The 28th annual Guthman Musical Instrument Competition includes a Fiddle-Henge, a modified bicycle wheel, and a 'Demon Box.' ...

Haymes calls himself a “utility infielder” in Ramblin Jug Stompers, responsible for many of the unusual sounds that don’t come from the typical stringed instruments in acoustic bands. At the band’s ...

April 2, 2012 • The minute its members were ensconced in our office, So Percussion started borrowing items to add to its set, from an amplified cactus and bells to a mug filled with spare change and ...

Musical innovation and uniqueness is what tends to set great artists apart from their contemporaries. Especially when it comes to the use of creative, unorthodox, or perhaps odd, instruments. Or ...

Last week, host Andrea Seabrook asked listeners to send in home recordings and photographs of their oddest musical instrument. The responses were eclectic, and some were indeed strange. Here is a ...

Upon discovering Gregg Miner's Museum of Vintage, Exotic and Just Plain Unusual Musical Instruments in Tarzana, Calif., a couple years ago, Weekend Edition essayist Tim Brookes saw something called a ...

On this week's Rhythm Planet we check out the hang, the UFO Swiss take on the steel drum.

Movies set in the past often rely on music to tell us just where we are. Most, but not all, of the composers of this year’s period pieces felt the obligation to reflect time and place. For Ridley ...