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Thread: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

  1. #26
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    I participated in a weekly (mostly) bluegrass jam in the 1980s when I lived in Phx...long ago enough that I cannot recall exactly how he gained entrance, but a fella name of Tom came by with tabla drums. We were (mostly) amused and no one gave him the boot, and Tom possessed enough decorum to know that every song did not require tabla drums, so he became something of a regular. It seemed no one actually knew his last name so, quite naturally, he became Tabla Tom.
    too many strings

  2. #27
    Martin Stillion mrmando's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    Quote Originally Posted by Sue Rieter View Post
    I love that ugly stick! Now I want one.
    Hey, I met a local lady who's selling one. If you're serious I'll hook you up.
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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    Don't underestimate the value and impact of well played lower brass. By goodness it can be wonderful in a jam, if done with taste and discretion.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

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    funny....

  4. #29
    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    Quote Originally Posted by mrmando View Post
    Hey, I met a local lady who's selling one. If you're serious I'll hook you up.
    Well, I'd seriously thought about saving up some bottle caps (and old keys maybe) to make one. But I'd consider buying one from an artisan as well. Not sure about cross country shipping, though.
    "To be obsessed with the destination is to remove the focus from where you are." Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen Guitar

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  6. #30
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    Right? Not when materials expense will be a buck or two, maybe. Not counting the cost of beer. Shipping would be cost-prohibitive.
    But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller

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  7. #31
    Registered User Charles E.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    I think it would be more fun to make your own. Washers, bangles, bells, a bicycle horn perhaps? This must be the Canadian version of the washboard used in Jug Band music.
    Charley

    A bunch of stuff with four strings

  8. #32
    Registered User Steve 2E's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    Quote Originally Posted by Sue Rieter View Post
    Well, I'd seriously thought about saving up some bottle caps (and old keys maybe) to make one.
    I think old keys is a brilliant idea!

    Quote Originally Posted by Charles E.
    a bicycle horn perhaps?
    I'm not going there Charley!

  9. #33
    Peace. Love. Mandolin. Gelsenbury's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    There are many contenders.

    Bill's hammered dulcimer is usually the main attraction at our local session.

    One of the most entertaining sessions I've ever attended was at a local pub, before it went all posh. The room kept filling up with more and more players, and eventually someone brought a tea chest bass and played it like a top performer.

    I also remember doing a double take when I first saw someone playing the spoons at a session. I'd never known that was a thing.

    At a local folk festival, there's always a lady who plays the Rauschpfeife for dancers and the parade - that wins the originality prize and is definitely an outdoor instrument!

    I have brought my cornamuse to a session before. Normally, though, the mandolin is unusual enough.

  10. #34
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    Today's sessions for my sweetheart's birthday included voices, guitars, banjo, fiddle, piano accordion, melodeon, and saw. Sadly, I was too busy hosting and chauffeuring to find time to bring out the mandolin. I did get a song in though, plus a few tunes on someone else's fiddle.
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    What a timely thread. I saw something last night that I'm itching to tell someone about:

    Was walking around the SPBGMA convention in Nashville and came up on a hot bluegrass jam that included a young lady with a *harp*. I mean a five-foot-tall floor harp. She was plucking at it behind the mix, but I couldn't hear it. I thought to myself, "Now what's she gonna do with that thing?" Then she took a break! I've seen pianos, cellos, clarinets, and all sorts of oddness in BG jams, but now I done seent it all!

  12. #36

    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    An electric rake. I'm not kidding.

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  14. #37
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    What you call the 'ugly stick' is, I believe an Australian invention, properly known as a lagerphone. I first saw them at English folk festivals in the 1970s used as percussion by an Aussie band. The name comes from the metal beer bottle tops nailed or screwed to the pole. Australians then only drank lager; they may have evolved since then.
    Anglocelt
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    Quote Originally Posted by tiltman View Post
    “ and the banjo player (ironically) asked him to leave”
    Reminds me of the time Seamas Ennis was sitting outside a pub in Co. Clare playing his pipes when a another fellow joined in, drunkenly accompanying him playing the spoons.
    One of the patrons came out to ask Seamas what he would like to drink to which he replied
    "A pint of Guinness for myself and a bowl of soup for your man"

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  17. #39
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    Our Lisbon gypsy jazz jams often feature washboard and/or melodica.

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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    Ocarina and the guy was really really good at it. I expected to hear a bunch of noodles and trial and error stuff. He played killer musical phrases.

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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    There’s a video floating around here I believe with cafe member justustruwaldon (I may be wrong on the name spelling) going around to jams at a festival somewhere with his mandolin case, asking to sit in on jams, and then pulling a clarinet out. The initial looks were hilarious, but he jumped right in played for a short period of time, then moved on. It was all smiles by the time he left
    Chuck

  20. #42
    Registered User John Flynn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    I have encountered the following at Old Time jams, all actually played well. Whether you consider these "unusual" depends on your experience. They were unusual where I come from:
    • Saw
    • Bones
    • Spoons
    • A portable electronic keyboard
    • Washtub bass
    • Hammered dulcimer
    • Tenor banjo
    • Harmonica
    • Resonator mandolin

  21. #43

    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    Quote Originally Posted by mjbee View Post
    Vintage typewriter. It made for a subtle solo. Could have used a pickup.
    I have played the typewriter solo with an orchestra for Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter". We went to a flea market and found the loudest old machine that we could.

