Experimental musical instruments

1989 portable video game console

The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone, etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named after its inventor, Leon Theremin, who patented the device in 1928.

early electronic musical instrument

thumb | right | alt= Musician Thomas Bloch playing the waterphone, 19 September 2009 at the Mittersheim pond in France | Musician [[Thomas Bloch playing the waterphone, 19 September 2009 at the Mittersheim pond, France]] A waterphone (also ocean harp) is a type of inharmonic acoustic tuned idiophone consisting of a stainless steel resonator bowl or pan with a cylindrical neck and bronze rods of different lengths and diameters around the rim of the bowl. The resonator may contain a small amount of water giving the waterphone a vibrant ethereal sound that has appeared in movie soundtracks, recor

musical instrument

The daxophone, invented by Hans Reichel, is an electric wooden experimental musical instrument of the friction idiophones category.

250px|thumb|Russolo, his assistant Ugo Piatti and the intonarumori Intonarumori are experimental musical instruments invented and built by the Italian futurist Luigi Russolo between roughly 1910 and 1930. There were 27 varieties of intonarumori built in total, with different names.

thumb|300px|right|Reactable

thumb|A luthéal The luthéal is a kind of hybrid piano which extended the "register" possibilities of a piano by producing cimbalom-like sounds in some registers, exploiting harmonics of the strings when pulling other register-stops, and also some registers making other objects, which were lowered just above the strings, resound. The instrument became obsolete partly because most of its mechanics were too sensitive, needing constant adjustment. The only pieces in the general repertoire to feature the luthéal are ''L'enfant et les sortilèges (1920–25) and Tzigane'' (1924), by Maurice Ravel.

Acoustical device to generate a pitch

The Floppotron is a musical instrument created by Polish engineer Paweł Zadrożniak.

thumb|A pantalon reconstruction. The pantalon (or pantaleon) was a very large type of hammered dulcimer, invented by Pantaleon Hebenstreit in the early 18th century and briefly popular in France and Germany.

additional bridge added to a stringed instrument

musical instrument

thumb|200px|Brainwave electrodes for regenerative musical performance thumb|200px|Underwater quintephone performance at ICMC 2007 An electroencephalophone or encephalophone is an experimental musical instrument and diagnostic tool which uses brain waves (measured in the same way as an EEG) to generate or modulate sounds.

musical instrument that modifies an existing class of instruments

instrument destruction type

thumb|A kraakdoos thumb|alt=Crackle-Quartet|Four Crackleboxes being played simultaneously A kraakdoos or cracklebox is a custom-made instrument, in the form of a noise-making electronic device. It is a small box with six metal contacts on top, which generate various unusual sounds and tones when pressed by the performer's fingers. The human body becomes a part of the circuit and determines the range of sounds possible, thus different people–or the same person at different times–shall generate different results.