🎵Drumming on the Mountain; Thoughts on Uncommon Instrument Awareness Day
Yes, July 31st is really a day for becoming aware of non-traditional instruments. While searching for examples, I sure found a lot of weird ones, including a bass guitar made from balloons. That one didn’t work very well, but the video at the end with the marbles is amazing.
I asked Gemini to create an image of people playing some uncommon instruments, and gave it a few ideas. What can be seen in the immediate music circle from left to right is: a hurdy gurdy, a didgeridoo, a theremin (think Star Trek), a glass harmonica, and a hammered dulcimer. And since I’ve included links, you can become aware of all of those when you get the chance to check the links. They’re all relatively short videos on YouTube, and the theremin is a beautiful rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
So, I titled this Drumming on the Mountain because of one of the quiz questions I often get in my “Drops” language lessons app. It asks, “What can be drummed on?” And my multiple choice answers often include libro (book) and mesa (table)—and montaña (mountain). I mean, I know I cannot drum on la niebla (the fog) or la tormenta (the storm), so I started out guessing “mountain” just because that’s all that made sense in the multiple choices. But really, does anyone drum on a mountain? 🥁 🏔️
I hope you enjoy this brief nontraditional instrument introduction. My favorite is the hammered dulcimer since I found one with Greensleeves (aka the Christmas song What Child is This?). It’s a YouTube short, so I was able to keep it on a loop all the time I was typing this. 🎶😊
And now, a super cool instrument that sounds in some moments like a music box, but it actually has lots of sounds created by the percussion of falling metal marbles. It’s absolutely worth checking out.
Share this post on:
No comments yet.
My Latest Flickr Photos
Others’ Posts I’ve Liked
Crystal Writes A Blog 
Start a conversation by adding your comments.