a few DIY homemade musical instruments from Dennis Havlena

Hi - Here's a short sampling of a few of the simple home made instruments whose
construction is detailed on my webpage at http://DennisHavlena.com
This video was made in my back yard, on the spur of the moment and is not intended
to be fancy music -- just to show some of the instruments, which include -- in order:

3 string cookie-tin banjo with weed- whip line strings. Tune is "the Cuckoo".

"Tambiro" made from a new (never-been-filled) 20 Lb. propane tank. Building this instrument gave me the idea for inventing my propane tank "hank drum" (a humble alternative to the hang drum)

My "Fiddle-Gurdy" combination fiddle & Hurdy Gurdy. Much fun! I apologize for the squeak here and there -- I was impatient to get things on Youtube. Tune is an old French Canadian Voyageur's melody, "En Roullant Ma Boulle".
Inspiration from Yuichi Onoue's "Kaisatsuko".

My 4-string, full sized wash-tub bass. Holds it's own nicely in a band situation.

Simple Hardanger fiddle conversion. 4 strings playing & 4 strings sympathetic that run through a tunnel carved into the underside of the fingerboard. Tunes are "Road to Boston" (aka "Col. Greene's March") and "Over the Waterfall".

Low D Tin-Whistle made from a shower-curtain rod for a few dollars. Tune is made up on the spot (& it sounds it!).

Octave Mandolin (aka bozouki, cittern) converted from an old guitar. Tune is the
"Boys of Bluehill" hornpipe.

PS: I just put another short video on
YouTube of my PVC tubing instrument that
plays like a hang drum, at this web address:
   • DIY  PVC Pipe Instrument -- plays lik...  

PS: Also see my propane-tank hank drum at:
   • The Original Propane Tank Hank Drum -...  

My webpage describing building these homemade instruments is at this URL:
http://DennisHavlena.com
Thanks!

GREAT NEWS: although a real, Swiss-made hang drum is extremely difficult to obtain these days, Pantheon Steel, a maker of beautiful steel drums ("steel pans") is just starting to sell their version of the Hang drum called the HALO hand-pan. See halo.pantheonsteel.com for details.
They have a demo video & the Halo sounds beautiful!

Later note: also see this youtube video:
   • Experimentation with the HALO from Pa...