As of 2002, I've found myself interested in other kinds of instruments, particularly from India. They just seem to have the neatest sounding instruments there, like Sitar, Sarode, Sarangi, Veena, and Tabla. As much as I like Indian instruments, they usually require a lot of maintenance and attention, especially the Sarangi and trying to keep it in tune!

This "Banjo Keyboard" seems to be some kind of toy from India (judging from the low quality of workmanship - or is that normal?). It consists of 10 strings, two of which are sort of drone strings and the other 8 tuned to roughly the same note. The strings are strummed above the sound hole and the keys stop the strings at various intervals. It actually sounds an awful lot like a bagpipe parade! The sticker says "Shudh Sangeet," which means "pure music" in Hindi, according to my friend. I guess that's debatable too.

Sample Banjo Keyboard Recording

The Ocarina is a type of small flute with a mellow tone. Many clay artisans make them, the non-blue one is from S. Rawcliffe. I'm still trying to figure out the best combination of finger holes to produce correct pitches.

Sample Bass Ocarina, E-major scale

Udu drums originated in Nigeria - The word "udu" means "clay pot" in the Ibo language. Latin Percussion had an udu drum series but discontinued them (I wasn't able to get them anywhere) as well as a host of private artisans and are just clay pots with a neck ("sound port") and a hole in the side. Slapping you hand over the hole produces a deep, resonant bass tone. If you slap and pull away quickly, you get the pitch an octave higher. You get a beautiful percussive ("mellowly sharp" I might say) sound by slapping the pot with the bone area of your fingers at the last joint on the flat side of your hand. I've got an EarthTone 12"x18" udu from musiciansfriend.com which was ~$60. I'm sure the quality is not as good as the much more expensive hand crafted ones that go for around $400, but it seems like a good starter. I had some trouble actually having it shipped by Musician's Friend -- it was badly chipped once and shattered once because of bad packing and UPS; my roommate calls this an "udubooboo". Also see Udu.com, Mid-East Mfg. (they sell them as "jug drums", but these are more of the Indian "Ghatam" style and don't give you the nice strong bass notes, plus they're fairly low quality), Burnt Earth (also see the Burnt Earth instrument gallery!), Schlagwerk.de

Sample Udu recording (1.5MB, mp3) - my rhythm was terrible here; i was just starting.

A better recording (870kB, mp3) - different microphone too.

The Sarangi is a bowed instrument from India. It is one of the hardest instruments to play in the world. This is perhaps mostly because there is no fretboard, so you use the back of your fingernail near where it connects to the skin to stop the string. I have found it perhaps more difficult to tune! It has 35 sympathetic strings which vibrate along with the melody, creating a string of beautiful little bell-like tones. The tuning pegs are the old stick-in-a-hole style, so turning one a fraction of a degree seems to change the pitch by a octave! Thus it goes out of tune very easily. None the less, it has a very nice tone to it and I really like the way it looks!

Sample Sarangi Recording (1.1MB, mp3) - me trying to play!

Tabla Drums: I started playing tabla drums in September 2002 when I got an email about tabla lessons being offered at Harvard (after classes) by Jerry Leake, a Berklee College of Music graduate who is a professional musician specializing in tabla and other ethnic instruments. I liked the first class and continued. The tabla drums are also from India and are played with the hands. The technique is very rigid and strict and requires a lot of skill. The smaller right hand drum ("dayan") has maybe almost a dozen different techniques which range from slap-like sounds (dry hits) to open resonant tom-like hits to the beautiful tuned airy type of musty ring characteristic of the tabla. The left hand plays the "bayan," which is responsible for low bass notes (which can be modulated to make the note move up and down), deeper slaps and a special "snap" technique. All of the strikes for these drums (called "bols") have names like "ta", "tun", "dha", "ga", "teh-tay", "tira-kita" and many more. There are also bols such as "kra" and "trekre" which are "flam" techniques, where one stoke is hit slightly before or after the other to give it a sort of rolling patter. If you plan to purchase tabla drums, buy them from Ali Akbar College of Music in California. They know what their doing there and the drums are high quality. I've played tablas at two different Sam Ash stores and they were absolutely horrendous (and they charge about the same as AACM). Also see http://www.artoftabla.com/.

