Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, but the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.
Best DIY instrument how-to
Here are three great guides for making your own musical instruments. Advantages of making your own: 1) Personalized, 2) Cheaper, 3) Types no one else sells, 4) Satisfaction of making. There is not much overlap of instruments featured between these three books. The coolest of the three guides is Making Gourd Musical Instruments. It has very explicit step-by-step instructions for making 60 instruments using lightweight gourds as the sound amplifiers. Gourds enable wind, string and percussion instruments – so you could make an entire orchestra. This book has the most variety of musical options and great examples of world-wide traditional instruments for inspiration. If you can get only one of these three books, this should be it.
Making Musical Instruments by Hand is a good guide for making instruments from wood and wood veneers. Their builds are a little more complex resulting in instruments that may look more “professional.” They require a bit more skills and tools, although none out of the ordinary.
But if you are making your own instruments, why not make ones that have never existed before? Sound Designs, an older book, lays out helpful hints for making 50 different unorthodox instruments using salvage materials. It stresses innovative interpretations: how about oxygen bottles for bells, or electrical conduit xylophones? Its intent is to encourage you to not just make your own musical instruments, but to invent them as well. – KK
Become a Patron!Support our reviews, videos, and podcasts on Patreon!
Cool tools really work.
A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.
I always feel a little stressed when packing the day before a morning flight’s departure, but it’s gotten a little easier since I realized I could just buy two of everything and have a toiletry kit that’s packed and ready to go each time. It has a smaller electric toothbrush than I use at home (mentioned earlier here) and second versions of floss, toothpaste, face cream, comb, nail clipper, etc. in TSA-friendly sizes. The only thing I add/remove is a larger sunscreen bottle if I’m checking a bag and headed to a beach.
Data-backed Trends in Travel
Expedia and a few of its partner companies released their annual travel trends report recently and since this one is backed by search and booking data, it’s worth paying attention to for what’s really happening. The destinations seeing the biggest increase in searches are a mixed bunch: the top 5 were Big Sky, Okinawa, Sardinia, Phu Quoc (Vietnam), and Savoie (France). Other trends they highlight included “salvaged stays” in repurposed buildings, “hotel hops” of staying in different places, and “set jetting” — exploring places where movies were set or filmed.
Top Asian Countries for Expats
When more than 10,000 expats gave their opinions in the most recent International Expat Survey, 5 of the top 10 destinations were in Asia. Latin America still wins the medals with the top 3, but Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, China, and Indonesia all made the top 10. No surprise since you’ll run into hundreds of expats in Chiang Mai, Da Nang, or Penang, but it’s interesting to see China showing up so highly. “Convenience is a recurring theme, with expats across China raving about fast public transportation to efficient online shopping.” See the full story here, with a link to the source material.
A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.
