Gutbucket bass is a fun instrument.  I haven't heard of using heavy fishing line, but some home-brew cello and bass projects I've seen used weed whacker line.  I hear that can be bowed, so it might be an even more interesting choice.  More playing options. 

Already have a couple violins, an autoharp and a dulcimer, so maybe making a banjo out of a tunafish can or cookie tin would be more innovative.  Might take a bit more construction than something like a diddly-bo, but I have seen one on youtube that was made out of part of a Cadillac transmission that I thought was pretty impressive.

feature=relmfu

Knew a lady years ago who could play a mean set of spoons.  She also played dulcimer, though not at the same time.  I've never been good with percussion, myself.

I must admit that washboards are an instrument I have never understood, though.  How in the world do you tune them?

@ozmous:  Good going, Oz.  Your approach would be better for most folks.  But my friend has some sort of aversion to actual written music, since somewhere over the years he has gotten the notion that he'd never be able to learn to read it.  I've run into that with him before when trying to get him into other musical instruments.  Kind of annoying when you know someone who is fascinated with the instruments, has a good ear and sense of melody and rhythm, but has gotten this notion into their head that they can't play, can't learn to read music and where if you start talking theory, it is like a light turning off. 

@Picklefish: I will leave being a teacher to brave souls such as yourself.  Even on the instruments I can actually play, I don't have the skill-set that it takes to be a teacher.  Violin is an instrument that I am still quite a ways from "knowing how to play".  I'm still working on learning basics.  So far as any style of playing like fiddling?  I'm pretty much clueless, and I know it.  He's going to be on his own with that. 

The electric bass guitar was another instrument people pretty much made for themselves at first.  I've seen some pretty wild designs for such things in places like old issues of Popular Mechanics and such.

That second video that Picklefish posted is particularly interesting, since that isn't a usual gutbucket as I have ever seen them done.  The player is fingering it like an upright bass rather than using the stick to change tension on whatever he is using for strings.  Interesting, since the basic construction could be applied for making an electric upright bass or maybe a cello of sorts.

Well, different folks may think different on the concept, but I have personally never been averse to cobbling together an instrument to mess around with.  Good to get "proper" instruments and learn music in a "proper" sense.  But it can also be good to cobble together whatever you can and get a jam going and just have fun.  Washtub or "gut-bucket" basses, I think I first cobbled one together back in my teens.  And then again at a few parties over the years, at least in years gone by.  They don't project much, but you can get some pretty wild bass sounds out of them if you mess around a bit.  Hadn't thought of piezo pickups on one yet, but I should have.

But any way it can be done, if you can get someone playing even a bit on anything, the possibility that it will stir their interest enough to want to go further exists. 

@Almandin: My autoharp has a broken string I need to replace and no local place around here carries autoharp strings, of course.  But I'll see what I can do so far as at least an audio recording.  I still play it, since hey, 30 or so strings still work fine.  LOL  But it does kind of affect my choice of keys to play in on it.  Mine is an old Oscar Schmidt from probably about the 1960s or so.  I've been thinking of working up some backing tracks with autoharp for playing violin to on some songs, but haven't gotten around to it yet. 

One of the main reasons I took up violin was to have it for recording.  Using string "samples" on a keyboard just isn't the same, and I feel one never really writes good parts for instruments one doesn't actually play.  You can kinda get the sound with electronic keyboards and etc, but a lot of the spirit and feel of the actual instrument is just missing.    

Fiddlestix said
Why don't you order a string for the autoharp online ?

 

  Well, I have been meaning to, Fiddlestix.  But violins have kept being the priority, and then guitars.  I have a new set of strings for my oud sitting by it's case that I haven't gotten around to putting on yet because I'm usually playing violin and guitar mostly these days. 

One of the problems of having an assortment of instruments is keeping up with the upkeep. 

Even just making sure everything is tuned up takes a bit of time out of every day.  LOL

This post is a little long, so I am going to put a reply to Fiddlestix at the beginning instead of the end.  Skip this first part if you have no interest in that.

@Fiddlestix:

Well that does it, i'm starting to give Skype lesson's. Who want's to sign up ? 

I kind of hope you weren't just kidding.  I did ask what you were thinking of teaching, meaning what scope, style(s), maybe an idea of possible repertoire, ballpark idea of what rates you'd charge?  Any prerequisites or auditions required? 

I might be interested, if that wasn't meant as humor.  At the moment, budget and the holidays coming up would be in the way, but I know that at least somewhere in the early part of the new year, I expect to be hitting the "one year wall/plateau".  So I have been looking around a bit to see who does give lessons and looking into the details a bit, since even a few lessons can help bust that plateau and I may have enough basics down by then. 

