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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
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Walking Pad: MERACH W50. I tried using a walking pad while working. It was fine during calls, but deep work while walking did not work for me. Then I made a rule: I can watch Netflix only while walking on the pad. That worked much better. I now easily reach 10,000 to 12,000 steps a day, and quite often more than 15,000.
Battery-Free Luggage Scale.We usually check one or two bags on family trips. I am also the person who really does not want to pay an overweight baggage fee. A luggage scale helps us check the weight before leaving and see whether there is still room for souvenirs. The problem with my old scale was the battery. Once, it died right before we left for the airport. This one has a tiny hand-powered generator inside. You push the button a few times, and it creates enough power to weigh the bag. No batteries and nothing to charge.
Tapo Smart Plugs. I do not like using the ceiling light in my home office. Instead, I have several lamps around the room. The light feels warmer and makes the office much nicer to work in. The annoying part was walking around and turning every lamp on and off. I connected them to Tapo smart plugs and grouped them together. Now I can control all the lamps with one tap in Apple Home or by saying, “Alexa (or Siri - I have both), turn on the office lights”.
DIGITAL
Spark Email. I have several email accounts for different purposes. Connecting all of them again every time I get a new device is annoying. I use Spark on two MacBooks, an iPhone, and an iPad. I connect my accounts once, and Spark syncs them across my devices. When I replace or upgrade a device, I do not have to set everything up again.
The Curious Procrastinator Newsletter. This is a weekly read about behavior, some of the psychology behind it, and useful technology. It mixes interesting ideas with personal stories and dry, self-sarcastic humor.
INVISIBLE
Answers are hidden in action, not thinking.
Many times, I do not know what to do. Sometimes I am not even sure what I am doing. But I have learned that I usually do not find the answer by searching or thinking longer. I find it by starting. Works every time.
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