The best kazoo is a pocket comb and piece of wax paper. I have a friend with a video of "English Invasion" bands of the 1960's and was surprised to see that the guitar player in Herman's Hermits placed a rag behind the strings of his electric guitar to get the banjo-like sound on the song "Mrs Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter", or whatever it is actually called.

Oh, yeah...I forgot about that comb/waxed paper thing. We did that too! Waxed paper is still available ~ I keep a box of it in a drawer.

Have you tried that rag behind the strings thing?

I've tried it - if you "frail" the guitar it sounds kinda banjo-ish, but because banjos are tuned differently a real banjo freak can pick it out in a heartbeat. Neat effect, though.

I used to take a different approach to the rag, sometimes where I would use a Crown Royal bag over my hand to fret my telecaster. It gave it an interesting somewhat muffled sound, but I mostly did it for the hell of it during performances just to get people asking about it.

I tried it with the Crown Royal bag over my head. Tight fit.

I found certain wall heater units had a re verb effect when playing flute or whistle directly in front of. also big drainage pipes and empty stadiums.
I don't play piano but a player Friend had located a tricked out upright in a dormitory reck room that had metal thumb tacks inserted into the felt hammers where contact is made to the strings and when played this sounded real honky tonk and noticably louder.

Dave

David Q - I love it! A piano (percussion) instrument made to be even more so. Reminds me of Jamie Cullum and his whole-body drumming/dancing antics on his piano in "Jamie Cullum - LIVE at Blenheim Palace". Some fantastic stuff! Love to see someone use an instrument for more than it was devised.

Favorite sly trick I've seen on stage is Shane Jackman using his wedding ring as a slide on his guitar strings for a few choice notes.

I used to take a mic stand and use it for slide on my telecaster once in awhile. As long as it has a straight neck and the foot of the stand is a round base it will work.

I like to 'palm' my strings at the sound hole to get a great chuncka-chuncka sound. It also allows me to release the strings instantly to get the ringing sound.

I've also tuned my banjo to guitar pitches when I get frustrated with banjo chords.

Tommy Tedesco is a studio musician who has recorded with more people than he could possibly remember. I read an interview with him once where he discussed all the various stringed instruments he has recorded with besides guitars, including mandolins, banjos, bouzoukis, and many other less well known instruments. He said he tuned everything just like a guitar, so he never had to think about it.

Being new here I don't know if everyone has already seen this one - I've recently noticed one of the guitar players (at a church where I've run sound) pull a screw driver from his back pocket, and use it as sort of a slide. Produces an interesting "whine".

Welcome George! Did that guy use the handle or the buisiness end of the screwdriver as a slide?

JL, Bryne used the "business" end. He slides the tool across the strings, near the pick ups, violin bow style, with only slight movement along the strings.

ooooo...that's different! (bow style)

Cool idea!

I can't believe I've listened to and worked for Folk Alley over a year now and have yet to chime in (I'm the Graphics guy around here.)

Anyway, coaxing odd sounds out of instruments is a topic close to my heart- mostly using whatever I can find as a slide to see what sonic properties it might yield. My favorite is actually a cap off a bottle of Snapple; something about the curve of it lends an almost middle eastern tone on the high strings of an electric hollow body.

Also, the bassist in my band is quite fond of the violin bow he keeps in his case; the sounds he's learned to make with that are most unusual.

How about playing the strings anchored just below the bridge on a guitar . . . sounds oriental.

...and I suppose everyone's done the sing/play in the bathroom trick to get that "great hall" sound.

Also, there's the play (whatever) into an electric fan to get a warbly effect.

Two cans with string, pulled taught from head to head (the old "telephone" trick)...speak/sing into one end and record what comes out the other. Lightly scratch on the taught string to get another interesting effect. (Experiment with different types of natural or synthetic string/cord.)

Record all these effects, adjust volume, and use them as background to other things.

I get great, bright slap stick sounds from an interesting rug beater (I think that's what it is!) made in China, which is a bunch of 2' long blunted bamboo scewer-like sticks tightly bundled together with a nice wooden handle. Can also draw my fingers over the tips to get an interesting rustling reeds sound.

I particularly like it when a guitarist will press the heal of hand to the face of the broad body of the guitar, below the bridge, to get that slow and mellow tremolo effect. The result is a lovely singing sound. This works especially well with hollow body and acoustic guitars with pick up.

I'd be interested to know exactly what members of HEDNINGARNA are doing to get those unusual and unothadox sounds from some of their ancient and traditional Folk instruments. Anders Norudde does something to a lute to tune it way down or something to get a great, low, grumbling thwack-thumping sound, used as a bass rhythm. (see "In the Studio" video clip on the Hedningarna website)
Fascinating.

