ExMI BACK ISSUES
Short Version

This is a concise chronological listing of Experimental Musical Instruments back issues and their contents. For a much longer and more detailed listing, with synopses of each article augmented by additional keywords (suitable for text searches on topics of your choice) click here.

Recordings reviews are not included in the listings on this page. For a list of recordings reviews which appeared in EMI over the years, click here.

To order back issues, click here

VOLUME I #2, AUGUST 1985
Sharon Rowell's ceramic multiple ocarinas; Ellen Fullman's Long String Instrument; the Glass Orchestra; the Sound Wave Festival; book review of Emil Richards' World of Percussion and Range Finder; the American Musical Instrument Society; listing of recent articles appearing in other periodicals.

VOLUME I #3, OCTOBER 1985
Ron Konzak's Puget Sound Wind Harp; Glenn Branca's Harmonics Guitar; Tom Nunn's Mothra; Some Thoughts on Sound Art Exhibits by Peter Brown; The Guild of American Luthiers; review of Marlin Halverson's Sonic Art catalog; Chris Brown's Alternating Currents cassette; performances by Totem and Nazim Ozel; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME I #4, DECEMBER 1985
The Bi-Level Guitar by David Marriott; Slit Drums and Boos; Tom Nunn's Crustacean; Musical Instrument Categorization Systems; Wendy Chambers' Car Horn Organ; selected bibliography of books relating to new instruments; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME I #5, FEBRUARY 1986
The Lesiba of Southern Africa by Charles Adams; Bart Hopkin's Disorderly Tumbling Forth; the Interval Foundation and the Conference of Intervalic Music; Scales and their Mathematical Factors by Christopher Banta; review of the Musicworks 30 tape; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME I #6, APRIL 1986
Nazim Ozel's Semi-Civilized Tree; Susan Rawcliffe's ceramic flutes, ocarinas and space whistles; names for invented instruments; kitchen bands; the Galpin Society; review of the Sound/Art catalog; listing of recent articles appearing in other periodicals.

VOLUME II #1, JUNE 1986
Stephen Smith's Conduit Marimbas and Glass Marimbas; Robin Goodfellow's teaching with homemade instruments; the New Instruments / New Music concert series; bibliography of instrument making books for children and teachers; review of LARD and the Nihilist Spasm Band recordings; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME II #2, AUGUST 1986
Daniel Schmidt's American gamelan instruments; Ivor Darreg's Megalyra family of instruments; the American Gamelan Institute; 6 Un-Invented Instruments by Tim Olsen; Instruments without History, an essay; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME II #3, OCTOBER 1986
Richard Waters' Waterphones; Minnie Black's gourd instruments; Principles of Mallet Design, by Rick Sanford; record review of Sonde (performing group of instrument designers); Darrell Devore's Mallet Kalimba; Prior's Reference Handbook of Music Math book review; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME II #4, DECEMBER 1986
Siemen Terpstra's Polychord 1; Gerhard Finkenbeiner's Franklin Glass Harmonicas; Signal Processing with Microcomputers, by David Courtney; the Just Intonation Network, some introductory words on just intonation, record review of Parallel Galaxy by Emmet Chapman (inventor of the Stick); Lark in the Morning search and sell services; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME II #5, FEBRUARY 1987
Keyboard Alternatives -- history and background, bibliography of periodicals, plus new keyboard layouts by Bob Phillips and Mel Sohler; review of a newly-reprinted collection of early Deagan Company catalogs; Warren Burt's justly-tuned tuning forks; Denny Genovese's Fipple Pipe; review of journals devoted to musical saw and Jew's harp; new instruments in France; Medica Musica; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME II #6, APRIL 1987
The Violin Octet; more gourd instruments, including: mvet and vina by Matthew Finstrom, musical bows by Tony Pizzo, Mbiras by Lucinda Ellison, and the Oxford Gourd Ensemble by Lawrence Sherman; book review of Leonardo da Vinci as a Musician by Imanuel Winternitz; recording review of As I See It by Ernie Althoff; listing of recent articles appearing in other periodicals.

