Amazing Experimental Musical Instruments

This article is devoted to those music artists that think outside the box and have created very unusual or unique instruments and playing styles. Many of these artists are very well known because of their instrumentation, their creative gifts go beyond simply making music to creating whole new ways of making music.

These people I would consider modern pioneers of music and should be acknowledged as such. They've chosen to let their gifts shine and I for one am grateful for that.

Have a look below these artists may be a little strange but you'll be amazed, trust me.

Although Mr. Gomm is not responsible for creating his own instruments but he has taken guitar playing to a whole new level. While playing guitar he uses his hands to create not just guitar sound but also drum, and bass sound and all simultaneously in the same song, all while singing. Besides creating sound from the guitar that it was never created to make he also adjusts the tuners of the guitar mid song to create ethereal sounding notes and often plays guitar strings only on the neck of the guitar. Simply amazing. Makes me wish I had took the time he did to become such a player.

John Gomm is the kind of virtuoso that needs to be seen to be believed. Beginning playing at the age of two he eventually graduated from the ukulele to the guitar and since has taken the world by storm Jon has released two solo albums and has been touring frequently since 2004. Check the video to the side of his song "passion flower" you will be amazed at what he can do with just a simple acoustic guitar.

Someone who needs little introduction he has spent more than the past decade climbing the hill of rock music along the way fusing it with many different genres and introducing the rock crowd to many other interesting forms of music. Never one to shy away from experimentation on stage and off White has set himself apart from the rock artists that spend all their time trying to conform to the scene of the current time.

His knowledge of the guitar has gone beyond what you and I perceive as just another instrument and into a realm where only a select few have journeyed. I have included a video below of Jack on a farm he creates an electric guitar out of a board, some wire, some nails and a coke bottle and then plugs into his amp and plays it. Check it out below!

That 1 guy born Mike Silverman knows what it means to be a one man band. Throughout the past several years he has used his ingenuity to create a musical electric saw, various unusual percussion instruments and the magic pipe. The magic pipe very central to his act is an amazing instrument constructed from a metal pipe a wide variety of electronics wired together into a mad science styled instrument. the magic pipe can be played like a guitar, a bow or as a percussion instrument.

Throughout the progress of his band Primus and his numerous side projects Les Claypool is another who has excelled at creating the unusual. From strange claymation videos to bass sounds that are out of this world. He has created some of the strangest music and videos in his career and in this case Claypool has succeeded in returning a very rare instrument to the public eye, the Whamola.

The Whamola is an electric version of an old style washtube instrument used in the south. In the Whamola's case it is electric and use create sound usually by striking it's one taught string with a drumstick. Sound is changed according to how you most the neck or where you strike it. Check the video below of the Whamola being used.

The Blue Man Group was created as a foundation to raise money for charity but balooned into a world famous act. The act always features three blue headed alien type guys and incorporates many types of art, videos, comedy and skits as well as music and very unusual instruments.

These instruments range from very bendable poles swung in the air to make whistling sounds, a large grand piano which is struck by a large mallet, an anvil that's drummed upon, large tubes used as percussion, drums that spray paint upon being struck. Their pipe suits also shoot large piles of streamers on the crowd at the end of the show.

Recently I was able to attend a show for the Blue Man Group in my home city and must say it was a full frontal assault on the senses combining so much creativity. I would say it is out of this world (which I guess is what they are going for). Check out the video to the side to see them in action with a song featuring the vocals of Gavin Rossdale of the band Bush.