Greetings once again from World Music Safari. In this episode, I show off an instrument I constructed while hiking on the Appalachian Trail consisting of a Crystal Light can, a curved stick, and dental floss. It's similar to an Erhu which exactly what I modeled this from. Yes, it worked! Ok look, it's not a Stradivarius or anything, but it does indeed play simple melodies. I even worked in the beginning of Margaritaville. But on a deeper level it shows how many cultures have to use whatever they have around to make beautiful instruments. Hell, I saw a Coke bottle laying down some serious beats on a Bourdain episode set in Africa. I'm sure this isn't going to be some sort of viral video but I am extraordinarily happy with how this turned out. Until next time. Greetings once again from World Music Safari. In this episode, I show off an instrument I constructed while hiking on the Appalachian Trail consisting of a Crystal Light can, a curved stick, and dental floss. It's similar to an Erhu which exactly what I modeled this from. Yes, it worked! Ok look, it's not a Stradivarius or anything, but it does indeed play simple melodies. I even worked in the beginning of Margaritaville. But on a deeper level it shows how many cultures have to use whatever they have around to make beautiful instruments. Hell, I saw a Coke bottle laying down some serious beats on a Bourdain episode set in Africa. I'm sure this isn't going to be some sort of viral video but I am extraordinarily happy with how this turned out. Until next time.
Greetings again from World Music Safari. My uncle recently went to a pawn shop looking for instruments and found this gem of a mystery. Right off the bat I kinda figured it was from Japan; the writing on the outside being a dead give-away. But once open, I was surprised to see a dulcimer type instrument with buttons in a keyboard style layout a bit like an autoharp. If you grew up in the 70's, you've been tortured with an autoharp before. So, what is it? I did some internet sleuthing in real-time in the video and I found out! Searching for the term "Japanese autoharp"' turned up what looked to be called a Nagoya right away. And with that term was another name for the instrument, Taishōgoto. So armed with this knowledge I proceeded to tune it up and play some scales, then a bit of the Raiders of the Lost Ark march, and even a bit of Thunderstruck. Oh yeah, I have to destroy a song somehow. Anyway, this thing is pretty versatile considering it'll do a chromatic scale. I see myself utilizing this in the very near future for some sort of background bump music like No Reservations or Parts Unknown. Until next time.
Greetings once again from World Music Safari. In this video we check out a Russian lullaby called Bayu Bayushki which helps children sleep at night by telling them that if they sleep too close to the edge of the bed, a grey wolf will emerge from the cold forest, snatch them by their side, drag them under a mulberry bush and eat them. That should get junior RIGHT to sleep. The song also features prominently in the video game Dead By Daylight. The Huntress sings the lullaby and as the song gets closer in sound so does she. I don't sing the lyrics, but rather, I play the melody on a Balalaika. I do add a little bridge for good measure which isn't in the traditional song but hey, it's my rendition so I can do what I want. I'll include the the lyrics below in both Russian and an English translation.
Greetings from World Music Safari. One of the most haunting and heartbreaking songs I've heard in a soundtrack, Lullaby for a Soldier, sometimes called Arms of the Angels, came from a T.V. series called Sons of Anarchy. The lyrics are beautiful, so if you like my version, I highly recommend checking out the real version sung by Maggie Siff. So extraordinarily sublime. This version features both a high D Irish whistle and a Tony Dixon Low D pennywhistle. Alright my fellow expeditioners, until next time.
Greetings once again from World Music Safari. This time I show off a Bansuri I made a long time ago that plays extraordinarily well, especially considering at the time I considered myself more of a pro skateboarder than a musician. Notice I'm not a pro skateboarder. Anyway, this thing plays so well I've used it many times in recordings as an adult and it sounds so pure and clean. The Spotify track below comes from a meditation/relaxation album I recorded and this track features the Bansuri and it's full operational capabilities, like the Death Star. Alright fellow expeditioners, until next time.
