Still, still more denizens

Creepy hands:

Another mouse one. This video was inspired by gazing at a bottle of Scope and considering a variation of the word "mouth wash."

Hoopster kitty

 Cartoon version of "Mouseboat"

 Cool cat on drums

 Dog sled

Furby Flies Frequently!

Mouse Bassist

Yoyo Mouse

Son of Yoyo Mouse!

 "When Johnny comes marching home" parody, as performed by a guitar playing mouse and a crew of marching ants.

"She'll be comin' round the mountain," from a mouse's point of view.

Another song by and for mice: the Punkrat theme song!

 What happens when a mouse is chased up a  tree.


Mice singers/singing mice, whatever.

Guitar playing mouse and  a couple of potty mouthed parrots:

dancing dog

puppy at play

Other denizens of the Imaginary Menagery

Cat tales

 Okay, my clay felines have been demanding equal time.

 Here is an animation created using Pencil, a free two dimensional animation program for Macs.

More animations

 Squirrels who play golf. Why not?

Back to the mice:

 Here, the critter on the right is called Inflaterat, the ultimate decoy and secret weapon!

 The Punkrats unleash Roborodent!

 Punkrat karate: Kiya! Banzai! Here, a dozen mice try their hands at busting boards. Oh yes, and they don't just use their hands, either, as you can see.

 The mice on and in the machine. The cat's computer came with a mouse--or two!

 Mice in and on a Mac

 Flying squirrel aka levitating rodent

Shifting gears: Not instruments now but animations

Mice jamming....

Okay, rather than writing a separate blog, I figured I would add a different topic: animations. The above is my latest.

I love punnery! This second one is called "Miceskating."

 Mouseboat! Two mice driving radio controlled boat on tile floor "lake", along with their water-skiing buddy.

 Bikerodent. Okay, that's a made up word. But I guess the word says it all.

 micyclist: not exactly a contender for the "Tour de France" but he tries.

 Mouse didging: If mice could play didgeridoos, would they settle for plastic drinking straws or make instruments out of straw, grass, twigs or even bamboo? Whatever.

 It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it. This mouse runs over mouse traps in a one rodent crusade to save lives.

 Here we have mice playing drums. The second video was actually the first one. I decided a spool does not look very convincing as a drum so I carved a piece of wood dowel and covered a plastic drinking bottle cap with aluminum foil for a slightly more authentic look.

Cats are demanding equal time. Here they are, being themselves, hmm, cartoon wise:

 Cat soccer: European style football for felines...

 Catfish, merkitty, whatever

Cat playing saxophone or maybe glorified kazoo, whatever.

 Cats on a boat. Only this time, they are driving, not napping or fishing.

Rhythm Instruments III: Drums I have made from scratch

 Tongue drums are musical instruments typically carved from wood. The tongues can be formed using a jigsaw. My version is made from clay. Unfortunately, clay is probably not the best medium for something like this. Striking the top of the drum with too much force can damage the instrument. Oh well. So much for that idea.

 Here's a simple tongue drum made from bamboo. This material is much more durable than clay when it comes to striking a firm surface.

Tongue drums are usually box shaped, whether square or rectangular. I made my version from a piece of bamboo. This model resembles the African slit drum, itself often made from a hollowed out log. Tongue drums are common to Central America.

 Okay, so this is another plastic drinking bottle. I just posted this video to be sure I had tested the limits of sound possibilities for this quasi-instrument.

This is a tubular drum made in the style of the Nigerian udu drum. The tube is open at the top and has a hole on one side. Partially or completely covering the side hole and striking the open top produces a variety of interesting sounds.

An inkwell is not really an instrument per se but I found the sound potential for this one quite interesting. I treated this object as if it was an udu drum and struck the open top with the palm of one hand. Note the "ploit" sound.

 Here's a sort of udu drum made from a gourd.

Here is my largest clay udu drum or udu-style drum. I had no genuine instrument on hand to study for design details. Basically I just "winged" making my own version. Even though this particular drum resembles a small pumpkin rather than a water pot with a hole on one side, I think the sounds are rather impressive.

I also made a few small udu drums. Here is one example.

Okay, another one.

 And a third. The difference in color does not do anything for differences in sound.

 Okay, this is not a drum either. It is an alarm clock. I decided to see what sounds I could find by striking the two bells. Chimes come to mind.

 Coils from a burned out heating unit can be quite useful in terms of percussion.

 Thunder tubes consist of coiled springs attached to cylindrical bodies with closed off ends. The bodies serve as resonators and amplify the sound. I haven't tried making a thunder tube yet but figured I would jangle these coils around to see what sounds I could get from them.

 Here is one way to recycle a water cooler bottle.

 And a metal coffee can with a plastic lid.

 How about a couple of plastic coffee can bongos?

I drilled a hole in the bottom of a wooden goblet and covered the top with a piece of leather. The result was a makeshift djembe.

 Here's a sort of clay doumbek.

 another one,

 Deerskin hide shrinks as it dries. That is an advantage over other kinds of leather. Here is a clay drum I made using deerskin for the drumhead.

