The thumb piano, also known as a Mbira or Kalimba, is an African lamellaphone. What’s a lamellaphone, you ask? Well, a lamellaphone is a part of the idiophone family, but applies specifically to when sound is created by plucking a series of thin metal strips attached at one end.

There are over a dozen variations of the Mbira known throughout Africa (including sansu, okeme, ubo, and karimba) but it is simpler to refer to the family of instruments as thumb pianos.

Thumb pianos are central to African music; they are often present at social events such as weddings, funerals, and important religious ceremonies. Below is an example of a family ensemble playing traditional Mbira music.

Thumb pianos can be made out of any sort of metal or hard wood keys attached to a resonator. Traditional thumb pianos have iron keys and are attached to a large wooden bowl or gourd. Other possible materials to make keys are bamboo or metal scraps like springs or bicycle spikes. The length of the keys accounts for the pitch of the note, and the size of the resonator creates the volume and resonance of the music. Here are some creative examples of thumb pianos; my personal favorite is the sea turtle!

After many centuries of use in African countries, the popularity of thumb pianos spread to other countries with the rise of globalization. Ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey  played a big part in growing popularity of thumb pianos by exporting them from South Africa in the 1950s. He has been credited with popularity of the Kalimba thumb piano especially.

The shift from religious purposes to entertainment purposes occurred in Western countries. Now, thumb pianos are used for non-traditional music. In this example, it is used as the feature instrument in a performance in Munich, Germany.

Almost all of the other instruments I’ve written about have been either large, insanely expensive, or difficult to find. Thumb pianos are the exact opposite! There are many tutorials on Youtube on how to make your own thumb piano. Thumb pianos are usually set to polyphonic scales, but there are many different tuning systems to choose from.

If you’re not the crafty type, they can also be purchased for $10 and up online, depending on the quality and size you’d like.

Another perk to thumb pianos is that they can actually be found in both popular and obscure modern indie music! Earth, Wind, and Fire have a jazzy little tune with the creative title “Kalimba Story” and a couple others on their Spirit album. Thumb piano can be heard clearly in Bjork’s Africa-inspired track “Earth Intruders.” Jens Lemken’s cover of “A Little Lost” uses a combination of beautiful idiophones. It’s actually really easy to find modern, enjoyable music with thumb pianos!

The always-inventive Imogen Heap incorporates thumb pianos in my favorite new find, “Glittering Clouds (Locusts).”

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The cimbalom is a hammered dulcimer from Central-Eastern Europe, particularly Hungary. About 125 steel and copper strings are stretched across a trapezoidal box and struck by two beaters, producing treble or bass tones. The instrument stands on four legs and has a dampening pedal. Cimbalom beaters curve upward and are wrapped in either soft or hard leather for desired timbre.

The cimbalom was invented by Jozsef Schunda in 1870. The instrument gained popularity in Budapest and was eventually named the national instrument of Hungary. A smaller, portable version of the cimbalom can be attached to its player’s shoulders.

This traditional cimbalom performance is given by the Szalai Hungarian Gypsy Band. The instrument creates a really nice ambiance for tuning out distractions. The cimbalom’s sound is a mashup of piano and harp, which is incredibly soothing to listen to. This solo starts slow and relaxed and seamlessly crescendos to a wild ending.

Related: Digital piano reviews.

The next video I stumbled upon makes me want to travel to Hungary. Imagine strolling downtown only to run into a talented duo such as this one! If things don’t work out in my future career, perhaps I’ll instead master the cimbalom and become a street musician. Not only that, they play each song memorized and without any sort of rhythm section–what talent! The speed with which this man can move his hands is incredibly impressive.

The last little ditty they play could be the background music of a Tom & Jerry cartoon.

Unfortunately, I really struggled finding the cimbalom in alternative/indie music, let alone any other genre. But WHY? It could have something to do with them selling for $3,999 plus shipping from custom cimbalom shops. *Sigh*, a girl can dream.

If you want to get your hands on any of KRUI’s goodies, email krui@uiowa.edu.  We will do mail orders (as long as you pay for shipping for which we recommend to find more info about the best company here).

Imagine my excitement when I discovered this (crappy video quality) performance by the Blue Man Group! If you enjoy music and wit and haven’t seen Blue Man Group live, go to one of their shows pronto! I may need to go again just in case they still feature my new favorite instrument: the cimbalom. I highly doubt Jozsef Schunda thought his precious invention would be paired with PVC pipes and sound so freaking cool, especially since plastic wasn’t invented yet.

