Thunderstruck on a Street Organ (SLYT)

November 30, 2024 12:39 PM

Does what it says on the tin

His hat and scarf made me smile.

posted by Gorgik (9 comments total)

Now do "Lady of Spain".
posted by Czjewel at 1:24 PM on November 30

The popularity of this song in the panoramic annals of re-arrangement truly escapes me, but I do like this jacquard organ thing. Is there a notation software and printer that can The guy makes the cards by hand, but–not to diminish his work–surely this could be a job for an Arduino or RPi!
posted by rhizome at 2:07 PM on November 30

This made me strangely happy . . . I kept thinking of the joy I got from a player piano we had for a while when I was a kid. Something about seeing the patterns of the music on the rolls has always been deeply satisfying.
And hearing/seeing this here makes me appreciate the weird formalism of AC/DC . . .
posted by pt68 at 2:24 PM on November 30 [4 favorites]

You haven’t truly heard Thunderstruck until you’ve heard it in the original bluegrass.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 2:57 PM on November 30 [5 favorites]

What a talented young street urchin! I'd shake his hand, but he's probably got a bone-crushing grip from turning that crank.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 3:04 PM on November 30 [1 favorite]

This was totally cool. Like the sound trigger that was put in on banging on the frame.

Hate the flute tone though.

I think this will always be my favorite, Keep calm and play the Gayadeum. Though there is another woman doing it on some other Asian instrument. She hasn't the joy that Luna has, but she is doing it solo without editing and multi-tracking. Pretty amazing.

Also, a pretty great tune.
posted by Windopaene at 3:34 PM on November 30

I recently completed a commission writing arrangements for a 20-note crank (street, busker, monkey) organ that runs off MIDI. The thing has two diatonic octaves in Bb, plus F below, C and D above, and E naturals as the only accidentals. Apparently this is a really common arrangement in the crank-street-busker-monkey organ world. Gotta say, cramming something like Shake It Off or Mr. Brightside into that limited tonal vocabulary is a surprisingly entertaining exercise in harmony. My own workflow involved writing the actual arrangement in notation software, exporting it as a midi file, then opening it in a DAW and adjusting stuff (you have to shorten all the notes just a smidge or the poor little valves don't have enough time to cycle on and off).

This guy is super awesome!

Also: Conlon Nancarrow, paging Conlon Nancarrow...
posted by tspae at 5:32 PM on November 30 [5 favorites]

I enjoyed that enormously, thank you.

I did think "Now do Hocus Pocus".
posted by alfhild at 1:37 AM on December 1 [1 favorite]

@tspae, is this something you'd consider posting to Projects?
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 9:24 AM on December 2