Not sure what it is called but it has chimes that dangle from a chord, or string. Like maybe a couple dozen chimes. There is no way that instrument could be played in weightlessness… the chimes would be dangling all over and banging into themselves.
Is there any other instrument that so sharply evokes an earworm as Tubular Bells? I also keep hearing Vivian Stanshall announcing it (plus … tubular BELLS!)?
I’d also be interested in what would happen if you had a large space and a musician-instrument harness mechanism. How would individual musician’s orientation/spin change with playing? Would a trumpeter start revolving around their centre of mass as the trumpet’s bell acted as an engine of sorts? As a djembe player, I frequently have to hold the bottom steady between my calves if I’m standing—how would I start moving? Would a bagpiper go jetting across the room? Which musician would move the most–and which the least?
I think it would work - it’s an escapement mechanism with a sprung pendulum - I believe it’s more reliant on mass, motive force and the moment arm - An oscillator on a spring should work regardless of gravity (although it might calibrate differently)
Too late for edit - it took me a while to find a picture of the internals of a metronome, and it looks like they are not sprung, but weighted - in which case, yes - it won’t work.
Right – it won’t work. A classical (not electronic) metronome is a pendulum in exactly the same way as a grandfather clock is; the escapement just keeps it going, but gravity is the main factor.
The accordion and “Lady of Spain.”
And hell, here’s the same astronaut playing the acoustic guitar in microgravity (at the end of the short video).
Here’s the important question. You’ve got a guitar on the ISS. A crewmember picks it up, tunes it, and starts playing “Stairway to Heaven” or “Sweet Home Alabama”. I think there’s 3 possibilities.
- The other crewmen toss the guitar player out of the airlock.
B. The other crewmen toss the guitar out of the airlock.
iii. The other crewmen toss both the guitar and player out of the airlock.
Oh, and for 1 and iii, should the guitar player be wearing a space suit?
Darned edit window!
I’m leaning toward 1 with the sans spacesuit option.
And while I’m at it, here’s another question:
Pete Townsend is in a space station in orbit. He’s got a guitar with a belt around his waist and right thigh to hold it in his preferred playing position (he likes the body low). He and the guitar are floating. The space is large enough that he’s not going to make contact with anything; he’s not strapped down. He starts playing and doing his windmilling of his right arm. Will counter-torque forces make his body rotate anti his windmilling? If he stops windmilling his arm, would any induced motion stop or continue?
Cause, dammit, there are just some things we NEED TO KNOW!
The traditional Hurdy Gurdy or *vielle à roue * won’t work properly - it uses gravity to return the keys.
I imagine the triangle could be played by batting it back and forth with a rod.
That’s known as a glass harp.