Presented by Karl Kemm

Horn Story​

Synthetic Horns

Didgeridoo
42" in E with organic design patterns
Made of PVC pipe by Kyle Hinkebein.
Another fine product from his shop.

My "giging" Didgeridoo
59" in BBb with geometric design patterns
Made of PVC pipe by Kyle Hinkebein and his special process.

Detail of PVC Didgeridoo
I had commissioned the creation of these synthetic didgeridoos because the nature of real wooden, eucalyptus and bamboo, instruments is to crack over time.  This renders them eventually un-resonant and unsatisfactory to perform on.  These two instruments should last indefinitely.  

Vuvuzela in Bb (+- 50 cents)
Amazon bulk purchase
28.5 inches of conical telescoping plastic in Green, Orange, and Purple 

The vuvuzela made its worldwide debut not in any concert hall but in the Cape Town 2010 World Cup much to the perturbance of western sportscasters attempting to report over the ubiquitous hazy buzz of Bb pink noise.  The modern plastic vuvuzela is a marketing response to make available the tradition of blowing what would have previously been an animal horn or metal trumpet.  The recent tradition a vuvuzela blown during a soccer match seems to have derived from earlier uses of trumpets as an intimidation tool between warring or rival villages. 

Rubber hose in G basso
Home Depot, self constructed
21 feet of clear vinyl tubing of graduating diameters, red plastic funnel

I have this hose horn to demonstrate that any material may be used to make a “brass” instrument as long as it adequately constrains the lip buzz acoustics into certain frequencies consistent with the tube length.  The tapering of tube width is in no way researched but instead simply guessed at.  Accordingly, it creates several out of tune overtones.  The 8th to 12th overtones work well enough to allow a do-re-mi-fa-sol melody sounding in G major.  And because there are always those curious about it functioning in different ways, the total funnel and tube length can hold 2-and-a-half quarts of liquid.