What if you were to eliminate the unwieldy parts of a guitar but maintain its resonant sound and the same exact way of playing, in order to make the instrument are more convenient traveling companion? It might sound ridiculous or downright impossible, but that’s exactly what designer Orit Dolev has done with NOMAD, a compact digital instrument with pressure-sensitive frets and flexible rubber strings to replicate the traditional guitar playing experience.

Dolev came up with the idea for NOMAD after taking a long journey through Asia and South America, where she imagined her guitar would offer a handy and powerful way to make new connections across language barriers. She quickly learned that getting around would be frustrating, noting that she couldn’t just shove it into her backpack, and the strings were constantly breaking and getting out of tune.

Designed to encourage mobility, the NOMAD features a wooden neck for a familiar feel in your hands. It pairs up with an app to play a wide variety of sounds, and you can turn the frets on and off to switch between acoustic and electric guitar modes or even to entirely different string instruments, like sitars. Hook it up to headphones so you can play on train rides or in hotels without disturbing anyone, or play through the accompanying portable amp, which doubles as a case cover.

“Technology is constantly changing the way we are living,” says Dolev. “Powerful mobile devices and widespread connectivity are serving as fertile ground for a new generation of nomads. From urban work-from-anywhere lifestyle to digital nomads roaming the globe freely, new cultural movements are rising. We are more mindful of the objects we surround ourselves with, striving to travel light and collect experiences more than things. Own less, explore more.”

Music is all around us – the improvised homemade instruments of old-time bluegrass bands are proof of that. This project is called StereoTank; designed by Marcelo Ertorteguy and Sara Valente for the Zooart Festival in Cuneo, Italy, the installation is an inhabitable musical instrument. The main components are two huge water tanks, lots of five-gallon plastic buckets, some nylon cord and some LEDs. The result is a multi-sensory musical experience.

(all images via: Designboom)

Players strike the eight taught nylon cords to create a full octave of sounds. The tanks and buckets act as resonators to make the sounds louder and more potent to the player and others in the area.

As the player hits the strings, the vibrations cause attached LEDs to light up. The installation then takes on a beautiful kind of ethereal quality while adding another layer of sensory experience to the instrument.

Once the Zooart festival is over and the StereoTank project is dismantled, the various components can be restored to their original functions. The tanks and buckets can go on to new lives doing what they were built to do, their musical purposes only a memory in the minds of those who had the chance to play this remarkable instrument.

Most music lovers can agree that music doesn’t always follow the rules. Some of the most beautiful melodies have come from artists who chose to do their own thing despite conventional wisdom. The same is true for artists who create new instruments. Where would modern music be without the “crazy” instruments and techniques invented and modified over the years? These instruments are among the most innovative, the most creative, and the most bizarre out there.

Uberorgan

(images via: Oddmusic)

When Los Angeles artist Tim Hawkinson toured around the country with a massive indoor sculpture, he caused big reactions from just about everyone who saw it. Many of them wondered just what it was, and they can be forgiven for not understanding immediately. After all, the 300-foot long sculpture was comprised largely of 13 bus-sized inflated bags and was simultaneously organic and alien. But when it started playing, it was obvious: the Uberorgan was a massive musical instrument. The entire assembly looked like massive ethereal jellyfish suspended in mid-air, but operated like the giant lovechild of a bagpipe and a pipe organ. A visual sensor “read” notes from a scrolling 200-foot-long roll of Mylar to entertain viewers with a score he composed just for the Uberorgan.

The Great Stalacpipe Organ

(images via: Oddmusic)

The world’s largest instrument resides in a cave in Virginia, and the music it produces is both earthy and otherworldly. The Great Stalacpipe Organ was created in 1954 after Pentagon scientist Leland W. Sprinkle noticed that the stalactites in Luray Caverns produced resonating notes upon being struck. He spent three years tuning stalactites to precise pitches – with sandpaper. He then wired rubber mallets to strike the stalactites when corresponding keys are depressed on the organ’s keyboard. The organ still plays today for visitors to Luray Caverns.