Now that you’re fully informed about the cimbalom, notice the difference between the hard mallets used by the Blue Man Group and the lighter, curved mallets used by traditional performers! Blue Man Group had it right to make the cimbalom a star of their show; I think it should be pulled from behind the scenes in movie soundtracks and used more often in modern music. Hear that, indie pop/rock bands of the world? Save up and make awesome Hungarian dulcimer music, it’ll be totally worth it!

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In the midst of the holiday season, I thought it was appropriate to pick a semi-festive instrument for December’s installment.

Have you ever learned how to make a sound by running your finger along the rim of a wine glass? As a kid, I was pretty impressed with a few of my relatives who could work together to make a sort of song. The glass armonica is a large scale, mechanical method of playing the rims of many wine glasses.

Benjamin Franklin invented the glass armonica in 1761 after attending a glass harp concert performance in England. The glass harp is an arrangement of wine glasses filled with various amounts of water. The more water in the glass, the lower the tone.

Franklin was enthralled by the sound of the glass harp, but thought the tuning process and the effort it took to move from glass to glass was far too cumbersome. Therefore, he came up with a better system with practically the same sound: the glass armonica.

Glass bowls are arranged on an iron spindle; accidentals (or, the black keys of a piano) are generally rimmed in gold. The size of bowls range from a shot glass (highest tone) to a moderate mixing bowl (lowest tone). The spindle is attached to a foot pedal to allow the operator to spin the glass. Players must keep their fingers wet to produce sound, so they place small bowls of water between them and the instrument for frequent re-wetting.

The word “armonica” is inspired by the Italian word “armonia,” meaning harmony. Franklin named the glass armonica before the well-known mouth organ “harmonica” was invented in Germany in 1821. Although glass armonica is the intended name, it is also known as glass harmonica, bowl organ, and hydrocrystalophone.

The glass armonica was never a widely used instrument, although it gained enough popularity to interest composers Mozart and Beethoven. Each composer wrote pieces specifically for the glass armonica. Below is an excerpt of Mozart’s Adagio and Rondo played by French artist Thomas Bloch.

Since there was no good way to amplify the instrument in the 18th century, popularity declined as symphony orchestras and concert halls became prominent in the world of music. Beyond the practical reasons for leaving the glass armonica behind, there were rumors that the instrument was dangerous to one’s health.

Some believed that players contracted lead poisoning from the coating of the glass bowls. Others were afraid that the instrument’s timbre caused nerve damage. In 1798, a man named Friedrich Rochlitz wrote, “[the glass armonica] plunges the player into a nagging depression and hence into a dark and melancholy mood, that it is an apt method for slow self-annihilation.”
To this day, there are only ten or twelve skilled glass armonica players in the world. The notes are laid out similar to a piano, but the technique is much more challenging. The instruments are also rare, so they are not widely available for people to use.

Personally, I find that this version of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from “The Nutcracker” puts me in the opposite of a dark and melancholy mood. And William Zeitler, a modern glass armonica player, seems perfectly happy in his Ben Franklin-impersonator garb. Take that, Friedrich Rochlitz.

If you happen to have a wide array of wine glasses and glass dishes at your holiday gatherings, try making your own version of a glass armonica! If not, just add Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy to your holiday playlist.

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“We better stop, hey, what’s that sound. Everybody look what’s going down.”
– Buffalo Springfield

Compared to the first installment of What’s That Sound, the didgeridoo is more commonly known by musicians and non-musicians alike. Through my research, I’ve learned many interesting details about the history and cultural significance of the didgeridoo. Plus, it’s just an incredibly impressive instrument with a distinct deep sound.

The didgeridoo is one of the oldest instruments in the world, dating back thousands of years. It is known as the “sound of Australia” and is a central part of Aboriginal culture. The wind instrument is traditionally made out of fallen trees hollowed out by termites. Exquisite designs and patterns are painted on the outside to symbolize various aspects of a specific tribe, or simply to express beauty.

Differing tribal groups have many different names for the didgeridoo, such as: bombo, garnbak, Yirdaki, and many others depending on the region. A list of synonymous names as well as extensive history of the instrument can be found here.

Didgeridoos are an integral way to express Dreamtime in the spiritual lives of Aboriginal people. Dreamtime is the relationship between Human, Physical, and Sacred Worlds. Didgeridoo players spend lots of time studying nature in order to properly express animal and weather sounds with their instrument. There are common versions of kookaburra, dingo, and kangaroo sounds because of the prevalence of the animals in Australia.

