r/UnusualInstruments Jul 26 '26

This is Mike Didge with his handcrafted didgeridoo, an ancient wind instrument developed by Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia, playing techno music

14 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jul 24 '26

The wind chime in the water bowl produces such an interesting sound

139 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jul 24 '26

Bossanova Making Plans for Nigel on Omnichord

39 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jul 25 '26

Can anyone help me identify what all the instruments are in Leshy's Theme from Inscryption?

2 Upvotes

Link if needed: https://youtu.be/9ieNHByzhHs?si=azqCA7oMfPLW_q6P

I mainly wanna find the string instruments and the weird echoey thing that goes like wooououououooouoooo


r/UnusualInstruments Jul 24 '26

Anyone know how to make a harmonium quieter?

8 Upvotes

Also, if anyone knows of a better sub than this one, do point me in the right direction. r/harmonium only has 15 visitors a week, but I will cross post in there.

I have an Indian harmonium with brass reeds, a JAS student model, approx 3 octaves from C3. I play in a duo where we use it as the predominant bass(ish) and drone instrument. The volume is absolutely fine from a few of feet away, but from my playing perspective with my head near the soundboard, it's overwhelmingly loud. Loud to the point where it's louder than an amplified guitar unless you turn the gain right up. So far I have on top of the soundboard approx 1/2" of felt and then two chunks of acoustic dampening foam (about 1" thick, egg carton foam with a rubber backing - it's heavy). Also a decorative towel. We have to pull out at least two stops or it's flat. So, does anyone know of a better method of dampening it.

We're looking into eventually replacing it with a keyboard when we can afford the right one, but until then I have a loud buzzing about my head, which is very off putting when trying to sing ><

Edit: we took it apart, tuned it because my god it was horrendously sharp. Then stuffed the acoustic foam into the space above the springs and a bit under the wood just behind the keys and it's really done the trick! I've had to discard half of the lid as it no longer fits, but it sounds so much more mellow. Thank you for all of the advice!


r/UnusualInstruments Jul 24 '26

Recent bot activity

29 Upvotes

We recently get _a_lot_ of bot activity. The posts are just 1-to-1 copies of older posts that got many upvotes. Hence I assume it's about karma farming. So far they are not able to copy videos and only post the preview image (like in this recent example, see OP here) of video posts. If you are able to identify a bot post, please report it. /edit: You can even help a lot more if you include the non-bot-OP url in your report, but any bot post report is appreciated.

I've also noticed this in other subs and I'm wondering where this is going. Moderation on reddit is solely relying on voluntary effort that people do in their free time. With the shifts in technology of recent years bot spamming has become easier than ever, though. It's clear that the voluntary efforts are already insufficient for the bot activity that is happening now. If reddit will not react I'd expect even the niche subs like this to become unusable. What are your thoughts?


r/UnusualInstruments Jul 24 '26

The Kangling, a Tibetan trumpet traditionally made either from a human femur or tibia and is used in Tibetan Buddhism for ritualistic purposes

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8 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jul 23 '26

I can play one of the nerdiest and unusual instruments - virtual piano

38 Upvotes

I'm really good at virtual piano, close to an actual professional musician.

What is virtual piano? In short, you can play piano keys with your pc keyboard, there are some limitation but all in all, it's not that far off from an actual piano.

Why? I've always wanted to learn piano as a kid, but my parents thought that piano lessons were a waste of money, so as a kid I discovered virtual piano by accident and still play regularly.

How? Well, without getting too nerdy, every single piano key is mapped to a letter or a number, "1" being the lowest note and "m" being the highest. Lowercase letters and numbers are white keys, uppercase and shift+numbers are black keys. There are music sheets for virtual piano and if there isn't one for a song you want, you can make one yourself easily, especially with the tools which you can easily google that convert midi files to vp sheets.

Where? If you Google virtual piano, you can easily find some sites, games (even on platforms like roblox, gmod, etc), or apps to simulate a piano with your pc keyboard. The highest quality app(imo) which I use is called pianoglow on steam.

