The first instrument

Our first instrument had to be made out of plastic bottles or coconut shells. I decided to explore the sound created by changing the air columns in the containerBy changing the levels of water in each container the tone created by plucking on the rubber band changed.
As I was exploring the different possible instrument I came around to exploring with stretched ballons.

The idea behind this one was that if you plucked on the rubber band the vibrating air column would move the stretched balloon, and by placing small seeds on the stretched surface the bouncing of the seeds would create a pleasant sound.
Although it did not work out as I had hoped because the vibrating air column wasn't sufficient to move the membrane, I discovered that blowing on to the balloon surface, rubbing it or tapping it created pleasant sounds.
As our next assignment was to create a wind instrument that would work with natural wind, I decided to use this material to create my instrument.

Rigzin

I was experimenting with a guitar string and a bottle.

Considering this to be the second level of my initial idea, I'm trying to work opposite to how the guitar works. I'm covering the fret board with a hollow object leaving only a small part to play.

After attending a talk and visiting a museum of various instruments from around the world, I got an idea to improve the sound quality of my instrument. I'm trying to incorporate the idea of an instrument called BANJO which has a small hollow part where we strum.

Course / Project: Making the ‘Music-Maker’ – ( An Innovative Musical Instrument )

The idea of this course/ project is to design & make a newer experimental musical instrument.  Objective of the project is to steer the learning within the framework of creating a conceptually and mechanically  'newer' musical instrument, using various recycled materials.  Its all about understanding the sound, music, materials that make sound and researching on contextual history of making musical instruments & contemporary experiments.  Its about putting all that understanding together with imagination to innovate in designing a musical instrument. 

This would enable the learning in …….

• Keener observation and sensitive approach to the properties of materials, and the ability to manipulate that understanding, to effectively design the musical instrument.
• Learning appropriate methods, technicalities of assembling different types of material to construct the instrument.
• Creative ability in giving an overall 'form' to the instrument that is aesthetically appropriate and effectively binds all the constituent components together in functional aspect.
• If one wants to explore the possibilities of technology, then one can gain basic understanding of electrical & electronic components related to music / sound and use them in combination with other material to make the instrument.
• Personal understanding of what IS music, how it differs in various cultures
• What constitutes the structure of 'Music' and what criteria / qualities define the 'Musical instrument'.
• Research and insight into historical context and cultural aspects of musical instruments and music making.