The Nano Guitar

(image via: Cornell)

If you thought playing a ukulele was hard, try plucking this tiny guitar. It’s a six-string guitar made of crystalline silicon, and it’s no bigger than a single cell. Each string is 50 nanometers wide: the width of 100 atoms. Researchers at Cornell University created it in 1997 to showcase emerging technology for manufacturing a new generation of electronics. Though it can technically be played (if you happen to have access to an atomic force microscope), the 10 micrometer-long instrument would only resonate at inaudible frequencies.

Croatia’s Sea Organ

(images via: Oddmusic)

Visitors to the sea front in Zadar, Croatia used to be greeted by grim, ugly concrete walls. But since the public unveiling of the Sea Organ in 2005, visitors have been able to visit the sea front to enjoy the music of nature. The Sea Organ is a musical instrument that consists of 35 musical tubes with openings on the above concrete stairs. Movement of the sea’s waves pushes air through the openings, creating incredible chords and dissonant tunes. Similar instruments exist in San Francisco and Blackpool, but Zadar’s version can be heard more consistently and has done wonders for the tourist trade in the area.

The Viennese Vegetable Orchestra

(images via: Vienna Vegetable Orchestra)

Thought to be the only orchestra in the world using nothing more than vegetable instruments to make music, the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra has been performing around the world since its formation in 1998. Its members carve, cut and tweak fresh produce to create a multisensory musical experience. Their instruments are made fresh right before every performance, and after they wow audiences with their musical prowess their staff cook makes a delicious vegetable soup from some of the vegetables – hopefully not the parts the musicians have been blowing into. Just don’t ask the orchestra members if they’re all vegetarians; they’re tired of hearing that question over and over.

It’s hard to keep your wits about you when you step into Diego Stocco’s world. It’s a world parallel to our own, with one notable difference: absolutely everything is made of music. Everything from sand to cereal to fire to a tree can produce enthralling sounds. When in Diego’s capable hands, every item in view is just music waiting to happen. And chances are that if you’ve watched television, seen movie trailers, or played video games in the last several years, you’ve already heard some of his work.

Composer and sound designer Diego Stocco has been experimenting with music since the tender age of 6, when his parents gave him his first electronic keyboard to calm him down. Since then, he’s developed an impressive resumé full of unique music experiences; he builds instruments out of practically anything and uses the never-before-heard sounds to create astounding compositions. His “Epic Textures” CD series has been used in many Hollywood productions, video games, and TV and internet promotions. His fascinating instruments have included a clothes drying rack, pipes with water running through them, a burning piano, light bulbs, a typing machine, a bass made from a bedside table, and a “sonic washer” made by combining a guitar, a harp and a washing machine drum.

What’s most surprising about Deigo isn’t necessarily the sounds that he creates or the items that he uses to create them; it’s his enthusiasm for the process. Reading his own descriptions of his projects and watching the videos of him at work, it’s easy to get swept up in his excitement. He seems to treat every new instrument as though it were his first, never losing the awe and curiosity that led him to make “imaginary sounds” in the first place.

The amazing thing about Stocco’s music is that he is a master sound engineer, and even if you know what you’re listening to it’s hard not to separate the origin of the sound from the finished product: a stapler spring no longer sounds like a stapler spring, but an elegant and playful instrument. Fingers running across sand become a sophisticated percussion section. Corn Flakes become a surprisingly wonderful accompaniment to haunting piano pieces. Sounds that would be odd and disjointed in any other situation become the melody and highlights of incomparably beautiful compositions.

Diego doesn’t limit himself to simply playing everyday objects as instruments, though. You might call him the Dr. Frankenstein of musical instruments. In the above video, he combines parts from several stringed instruments along with a few household items to create the “Experibass:” a quadruple-necked instrument born from curiosity. He plays with sounds from electronics, tears apart gadgets and other instruments to cannibalize their parts in the making other instruments, and makes music in ways that most other people would never think of.

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to find Diego Stocco’s work online – and he’s constantly making more. Check out his Behance portfolio here for pictures, audio samples, and videos. Visit his official site for news, more audio and videos, and some information about the artist himself. Check out even more music samples on his Band Camp page. Spend a day walking around in Stocco’s world and you’ll never look at your washing machine, backyard trees, or breakfast cereal in the same way again.