Awesome Strings

The Clavemusicum Omnitonum Modulis Diatonicis Cromaticis et Enarmonicis is a microtonal harpsichord that can play diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic melodies. Musician Georg Vogel demonstrates its unusual sound with an excerpt from Chick Corea’s You’re Everything, played on a modern replica of the 17th-century instrument. More here.

While it’s not as well-made as something by a luthier, Bernth’s homebrew harp guitar has more strings than we’ve ever seen on a string instrument. He cobbled it together from several smaller instruments and tuned them all differently to perform his track I’ll Still Miss You. We’re impressed that he can remember how all of the notes are arranged.

Luke from Instrument Maniac bests his 91 instrument performance, with 20 additional ways to play music. This, the snippets connect into a single song rather than just playing the same lick repeatedly. For a real challenge, try naming as many instruments as you can with your eyes closed.

Wake up! Grab a brush and put a little makeup. During a concert by Epic Symphonic Rock, a quartet of cello players (and a dude with a wooden box) jammed out this great sequence of tunes, including a Nirvana medley, Iron Maiden’s The Trooper, and System of a Down’s Chop Suey.

DoodleChaos spent over 100 hours working on this musical Minecraft design. Sit back and enjoy this invigorating mine cart ride which syncs up perfectly with the Vitamin String Quartet’s phenomenal cover of the My Chemical Romance track I’m Not Okay (I Promise).

Let us kick it like it’s 2017 now. The Vitamin String Quartet performs a socially-distanced cover of Portugal.The Man’s Feel It Still, bringing their energetic mix of classical and contemporary elements to the megahit track from a few years back.

A group of five talented musicians from the Colorado Symphony got together for a wonderful outdoor performance of the Eurythmics classic Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). While we still can’t get out to see orchestras perform in person, please remember to support your local musicians.

Performing under the name Goat Rodeo, musicians Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile turn in a wonderfully stripped-down performance that combines elements of jazz, bluegrass, country, folk, and classical music. Vocalist Aoife O’Donovan accompanies the quartet for the final song “The Trappings.”

Russian string trio SILENZIUM performs a vibrant cover of the 1990 Depeche Mode classic Enjoy the Silence, putting their own unique spin on the ballad with a nod or two to the original’s music video.

A trio of classical musicians teamed up with interactive artists Ouchhh on this innovative performance art work for Ars Electronica, using sensors to measure data from its cellist’s Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta and Gamma brainwave activity to generate real-time visuals influenced by emotion, focus, auditory, and other neural response.

Enjoy two strange musical bedfellows, Europe’s 1986 hit The Final Countdown and Dvorak’s 9th Symphony, melded by the Papageorgio String Quartet a. Be sure to listen to their Beethoven vs Metallica and Led Zeppelin vs Bach and My Chemical Romance vs Pachelbel too.

The women of Thalia Strings tear up the place with an effervescent cover version of AC/DC’s 1990 rock classic Thunderstruck, arranged for acoustic strings by Amy Cave. Prefer Aerosmith to AC/DC? They’ve got you covered.

The Vitamin String Quartet’s new album pays tribute to Iceland’s one and only Bjork. The first single is an enchanting cover version of Venus as a Boy, accompanied by a beautiful papercut stop-motion music video.

During the UK launch event for the Mazda MX-5 RF, THePETEBOX teamed up with The Pisces Rising’s talented string players and vocalists to perform a handful of unique covers, including MGMT’s Kids, Nirvana’s Lithium, and Pixies’ Where Is My Mind.

Guitarist Joe Bonamassa takes on cellist Tina Guo in an epic speed battle. They lead off with Flight of the Bumblebee then head straight into the track Woke Up Dreaming. We couldn’t pick a clear winner, other than the audience at Carnegie Hall.