Anyone else carry an instrument in their kit?

FortyTwoBlades

FortyTwoBlades

Baryonyx walkeri
Dealer / Materials Provider
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
25,908
Les Stroud carries a harmonica...I carry a (quality!) plastic ocarina. Works well as an emergency signaling device (the sound carries and music catches ears!) and keeps up morale in a survival situation, as well as just being fun to play on the trail!


Little do people know, but ocarinas were actually sold in large volume to our troops in World War 2!
ocarina-quartettes.jpg


So anyone else like to carry a music-maker in the woods? :D
 
I've never been one to carry a musical instrument anywhere...I don't play any. But A few years ago I used to take my oldest daughter on hikes with me and when I'd find something I wanted to experiment with she'd find a rock to climb up on and play her flute for a while. It was cool being out in the woods doing my thing and listening to her melodies drifting through the trees. The youngest hasn't learned to play anything yet, but she sure loves to sing her songs as we walk along.
 
In all seriousness the ocarina is a pretty good instrument play around with. More compact than a recorder, tin whistle, or the like, and they have a beautiful sound. The good quality plastic ones by Focalink or Noble are only around $15-25 and sound as good or better than many of the clay ones on the market. I'm actually working on getting some of the Focalink ones in the shop. Nice bright blue and green ones to start, but they have orange coming out soon.

I've been an ocarina fan for a long time, and they're very accessible instruments that have lots of room for musical growth. Here's a sweet piece being played by a professional Italian ocarina maker:

[video=youtube_share;6vdrD29MLCA]http://youtu.be/6vdrD29MLCA[/video]

Nothing like playing a tune or two to yourself out in the woods, though I'm nowhere near the player that that guy is. :p
 
Last edited:
That's what I love about bladeforums! You people know everything! I had never even heard of a ocarina before. My Dad showed me how to carve a slip whistle from a maple tree branch when I was little. That's about all I can say for a musical instrument.
 
I always walk with a tin whistle
My B# is over 40 years old
You only wish you had been where it has been..........

I also travelled with a shakahchi bamboo flute
And a Breton Bombard for the high mountains
They carry in the mountains and valleys and you play your own echo.......


Remind me to tell you story of being stopped by a French Customs Officer and being made to play the flute for a 100 folk waiting to enter the Customs Shed.
 
Last edited:
I own a few harmonicas I got from my informally adopted ''grandfather'' before he passed. But I can't play a note. I do like to get them out and play with them every once in awhile. perhaps I should attempt to learn how to play them properly.
 
neeman said:
I always walk with a tin whistle
My B# is over 40 years old
You only wish you had been where it has been..........

I also travelled with a shakahchi bamboo flute
And a Breton Bombard for the high mountains
They carry in the mountains and valleys and you play your own echo.......


Remind me to tell you story of being stopped by a French Customs Officer and being made to play the flute for a 100 folk waiting to enter the Customs Shed.
Click to expand...

Cool stuff, dude! The shakuhachi is an interesting instrument. I guess they used to be carried by "fuke" or "emptiness monks" in Japan and used for their meditation purposes. They were made from the root end of a bamboo stalk, which was so stout it could be used as a club if necessary! :eek:
 
I carry a harmonica. I'm no musician, but I can play tunes on it, either songs I've heard or make up as I go.

I was walking along a trail around a lake in town and came across a fawn. We have a plentiful supply of deer around here. :)
I yelled, waved my hiking stick overhead, told the fawn that I was a human and would shoot! and got ignored. She went back to nibbling whatever it was growing at her feet.

I took out my harmonica and blew a raucous blast on it and the fawn took off so fast I couldn't believe it.

If you blow into a harmonica, you get that familiar sound. But if you hum into it, you get a raucous, buzzing sound, and that's what the fawn did not like at all.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I carry a harmonica. I'm no musician, but I can play tunes on it, either songs I've heard or make up as I go.

I was walking along a trail around a lake in town and came across a fawn. We have a plentiful supply of deer around here. :)
I yelled, waved my hiking stick overhead, told the fawn that I was a human and would shoot! and got ignored. She went back to nibbling whatever it was growing at her feet.

I took out my harmonica and blew a raucous blast on it and the fawn took off so fast I couldn't believe it.

If you blow into a harmonica, you get that familiar sound. But if you hum into it, you get a raucous, buzzing sound, and that's what the fawn did not like at all.
Click to expand...

Like many others who have posted in this thread, I'm hopeless with a harmonica. That's one use for it that even I can manage though! :p

I grew up listening to my folks' Eric Tingstad & Nancy Rumbel albums, which is where I originally learned about ocarinas. Nancy Rumbel plays a very nice double-chamber harmony model made from wood, as well as English horn (a reed instrument similar to an oboe.)

[video=youtube_share;rBXlTTkoKVY]http://youtu.be/rBXlTTkoKVY[/video]
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Cool stuff, dude! The shakuhachi is an interesting instrument. I guess they used to be carried by "fuke" or "emptiness monks" in Japan and used for their meditation purposes. They were made from the root end of a bamboo stalk, which was so stout it could be used as a club if necessary! :eek:
Click to expand...

And a Breton Bombard is a short double reed like a Bagpipe chanter or Oboe.
Is short with a wide bell, and therefore is very loud
It is a shepards pipe and used for line dancing in Bretonish walled town squares

Very loud
So when walking in the mountains, it will sound through vales and dales
 
Yeah I always thought that "bombard" was a good name for it. Not an instrument for folks who don't like being the center of attention! :D
 
I can get some songs out of a harmonica but I am not able to play cross harp or blues. Most of the time when I want to be out in the woods making extra noise is not my goal. You miss seeing or sensing things around you.

Back many years I was camping with friends at Splitrock State Park next to Lake Superior. At 6am we were woke up by bagpipes somewhere not so distant it seemed. After getting up and stoking the fire we went to see who was piping. Across a bay maybe half a mile was a guy and his pipes playing every song he knew. It was really great listening to it echo off of the rock faces of some of the islands in the cove. Now I would not have chosen a bagpipe for a wake up call but no harm no foul, we were there to enjoy the moments after all. I can only imagine how it would have sounded as an instrument directing war movements in a battle. Those things can sure hammer out the sounds.
 
Here are some pics of my new Noble plastic alto C ocarina that arrived from Korea yesterday. It has the subhole layout and body shape distinctive to Korean ocarinas, while the Taiwanese Focalinks I'll be carrying have a Japanese-style subhole layout. For those not familiar with the musical terms, the alto is larger and lower in tone than soprano models.

Photo on 2012-04-24 at 10.34.jpgPhoto on 2012-04-24 at 10.36.jpg
 
baldtaco-II said:
Only at the beach. In the woods I would consider it an act of aural-graffiti.
Click to expand...

Only if you haven't been practicing enough! :D

Actually, though, I'm reminded of a fun ocarina fact: they were based on traditional clay bird call whistles, which could only play a couple of tones. In the early 1800's Giuseppe Donati saw the potential to turn them into full-blown instruments with a wider tonal range. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top