Sample Tabla Recording (560kB, mp3) - me playing a 'Bajan' (light style rhythm).

See my Tabla webpage.

My Guild acoustic guitar is a model D4. It's a satin finish acoustic, which means it doesn't have that heavy clear urethane finish on it, so I can't get anything wet on it or the wood will soak it up! I liked this unfinished sound because it's very mellow and open. I played about a dozen other guitars in the $1500 range by Taylor, Ibanez, Gibson, etc., but as soon as I played a chord on this one, I knew it was the one. The tone was so mellow and sweet compared to those dry sounding polished guitars. And it was only $500. Of course it doesn't have any fancy cutaway or even pickups, but it's got tone!

Sample Guitar Recording (1.8MB, mp3) - me playing around.

Sierra.mp3 (1.9MB, mp3) - This is a back drop I was playing around with for soloing for fun. The rhythm's not so good, and I need to put the Elixer coated strings back on to get rid of the squeak!

This is a Gibson SG electric. Nothing extraordinary about it, except for the great Gibson quality. I don't really like the painted neck, though; it's not as smooth and frictionless as an unpainted one. I guess my amp and pedal are worth a few words, though. I've got a vintage 1965 Standel Studio XV amp in pristine condition, except that the input stage was blown, so I had to build one "blind" (the original was in epoxy and completely unserviceable!). See Standel Studio XV for details. The tone of the Standel is great, but I have a Hughes and Kettner Rotosphere pedal too, which mimics a Lesie speaker (has stereo outputs). The H&K pedal sounds best with finger plucked stuff for some reason. Anyway, I guess I started playing guitar in August 1999. [recording coming soon]

Piano: Ahh yes, piano. I started in 1988 and quit in 1990 to switch to organ lessons, which I took until 1997. I took up piano again in 1995 after I found out that pianos were everywhere and people enjoyed listen to me play. I've developed my own type of jazz style which is probably mostly influenced by Vince Guaraldi (Snoopy theme songs) and I play another style which is more free flowing, which lets me explore many wonderful harmonies. I don't play much classical, maybe just half a dozen songs.

All recordings have moved to HERE, since the list was getting long!

Organ is a very speical instrument. Each one is different (I'm talking about pipe organs, not those little electronic thingies). My training is strictly in classical music here, be it year 1700 or 2000. I've substituted in church several times and played several of my own concerts. I won a $1000 music scholarship when I was 13. I hadn't actually played an organ from around 1998 through the end of 2003, but I started playing on and working on the old tracker at the First Korean Church in Cambridge, MA, which has been a lot of fun. I have a fair amount of music for organ, maybe 30 books or so.

Finally, a recording!! Kommst du Jesu von Himmel herunter (4.9MB, *.mp3) written by J. S. Bach (BWV 650), played by C. D. Joye on the 1886 Tracker Organ at the First Korean Church in Cambridge, MA, recorded on 12/13/04.

See the 1886 tracker organ I've been working on.

jsbach.org detailed info on all of his works along with sources for obtaining recordings.

www.virtuallybaroque.com many sound clips to listen to.

Home made organs!

Balafon is an African sort of wooden xylophone. It's got a great mellow tone -- check out Schlagwerk.de for a sound sample.

Marimbula is an Caribbean sort of bass plucked xylophone. It's got a beautiful bassy tone. Here is a music sample (330kB), or see Schlagwerk.de.

The Sitar is another Indian instrument consisting of a fretted neck with several playing strings, and a set of strings tuned to the particular notes of a scale (Raag) that are strummed or simpy resonate with the main strings. Here's a sample.

Sarode is a sort of a fretless guitar type of instrument where a "mizrab" (similar to a guitar pick) is used to pluck the strings. Here's a sound sample (53kB).