-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD --

I appreciate your reply and I am really looking for something new
and different.  I found a lot of information on the web in regard
to "artificial lips + trumpet" (enter this search string at Google)
and I was wondering if you heard of the glass armonica, which is an
instrument made of glass bowls and is made by the Finkerbiner Co.
http://www.glassarmonica.com/

I am interested also in the "waterphone" (www.waterphone.com) and
I am trying to make a musical saw machine.  The problem is the sound
has to be dampened or stopped after each note.  I think this is why
the musical saw is not more popular.

The steel drum also has the same problem but opposite: the sound dies
away right after it is hit.  That is why you hear the notes repeated so
many times.  I have often wondered of the steel drum could be sustained
electromagnetically after it has been struck?  Also I thought that
maybe you could have just one note per drum, like an xylophone.

Thank you for your help.
Avery Kravitz

 [ I've watched several skilled players of the musical saw.  The player
 [ tunes the saw by compressing the blade into a double bend.  He
 [ draws the rosined bow of a bass viol across the back to make it
 [ vibrate, and he plays a slow melody as on a violin.  The sound fades
 [ quite naturally in a few seconds when the bow is lifted; I don't
 [ recall a player damping the sound.  -- Robbie