Homemade tube trumpets are natural trumpets constructed out of a length of hose pipe fitted with a kitchen funnel. They are used as teaching aids, [1] and by bands such as the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band [2] and Low Profile. [3]
As with the natural trumpet and bugle, the tube trumpet is a simple (valveless) brass instrument, and is therefore in principle limited to a single harmonic sequence, though by employing embouchure it can be made to produce a chromatic scale in the higher registers.
It can be constructed in any desired key depending on the length of tubing used; and a working tube trumpet can be retuned to a sharper pitch by trimming the hose. Once shortened it cannot be returned to its original or a flatter pitch.
By using a three foot length of garden hose and taping on a plastic funnel the principles of sound vibration can be demonstrated to music students. [1]
Unlike any other brass instrument, the tube trumpet is flexible, allowing the bell to be swung around the player's head. This gives it the unique ability to bend notes via the Doppler effect. This effect was demonstrated to good effect in an early hit of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, I'm the Urban Spaceman, which was reprised during their reunion tour. [2]
Low Profile were a New Zealand alternative rock band of the 1980s who released two albums - Quiet Streets (1982) and Elephunkin' (1987), but are best remembered for their quirky single Elephunk In My Soup, which included the use of a hosepipe trumpet they termed an Elephunk.
A hosaphone is one such homemade trumpet, which was used to compose a Codetta in C for Hosaphone(tm), Piano & Bass. [4]
A typical tube trumpet was made by Uncle Phil in the comic strip For Better or For Worse , which he termed a "hose-a-phonium". [5]
A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. The term labrosone, from Latin elements meaning "lip" and "sound", is also used for the group, since instruments employing this "lip reed" method of sound production can be made from other materials like wood or animal horn, particularly early or traditional instruments such as the cornett, alphorn or shofar.
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B♭ or C trumpet.
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibration i>Tuba is Latin for "trumpet".
Vivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for acting as Master of Ceremonies on Mike Oldfield's album Tubular Bells.
Neil James Innes was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the comedy rock group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the Monty Python troupe on their BBC television series and films, and is often called the "seventh Python" along with performer Carol Cleveland. He co-created the Rutles, a Beatles parody/pastiche project, with Python Eric Idle, and wrote the band's songs. He also wrote and voiced the 1980s ITV children's cartoon adventures of The Raggy Dolls.
GRIMMS were an English pop rock, comedy, and poetry group, originally formed as a merger of The Scaffold with two members of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and the Liverpool Scene for two concerts in 1971 at the suggestion of John Gorman.
Rodney Desborough Slater is a member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, playing saxophones and other musical instruments.
"Death Cab for Cutie" is a song composed by Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes and performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It was included on their 1967 album Gorilla.
Bonzo the Dog is a fictional cartoon character first created in 1922 by British comic strip artist George Studdy. The pup quickly rose to popularity in the 1920s. He starred in one of the world's first cartoons, became an inspiration for mass-marketed merchandise, and became a favourite among children and adults.
Gorilla is the debut album by Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, released by Liberty Records, LBL 83056, in 1967. In 2007, EMI reissued the album on CD with seven bonus tracks.
"C Jam Blues" is a jazz standard composed in 1942 by Duke Ellington and performed by countless other musicians, such as Dave Grusin, Django Reinhardt, Oscar Peterson, and Charles Mingus.
Robert Kerr is a comic musician who plays trumpet and cornet. He was originally a member of Spencer's Washboard Kings in 1965 and during 1966 he was a member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. In September 1966, he was persuaded by Geoff Stephens to join The New Vaudeville Band, before forming his own combo, Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band. Kerr was a part of a reunited Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band line-up of surviving members, which toured in 2006 and 2008.
Larry Smith, often known as "Legs" Larry Smith is an English drummer known from the satirical comedy jazz group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
Bill Posters Will Be Band was a comic musical group formed by musicians who were members of The Bonzo Dog Band and Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band. The band was formed late 1983 by Biff Harrison, Jim "Golden Boots" Chambers, Evil John Gieves Watson, Sam Spoons, Hugh Crozier and Dave Clennel.
Colour Me Pop was a British music TV programme broadcast on BBC2 from 1968–1969. It was a spin-off from the BBC 2 arts magazine show Late Night Line-Up. Designed to celebrate the new introduction of colour to British television, it was directed by Steve Turner, and showcased half-hour sets by pop and rock groups of the period. The programme was a pioneering precursor to the better-remembered BBC music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test (1971–87). Unlike its successor, most of the editions of Colour Me Pop are missing, due to the BBC's archival policy of the time.
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band was created by a group of British art-school students in the 1960s. Combining elements of music hall, trad jazz and psychedelia with surreal humour and avant-garde art, the Bonzos came to public attention through appearances in the Beatles' 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour and the 1968 ITV comedy show Do Not Adjust Your Set.
"The Intro and The Outro" is a recording by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It appears on their debut album, Gorilla (1967). It is not so much a song as a comic monologue in which the speaker introduces the musicians who ostensibly appear on the recording. The recording fades out before the emcee completes the introductions and without the "orchestra" being able to play anything more than a vamp. The piece was written by Bonzo member Vivian Stanshall, who also provides the vocal. The Oxford English Dictionary credits this song as the first known use of the word "outro".
Patrick & Eugene are an English musical duo, made up of Patrick Dawes and Eugene Bezodis. They are best known for their songs, "The Birds and the Bees", which was featured in two commercials; one for Volkswagen and another for Gordon's Gin, as well as appearing in YouTube classic "The to-do list", and "Don't Stop", which featured in a commercial for The Laughing Cow cheese. The title track to their 2009 album Altogether Now can be heard during the closing credits of two American series, both Showtime's Weeds and ABC's Grey's Anatomy. Their music has also been used for the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading and the trailer the 2007 film Mr. Bean's Holiday.
The whirly tube, corrugaphone, or bloogle resonator, also sold as Free-Ka in the 1960s-1970s, is an experimental musical instrument which consists of a corrugated (ribbed) plastic tube or hose, open at both ends and possibly wider at one end (bell), the thinner of which is rotated in a circle to play. It may be a few feet long and about a few inches wide. The faster the toy is swung, the higher the pitch of the note it produces, and it produces discrete notes roughly belonging to the harmonic series, like a valveless brass instrument generates different modes of vibration. However, the first and the second modes, corresponding to the fundamental and the second harmonics, are reported as being difficult to excite. To be played in concert the length of the tube must be trimmed to tune it.
Unpeeled is a 1995 compilation of sessions recorded by The Bonzo Dog Band for the John Peel show on the BBC during the late sixties.
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