Bret
Hart's Homesmade Instruments
The great thing about a homemade or unfamiliar instrument is
that no one can accuse you of playing it improperly. Some instruments
vaguely Asian in heritage.
Coppers and Brass
It sounds better than it looks; and it looks better than you'd
expect. These pages are focused on building musical instruments
out of, let's say, "modest" materials like plumbing
pipe.
Experimental Musical Instruments
An organization devoted to unusual musical sound sources. For
the older, more inventive student.
Gametone
Homemade Gamelan Instuments
These are my homemade instruments, the purists among you will
notice that they have little to do with traditional gamelan instruments.
But their sound when played brings gamelan music to my mind.
Guitar Building
In this MIT class, students learn about physics principles by examining the physics responsible for producing music with electronic stringed instruments, while building, testing, and playing their own electric guitar.
Making
a Clay Didjeridu with Barry Hall
Clay makes an excellent material for didjeridus (and many other
musical instruments as well). Although fired clay is rigid, and
even brittle, compared to other materials like wood, it is also
very resonant and has some unique acoustical properties that
work well for didjes.
Our
Bass Marimba
For about $350 and a lot of work you can build a bass marimba
similar to $40,000 ones on the market. Site also features other
instruments for Orff music teachers.
Utilities
Fret-Placement
Calculator
An applet for use in designing fretted string instruments. You
tell it your string length and what sort of scale you want, and
it'll tell you where to put the frets.
Car Music Project for Ford Focus Ad
While this may be more than you'd want to tackle, I think it makes a point that an instrument can be made from just about anything.
From Mud to Music
by Barry Hall
Includes a CD with 43 tracks of music, all performed on clay musical instruments featured in the book. So you not only get the opportunity to see the variety of shapes of these clay instruments, you get to hear them in action.
Making Drums
by Dennis Waring
Primitive drums, Irish drums, Latin drums, drums from the Middle East and India: whether they're framed, staved, carved, or clay, the basics for making every one of them is here, provided by a master of the style.
Making Gourd Musical Instruments Over 60 String, Wind & Percussion Instruments & How to Play Them
by Ginger Summit and Jim Widess
There is an amazing wealth of information here, covering not only how-to's and history but also extending into the social sciences and even science.
