Musical Instruments

How to Play a Two-String Cigar Box Guitar

The cigar box guitar -- referred to by enthusiasts as a "CBG" -- is a primitive stringed instrument that has experienced a limited resurgence on the American music scene. The roots of the guitar reach back to the American Civil War. Troops on both sides of the conflict crafted CBGs in the field when traditional guitars were not available. A basic CBG consists of a cigar-box body, a 1-by-2-by-36-inch wooden neck and standard guitar tuners and strings. Blues great Lightning Hopkins and rock legend Jimi Hendrix both stated that the first instrument played by either was a CBG.

How to Remove the Neck Bow From a Ukulele

The ukulele is technically a chordophone classified as a plucked lute. As a subset of the guitar family, it is the Hawaiian adaption of the cavaquinho taken to Hawaii by Portuguese immigrants. Since it has a short neck and nylon strings, a tensioned neck truss is generally not used on soprano or concert ukuleles. Neck bow is generally not a problem; however, it does occur and the repair involves removing the fretboard and steaming the neck.

How to Make Cottonwood Drums

Drums are used worldwide to create music. The drum's sound has a direct correlation with the type of material in the drum frame and head. A cottonwood drum is made from a hollow, dry cottonwood log. The drying process takes about six months. To dry the log, set it on a platform that allows air to circulate beneath the log and store it in a dry place. The platform can be as simple as two scrap pieces of lumber placed under each end so the air can circulate around the log.

How to Make a Chinese-Style Bamboo Flute

A Chinese bamboo flute produces a high, haunting sound that is often used in traditional Chinese music. You can make your own bamboo flute at home with just a few everyday tools and household supplies. A flute with a length of 18 to 20 inches and holes spaced about one inch apart will produce a sound in the key of "G" or "F." After making your first flute you can then adjust the size of the flute, spacing of the holes and thickness of the flute's walls to change the key.

How to Make an At-Home Mexican Rain Stick

A rain stick is a hollow tube filled with beans and pins or nails that, when tilted back and forth, creates the illusion of the sounds of a rain storm, as the beans slide past the pins to the bottom of the tube. Creating a rain stick at home can be a fun craft to do with your children or students. The sticks can safely be made from a few household items in less than an hour. Be sure to have an adult supervise the process.

How to Set Up a Schecter C-1

Schecter has manufactured electric guitars and basses for the last 35 years. They produce a broad variety of different models, both guitars and basses. The C-1 is a standard solid-body electric guitar, with a Stratocaster-style shape. However, unlike a Strat, it has a Gibson-style "Tune-O-Matic" bridge. Adjusting the action and intonation of the strings is essential to have the guitar play at its best. Setting up a guitar with such a bridge is a straightforward process that only requires a few basic tools.

How to Find Out What Model My Pearl Drums Are

Pearl began making drums in the 1950s. Unless you have recently purchased your drums, you may have a difficult time attempting to identify the model of your Pearl kit. Unfortunately, serial numbers offer little assistance and have no true meaning other than a random set of characters. Your best bet is to seek opinions from professionals and other avid Pearl enthusiasts. A visit to the Pearl website, a music store or posting on various forums may yield success in identifying your drum kit model.

How to Bridge a Stereo Tube Amp to a Single Speaker

The audio that comes from a tube-based amplifier is desirable to those who feel digital amplification is too rough sounding. To bridge the sound from a stereo tube amplifier to a single speaker so that monophonic sound can be heard, use a special audio cable purchased from an electronics store or computer shop. As a result of the procedure, sound from both channels will now come out of the single speaker. There will not be any disassembly or physical alteration of either the stereo tube amp or the speaker.

How to Make a Buzzing Sound With Your Fingers

Making a buzzing sound with your fingers can provide you with an entertaining and a way to create sound effects. Whether you want to emulate the sound of a plane flying overhead or you are interested in creating melodies by buzzing, this skill can come in handy and even provide moments of amusement when life becomes dull. While buzzing isn't one of the highest forms of musical achievement, buzzing certainly has its place and has even been used in modern classical pieces.

