What does a carrot sound like? Does it make, um, a grating noise? And what about a zucchini or eggplant? We bet you never thought you’d be asked these questions, but we like to surprise and keep you on your toes! Not only that, but we actually bring you answers, so today you will learn something new and totally amazing. Wait, you’ll see!
Honestly, we are not making this up – let us introduce you to …the Vegetable Orchestra, a group of innovative Austrian musicians who tour the world and perform on instruments made from fresh vegetables. The question that begs to be asked is “why?” As the musicians explain it, veggies “create a musically and aesthetically unique sound universe.” And there is more: “There are no musical boundaries for the Vegetable Orchestra’” the band points out. “The most diverse music styles fuse here – contemporary music, beat-oriented House tracks, experimental Electronic, Free Jazz, Noise, Dub, Clicks’n’Cuts – the musical scope of the ensemble expands consistently, and recently developed vegetable instruments and their inherent sounds often determine the direction.” So what does a carrot, pumpkin, cucumber, and red pepper combo sound like? Judge for yourself!
You may be wondering where do the musicians get their instruments every day? As you can see , before each performance, the band shops for fresh vegetables. Then they start carving, drilling holes, and otherwise prepping the veggies for that night’s concert, making sure that a carrot can be used like a flute and pumpkin is hard enough to be a drum of sorts. And the experimentation never ceases. “We constantly develop new instruments,” the musicians say. “Each time we perform we refine our instruments or experiment with new variants.” What happens once the performance is finished? Obviously, unlike the conventional instruments, veggies tend to go bad, but the band doesn’t believe in wasting food. So at the end of each concert, the musicians make a big pot of vegetable soup that they serve to the audience.
At Hey Joe Guitar, we love our veggies – to eat, not to play them. In fact, when it comes to making music, our teachers are traditionalists – they like their guitars to be made from wood, the trumpets from brass, and they don’t expect any instruments to be edible. So if you want your music teacher to show you how to blow into a carrot or beat on a pumpkin – sorry, we can’t help you with that. But if you or your child want to learn to play a “regular” instrument, one of our awesome teachers will come to your Manhattan, Brooklyn or Riverdale home or office and give you lessons.