Full Track Link - https://open.spotify.com/track/3XyVJ3mydtpzBGF07cvFPK?si=b1435c247eaf4311
Greetings from World Music Safari, in this rather short video I attempt to play the Jake Shimabukuro Ukulele version of Eleanor Rigby and it's not easy. I give myself a B+ but to get the final A+ I have to get the second part down. Believe me, this took a long time to learn by watching Jake's video and practicing this for months. Oh and I'm not a Uke player, I'm a woodwind player, so there's that. I mean, you CAN play the sax on the beach but then you're the weird guy playing sax on the beach. The ukulele is the bazooka of happiness as far as I'm concerned. If you're angry hearing the ukelele or Soukous, there's no help for you. Until next time my fellow expeditioners.
Welcome once again to World Music Safari, in this episode, Dune. This time I'm taking the world part of my name off-world. Imagine my surprise when watching the movie Dune and Dune part 2 I heard throat singing in the music score. And more importantly I can perform that particular style of Mongolian/Tibetan singing tp some degree. The Sardaukar lyrics are being read phonetically from the iPad in my hand. And though I have no idea why, while I'm singing I get some serious psycho eyes going on. I guess I'm just getting into character or something. Anyway, until next time.
Ah , Key West, a culture all unto its own, and I love it. I've been there many times, from sailing ships and research vessels to wild gigs at the Green Parrot Bar and nothing replaces the zany, can-do-anything atmosphere of that beautiful pirate island. Sure it may be over-run by cruise ship tourists bleeding dead presidents by the thousands in chatchka shops and chain department stores along Duval, but get one street off and you may find this; a conch horn being played by an old hippie who has been there since time immemorial. I can't remember exactly how I came to own the smaller conch from Key west but then that is also a Key West tradition I suppose. I made this one using nothing but a hacksaw and a file. The Triton was given to me by a friend since it's no where near perfect, so I used the same technique with great effect. Alright my fellow expeditioners, until next time .
Better late than never! Here's a little something for St. Patrick's day; a medley of two Irish traditional jigs or as it's sometimes called trad. I'm on a Tony Dixon Low D pennywhistle and I'm joined by Mike S. playing a beautiful Gibson acoustic guitar on two trad songs. The first one is the Tar Road to Sligo which we roll right into Cliffs of Moher. One day I'll finally get to Ireland, one day. But for now my local pubs will have to do.
Greetings once again from World Music Safari. Here we are in March and St. Patrick's Day is upon us soon. So how better to celebrate than to play Scotland the Brave on an Irish Pennywhistle? Not cognitively dissonant at all. Heretical? Maybe. Beautiful? Absolutely. And I can change keys! Take that bagpipes. But on a serious note (pun) I love the bagpipes and if had some some I would absolutely bust those bad boys out, however since my budget is zero dollars, they are just going to have to wait. In the meantime, let's stir up some trouble. Until next time fellow expeditioners.
Welcome to another terrifying episode of World Music Safari where we check out the extraordinarily creepy Aztec death whistle. This thing will give you chills when you hear it because it sounds like a terrified human scream or a lost soul wailing in the Mexican jungle. Remember how I said I have a plan for all the barking dogs, giant pick-up trucks, and pressure washers? Take that! This thing even got the barking dog to shut up. The one whistle at the end sounds so much like a screaming woman that I stopped for fear that the neighbors would call 911. Anyway, until next time my fellow expeditioners. Oh, the link for the 3D print is below.
Greetings and welcome to another short edition of World Music Safari. In this episode I attempt to demonstrate the amazing little Balalaika I have in my collection but I am thwarted at every turn by sirens, pressure washers, dogs, loud giant pick-up trucks, and more! But I have a plan. To be continued...
Greetings once again from World Music Safari. Every now and then I am asked if I can play "real" songs on some of these instruments. But of course! This song, Amazing Grace, is performed on my Native American Cedar Flute that I have had for around 25 years. In this case I chose Amazing Grace because it stays in one octave and this flute only plays exactly one octave much like the Highland Bagpipes only play nine notes. Of the many instruments I have in my collection, this has to be one of my favorites. It was made by a Native American who lives in Tallahassee, Florida. He had never made flutes before and wanted to try his hand at them, so he carved about five of these while watching TV and then never made any more! I love it. Even after all of these years it still smells wonderful, like walking through a cedar forest. Alright, until next time.