How to Make a Tabor Drum

The Tabor drum dates back to A.D. 1300 in medieval Europe. It is a double-headed drum with a single snare strung across the bottom; this snare, called a Tabor, gives the drum its name. During medieval times, the drum heads were made from cow or goat hides and bound to the drum frame with hemp rope; hemp rope was also used to make the snare -- or Tabor -- across the bottom of the drum head.

The Hal Leonard Method for Lap Steel Guitar

The lap steel guitar is played in a horizontal position on the player's lap, rather than upright in the more popular fashion. Some lap steel guitars have the familiar guitar-body curves found on other guitars, while some are straighter in form. You fret the strings from above rather than from the side, using a bar, instead of your fingers. The Hal Leonard Lap Steel Guitar Method is an instructional book and accompanying CD.

Suzuki Digital Piano Accompaniment Styles

Accompaniment is the part of the music you play to support, or play along with, a singer or lead instrument, usually with the left hand. Ideally, it should create a musical platform, as a structure to carry the singer or lead instrument. It provides the chords, style, tempo and timbre yet allows the singer or lead instrument to shine out above or through it. There are several ways of providing an accompaniment using a digital piano.

Information on the Gibson Gold Sparkle Banjo

For many banjo players, the Gibson Gold Sparkle banjo is a collector's item. The Gibson Gold Sparkle appeared during the golden years of Gibson banjo-making in the 1920s and 1930s. Some enthusiasts consider this banjo to be the most beautiful of the era and one of the models that defined the banjo sound. Genuine models command a high price, but enthusiasts can buy excellent reproductions of the Gold Sparkle for more modest sums.

Effects with an Ovation Guitar

Ovation, a guitar manufacturer in Connecticut, is well-known for pioneering round-back acoustic/electric guitars. The company makes these guitars with a solid top and high-quality piezo-electric pickups but forgoes the traditional wooden back and sides. Instead, Ovation's acoustic/electrics have a rounded one-piece bowl molded out of a composite fiberglass. The purpose is to minimize the amount of feedback encountered by acoustic musicians playing through a P.A. system at full volume in large centers.

What Is a J6000 Cortez Guitar?

Today, the Cort Guitar Corporation is known as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for guitar brands such as Ibanez, ESP, Schecter and G&L. In its earlier days, it mostly manufactured inexpensive guitars as well as brand-name copies. During the 1970s, the Korean-based company manufactured acoustic guitars, notably under the names Cortez and Cortley, of which the J6000 was a popular model. Currently, the Cortez and Cortley J6000 have somewhat of a cult following.

Sigma DM 18 Guitar Specs

In the 1970s, large volumes of low cost guitars were being imported to America from the Far East. In order to compete, the CF Martin guitar company, which had always produced high-end acoustics, introduced the Sigma range as a more affordable alternative. The steel and nylon-strung guitars used cheaper woods and materials to keep costs down.

Information on the Yamaha APX4A Guitar

The Yamaha APX4A is an acoustic/electric guitar. This means that it is an acoustic guitar with pickups that give it the amplification capabilities of an electric guitar. The APX4A was designed as an acoustic instrument, but it is well known for its electronic versatility and accurate electronic reproduction. The APX series of Yamaha guitars has been in production for more than a decade, but the APX4A has been discontinued from production.

What Is an 808 Drum?

The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, or the 808 as it's know in music circles, is arguably one of the most famous drum machines in history. It has a distinctive sound that's immediately recognizable and still sought after today, primarily for the tone of its kick drum. The sounds in the 808 are purely analog, so while they aren't realistic drum sounds, they're just the thing needed for old-school rap and hip-hop as well as some dance music.

Ocarina Facts

"The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time" video game might have given the ocarina -- meaning "little goose" in Italian -- a bump in notoriety, but the origins of the instrument go back centuries. It is known as a wind instrument that's easy to play for beginners and that has varied tones even for the simplest versions. Advanced ocarinas have even been featured in orchestras.

Rainstick Facts

A rainstick is a long, hollow tube partially filled with small objects such as pebbles or beans. When turned over, the falling objects collide and fall to the other end of the tube, creating a sound similar to falling rain, hence the name. Rainsticks are frequently used in many genres of music and have a wide variety of uses.