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Re: Martha Stewart waste basket percussion instrument



Bill Cummings wrote about my mention of the Martha Stewart
brass waste paper basket (made to look like and enormous
thimble, btw :-):

"how do you tune that thing?"


I hold the open end of the waste basket against my chest pinned there by my
forearms.
Then I play the edge of the bottom with my third finger of my right hand to
create the
ersatz 'tek' sound. I then play the middle of the bottom with my 1st, 2nd
and 3rd fingers together to create the ersatz 'dum' sound.The middle of the
drum is
much thinner metal and, hence, has a lower pitch.  The whole time I support
the base of the drum with the thumb of my right hand and the thumb and 
pinky
finger of my left hand which leave my 2nd finger free to mute or change the
pressure (pitch) of the thin metal.

I can really control the envelope of the harmonics this way and I have
several pitch bend techniques up or down controlled by the pressure of the
2nd finger.

Additional,  I can rotate the drum off of my chest keeping one side of the
open end balanced on my chest to create radial phasing effects akin to the
upwardly pitch bending bass technique on Bayan in Tabla playing.

Then, to top it all off, I can flip the drum so I balance the base on my
left palm and it has a beautiful bass gong note that lasts quite a long
time.

Using pitch shifting footpedals and my DL4, this becomes a phenomenally
expressive and musical instrument; like a cross between a brass gong and a
metal tabla.  It is the best $20 I ever spent on a percussion instrument
(unless, of course, you include the $25 I spent at Cost Plus for my Liquid
Glass Ghatam----but that's another story altogether).

The cool thing is everyone of these waste baskets (which are still 
available
for $20 a K-Marts, although disappearing rapidly, has a completely 
different
pitch.  I use two of them
in performance.  They fit exactly inside each other and there is room for 
me
to throw
my gas stove, poor person's overtone pipe inside them

Too cool.


yours, Rick Walker (loop.pool)