VOLUME III #1, JUNE 1987
Hybrid Instruments by Ken Butler; The Wall Harp; Slide Whistles large & small; Kayolonian Instruments; Windsuck; National Association of Band Instrument Repair Technicians; review of the Making Music exhibit catalog; listing of recent articles appearing in other periodicals.

VOLUME III #2, AUGUST 1987
The Sound Garden sound sculpture exhibit in Tokyo; a contemporary trumpet marine; modular instrument systems; 'au ni mako and other stamping tubes; discography for experimental instruments; review of the Society for Ethnomusicology; listing of recent articles.

VOLUME III #3, OCTOBER 1987
The Baschet Brothers' Structures Sonores; the Slide French Horn by Ray Kraemer; instruments made by children at the Santa Fe Research Center; long string installations by Paul Panhuisen and Johan Goedhart; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME III #4, DECEMBER 1987
Kamakshi Vina (a new instrument by a traditional Indian craftsman); an overview of bamboo in instrument making; bamboo instruments by Darrell DeVore; the Triolin; Tinkololin on the Head (sonic headgear by Leo Tadagawa); Glass Music International; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME III #5, FEBRUARY 1988
Jaccques Dudon's instruments made with water and light; the custom-made chromatic flute by Jim Schmidt; travel instruments; Ernest Nussbaum's Travielo; Francis Kosheleff's Packaxe; recent Musicworks tapes; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME III #6, APRIL 1988
Robert Grawi's Gravikord (a Kora-like string instrument); alternatives for fretted instruments; a guide to microtonal refretting by Buzz Kimball; additional comments on the subject from Ivor Darreg; homebuilt instruments by Chris Swartz; a look at the possibilites of inharmonic overtone series; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME IV #1, JUNE 1988
Michael Meadows' Harmonic Ensemble; Skip La Plante's Music for Homemade Instruments; archetectural sound installations by the Baschet Brothers; anniversary editorial; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME IV #2, AUGUST 1988
Instruments of horn, tusk, bone and shell; bone instruments by the Buchens and Bob Natalini; a cowhorn fipple flute by John Jordan; Maurice Ravel & the Lutheal, by Hugh Davies; a glissando clarinet; Vestal Press, a publishing house specializing in mechanical instruments; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME IV #3, OCTOBER 1988
Hans Reichel's Dachsophon; Sonorous Metals for the Experimenter; Bass Marimbas by Denny genovese & Tim Treadwell; extended review of Luigi Russolo's Art of Noises; report on 2 organizations devoted to nature sounds; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME IV #4, DECEMBER 1988
Music from sounding membranes; congo drum construction; the tabla puddi; instruments for a children's instrument building workshop; review of a book about and a record by Spike Jones; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME IV #5, FEBRUARY 1989
String instruments by Susan Norris, Fred Carlson, Clif Wayland & Francis Kosheleff; more on movable frets; eggshell instruments; pitchname, frequency & wavelength chart; book review of Echo from Het Apollohuis; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME IV #6, APRIL 1989
Sounds in Clay, by Ward Hartenstein; 19 tone instruments by Jim Piehl and Tillman Schafer; string instruments by William Eaton, Linda Manzer & Steve Klein; the sink; review of 3 encyclopedias; short recordings reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME V #1, JUNE 1989
Mirlitons (kazoos & more); Ernie Althoff's random music machines; harmonics guitars by Hans Reichel & Glenn Branca; reviews of early organological works by Praetorius, Mersenne & Bonanni; 4th birthday editorial; four year index; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME V #2, AUGUST 1989
One Man Bands; William Roof; Whirled Instruments Part I: David Toop & Whirled Music; a History of Sampling; Students' Instrument Ideas; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME V #3, OCTOBER 1989
Environmental Sound Sculpture from the Exploratorium; Whirled Instruments Part II: Whirlies; Corrugahorns; Harps & Zithers for Tiny Children; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME V #4, DECEMBER 1989