 Here is another one.

Here is a bamboo tomtom with two drum heads. One consists of leather and the other is chamois. Leather has the advantage of being flexible enough to stretch over the frame, thus making the drum head firm, rather than loose.

 Here is yet another udu drum. This one is made from a shellac finished pumpkin gourd.

 I made this Native American frame drum from a  kit.

 I made this frame drum from scratch, using the Native American drum as inspiration. I thought the frame was wood but it turned out to be leather and cardboard. Still, the drum manages to hold its shape pretty well.

 Here is another frame drum I made from scratch. If I had had my drothers, I would choose a different design, rather than an eye or other body part.

 Some Native American frame drums are eight sided (octagonal) in shape. I tried making such a drum but miscalculated a few things in terms of design. The drum is a bit odd in shape and warped. Still, I think I managed to get some good sounds with it.

 This is a thumb piano, aka Mbira or kalimba. Thumb pianos are sometimes made from gourds or coconuts. In some instances, the tone bars consist of rake tines, as in this example. I used a cedar box instead of a coconut or gourd. Also, I modified this instrument so I could hook it up to an amplifier. The pickup is simple: a piezo disk wired to a stereo phone jack.

 Another kalimba, without the amplification.This one has hair pins for instead of rake tines for the tone bars. The instrument body is a cigar box.

 One more kalimba, featuring paper clips for the tone bars and a cigar box for the resonator.

 Finally, here is an instrument inspired by Blue Man Group. The trio builds percussion instruments out of Plumbing pipe, among other materials. My instrument is a sort of xylophone consisting of Schedule 40 Irrigation pipe and 90 degree elbows.

More rhythm instruments

Here is a small wooden djembe or African goblet drum.

 This is a miniature drum with a drumstick. I am not sure whether I am playing it properly. The drumstick is tied to the drumhead, by way of a hole in the drumhead's center.

This is a Native American drum you play by holding the stick in both hands and rubbing them back and forth. The beads strike the drum head. The faster you rub your hands together, the faster the rhythm.

Here's a bongo drum I found at a local Goodwill store. I am sure the larger drum is missing. The drumhead on this one looks like it is worn to the point of being damaged in places. Still, I manage to get good sound from it.

 Here's an intact pair of bongo drums.

The next three videos show djembes of different sizes, from small to large.

This is a Native American frame drum. Note the octagonal shape. This form is easier to duplicate than that of a round frame drum. The frame can be made from lumber, with pieces beveled, i.e. cut at a slant.

Here's another Native American frame drum.

This is a South East Asian frog drum. Such instruments are prevalent in Vietnam and Thailand and consist of blocks of wood carved into the shape of frogs. Rubbing the attached beater across the ridges on the frog's back generates sounds bearing a striking resemblance to frogs peeping.

Here are a couple of rattles I made from gourds. 

 Whittle a couple of twigs and you have instant musical instruments. Then again, two pieces of bamboo can serve the same purpose as in this video. The bamboo is store bought and previously finished with shellac.

Again, I used bamboo sticks, only these are unfinished deadwood.

 Another pair of sticks, just for the fun of it.

 Some instruments can be rubbed or scraped to produce sounds. Examples are the Latin American guiro. Some plastic drinking bottles have ridges which can be struck or rubbed with sticks, producing effects similar to that of playing a guiro.

 Call it silly if you will but maybe using plastic bottles as musical instruments could be an excellent way to recycle empties.

Now here is a guiro I made from a gourd. The gourd was already finished with shellac. I just drilled a hole in one side and emptied out the seeds. I also carved grooves in the side using a round file. The scraper is a bamboo twig.

 A heat sink salvaged from an old dead computer can make a passable rhythm instrument even if the instrument is of the experimental variety.

A triangle can be made from rebar but I have found the material difficult to work with. Copper pipe also has a pleasant sound when struck and is much easier to bend and shape. This triangle is made from copper. When each side is struck, a different note is produced, a feature I do not recall observing with triangles featured in bands and orchestras.

 Here I am trying to squeeze more than one note from a copper bucket. Okay, a copper bucket is not really a musical instrument but still, this one has potential.

Here is a copper pipe I use as a make shift chime. I cut slits on the bottom and drilled a hole in the middle. I am not sure how effective what I did was in creating differences in sound but the experiment was interesting anyway, I thought.

 In the Caribbean, some people use oil barrels as drums. They modify the lids in such a way as to generate a variety of sounds. Different notes can be produced depending on where the player hits the lid. I tried a similar tactic with a sauce pan. Unfortunately, the variety of sounds seems fairly limited in this instance.

The lids of tiki torches may not make the best cymbals but to me, that is okay.

 And the cannisters make interesting "drums" as well.

Here is a set of "Boomwhackers" (TM). These are plastic tubes tuned to the key of C. I bought this set from a local music store. The tubes are light weight enough to strike against my knees and shins. Perhaps similar instruments can be made from PVC, with the understanding one does not treat the PVC tubes the same way as one would these instruments. PVC is harder and thicker, after all.