Harmodica
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The Harmodica was built for the final project of Ithai Benjamin's "Handmade Music" class in the Collaborative Arts program. I wanted to explore the idea of modulation in an especially messy, improvised aesthetic. The instrument itself consists of a stripped and rewired voice modulator attached to a Fender Harmonica.
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Said aesthetic is what I'm coining as "garage-punk", With a heavy emphasis on exposed wiring/electronics and visibly layered components. An aesthetic of home DIY and repurposed electronics as attachments or "mods"
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For the construction of it, I actually crossed the street to the Five Below, notorious for their junky cheap toys. I got a toy voice changer, the ones that are shaped like little megaphones, and stripped it down to it's base components: a microphone, a PCB, a speaker, and a battery pack.
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I soldered in a button and LED inbetween the battery for control as well as a bigger speaker and glued it all together to a bit of laser cut scrap. The microphone is placed right in front of the harmonica to catch the vibrations from the reeds while the speaker was placed off to the side for hand cusp shape and to avoid feedback. The whole fixture then clips onto the harmonica, fulfilling it's piece as an attachable gadget or "mod".
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But one key takeaway from building instruments is the intrinsic two step nature of the process. First, you find the sound and you build the instrument. Then you have to practice and play! Anything produces sound, but the act of learning the depth and multitude and rhythm of it is the beautiful birth of music.
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