Greetings fellow expeditioners. In this episode of World Music Safari we delve into Tuvan throat singing, sometimes called overtone singing. There are different styles of throat singing, the most approachable type that I demonstrate is called Kargyraa. This style of overtone singing is a deeper and easier way to get going. The other style called Sygyt is a bit harder and I can almost get going, but not quite. And this was easily the most self-conscious video I have done thus far. Hiding behind an instrument is so much easier then sitting there with nothing but a T-shirt and my vocal chords. (yes I was wearing pants too...) I didn't even do any cut-a-ways because what exactly am I going to cut away to? A Blue Jay? Anyway, see you next episode.
Greetings and welcome to another episode of World Music Safari. In this episode I bring out a few of my Dizi flutes. They are incredibly unique because they function a bit like a flute kazoo. There is a tiny membrane between the mouthpiece and the first note and with some careful adjustment it alters the note in a way that makes it sound like a singing honey bee. And that's a good thing! I also utilize a there-I-fixed technique on another Dizi I purchased in Beijing, China. I'm not so sure Scotch tape and a plastic bag are traditional, but it does work. At least temporarily. If you ever get the chance to go to Beijing or anywhere in China, do it. Beijing and the other cities are so unfathomably beautiful, delicious, and the word is ridiculously overused, but magical. And in this video I even do a little Kung Fu on some mosquitos. Alright, until next time my fellow expeditioners.
Greetings once again from World Music Safari. In this video we check out two Native American drums from my collection and see if we can get them to sound amazing, which they do. Well, not initially, especially the seal drum. However after a little humidity adjustment to the seal drum I get it to sound like rolling thunder in one of my recordings. I'm barely striking the drum but it's in very close proximity to the condenser microphone I'm using. (AKG C-1000. Great mics for a very reasonable price.) Credit where credit is due, my mother and father in law brought back the seal drum from Anchorage but I did eventually get to Anchorage and see for my self, the store it came from and they had yet more very beautiful drums there. In fact, Alaska as a whole amazes me with it's rugged beauty, especially as a Florida native. Below is a link to the seal drum recording for those who wish to hear the whole thing.
The Sitar. If there is one instrument that represents India, it has to be the sitar. Like India, the sitar is beautiful, it sounds like nothing else in the world, and it even smells incredible, like a cross between cedar wood and Nag Champa. And it's not to hard to get started on, believe me. I'm a woodwind player and I can play a few if rather rudimentary and simple melodies on it. Just tuning it up is an almost meditative journey. So if you are interested in playing the sitar even in the slightest, I recommend finding one if you can. Just don't move the frets straight away.
Time to repair the Vietnamese Đàn tranh. I was successful to a point, however the strings I used were too heavy of a gauge so the peg wouldn't quite hold the tension and thus the tuning wouldn't hold either. I debated posting this video but I wanted to show a bit of a struggle. It's not always easy to own and play an unfamiliar instrument, especially an instrument that has no operating manual, no local repair shop, and no expert to consult. I don't plan on doing a part 3 but in the near future I do plan on performing a traditional song on this Dan Tranh. I am by no means giving up when I'm so very close to having a working Dan Tranh. One day I'll get to Vietnam, one day. And yes, I'm absolutely getting phở from a street cart.
Greetings from World Music Safari. In this episode we are checking out a gorgeous instrument from Vietnam called a Dan Tranh. This beautiful instrument isn't only amazing to listen to, but ot's also a work of art as it sits there. Every single nook, cranny, corner, and peg has some sort of mother of pearl inlay. Scenes from rural Vietnam, dragons, flowers, there's even a depiction of a pig roast about to happen! I love it. But this episode was fraught with problems, thus the Part 1 aspect of this video. In part 2 I'll have fixed the broken strings and other problems I encountered, from bad recording timing to horrid lighting. Even my thumbnail is missing. But this ridiculously sonorous and striking looking instrument is too important not to post about.
