Tonight the Drone Ensemble continued with our work towards creating a chorus of scaffolding tubular instruments (these are yet to be christened). Joe had managed to source some more pipes, and so we now have the possibility of creating instruments spanning an even bigger spectrum of notes. The notes produced are determined by the length of the scaffolding.
The image below was used to help understand semitones
The scaffolding tube acts as a chamber for the vibrations; the vibration and resonance build within and travel down the tube until they escape at the base and project an almost organ-like unwavering note.
The tuning of these instruments is established pre-construction through the length of the tube, which can be cut down gradually and ‘played’ through striking the tube at a point of appropriate resonance, assessing the current note and adapting the tube gradually until the desired note is formed.
The turn-wheel can be controlled at different speeds, by the player, and creates a friction against the felt pad which in turn translates that vibration into the metal scaffold tube itself.
When played in unison, three of these individually tuned instruments can emit a chord pattern with a certain sonic strength and resilience.
Next week we are going to have a session of playing our newly made scaffolding tube instruments.
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