I am addicted to building blocks like Lego Bricks and Kapla toys. They provide limitless imagination possibilities for fans and hardworking artists. Nathan Sawaya is one of those talented guys who create art of the brick. This Lego Cello sculpture is one his works which couldn’t escape from the eyes of cool gadget lovers.

How does the Lego cello sound or sound at all? The answer is on the following DIY cello video.

I compiled also some other useful links about Lego Musical Instruments :

1. Flickr Lego Instruments Group : They built really small compared to this cello, but there is fun still.
2. Real Functioning Lego Guitar : All parts including bridges, pick-ups etc. are claimed to be functioning properly.
3. Strange Musical Instruments : There is a playable tiny Lego Harpsichord at the end of the article

I don’t know why but the funny idea of Aussie singer/guitarist Josh Pyke reminded me another unique idea of one of my friends years ago. Playing a really giant bass guitar with such strings like 10 centimeter diameter thickness. You just grab the string yeah hugging it and release the strings with your arms but not your fingers. The result is the total explosion of windows in the district because of the extreme dB. And after years, you become the master of playing giant bass guitars bla bla bla.

Anyway, as you see in this photo, this is just cool and how full of emotion the singer is. The boat was used in his music video “Make me happy” but my search on youtube didn’t reveal it. Maybe, next week to try again?

Who will manufacture a guitar plane which really flies and carries passangers preferably for musicians like Paco de Lucia, Eric Clapton, Steve Vai or Andrew Latimer?

Thanks to Dvice

Mounting the speakers anywhere you want, corners, walls, ceiling etc. in a cool way! Innovative designed JBL Speakers can be used as single units or in arrays up to 4 speakers. JBL promises the high sound quality with these sweet speakers as well which we are already used to.

You can buy JBL Control Now at Amazon.

This giant aluminum loudspeaker is the product of a collaboration between the engineering team at KEF and leading industrial designer Ross Lovegrove. The MUON (the name comes from an elementary particle with negative electric charge in physics) will be produced 100 pairs at first and be ready for sale ten selected cities world-wide. Aesthetics and the physics of sound is well combined in this rich audiophile piece.

The four-way speaker system is mounted into the front of the structure with the overall sound quality achieved by a combination of powerful bass drivers and upper mid-range and treble that utilizes MUON’s Uni-Q® drive unit array technology.

Here is the MUON Product Page

Maybe, you had watched this beautiful and very realistic computer animation where the virtual graphics instruments made of pipes, strings and balls were playing digital music. It was very popular some years ago and even many people had believed that Incredible Music Machine was real. Watch this one first before the real action:

Now, such a machine became a reality by the efforts of Absolut Visionaries. The whole instrument system consists of rubber balls, wooden keys, tuned wine glasses, robotic fingers. The most interesting part of the story is that you can interact with the Absolut Quartet machine at absolutmachines.com website online. You can enter your theme for some seconds, and the clever sound machine will perform it like an musical ensemble. Yeah, another creative reason for us to drink that flamefull Vodka! Here is the video:

There are 2 more sound machines I have found unique. If you are further interested in, visit also Pe lang + zimoun machine and Festo sound machine.

If you appreciate how Tony Levin from legendary King Crimson plays Chapman stick masterfully, you would naturally like to know more about the strangest musical instruments.

I have prepared this selective instrument list after a thorough
search from tens of professionally used or amateur home inventor instruments.

Theremin: As being the ancestor of all electronic musical instruments, I appreciate its uniqueness and mad Tesla style. The invention comes from Russia by Lev Thermen in 1919. It is played without touching using both hands.

Widely used in both classical and popular music. Here is Samuel Hoffman playing a popular dance melody ! with Theremin in 1953

Hammered Dulcimer: If you are a drummer and want to feel how guitar players do it with strings, that’s for you or vice versa; hammer your strings like a drummer.

This video tells us how beautiful this instrument suits for medieval folk genre.

Glass Harmonica: Yeah, it is invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761 when he saw how water filled wine-glasses are played. Grandmasters including Mozart, Bach, Strauss loved it much and arranged many compositions for it. In 18^th century, it was believed by many that it would make both musicians and listeners go mad.