Wouldn't it be great to have "how to" workshops on some of these interesting techniques at the next Folk Alliance Conference next year in Memphis?!

Are there any percussionists out there with interesting stories?

I used to see a group of about six to eight old black men in Golden Gate park back in about 1967 and 1968 who would gather in a circle and play percussion on a whole slew of home-made devices. One of them carried a small suitcase full of the instruments and he would pass them out to his friends. The instruments were copper pipes assembled with elbows and bends coming off here and there, wooden blocks of various shapes and hollows, and other clever little items. Most of them had a metal or wooden rod used to tap the devices, and they would get into some rather complex rythyms. Of course, they were usually accompanied by a couple of hippy girls dressed in nothing but scarves draped around their bodies who would gyrate to the rythyms.

In Chicago it is very common to see young black kids playing drums on the bottom of five gallon plastic buckets that food for restaurants often comes in. There could be a whole drum regiment of kids lined up outside Wrigley Field on any given game day.

I used to see a group of about six to eight old black men in Golden Gate park back in about 1967 and 1968 who would gather in a circle and play percussion on a whole slew of home-made devices. One of them carried a small suitcase full of the instruments and he would pass them out to his friends. The instruments were copper pipes assembled with elbows and bends coming off here and there, wooden blocks of various shapes and hollows, and other clever little items. Most of them had a metal or wooden rod used to tap the devices, and they would get into some rather complex rythyms. Of course, they were usually accompanied by a couple of hippy girls dressed in nothing but scarves draped around their bodies who would gyrate to the rythyms.

In Chicago it is very common to see young black kids playing drums on the bottom of five gallon plastic buckets that food for restaurants often comes in. There could be a whole drum regiment of kids lined up outside Wrigley Field on any given game day.

Jack S. - Pickle buckets!

I wonder if those old guys shared their profits
with the hippy gals...or even whether those sylphid scarf dancers cared about such things at the time.
What a great back-up troup !

Can anyone describe to me what it is that Kaki King is doing with her guitar strings on "Carmine St." (Everybody Loves You/Velour)? To me it sounds as if she's finger tipping the strings above the fretted fingerings...what's your take on this. It's different, and a pretty cool sound!

For a sound that amused me, I would sometimes hang a thumbpick over one of my guitar's bass strings. When plucked the string would vibrate the pick, creating both a rattle (of the pick on the guitar body) and a reverberation of the note as the pick bounced on the string.

Back in the early '70's "Jamaica Farewell" was in our set list and I would weave a slim piece of chair seating cane over and under the guitar strings below the sound hole where the strings come out of the guitar body to emulate a kettle drum. It made the lead guitar lines more interesting.

Cool, Frank! I'll have to try that!

As far as Carmine St. goes, it's mostly two handed tapping. The melody that starts the song out is played with the left hand, and the higher, more ethereal notes are played with the right hand.

As far as Carmine St. goes, it's mostly two handed tapping. The melody that starts the song out is played with the left hand, and the higher, more ethereal notes are played with the right hand.

Nick - finger tapping being the only fretting done then?

I saw this "Mothers of Invention" heading and I thought I would read something about Frank Zappa here (one of my favorite folk artists).

Mine too! - glad you caught that, Steve S.
Zappa was brilliant.

I doubt most people consider Zappa to be a folk artist, but with more than 70 albums of original music he was definitely a industrious individual. Older recordings feature bizarre tape tricks and unusual amplification techniques. I have albums featuring fretless guitar, a didgeridoo blown into a bowl of water, tubas scraping on the floor, an electric bouzouki, and a variety of sounds made inside a piano. The list of inventions is endless.

Sometimes I wish that Frank Zappa had been my next door neighbor...someone who understood true curriosity and had been unafraid to experiment with the physics of a thing and to explore beyond what most folk might. How great a neigbor would THAT have been!? He was a pretty good visual artists too,
as I understand.

Does anyone recall seeing Frank Zappa LIVE, and had you ever heard him do anything acoustic?

Robin R. - We used to do something similar to that guitar thing you'd mentioned, but with the short end of the piano strings below the lid. Sounded kind of oriental as well. Interestingly enough, we'd use the guitar pick!
Often, I'd like to play the piano strings as one might play the harp - kind of difficult and precarious, but worth it to a couple of kids left, on a sweltering hot afternoon, to amuse themselves. It was more fun than watching as your sneakers melt into the pavement!

I love your choice of music! point finale. I'm so disapointed in the choice of music that's available out there, that its so refreshing to finaly hear some folk; down to Earth; real Music. |Thank you for being there. You don't realize just how much I listened to your great station. ML.