Greetings from World Music Safari. In this episode we take a deep dive into the Bamboo Sax/Clarinet. This fun little woodwind plays surprisingly well for such a small and relatively simple instrument. This particular bamboo sax was made in Maui, Hawaii though I've seen different versions at local craft festivals and music shops. This one uses a single tenor sax reed and when played in one style really does sound like a clarinet, but then when I utilize a different style, this tiny clarinet sounds rather close to a Duduk which shouldn't come to much of shock since Duduk construction is rather similar. And best of all it's fairly easy to play, so I recommend getting one for fun. Who knows, maybe some savant can play a Michael Brecker solo on it after all.
Greetings and welcome to another edition of World Music Safari. In this episode we check out an amazing Native American flute from South America called a Quena. What I love about this Andean flute is that it's played almost exactly like a Shakuhachi, even though the Shakuhachi is from Japan and this is from the Andes Mountains. And I'm telling you, this thing is picky about how it's played. There's no phoning this flute in. You have to concentrate to get this going, but once you do, the sound is incredible as you can plainly hear.
First, a huge thank you! Not only did the channel break the 100 mark but I received an incredibly kind donation of a Rode mic with a sorely needed wind cover from two members of my channel, Sharron and Jeff Handy. And it couldn't have come sooner because this shoot was fraught with wind problems that all but ruined many if not all of my shots. But the Bandura, which hails from the Ukraine, is far too special of an instrument to not post this. Just listen to this beautiful instrument. I was truly surprised by how many notes the Bandura could play and how exquisitely expressive it is.
Greetings from World Music Safari. This ultra rare instrument is an Apache Violin sometimes called an Apache fiddle or tsii' edo'a'tl, "wood that sings". Near as I can tell it's at least fifty years old but could be upwards of eighty or more, I have no idea. My wife's parents used to work on an Apache reservation back in the early seventies and brought a few things back with them when they moved to Florida and this was one of them. It's a single stringed instrument and I have no idea how it's actually played since resources are pretty scarce about this fiddle. So I went with my best guess, put a light gauge string on it and went for it. I hope you enjoy checking it out as much as I enjoyed trying to figure it out. But I'm going to put this back into the collection as a conversation piece since I don't want to accidentally break it somehow.
Alright, let's make an instrument...out of a straw! This crazy little instrument works much like an oboe complete with double reed and tiny little scale. The intro music uses one that sort of even plays in tune. The two straw oboes in the video are a bit more squirrely and uneven but they do indeed play. And later I even try them both Aulos style. Many cultures utilize readily available materials like the Didgeridoo which is made from Eucalyptus, a traditional Doumbek uses fish skin for the drum head, python is used for Erhu and Sanxian bodies, steel drums are made from oil drums, the list goes on and on. So go grab some plastic straws from Burger King or McDonalds and get going.
The Bansuri is a beautiful and haunting bamboo flute that hails from India and though its roots are set solidly in Indian Classical music, this flute is used in pop music and soundtracks in movies from India nowadays. I play a small leitmotif section from the movie Taal a bit later in this video as it happens to be one of my favorite songs from Taal. The Bansuri is a fairly easy flute to learn to play since it's straight forward and reasonably priced, so if you have the motivation, I highly recommend picking one up and learning how to play one. You won't be disappointed.
Check this out! This amazing record player plays vinyl 78 records and requires no electricity what-so-ever. This portable gramophone from the 1920's was purchased in South Africa, yet it still works and I have no doubt went on real safaris in the twenties and thirties. The speakers, such as they are, are located on top of the needle itself and the "bass" comes from the bottom of the case. The records are kept in the top of the lid and extra needles are located in a small drawer that spins out of the right side. If you look carefully in the video you can still see some African clay dust still in the needle drawer. I can just picture this being played in some green canvas tent with a fedora wearing expeditioner scrawling notes in some leather-bound journal as gazelles graze in the savanna and giraffes nibble the tops of Acacia trees.
