Kalimba with steel and bamboo tines in an old tea canister, with piezo microphone and 1/4″ output jack. It sounds like this (I did a bit of simple layering with a Loopstation.)

Inspired by the amazing kalimbas of RP Collier – listen to his music at soundclick and see the beautiful instruments on flickr.

I only had a few minutes to play today, and my first attempt at an instrument today broke, so here’s a teeny tiny little wooden whistle. It sounds like this.

I’m proud of myself for drilling a 1/8" hole in a 1/4" dowel without breaking it!

Made of discarded wood from a nearby street construction project. It sounds like this

A whistle made from an eggshell, fimo clay, and a straw. It sounds like this.

With my egg and the earlier turnip whistle, I tried poking some holes in the body to make an ocarina, but I found that it just stops whistling unless I cover the holes. On the other hand, the soda can ocarina worked just fine, relatively speaking. Are there any ocarina experts out there who can shed some light on this?

For today’s thing-a-day: a damp, rotten stick from the park; an old guitar string; a hand-wound electromagnetic pickup.

It sounds like this. (Sorry, I’ve only had a few minutes to start learning how to play it)

Can I make another musical instrument every single day of the month? We’ll see if my head explodes first.

Today: An ocarina made from a coke can, straw, and poster gum. It sounds like this.

UPDATE: here’s how to make a Diet Cocarina!

Sticking with the musical instrument theme: the teeniest little synthesizer. Video and sound here.

thing-a-day: matchbox synthesizer from ranjit on Vimeo.

Made from a turnip, held together with toothpicks. It sounds like this.

Yesterday I went to a whistle workshop, so today I thought it was time to make a whistle out of a walnut shell.

On the inside there’s a piece cut from another walnut shell which directs air from the hole at the end up to the fipple.

It sounds like this:
walnutwhistle.mp3