Kathy Ceceri - Musical Inventions: DIY Instruments to Toot, Tap, Crank, Strum, Pluck and Switch On

Musical Inventions

DIY Instruments to Toot, Tap, Crank, Strum, Pluck, and Switch On

By Kathy Ceceri

Copyright 2017 Kathy Ceceri. All rights reserved.

Printed in Canada

Published by
Maker Media, Inc.,
1700 Montgomery Street, Suite 240
San Francisco, California 94111

Maker Media books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (safaribooksonline.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: 800-998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com .

Publisher: Roger Stewart

Editor: Patrick Di Justo

Copy Editor: Rebecca Rider, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Proofreader: Elizabeth Welch, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Interior Designer and Compositor: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Cover Designer: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Illustrator: Richard Sheppard, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Indexer: Valerie Perry, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

April 2017: First Edition

Revision History for the First Edition

2017-04-26 First Release

See oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781680452334 for release details.

Make:, Maker Shed, and Maker Faire are registered trademarks of Maker Media, Inc. The Maker Media logo is a trademark of Maker Media, Inc. Musical Inventions and related trade dress are trademarks of Maker Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Maker Media, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. While the publisher and the author have used good faith efforts to ensure that the information and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and the author disclaim all responsibility for errors or omissions, including without limitation responsibility for damages resulting from the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the information and instructions contained in this work is at your own risk. If any code samples or other technology this work contains or describes is subject to open source licenses or the intellectual property rights of others, it is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof complies with such licenses and/or rights.

978-1-6804-5233-4

Safari Books Online

Safari Books Online is an on-demand digital library that delivers expert content in both book and video form from the worlds leading authors in technology and business. Technology professionals, software developers, web designers, and business and creative professionals use Safari Books Online as their primary resource for research, problem solving, learning, and certification training. Safari Books Online offers a range of plans and pricing for enterprise, government, education, and individuals. Members have access to thousands of books, training videos, and prepublication manuscripts in one fully searchable database from publishers like OReilly Media, Prentice Hall Professional, Addison-Wesley Professional, Microsoft Press, Sams, Que, Peachpit Press, Focal Press, Cisco Press, John Wiley & Sons, Syngress, Morgan Kaufmann, IBM Redbooks, Packt, Adobe Press, FT Press, Apress, Manning, New Riders, McGraw-Hill, Jones & Bartlett, Course Technology, and hundreds more. For more information about Safari Books Online, please visit us online.

How to Contact Us

Please address comments and questions concerning this book to the publisher:

Maker Media, Inc.

1700 Montgomery, Suite 240

San Francisco, CA 94111

877-306-6253 (in the United States or Canada)

707-639-1355 (international or local)

Maker Media unites, inspires, informs, and entertains a growing community of resourceful people who undertake amazing projects in their backyards, basements, and garages. Maker Media celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any Technology to your will. The Maker Media audience continues to be a growing culture and community that believes in bettering ourselves, our environment, our educational systemour entire world. This is much more than an audience, its a worldwide movement that Maker Media is leading. We call it the Maker Movement.

For more information about Maker Media, visit us online:

Make: and Makezine.com: makezine.com

Maker Faire: makerfaire.com

Maker Shed: makershed.com

To comment or ask technical questions about this book, send email to bookquestions@oreilly.com .

The following are attributions and photography credits for images included in this book:

Ben Franklins Glass Armonica Dean Shostaks Williamsburg VA 3384 via the Creative Commons () | Pierre Curie: Photo by Dujardin c 1906 entitled, Trait de radioactivit. edition, Paris: Gauthier, 1910 | Guglielmo Marconi: Copyright free, via the Library of Congress | Nikola Tesla: Copyright free, via Wikimedia

I would like to thank the following people for their help in the writing of Musical Inventions:

• Marilynn Beuhler and Mac Petrequin, for their advice and feedback
• Rebecca Angel Maxwell and Ayah and Thea Goldman for testing and modeling my projects
• Deborah Segel (violinsdirect.com) for demonstrating the use of the singing bowls
• Keith Handy (soundcloud.com/keithhandy, vimeo.com/keithhandy)
• Dave Barnes (youtube.com/user/FREAKENSPEAK)
• Balam Soto (balam.io)
• Hannah Perner-Wilson (mimugloves.com) for photos and information about Imogen Heaps mi.mu gloves
• Ayah Bdeir and Liza Stark (littlebits.cc) for help with the littleBits Synth glove
• Chuck Porter and Connie LaPorta for help and advice with the crystal radio

My thanks also go to the people at Maker Media and Happenstance Type-O-Rama who helped get the book from my work table to your hands:

• Patrick DiJusto
• Gretchen Giles
• Roger Stewart
• Maureen Forys
• Rebecca Rider

T here is a long tradition of turning recycled items into homemade instruments. But creating new instruments is much more than an art form. It take science, technology, engineering, and math to build an instrument that sounds good, looks good, works well, and is enjoyable to play. And it takes a couple other thingsa love of music, and a sense of fun.

Figure P-1: Bluegrass musician, math teacher, and musical inventor Mac Petrequin makes banjos out of cookie tins in his basement workshop.

I wrote Musical Inventions because Im a Maker who loves to explore ways to turn everyday stuff into fun and useful objects. I get excited when I start to understand why things like musical instruments behave the way they do. Of course, I also like to play music: I studied the violin in school and later learned how to play the piano and the mandolin. But like most people, Im not an expert at playing or making musical instruments, so the projects in this book are all aimed at beginners. All the projects are kid-friendly as well, although some will require adult help and supervision.

Even though the projects are simple, many produce playable instruments that are good enough to let you pick out a tune. Others create interesting sounds that you can build upon to design your own kind of musical invention. The last chapter will explain how technology like the phonograph and the radio actually changed the kind of music people listened to and will show you how to make some simple versions of your own. All the projects will teach you about science and technology, as well as how new inventions make their way into popular culture.