
Sanduku – a string bass from Zanzibar with a tea-chest resonator. Sampho – Small barrel drum made out of hollowed out wood, with two calfskin heads, played with both hands. Saliamiya – A three-holed flute made from cane. Petri Prauda plays bagpipes made by Yrjänä Ermala. Although the Finnish bagpipes had nearly disappeared, they were revived in the late 20th century by musicians such as Petri Prauda, who formed the band Päre. Sakara – A Yoruba shallow ceramic drum with a circular body covered with goatskin, played with a stick. Sadev – gourd monochord zither with a gourd resonator. Säckpipa – Säckpipa means bagpipe in Swedish. Also known as buna in Andorra or coixinera, gaita or botella. Sac de gemecs – Sac de gemecs means bag of moans. The head is covered with shaved goat skin. It is the lead drum in a tantango set and is played with one hand using a short stick.

Sabaro – A long and narrow Mandinka drum carved from mango or mahogany wood. It is composed of solo drums called n’der and gorong yeguel, three accompanying drums known as gorong talmbat, m’bumg m’bung bal and m’bung m’bung tungoné. Each drummer plays one drum with one hand and a stick. Sabar – A Wolof orchestra of five to seven drums carved from solid mahogany.
WEIRD STRINGED INSTRUMENTS FULL
Until then, Gorkem wants to focus on understanding the full potential of the Yaybahar, and all the sound it has to offer.Your Connection to traditional and contemporary World Music, including folk, roots, global music, ethno and crosscultural fusions But in the future, he can see it becoming a new class of instrument.

Though he admits it’s probably still mostly a curiosity. Gorkem and his Yaybahar have been touring lately in Turkey and around Europe. “When you listen live this is really effective, really good mood and really good frequencies on the air,” Gorkem says. The result is a rich, reverberating sound that feels like it gets deep into your ears. For the Yaybahar, Gorkem uses a bow on the strings, like one would on a cello. One of his favorite songs to play is Gnossienne No. The whole idea of new life, a new beginning is important to Gorkem, he says. "Bahar" also means spring - as in the season. “The coil string is ‘yay,’” Gorkem explains. The bouncy coils play a huge role in the Yaybahar’s unique sound - so it makes sense that the instrument is named for them. This noise now is more musical.”Īlong with his ability to play it, the instrument itself has evolved from as many as 30 coils and membranes down to the two-springed Yaybahar Gorkem plays today. But it has evolved after six years of practice and much tweaking to the instrument itself. It makes really bad noise,” Gorkem admits. It is very cool - but is it music? “The first times of Yaybahar it's a really, really bad noise. When runs his finger down a coil, it makes an odd galactic "whoosh." And when he plucks a string on the fingerboard, it goes "pew" - a laser-gun-like sound.
WEIRD STRINGED INSTRUMENTS TRIAL
The springs attach to a tall neck – like a guitar or cello, but with just two strings.Īfter much trial and error, Gorkem found out that when he hits the membranes with a padded drum stick, the sound reverberates. The membranes are hooked to two very long springs that bounce all over when they’re touched. The Yaybahar is huge - it takes up Gorkem’s living room. When it’s shaken, it makes big, echoing sounds, like rolling thunder - and like the Yaybahar. The thunder drum is a small cylindrical instrument that has two drum-like membranes linked by a spring. The 33-year-old musician looked for inspiration to find his own unique sounds from all sorts of instruments: the Australian didgeridoo, the Turkish Ney and, most importantly, the thunder drum.

Gorkem invented the Yaybahar about six years ago in a hunt for his own unique sound.

“This is real time, acoustic, string synthesizer,” Gorkem Sen, the instrument’s creator, explains. It’s called the Yaybahar, and it’s completely acoustic. In Turkey, a new instrument has been invented that makes crazy galactic and laser-gun sounds.