If it was just humor, I would respectfully suggest that you reconsider.  You are a fine player, Fiddlestix.  Lots of experience, I've heard a little of your playing that you've posted and you have some good style that is at least close to some of what I want to be able to do someday.  You know more about the instrument itself than most folks.

I think you could be a very good teacher, and definitely one that I would seriously consider taking some lessons from, if it is an actual option.  I don't think I am the only one who might be interested, either.  If you were joking, ok, I fell for it.  Have your laugh, it was a good one.  But I wasn't joking or laughing.  Just sayin'.

-----

So there was another short "lesson" tonight.  He had to show off how much work he's put into the new song over the past 24 hrs.  LOL  And had some questions about tab, since I hadn't explained all the symbols used in the ones he ran into online. 

I don't use tab much, myself.  Nothing wrong with it, but if you already know standard notation, tab doesn't have much of an advantage.  It's easy enough to pick up and probably good to know in case one runs into a piece you want to play that might only be available in tab sometimes, or for being able to communicate with players who use it.

I think of standard notation vs tab notation as being sort of like learning English (or any other "standard" language) vs Esperanto (Google Esperanto if you haven't heard of it and are wondering).  Tab is quicker to learn, in some ways, but not as widely used.  It can sure work to allow a person to read a new song and so they can communicate musical ideas, but there isn't near as much material available in it because not as many people use it.  And I don't use tab myself enough to be particularly fluent in it for fiddle/violin tab or even guitar tab.  But enough that I can figure it out when I run into it.

With this particular person, it's not like he "isn't smart enough" to learn standard notation or anything like that.  (Nor do I feel that to be true of other tab players, either.)  But time was limited for "lessons", since I only promised him a month's worth.  He had a bit of mental block against standard notation from grade school music classes, and I knew that from knowing him over the years.  Also he is the sort of person that responds better to learning if they can think of it as "picking up a few tricks" rather than formally learning a subject step by step from the very basics.

Another consideration was that the person is already what I would call a musician, though some might not.  He was a party DJ in years gone by and worked up some of his own pieces and songs using software like sequencers.  That uses loops and segments, but when the person also writes their own loops and segments to use from scratch, I personally would call that "writing music" and "song-writing".  Probably some wouldn't.  But so he has the sense of how to use timing/duration, if something is in tune or not, can hear some intervals, recognize if a chord or scale is major or minor by the sound, and so on.  Just never has really done it with an actual physical instrument.  Which was something I always felt was a shame.  He has a good ear and a good sense of composition and can come up with things that are listenable/danceable. 

So an unusual sort of "student", and not a situation where I felt I was having to "teach music" in any standard sense.  Just getting him past some obstacles and showing him a few things to get him going enough that he can enjoy it and get enthused and excited enough about it to want to play.  I honestly think that is all he needed.  He thinks he needs more, but "officially" so far as I am concerned, the whole "teacher/lesson" thing is done as of about Nov 4.  So he can get a couple more lesson sessions in before then if he likes.  But I think that for "4 lessons" so far, he has done very good and doesn't actually *need* a "teacher".

Tonight we went over a few points of the tab notation and how it applied to a tab version of "Jingle Bells" he found.  I saw he was using little arrows to show remind himself whether to start a section or phrase on up or down stroke to have it feel right.  So I showed him the standard notation marks for bow strokes, since it was a good opportunity for that.  Also showed how to dot notes to show staccato.  Things like that work as well on a tab score as they do on standard notation and there's no point in re-inventing the wheel if you don't have to.

He's finding standard notation a bit more interesting as a concept now that he knows what a few of the symbols mean and that the "lines and dots" were originally just a way to cue children singing songs.  Knowing that it is as much of a "cheat" as tab, well, he might want to learn more about it someday.  Time will tell.

In my opinion, the biggest obstacle to learning to read music is is having to get over the idea that it is "something hard".   Standard notation, like tab, was the most simple and easy way possible that somebody could come up with to show sounds via marks that could be scribbled down on a piece of paper.  Once a person understands that, then I think almost anyone can learn how to read music (standard notation or tab) pretty fast.  

Sight-reading at tempo is another matter.  That takes time and practice to be able to do well, like learning touch typing does.  I can't do that on violin myself, because I haven't put that work in yet.  But anyone who can type well enough to post or chat and learn symbols mean something well enough to use the icons to be able to post a reply and navigate this site.. Well, learning standard notation or tab well enough to be able to work a piece out or scribble down an idea is the most important part, in my opinion.  I believe that everyone who has ever posted here is definitely more than "smart enough", if they want to learn to read music.  Anyone new who thinks they can't is selling themselves short.