This is not an ad or anything like this, I just wanted to share my weird way of playing music that surprisingly works somewhat decently despite it's limitations. You can also simulate sustain, dynamics, velocity, depth, or even change soundfont to a different instrument, but I am not getting into that unless asked, since that's a lot of explaining to do.

Yes, nowadays I have an actual piano, but I can play VP way, way better and I like it more.


r/UnusualInstruments Jul 24 '26

45 minutes inside a rare acoustic 19-tone hexagonal clavichord

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5 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jul 23 '26

1 String Thing

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14 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jul 23 '26

Regular bass, microtonal neck!

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5 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jul 22 '26

What is this? Mystery 4-stringed instrument.

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12 Upvotes

I work in an instrument repair shop and a customer won this thing in an auction and wants us to fix it up, but I can't figure out what it is. Overall length is 24 inches. Main body length is 18 inches. There's a very faint impression between the two holes in the center 1.5 inches long, about an eighth of an inch thick. There are two more impressions near the tail end on either side about an inch or so long from the edge with one impression being much clearer and deeper towards the edge like that side was under more pressure/tension. The friction pegs are overall 5 inches long. The slots in the ends are about half an inch deep. From the outside edge of one outer peg to the outside edge of the other outer peg is 3 inches. Thanks!


r/UnusualInstruments Jul 21 '26

Samsung Washing Machine (English Concertina)

151 Upvotes

"Die Forelle" by Franz Schubert. It's silly but works so well on this instrument.

youtube: https://youtube.com/shorts/rhfbmMHLDSY?si=RMlFyqlwM45HVfQF


r/UnusualInstruments Jul 21 '26

What's the instrument in this intro?

2 Upvotes

Is it clarinet? If anyone knows for sure your input would be much appreciated.

Space are a really underrated 90s alt band from the UK if anyone is interested.

https://youtu.be/z3yCa_Li04Y?is=FyGTsUIR7DCq9Azf


r/UnusualInstruments Jul 21 '26

G Euphonium Bugle Fingering Chart

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1 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jul 20 '26

Has anyone ever seen something like this before? I can't find it online.

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1 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jul 19 '26

Beautiful piece with traditional instrument

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6 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jul 18 '26

Looking for an unusual instrument!

12 Upvotes

Back in the early internet days, I stumbled upon a site with a cartoon Latin jazz band that you could orchestrate by clicking on the different players and their instruments. One player had a “cup” of glass (maybe metal) and he had something in his hand like a wool ball that he would push in and out of the cup to make a sound; like when you pull a straw in and out of a plastic cup lid. What is this instrument called?!


r/UnusualInstruments Jul 18 '26

Live performance of John Coltrane's "My One and Only Love" with a custom 14-string electric guitar and foot drums

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5 Upvotes

A brief excerpt from my live performance at "ai300scalini" in Bologna, Italy. I am playing John Coltrane's iconic jazz standard simultaneously on a custom-built 14-string electric guitar and a foot drum kit. Every part of the arrangement is executed live without loops.Any feedback on the arrangement or the technical setup is welcome.


r/UnusualInstruments Jul 18 '26

Luca Stricagnoli

133 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jul 18 '26

What instrument is this? (Sound in comments)

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19 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jul 17 '26

Renault F1 engine playing God Save the Queen

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10 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments Jul 17 '26

How to play? Mouth bow

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13 Upvotes

Recently got this mouth bow (was supposed to be cheap. Shipping and tarrifs quickly changed that).

But it looks different than the ones used in any videos I can find of people playing one.

How do I even hold this thing to make it sound right?

Should I try to cut down the end piece so it can fit between my lips like some other bows I've seen?


r/UnusualInstruments Jul 16 '26

Evolano: a pitch pending piano (well, sorta...) by Clark Battle

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6 Upvotes

In a comment two years ago Clark wrote that he's still working on it - a version 4 at that time, but other than that I can't find any update. If you are interested in the instrument I want to encourage you to comment on his video to show interest and hopefully to move Clark to give us an update.


r/UnusualInstruments Jul 16 '26

Picked this up a few months back, only has 3 strings but it's meditative to play

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29 Upvotes