While a band named Buffalo Death Beam sounds like a blend of electro-metal and techno, it’s actually a folk band from Pullman with an interesting blend of instrumental talent.
The seven members of the band have been together for a little more than three years, and features bassoon player Tiffany Harms.
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument invented in Germany. It’s a double reed instrument meaning the sound comes from two reeds vibrating against one another. The only other double reed instruments in existence are the English horn and the oboe, Harms said.
“It has a huge range for any woodwind instrument — four and half octaves,” Harms said.
Her favorite part about the bassoon is that it’s constantly being reinvented and updated.
“Every year they come out with a new key or some improvement on the instrument to make it better,” she said.
The bassoon came into the mix of Buffalo Death Beam a year and a half into the band’s existence.
Harms had an electric pickup installed on her bassoon that allowed her play the instrument’s notes through an amplifier and play more in concert settings with the band.
During a show, Harms said bassoons are nearly impossible to microphone because they are so big, but the pickups make it possible.
The most recent show the band played was at the Treefort Music Festival in Boise March 22 where the band made a lot of new connections, Harms said.
While the bassoon can take physical strength to play and hold, the bagpipes require strong lungs and precise breathing techniques.
Mallory Triplett has been playing her bagpipes for seven years.
She now plays them about once a month, but before she became a University Idaho student, she played them three or four times a week with her band.
“When a person first begins to learn how to play the bagpipes, they start out with something called a chanter — which looks like a recorder with a reed in it. This is how you get used to playing the bagpipes,” Triplett said.
It takes about six months to learn how to play the bagpipes, but, overall it takes more than a year before a person can actually play them. Triplett said.
“It takes a lot of strength and lung power,” she said. “I really enjoy that they are a unique instrument and that they take a lot of effort to play.”
There is a bagpipe group on campus that will teach students to play the bagpipes, learn how to march with them and to memorize music.
Nearly every culture has created instruments that are unique. Navin Chettri plays instruments from Northern India, West Africa and Nepal.
Chettri has been playing the pabla since he was 5 years old. The pabla is a classical Indian instrument.
“I also play instruments from West Africa like the bougarabou drums, djmbes and a lot of hand percussion, and of course, I play the drum set,” he said.
Chettri’s favorite instrument is any percussion instrument, but if he had to choose three they would be the drum set, the pabla and African drums.
“Even though harmony and melody have been explored a lot, rhythm I think is something that is almost intimate,” Chettri said. “Rhythm is a big part (of the musical experience) for me.”
He said he likes all of the instruments, but each one has their own personality that can be emphasized in different types of music.
“Music is something I started liking when I was a little guy. It makes me feel happy, relaxed and it’s got the element of intellectual as well as spiritual,” Chettri said.
Molly Spencer can be reached at [email protected]