Plastic musical instruments

As you read the title of this entry (or did you skip it and go right to the body, like I often do?) what did you think of? When I hear the phrase "plastic musical instrument" I think of those cheap, translucent recorders you can buy in the music stores. If I think a little bit longer I picture the nicer, Yamaha recorders that many of you played in elementary school (or play now, if you're an early music fan like I am). Then there's the bass that my friend Alex and I were discussing the other day--we decided that it would be really cool to create a bass made of plastic and fill it with water. T'would sound very...interesting. :-D

Did any of you think of LEGO? I certainly wouldn't have imagined those wonderful building blocks which are still in a drawer somewhere in my parents' house. O:-) Now when I think of LEGO, I think of that fabulous "Knights of the Round Table" ditty from Monty Python... But I digress!

I don't even remember how this came up in the conversation but I ended up telling my friend Deb about a cello which someone made out of LEGO. I promised that I'd find the info and share it with her; then it occurred to me that other people might be curious as well. And while looking up the cello I remembered that someone also made a harpsichord out of LEGO--one which actually plays!

So here, for you all to enjoy, are two musical instruments made (almost) entirely out of LEGO.

Cello by Nathan Sawaya, brickartist.com (Also check out Sawaya's Stephen Colbert)
Harpsichord by Henry Lim, henrylim.org (Be sure to listen to the sound clips)