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  23. #44
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    Quote Originally Posted by Anglocelt View Post
    What you call the 'ugly stick' is, I believe an Australian invention, properly known as a lagerphone. I first saw them at English folk festivals in the 1970s used as percussion by an Aussie band. The name comes from the metal beer bottle tops nailed or screwed to the pole. Australians then only drank lager; they may have evolved since then.
    If you read the Wikipedia article (link in Post #7), which seems well researched, you'll see that it's not that simple. Origins of most folk culture and folklore in general are remarkably difficult to pin down. "Legends of origin" is a whole genre of folklore (do you think you know the beginnings of "Ring Around the Rosy" or "London Bridge"?-- sorry to disappoint you). Still, I wouldn't go into a bar in either Newfoundland or Australia at last call on Saturday night to argue my position with a man holding either an ugly stick or a lagerphone.
    Last edited by Ranald; Jan-30-2023 at 12:29pm.
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

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    Professional Dreamer journeybear's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    There's this charming use of the device as a percussion instrument (as well as providing ambience):



    And, of course, Leroy Anderson:



    But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller

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    Finders Keepers, my duo with the astoundingly talented and versatile Patti Rothberg. Our EP is finally done, and available! PM me, while they last!

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  26. #46
    Mandolin tragic Graham McDonald's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    Quote Originally Posted by Ranald View Post
    If there are any Newfoundlanders present, they might play the "ugly stick", an upside mop with a face on it, and a rubber boot at the other end, pounded up and down and hit or scraped by a stick. Nails driven through bottles caps situated up the broomstick provide that extra je ne sais quoi.

    Here's a little more about them -- there's far too much material about ugly sticks available:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly_stick
    We call them lagerphones in Australia. They appeared here in the 1950s, so the Wikipedia info is correct and they appeared in Newfoundland in the 80s, they might have even been inspired by our lagerphones. Interesting that there is no Wikipedia entry for lagerphone!

    Cheers

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  28. #47
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    From Graham MacDonald: "We call them lagerphones in Australia. They appeared here in the 1950s, so the Wikipedia info is correct and they appeared in Newfoundland in the 80s, they might have even been inspired by our lagerphones. Interesting that there is no Wikipedia entry for lagerphone!"

    ------------------------------
    It's likely related to Memorial University of Newfoundland having a Department of Folklore, with many scholars doing research locally. Judging by the references sited, the article was clearly written by a folklorist or folklore student. These days, folklore departments are rare in the English-speaking world.

    And note this quotation from an article the folklorist, Dale Jarvis, included in the Wikipedia piece:

    "Similar percussion instruments were known in Europe as far back as the 16th century. The French Foreign Legion marching band includes a similar instrument called a “chapeau chinois” - literally "Chinese hat” - while British Army marching bands used a stick covered with bells called a “Jingling Johnny” into the 19th century. Today in England, folk musicians still play a version of the ugly stick, calling it a “mendoza” or a “monkey stick.” In Australia, it is known as a “lagerphone,” after the beer or lager bottle caps used in its construction; there are similar aboriginal instruments made using shells instead of bottle caps.[1]"
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

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  30. #48
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    Largerphones at a really OldTime jam.


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  32. #49
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    A woman turned up at a session I was at with 2 homemade clay circular didgeridoos. She was a bit out there, but it was more effective than you might perhaps think.
    Another time a guy was at an outdoor jam round a fire at a party I once went to, with a didgeridoo he had made out of the exhaust pipe of an old Ford Escort car.
    Someone appeared at a jam with a sort of electric guitar he had literally made from a big frying pan, to which he had somehow stuck on a neck and some sort of pickup. I had a go on it. Pretty unbalanced and rather heavy to hold, but it did sort of work. It was quite funny actually.
    You never know what's going to turn up next!
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  33. #50
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unusual Instrument at a Jam

    Quote Originally Posted by Simon DS View Post
    Largerphones at a really OldTime jam.
    Thanks. The women are apparently from Burma or India. This song is part of a wide tradition of rhythmic work songs, that includes sea shanties, chain gang-songs, waulking or milling songs, paddling, and rowing songs, all involving a group doing hard work with coordinated movements. These songs help everyone move together, stave off boredom, and move their concentration away from sore muscles. The Konyak women may be putting on a show of their traditional culture (see the microphones, film crew, ethnic costumes on adult women only) rather than doing a contemporary day's work, though I really don't know. Similarly, some Cape Bretoners and Scottish Highlanders sing Gaelic songs while going through the actions of milling cloth (without the hard work) for their own enjoyment and to teach neighbours and tourists about their traditional culture. I wonder how the Konyak women would react if someone turned up with Highland pipes or an accordion.
    Last edited by Ranald; Jan-30-2023 at 7:03pm.
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

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