Many artists and inventors in the past, such as John Cage, Edward Varese and Leon Theremin have proved that being innovative and inventive can be very inspiring to other creative individuals, producing new creative movements, and new and different ideas can become popular with a mainstream audience.
I was given the challenge to create something innovative to eventually perform on stage with it. Through video examples that we had watched during the lessons I had seen that ideas for the final performance could range from using everyday items as instruments to using real instruments in a new and innovative way. I had so many ideas but I just didn’t know where to start, so I used search engines to find information on “innovative music performances,” but found that I needed to narrow my criteria. Therefore I used the university library to find books about music pioneers, innovative performers and related topics.
Again I found it very hard to find the perfect information to inspire my performance. I decided to continue brainstorming for a couple of weeks and eventually came up with the idea of playing a guitar with a violin bow. On further research (using ‘YouTube’) I realised that many other artists had used this idea and so it was not that innovative.
Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Ros are a major act who have used bows to play the electric guitar, to make a new and interesting sound effect. I then tried to think of all the things that I don’t want to do or that I won’t be able to do such as buying a guitar, working in a group, using electronic devices or destroying items on stage, which left me with the following idea:
I decided to design and invent my own, brand new instrument which I eventually called the “Lidinikus Maximus”. I added a twist to Sigur Ros’s example by creating an instrument that consisted of four different strings from four different instruments: viola, violin, cello and acoustic guitar, and then playing them with a violin bow.
First of all I needed to thoroughly research how to make the instrument, in order to decide how big I wanted it, which strings I was going to use, how to play the instrument and where to find the parts.
On presenting my rough idea to my tutor, he gave me more tips and suggested I go to “Hobgoblin” - a music shop in central London, where I could buy all the necessary items I needed. The staff at “Hobgoblin” were very helpful, and on hearing my plans, they showed me other instruments to demonstrate to me ways I could make the “Lidinikus Maximus”, and gave me many design ideas. They helped me with choosing the right strings, picking the right bow and suggested to go to “J.P Guiver”, another music shop to get the cello string and bridge. On this project I found out things about myself that I never knew – it was very interesting to start learning about things that I had never learnt before, and I was amazed at my ability to design and build a whole new instrument, then perform with it, in a very short space of time.
Once I had finished designing the “Lidinikus Maximus” I asked an aquaintance to build the body of the instrument out of wood as he has carpentry skills and a workshop. The instrument would be slightly bigger than a violin, based on the shape of a guitar or similar, quite lightweight – made out of light weight, smoothed wood – and with a cello bridge fixed to the middle.
I was very impressed by the look of the instrument, and I attached the strings and electronics (pick up) to the body, and a Christmas Bell to the bow to add another layer of sound to the instrument.
There were some problems attaching the strings to the instrument. My idea was to screw the strings in or similar but it just wasn’t working the way I had planned it. At some point I thought to leave the strings and perform a silent piece, similar to John Cage’s “4’ 33” but I tried my best to make it work.
After spending hours in “B&Q” trying to find the right screws, I decided to go to “Hobgoblin” for advice. Luckily Mike, one of the staff, gave me four second hand machine heads which I then attached to the instrument with screws.
Finally I was able to get a sound of the “Lidinikus Maximus”! The pick up on the bridge allowed the sound to be put through an amp as it wasn’t loud enough on its own. In order to play the “Lidinikus Maximus” I stood the instrument on my left knee and played it as I would a cello (see picture below):
While I was performing the pick up was plugged into the amp, and it sounded much better than I had expected.
I was quite happy that I was able to start practising my performance. The “Lidinikus Maximus” was very hard to tune but the different sounds and tones of each different string were an interesting and innovative mix. When performing I was almost in a trance, part improvising my performance and going with what felt right. What I love about the instrument is that it is unique, and made a very emotional and expressive sound that I didn’t expect! In addition the Christmas bell was always ringing while I was moving the bow which added to the sound, and as well as playing with the bow, I plucked the strings of the “Lidinikus Maximus” to give a pizzicato effect which added more texture and variation to the performance.
I believe the performance was very atmospheric, particularly with the lighting, and the slow tempo of my playing, and I am proud to have built my own instrument, as it is something I would never have thought I could do.
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