Pitch Bending Thumb Piano- Jamoflage percussion

I love pitch bending instruments! I made this one for a guy who does movie soundtracks. It is the second one I have made, but the first with this design. The playing is all spontaneous, imagine what you could do if you actually practiced. Great for wierd sounds as well as sweet melodies.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• thumb
• piano
• wierd
• music
• electronic
• kalimba
• mbira
• jamoflage
• percussion.
• pitch
• bend
• movie
• soundtrack

[audreyinwonderland]

awesome video would you ever be selling any of these? and for how much?

[Jamoflage]

There are 10 new ones being made right now! Estimated date of completion: summer 2011.

They will be going fast at $400 each. Contact Jamoflage@gmail.com for details!

[Jajouli]

Great!

What did you use for the metal tinges?

[Jamoflage]

...garden rake, hacksaw blades, metal band from a rock shipment, metal brush parts that fall off of chicago street sweeper vehicles, any spring steel that is the right shape.

[darus67]

I absolutely love the sound!

I wonder if there would be any advantage to making the pitch bend controllable with a foot pedal so you could continue picking two handed.

[Jamoflage]

...yeah I wanted to do that too, but got only as far as the string looped around my feet which changed the pitch by turning the spool when I moved my feet up and down,(seen somewhere in the middle of the video) Im sure there could be a better foot pedal system somehow.

[thekoraworkshop]

Wacky - ever thought of connecting the pitch-bending wheel to a lever and pedal so you can bend the pitch with your foot, keeping both hands free for playing?

[ToneSpectra]

I bought a Kalimba from ebay but the steel strips (lammelae) are all similar length and so only allow 7-note scales in little over an octave. I need longer strips to allow a pentatonic scale in two octaves. I'd buy them off ebay if anyone was selling.

[ToneSpectra]

@Jamoflage I tried road-sweeping brushes before but they were too thin and flexible to make clear sustained tones -although they did produce a good 'plucked spring' sound. It's seems strange that suitable strips are so hard to come by.

[PaterFrog]

Nice sound, but the pitch bending seems to be quite unwieldy and interferes with your continuous playing.. I suggest making a mechanism that'd allow you to do the bending with your thumbs.

[didgeboy287]

Wow, this really just kinda blows me away at the beautiful sound you've created here and the range I can see with the small number of tines your mbira has.

[TheMcpvideo]

i like this

[Hanklebury]

This is possibly the apex of human creativity. Verrrrry cool!

[wasomann]

that looks far too complex for something so simple XD its really cool though

[aldar98]

That's a really good idea, you know I honestly think if you'd manufacture little sansula's or kalimba's with this concept you' just might sell em like bread.

[dimpledapper]

I have met you if you are from Chicago. But I only remember a conversation about the metal from the street cleaners. My theory was wrong the metal bits are not from street cleaners but are from car window wiper rails falling out after it rains a lot.

[musicgeekzzz]

dude can u show me how u make this i want one so bad how much u chargin to sell em then