Greetings and welcome to another episode of World Music Safari featuring an extremely cool instrument from China called the Sanxian Playing basic music on this is fairly straight forward, but finicky. It's basically a banjo with no frets because that makes it easier. Obvious sarcasm. Anyway, having no frets makes it pretty difficult to play but that feature gives it a cool kind of slippery sound. There are other instruments related to this one, the most famous being the Shamisen from mainland Japan. If you saw a Shamisen, sometimes spelled Samisen, you would recognize it right away. A major detail I forgot to mention in my video is that the word Sanxian, like Shamisen, basically means 3 strings. Much like I forgot to mention in my Erhu episode that the "er" in Erhu means 2 in Mandarin. Alright, until next time my fellow expeditioners.
Greetings and welcome once again to World Music Safari. In this video we are going to check out three instruments; the Djembe, the Kalimba, and the Shaker and we will combine them to compose a little musical interlude. And the best part is they are all easy to play. The gentleman I filmed has an amazing Djembe that was so loud, when he hit the top we all jumped a bit. I'll go into how each one is played and though I am by no means an expert on any of them, the little interlude came out quite nicely.
What is a Duduk? How do you play a Duduk? These are questions I aim to answer in this video about this beautiful instrument from Armenia. The somber vocal quality of this instrument lends itself to being used in quite a few movie, TV, and videogame soundtracks. I even have an Apricot Duduk gifted to me by a good friend who went to Armenia and purchased one for me. As with almost every country, one day I'd love to go to Armenia to see and hear the music, eat some amazing food, and visit the beautiful countryside and churches of gorgeous Armenia. Until then I'll just keep practicing the Duduk. Enjoy.
The Charango is quite a charming little stringed instrument with a surprisingly full and beautiful sound thanks to the ten strings it sports. But wow did the wind drive me crazy on this shoot. Sounds like it's time for a big fluffy wind-proof microphone with my budget of zero dollars. Until next time my fellow music expeditioners.
The Anglo-Concertina is a unique instrument in that each button produces not one but two notes. And here I thought playing the piano was tough enough. So in this video a friend of mine gives us a nice succinct description of how one goes about playing the Concertina. Enjoy!
The Mijwiz is quite a charming little instrument which I love. While at first, warming it up might sound a bit like angry wasps, once it gets going it is quite the character with a sound reminiscent of small bagpipes. Apologies for never saying it the same way twice. I might not know how to say it, but I can play it.
The erhu is a beautiful little stringed instrument that originates in China and when played properly has an almost haunting human voice quality. Notice I said when played properly because I play it more like a screeching weasel. The video I managed to get was passable but the out-takes are pretty rough. That being said, music should be an adventure and we all have to start somewhere and this sweet little instrument has intrigued me for quite some time. Enjoy.
The Irish Pennywhistle is one of the more familiar sounds in our collective lexicon of music but did you know that it's fairly easy and fun to play? And they are not even that expensive. Well, at least the small ones aren't. So pick one up and get going
The ukulele. How can you be in a bad mood playing the uke? It's the powerhouse of positive music just by existing. And it's easy to get started on it! If you ever wanted to play music, this is your ticket. So get one and get going.
The morin khuur also known as the Mongolian horsehead fiddle is a two stringed bowed instrument that is perhaps one of the most traditional instruments in Mongolia and I had the wonderful opportunity to not only see (and hear) a performance on it, but to ask the very personable and kind Sundui C about this beautiful instrument. I think I need one now.
This beautiful flute has been in my collection for quite some time and sounds so stunning. The construction is one of a kind and with any luck I'll have it for a long time to come.
Welcome back to World Music Safari. In this episode we explore and learn how to play the Hulusi. This wonderful little free reeded instrument hails from China and is easy and approachable for beginners.
Ah yes, the Didg. Everyone loves the didgeridoo; the sound of Australia. Since it's appearance everywhere, from Crocodile Dundee and Young Einstein in the eighties to schools and concerts now, this amazing instrument conjures up images of the outback in our heads. The Didgeridoo is an approachable instrument that you can "make" or more to the point buy, sand, and play, which I will show you later in this video. One day Alice Springs, I'll get to see you. Enjoy!
The Ocarina is fairly well known now, thanks to the video game Legend of Zelda; the Ocarina of Time. In this video we explore how to play some various Ocarinas from Peru and one I'm fairly certain is from China. Once again I recommend these very approachable instruments for anyone who wants to start playing music. Enjoy!
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