7 Bizarre Musical Instruments

Music can be found anywhere and created on anything. If you've an ear for a tune then maybe you could create something splendid on one of the following instruments? They're weird, strange and odd, but they're also awesome. Whipping out any of the above at a party and engaging an audience with an avant-garde cover of The Scorpions' Wind Of Change is going to make you a hero!

Laser Harp

The name alone is enough to excite anyone with a penchant for space and future like objects into a fervour. It's actually as good as it sounds too. Imagine lasers as never ending strings and you've got the idea. The beams are blocked, as you would pluck a harp string, to create sounds. Popularized by Jean Michel Jarre, the instrument has been given a recent pop culture boost by having been used by the super cool Little Boots.

Glass Harmonica

Ever rubbed the rim of a wine glass to create an eerie sounding wail? If you have then you'll have a chance at being able to play the glass harmonica or armonica as it is also referred to. The instrument is constructed of spinning glass discs contained in a cabinet. The disks vary in size to create different notes. Because the part of the armonica that makes the sound is made of glass the instrument is a crystallophone, which is a great word.

Tenori-On

Little Boots also plays one of these. She's very big on odd and cool musical instruments. The Tenori-On has an added element of cool too. It was created by a Nintendo level designer. The instrument features a grid of 16x16 LED switches that are used to create sounds in a specified beats per minute.

Sea Organ

Ok, you'd have a job to ‘whip this out' at a party seeing as it is built into the coastline of Croatia. Located in Zadar you can't really play it either. Not unless you can control the sea wind. The sea organ consists of marble steps down to the sea that contain tubes and a sounding chamber beneath them. There are holes in the steps that emit musical tones when the sea and wind pass through the chambers beneath. It's architectural, musical and experimental, which is all very cool.

Stylophone

A resurgence in popularity has seen the stylophone prominently available in all manner of places, but that does not undo its odd nature. Essentially a stylus operated synthesizer in miniature form, the machine was hugely popular in the late 60s and was sold predominantly as a child's toy. That hasn't stopped the likes of David Bowie though using it to create aural electro magnificence. It is also believed that the stylophone can determine the musical potential of an individual by timing how long it takes them to play the lick from Axel F, Harold Faltermeyer's Beverly Hills Cop theme tune...

Ocarina

It isn't just a device made popular by a little man in a green tunic who spends a lot of his time saving princesses called Zelda. You can actually play an ocarina if the mood takes you. It's a flute like instrument, except a little more bulbous, and is often ceramic. It's also thought to be over 12,000 years old.

Sondra White is able to play the spoons and banjo and when not gigging she researches music gifts for the novelty gift company Find Me A Gift.