Traditionally, didgeridoos may only be played by respected Aboriginal men in religious ceremonies. However, there is also an informal style of playing that is allowed for women and people outside of Aboriginal culture. Many didgeridoos sold to tourists are not authentically produced, and often the decorations do not have deeper symbolic meaning.

Playing the didgeridoo correctly requires great skill. A tricky technique called circular breathing must be learned to play proficiently. Circular breathing requires the musician to breathe in through his nose while blowing air out through his mouth. If the skill is mastered, it is possible to play the didgeridoo continuously for extremely long periods at a time. The tutorial below is a comprehensive lesson for common Australian animal sounds as well as circular breathing.

It is incredibly easy to find traditional didgeridoo musicians with a quick search on Google or YouTube. Legends such as Burragubba and Dargin defend the importance of didgeridoo music to Aboriginal culture.

With a bit more effort, I was also able to find several modern uses of the didgeridoo. Ganga Giri is a band from Australia who combines Aboriginal culture with multi-layered grooves. Their self-described goal as a band is to “create a unique tribal-technological deep earth dance experience.” Ganga Giri is basically a bridge between traditional didgeridoo music and the modern use of the instrument in Western psytrance tunes. I dare you to listen to the entirety of “Good Voodoo” without dancing. It’s impossible.

There are not many popular artists outside of Australia who regularly use didgeridoos in their music. Aphex Twin, a British electronic musician and composer, released an EP called Digeridoo in the early ’90s. The first track of the EP, also titled Digeridoo, is considered a techno classic. M.I.A., an English rapper, also incorporated the didgeridoo into a funky song called Mango Pickle Down River. The didgeridoo is definitely the most redeeming quality of the song.

If you didn’t get enough didgeridoo sound from this article, feel free to listen to ten more relaxing hours here.

Fun fact: didgeridoos also have health benefits! Playing the didgeridoo is an alternate treatment for the common syndrome sleep apnea. Sleep apnea occurs when an individual stops breathing for several seconds while asleep. Rather than relying on a CPAP Machine each night, people can strengthen their airway muscles by playing the didgeridoo. A study in the British Medical Journal found that regular practice of circular breathing for the didgeridoo lead to less snoring and reduced sleep apnea.

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“We better stop, hey, what’s that sound. Everybody look what’s going down.”
– Buffalo Springfield

Everyone listens to music, but does everyone really hear music? I love dissecting songs to pick out each individual sound. The most interesting sounds are often created by obscure, unique, or just plain odd instruments. Each month I will pick a novelty instrument to research. The month of October I am focusing on the theremin! You only need to hear the spooky, wailing sound once to understand why–it provides the perfect soundtrack for Halloween. 

Invented in 1919 by Leon Theremin, the theremin is an electronic instrument with two protruding antennas. One antenna controls pitch and the other controls volume. As the hand gets closer to the vertical antenna, the pitch gets higher. The volume of the sound decreases as the hand nears the horizontal antenna. The theremin is one of the only instruments that does not require physical touch and can be seen here:

The theremin relies on hand movements in the air, and since there is no visual marking for distinguishing pitch, playing the instrument melodically requires great skill. One woman, Clara Rockmore, is known as the theremin virtuoso. Leon Theremin met Clara Rockmore while she was performing as a talented violinist; they fell in love and Clara mastered the art of playing theremin. Although the couple eventually drifted apart, Clara remained entranced by the theremin. Her version of Saint-Saëns’ “The Swan” shows her profound skill as well as the alluring nature of the instrument.

The original intention of the theremin was for it to become a prominent instrument in the musical world and eventually replace orchestras. Unfortunately, it never got close to that level of popularity and is used as more of a novelty device today. Although the instrument is not widely known, it is often used for sound effects in sci-fi and horror movies and was even played poorly by Sheldon on “The Big Bang Theory.” Several bands have incorporated the theremin in at least one of their songs. If you want to listen to modern songs using the theremin, you can find a Spotify playlist of various genres here. 

In the spirit of Halloween, I found the creepiest use of the theremin thanks to the dark depths of YouTube. If you’re throwing a Halloween party and need background music or just want to freak out your friends, this collection by Rupert Chappelle will do the trick! Check out the playlist below.**

**Disclaimer: May cause nightmares and hair-raising feelings of dread. Proceed with caution.

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