Doing the Pig--What's New and Screenhog!

On the What's New Blog, Billybob gives a new post. He wanted to show us some animal costumes they're working on for September. He wants US to decide which costumes they should make for September. Remember, they're only doing 2, so vote for your favorite in the comments.

Also, if you post your favorite on this blog, I'll comment on the post that Billybob did and say.


And, Screenhog has been typing a story on his blog. It is called, 'An Orchestra of One'. He basically talks about music. He has it laid out in separate posts.


Here is his latest post:

Now that we know what music is, the next step is to find out what artistic tools we have at our disposal. Just as a painter has a variety of paints and canvases, composers have a variety of instruments available. Anything that makes a sound is an instrument, and most all of them can fit into a few broad categories.

Percussion:

Percussion instruments are simply objects that can make a sound when they’re hit, shaken, scraped, or otherwise set into vibration. Due to their simplicity, most of the oldest known instruments are percussion.

Now, of course, you have your classic drums and cymbals, along with slightly less common instruments – xylophones, marimbas, steel drums, for instance – but it goes much further than that. Anything that makes a sound when you hit it has the potential to be a percussion instrument. A pot, a plate, a door, a chain link fence, a rock, a suspension bridge – they all can be percussion, a fact that bands like Stomp use to their advantage.

Wind:

Wind instruments are any instruments that make sound due to the flow of air. Most wind instruments are either brass instruments or woodwinds.¹

Brass instruments are, generally, made of brass. They start with a mouthpiece, have a length of tubing, and end with a wide horn. The mouthpiece is blown into, and depending on the way it is blown, can make different noises. The tubing frequently contains valves that, when pressed, can also change the note the instrument makes (known as the pitch). Examples include the trumpet, trombone, euphonium, French horn, and tuba.

Woodwinds make sound when a player blows air either across a sharp edge or a reed, creating vibration, which travels along a length of tubing. The tubing contains many holes, and depending on which hole is covered, the instrument can make different pitches. Examples include the flute, clarinet, oboe, bagpipes, recorder, and saxophone.

There are other wind instruments, of course. Water bottles are particularly good wind instruments when you blow across the top in the right way, but the world’s oldest and best known wind instrument is the human voice. ²

Strings:

Stringed instruments are any instruments where strings are plucked or bowed in some way. Strings are stretched along the instrument, and the string’s material and length, combined with how much it’s stretched, determine the note it makes. “Plucking” a string is performed by taking the already stretched string, stretching it farther, and then snapping it back. “Bowing” a string is performed by rubbing the stretched string in some way.

The simplest string instrument is likely the elastic band, stretched and plucked to make a noise. More traditional examples of string instruments include the guitar, violin, harp, cello, banjo, and ukulele.

Synthesized:

By far, the newest form of instrument is the synthesized instrument. With most instruments, a sound is produced by creating a physical reaction in the real world. Synthesized instruments, though, create sounds either by manipulating real sounds that have been recorded previously or by creating waves using mathematical formulas and outputting them as sound.³

This is the most technologically advanced way to make sounds. Examples include the synthesizer, the drum machine ⁴, the theremin, and the Commodore 64 SID chip.

Keyboards:

Keyboards are instruments that have a series of keys in a row, with each key controlling its own unique sound when pressed. I’ve saved keyboards until last because, in reality, they’re not a unique category of instrument.

I’m not saying this to insult keyboards or keyboard players. I’ve been playing the piano since I was five years old, and I love it. The problem is that, when you look at how keyboard instruments make sounds, they actually fall into one of the four categories I’ve mentioned previously.

Take the immense and impressive pipe organ, for instance. When a key on a pipe organ is pressed, air flow is allowed to pass through a specific tube, creating a long, sustained pitch. This means that the pipe organ is actually a wind instrument. ⁵

The piano makes sound when a string inside it is struck, so it’s a percussion instrument. The harpsichord’s strings are plucked, making it a string instrument, and we’ve already talked about synthesizers.

Keyboards are merely controllers for one of the other types of instrument. This may mean that they get laughed at by the other instruments ⁶, but it also means that they are ideal for composing. If you want to be a composer, you probably need to learn to play a keyboard instrument.

Next: Chapter 3: The Equipment You Need

I really like the pictures of Screenhog.