily molded into many different varieties and forms. I went through countless ideas ranging from a motorized wheel among many other designs but I found myself always in a desperate attempt to copy an instrument that has already been made and used before. I was always focusing on drums, or something I could hit to create pitch. However after 4 days of deliberation I decided to mix 2 instruments together including a flute and a didgeridoo to bring to life something different from the rest of the horns and balloon sounds. I wanted to create a acoustic device using my fingers and was aiming for a high pitched echo-like sound. In part i did create my intention, however I must also state this this did not entirely go to plan. In fact, i create a whole new noise. The reason being is that the placement of the 'reed' was extremely hard to nail. The sound produced was very eery but gloomy and soothing, on the downside it was very quiet so I had no idea how it would sound on the mic. During our groups jam in front of the class I was amazing to hear the sound of my instrument amplified in such a way. It truly was amazing and nothing I had ever heard before in my life. And to think that I produced this music brought about a feeling of accomplishment. Overall the exercise was fun, however since we were all creating our own instruments I felt the groups to be unnecessarily as we were off on our own most of the time either constructing or researching. However I was happy with our performance. (video to come)
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