Musical Instruments Week, Day 2: The Drone Drum (Video)

It's Musical Instruments Week here on the SEAS News & Events page. Each day, we'll feature a different instrument created as part of the course Musical Acoustics & Instrument Design (ENAS344/MUSI371), taught by Larry Wilen, a Yale senior research scientist and design mentor in the Center for Engineering Innovation & Design, and Konrad Kaczmarek, a composer and lecturer in the Department of Music. The students presented their instruments May 4, 2016 at the CEID in the John Klingenstein '50 Design Lab.

Today, we feature the Drone Drum, created by Jack Lawrence, who's majoring in music and studying composition. He's also a guitarist who performs jazz and classical. Here, in his words, is how the Drone Drum came about:

"I got the idea for it after spending some time trying to use a guitar as both a percussive and harmonic instrument by drumming on the body and bridge. I was somewhat disappointed with the results and decided to build an instrument that maximized these two capabilities. I'm also very interested in incorporating drones and harmonic pedal points into my compositions, which this instrument obviously gives itself to naturally."