Before we start, I would like to share that at one point in my life, I had a motorcycle collision causing serious physical disabilities. My creation of these musical instruments greatly assisted in my recovery efforts. Refer to the “back story” section of this treatise for more details.
Now for a visual and audio tour of the aspects built into this prototype Tenor “Voice of Reason” I call “Unity”.
I chose Brazilian Rosewood for the body of this instrument. One of the two amazing properties of this exotic hard wood is the unparalleled visual beauty of its colors and natural arrays. As this one-of-a-kind musical instrument was manifesting 50 years ago, I scanned the various boards of Rosewood Identifying and selecting certain spatially perceivable areas.
I then matched and seamlessly unified them into one continuous scene of mountain, sky, comet, the turbulent forces of the sea and of humans.
(The Voice of Reason Fingering System: (available upon request)
The second aspect of this wood is its exceptional ability to absorb and sustain sign waves. Utilizing this ability, the instrument is now capable of housing, amplifying, and stabilizing the Nebula of sine waves that are being formed. To govern this intricately explosive interplay, a unique fingering system needed to be sculpted into unity. This resulted in facilitating such surprising phenomena as the “**Missing Fundamental Illusion”! Another of the aspects of my fingering system features the ergonomics of the calibrated sound hole I call the “Tragic Smile”. The “Surf is up” for one to maneuver these sine waves of dimensional frequencies.
In 1973, my intention was to manifest a prototype for all five voices of my proposed line of Voice of Reason musical instruments. Unity, therefore, was to be the apex prototype for my tenor voicing. It was built to encompass and exploit all my conceived innovative applications to this ancient ancestral vehicle of the *Griots. The modifications would, as I proposed, afford me the opportunity with my disabilities to attempt the intricate interplay famous for the so-called thumb piano. Curiously this was the path, and only achievable through this unique configuration, which was accommodating and transcending what little I had left of my dexterity.
The different playing styles
A traditional style – two thumbs striking the keys and the first fingers playing their sound holes. I did eventually set up my for-sale production line of instruments for this style. These instruments were sold throughout the United States and in England in such places as “The Museum of African Art”, Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute and “Musica Rara” in England.
My personal instruments are set up in the following modified style –
The four fingers of the left hand are for striking the keys while that thumb is naturally poised ergonomically over the “Tragic Smile” sound hole facilitating the focusing of notes as needed.
The right hand holds the chamber while its thumb, as well as the middle and third fingers employ the instrument’s fingering system focusing these side holes as each note may require:
Applications of my style
- Hollow toning
- Focusing a note
- Focusing an independent melody from a repeating pattern of notes or a base line
- Focusing a note within a cord
- Focusing a melody from within a repeating series of cords
- Trilling a note or a series
- Warbling
- Focusing a Missing fundamental note
* Explanation Griot – Within certain Ancient African tribes there were individuals who kept the history of the tribe, and they would. On special occasions retell the history and speak to the ancestors. They created and played idiophones (Mbira, Saunas, Kalimbas…) to assist them in their task to connect with the Ancestors.
**see the article – “The Phenomena Within the Voice of Reason”
Back Stories: The following will help you understand my need to create these musical instruments! Due to my paralysis, I conceived this prosthetic device to accommodate and assist in the performance of the complicated task set out by the Griots of old.
It turns out that through this “hero’s journey” I am regaining my muscles and lost dexterity. Thus, through these 50 years this construct assisted and waited as one overcame the grip of paralysis enough to begin gaining proficiency and awakening to the built-in intricacies which is the “Voice of Reason”!
Physical status – While on my motorcycle, a car crossed my path. At the time of this high-speed collision a few days before my 19th birthday in 1965 I sustained many injuries. The longest lasting was sustaining nerve damage to my right arm. This caused paralysis in those muscles and atrophy from the shoulder to my fingers. Which even now mostly can only grasp. Also, my right thumb became numb with no extension ability. Third, I sustained a broken left wrist. After the first setting of this wrist, serious complications developed. But this is the most functional of my appendages.
In 72 there was still considerable atrophy and weakness. So, I had a muscle transfer operation affording my right hand some ability to flex upward. Interestingly, I had been right-handed until I lost its use. In 1973 I still wore or had just discarded the last series of braces on my right arm and hand which had been a major necessity since the collision.
Therefore, in this new physical world of severe limitations and having no major woodworking experience I was building a prosthetic device. Creating a new concept out of an ancient construct, an intricate lefthand lead instrument without being able to experience or actively explore the dimensional spread and facility of function that would be required. But it was built further to challenge my dexterity until I regained it and could move forward.
For example, up until months before this writing. I had yet to fully realize that the “Tragic Smile” was ergonomically set. As the fingers of the left-hand stay poised to perform their varied tasks. The thumb is functionally positioned to focus any of the five lowest notes of this tenor’s optimal key arrangement. Also barely noticeable, there is a fifth sound hole in this chamber. A distorted Tragic Smile adjunct to its dimensional image. This instrument was truly manifest from the etheric plane where I believe one may explore with the assist of the Voice of Reason.
I am truly amidst a miracle.
P.S. Les Paul when injured had Doctors fuse his elbow so he could continue playing his unique style on the guitar. Interestingly, he was the first to develop the application of electricity to his guitar, achieving effects that are now the standard.
I on the other hand, modified the Ancient Mbira so it would be playable for me, prosthetically assisting my hand back to its functional equilibrium. In so doing you hear the beginnings of the amazing, and when proficiently mastered, Voice of Reason’s transcendent ability to affect, manipulate and create sine waves. All without the use of any electrical assistance.
Stay well and at peace, Ryphon!
The possibilities are endless for the system I envisioned so many years ago and built into this Tenor Voice of Reason.
