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Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (1964)
Accordion music has come a long way since Lawrence Welk. This manufacturer even offers MIDI kits for electronic accordions! Read about the Concerto, the world’s first digital/acoustic accordion. (You can even hear a sample of Bonnie Jo playing the Concerto DA-100 in concert.) Other types of new—as well as used—instruments also available.
This traditional Swedish folk instrument has been around for hundreds of years, but you may not be familiar with it. The author of this page knows of 92 nyckelharpa players in North America. If you’re one of them—or you’re just curious about this instrument and its players and music—check out this page for details on the association, sound files, and more.
Did you think recorders were just for junior high kids and new age fanatics? Find out more about this instrument and its proponents—more than 3,500 of them in nearly 30 countries. This site is primarily membership-based, but a list of related sites is available as well.
Seeing the photo on the home page at this site may remind you of men with mustaches and garters, and little monkeys with hats. But the barrel organ has a fascinating history that constitutes more than just the prototypical organ grinder. Be sure to read all the pages. If you’ve never heard a barrel organ (other than in the movies), be sure to try the RealAudio clip of “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.”
The author of this site presents a compilation of dozens of links to double-reed pages, music-related sites, and other sites that will be of interest to musicians and bassoon fans alike.
This site offers a large selection of “ethnic” musical instruments: sitars, bagpipes, lyres, ocarinas, doumbeks, and many others. Specials, seconds, and repairs—some at great prices—have their own page. Addresses of regional showrooms and related links also included.
Hubbard sells completed harpsichords, but also sells kits. Their weekend workshops can help you to put together your own kit, with their help, at a price that’s substantially reduced from that of a completely assembled instrument. This site offers details about all the Hubbard products and services, as well as books, CDs, news, events, and general info.
With more than 2,500 members in nearly 60 different countries, this organization is an international “cyber-community of cellists.” Learn about the society, connect with other musicians, check out the links, play the many RealAudio sound files. (Note that the file length is not included in the listing—be prepared to wait a while for some files.)
Based in Lake Forest, California, this company provides a wide variety of instruments and sheet music to commercial establishments or educational institutions. The service is particularly useful to small music stores that don’t have the space or capital to keep a large inventory. Music House School Affiliates can rent or purchase band and orchestral instruments and receive funding assistance.
According to this site, bugs are responsible for some of the most unusual wind instruments in the world—didjeridoos are made by aborigines from Australian hardwoods (usually eucalyptus) that are hollowed out by termites. Check out the didjeridoos and DreamTime pipes (a less-expensive version of the didjeridoo, made from agave stalks). Be sure to read the Tip of the Month, and order an instrument of your own, if you’re so inclined.
If your sound system is turned on when you go to this site, be prepared for a pleasant musical interlude that will arrive automatically. This company specializes in rare and antique musical instruments for discriminating buyers and collectors. If you’re interested in buying a piano, you may find the Piano Research section to be useful. Want a player piano or new music rolls? Visit a related Orange Coast site at http://www.playerpianos.com/.
No description for this site could be as good as the one provided there. According to this site, ¡TchKunG! is “a tea cozy, an artist collective, and an experimental percussion and theater troupe. ¡TchKunG! is comprised of musicians, fireworkers, performance artists, martial artists, welders, painters, sculptors, graphic designers, programmers, videographers, activists, and clowns. We are looking to add tattoo artists, acupuncturists, and city planners.” Definitely worth checking out.
This site is dedicated to a very unusual instrument, named for Leon Theremin. Here’s the description from the site: “The theremin is played by waving one’s hands near two metal antennas: one for pitch and the other for volume. The antennas vary the frequency of two oscillators.” The site offers a rather surprising number of theremin-related links. For a smile, be sure to click the About the Theremin Home Page link and read the history of this site.
This company specializes in bowed psalteries. You may have seen their unusual instruments in magazines and on TV, such as on the popular science fiction show Babylon 5. From this site, you can learn about the company, the instrument and how it’s played, the music it produces, and of course how to get one!
This University of California, Santa Cruz site provides a wealth of information on using electronic instruments, some of it in amazing detail. The image map doesn’t seem to be working correctly, but the links work just fine. Definitely for “real” musicians and the detail-oriented.
http://www.cnmat.berkeley.edu/~ladzekpo/
http://www.heartlandharps.com/
http://www.hillside.co.uk/nonsuch/
http://www.spponline.com.br/drums.htm