Building a PVC Instrument

Brought to you by NateTrue.com

Phase V: Playing your new instrument

Paddles

The cheapest thing to use is…you guessed it…your hands. Hitting it with your palm makes more of a boingy sound; using your fingers will make a purer sound (but it will make your fingers hurt!).

NEW: The paddles Jesse (my friend and co-builder) made make quite a good sound. They’re made from wood and an old mouse pad. He made them so that they don’t cover the entire opening of the pipe; this doesn’t seem to alter the sound at all. The wood is used as both the backing and the handle, and the mouse pad is doubled up to reach about a quarter-inch of thickness.

More later…

Blue Man Group notes

As stated in Phase I, Blue Man Group uses seven notes. If you’ve followed my recommendations, you’ll have only included these seven. If you haven’t, use your F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#, and E tubes only.

PVC IV melody

Here it is:

Note that in measures 4 through 7 the lower notes are optional.

Don’t know how to read sheet music? I DON’T EITHER!

I can tell you the first note is F#. You can figure it out from there.

Rods and Cones PVC basics

First of all let me tell you that if you didn’t double up on same-pitched tubes, you can’t play this:

That’s the Backpack Tubulum solo. (5 notes: G#, A, F#, D#, and E in order of appearance)

Here’s the bass tubulum that plays behind it:

This consists of F#, B, E, C#, and A.

The new tune from the Pentium III commercial

My personal favorite… Notes are B, F#, A, C#, E, and D#.

On to Phase VI: Conclusions

Back to the Index

This guide is Copyright © 2001 Nathan True; All Rights Reserved.

Questions? E-mail pvcmaster@natetrue.com