Here are a few of the wind instruments made by students
in 2000.
David Spencer constructed the "PVC major family," which consisted of a panpipe, a flute, and a didjeridu. All were, of course, made of PVC piping and pitched in the key of C major.
Panpipes were a popular type of instrument. Annie Poskozim used Uniball pen bodies for her "Uniball Penpipes" (keyed in F#), while David Harris used root beer bottles pitched in A that he had won in a contest (hence the name of his instrument, "First Place at Lenoir"). Not shown are Mikey Truzy's "Minor Harmonic," which also used bottles filled with varying amounts of water, and Wilson Fuller's "Ellie," which was made of PVC and played a pentatonic scale.
Trevor Hutton had an interesting twist, with a "Pan Oboe" in which the double reeds are made of the cut ends of the straws.
Jon Thompson presented two instruments: the "Jellyfish," which is played by blowing across the top and squeezing the flexible bottom to change the pitch, and the "Natural Strumpet." The latter instrument is of the bugle type and can be played in C, G, and F (as long as you don't need too many notes).
Toby Butts also took the bugle approach with his "Club in F," made from
a mailing tube. It has finger holes, but they don't affect the pitch.
In the center is Christy Nell and "Ralph," her plaster-of-Paris natural
trumpet (which has a totally conical bore). Doug Little (right) calls
her instrument the "6 a.m. Flute," but it is lip-driven like a brass instrument.
Below you can see Luke Selden's "Blutophone," which uses a lot of duct
tape. Not shown are Michael Johnson's "Drano," Megan Ketch's "Hosehorn,"
Daniel Thigpen's "Allegra D," and Alex Danilowicz's "Hermiss," which
work on similar principles.
We had several instruments of the flute variety: On the left,
Mela Kirkpatrick plays her "Flufe," and that is Jamie Darst and his "Darstinet"
on the right.