Actually, the only danger was the lead poisoning through
the rubbing old lead glasses with fingers.

Here is an excerpt video about Glass Harmonica
and Mr. Franklin.

Maywa Denki: Let’s continue with cacophony sound machines of Japanese bizarre machine artist Nobumichi Tosa. I can’t find words to define this. You should watch the following video instead.

Atlantic City Convention Hall Organ: The largest and loudest musical instrument ever constructed including over 33,000 pipes at the weight of 150 tons!

Here is the video for the king of the instruments.

LEGO Harpsichord: If we don’t consider the strings, all harpsichord parts are made of plastic LEGO pieces by Henry Lim in two years of heavy working process.

The best part is that it is playable.

Here is how the harpsichord sounds at the inventor’s website.

Here are other useful websites totally specialized in odd instruments with lots of information.

Weird Instruments Blog

OddMusic
Gallery

You can also visit the article about crazy sound machines where the music is performed by automata music machines.

If you are in love with the beat of drums but can’t afford a real exploding one or your parents and neighbors are enemy of your creative noises, then you should look better for electronic solutions. There are many types of electronic drums in the range of $20 finger drum toys to $6000 professional drum pads and machines. Let’s begin with tiny gadgets.

This finger drum toy includes a small and a large ! tom-tom, a snare drum, a cymbal, and a bass drum with a pedal. You just tap each instrument and it will respond with realistic sounds from its hidden speaker. Just put on your table, show it to your evil socialhood and try to take sympathy for your future rock drumset or just annoy them! Imaginations are endless. It has also a basic recording support and a demo play. £14.95, Approx. $32.14

These finger beats drum kits ship with a more developed set and an MP3 input and a vital earphones output. 3 different types of products, classic and bongos drum kits and a mixing desk which lets you add backbeats to your tracks.

A recording and playback function with adjustable tempo and volume. £19.95, Approx. $35.91

Here is the Shiny video review and Red 5 UK video.

Professional drum pad kits have a wide range of products and a bloody competition between big manufacturers like Yamaha, Roland and Alesis. Roland HPD-15 HandSonic Percussion Controller is one of the best in this class. It has 15 parts and can play up to 15 sounds simultaneously. Comes with 300 sounds from Latin America, Asia, and India, plus electronic drums and sound effects. You can create and save your own sounds in 80 user patches. Powerful realtime controls include a D-Beam, dual ribbon controllers, and 3 control knobs. Also features a built-in sequencer with practice patterns and metronome, MIDI In/Out, dual-trigger input, and hi-hat control jack. In brief, it can provide a talented musician everything he/she wants. $895 , Watch the video for a real show !

Roland TD-20S V-Pro Electronic Drum Set is a fully featured monster machine for any professional musical production and provides the ultimate in real feel and a huge palette of great sounds.

One TD-20 percussion module with over 500 new sounds, improved dynamics and sensitivity, plus CompactFlash storage, two CY-14C V-cymbals, 15 dual-trigger inputs, 10 audio outputs and digital output, 8 group faders and built-in sequencer, Mastering Room and more more more.. $5,500

TD-20S in flames ! EVANESCENCE – Lithium & Weight of the World Session

JVC, leader in audio world has created a first. Ear buds from birch wood.

These buds have 100dB/1mW and frequency response of 8Hz to 25kHz, goes for $131

Via : Engadget

This lightweight speaker is just tiny about the size of a dice and has power output of 0.8W which is not bad at all. USB recharged and compatible with most MP3, MP4 players, PDAs , Cell phones and especially with iPod Models or any audio device with Audio Output. You can attach this speaker to your keychain.

$9.99 at UsbFever

We all know that girls like such cute things like our lovely animation character SpongeBob SquarePants. It looks like a regular cd player but actually can transmit and record videos live on HDD. Spy gadgets are becoming more and more standards in life everywhere. Actually spy cameras are supposed to protect your house from burglers but this innocent looking SpongeBob can be used for other purposes like cheat-control. By the upcoming Valentines Day, it seems that it would be a favorite gift item for suspicious men.

It sells for $399 at PiGear