Instruments using balloons and other inflated bladders; Part I of a study of musical strings; Whirled Instruments Part III: Spirit Catchers & Windwands; the Bellow Melodica; book review: Hooked on Making Musical Instruments; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME V #5, FEBRUARY 1990
Side hole clay pot drums by Frank Giorgini; Musical Strings Part II: a review of materials that can be used for strings; Superball Mallets; musical instruments in the classroom; review of Sound Arts, an exhibit of hand crafted instruments; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME V #6, APRIL 1990
Resophonic Guitars (Dobros); Seaweed Instruments Part I; Plain String Calculations; review of just intonation software; the Cosmic Koto; review of Scratch My Back (book on musical saw playing); listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VI #1, JUNE 1990
The T-Rodimba (an electroacoustic percussion board); affordable & practical microtonal ensembles; the Portable Booed Usic Busking Unit; Seaweed Part II; new year's editorial; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VI #2, AUGUST 1990
Comparative tunings chart and notes; musical glasses & glass acoustics; review of resources relating to mechanical musical instruments; cassette reviews; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VI #3, OCTOBER 1990
Percussion aerophones overview; Tom Guralnik's altered saxophones; wound string calculations; imaginary instruments in fantasy literature; reviews of two books on early musical science; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VI #4, DECEMBER 1990
Making music with animals; New Zealand's From Scratch Ensemble; the Artspirit Sings sound art exhibit; the Matzaar and Aliquot Tonescales; notes from an early high school physics text and a new book on ancient Greek instruments; cassette reviews; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VI #5, FEBRUARY 1991
Richard Graham's Diddley Bows; David Myers' Feedback Music; Tobias Kaye's Musical Bowls; more on corrugahorns; Sascha Reckert's glass instruments; the smell organ; review of Music Trades magazine's History of the US Music Industry; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VI #6, APRIL 1991
Bob Fenger's Acousticizer; Conjoined String Systems Part I; giant harps & fiddles by Arthur K. Ferris; review of Alfred Newman's Mouthsounds; patenting for musical insttuments; Bill Sethares' tunings for 19-equal guitar; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VII #1, JUNE 1991
Computer control for acoustic instruments; driftwood marimbas; Conjoined String Systems Part II; a day in the patent library; review of Het Apollohuis 1985-1990; new year's editorial; six year index of articles in EMI; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VII #2, SEPTEMBER 1991
Famous Early Color Organs; Ceramic Instruments from EarthSounds; Peter Whitehead's cans, springs, plates, etc.; Ferdinand Forsch's sculptural metal instruments; Conjoined String Systems Part III; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VII #3, NOVEMBER 1991
Membrane reeds (a unique wind instrument reed type); Brian Stapleton's Ukeful Ideas; Devils Fiddles Part I; 20th Century Color Organs; recordings reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VII #4, JANUARY 1992
Guy Laramée and Tuyo; John Hajeski's Portable Anarchy; Sound Installations by William Louis Sorensen; Devil's Fiddles Part 2; The Aerophor; recordings reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VII #5, APRIL 1992
The Till Family Rock Band (lithophones); Bridges on Indian string instruments; air column acoustics; instruments by Reed Ghazala; book review of Art Metropole's Sound Art; an early design for home-built electronic organ; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VII #6, JULY 1992
Richard Waters' Waterharp; Terrain Instruments by Leif Brush; air column acoustics part II; an early color organ/spectrum analyzer; whistles from beach rocks; Liza Carbé"s Zil; listing of recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VIII #1, SEPTEMBER 1992
Oliver DiCicco's Mobius Operandi instruments; ondes Martenot; improvising with experimental instruments; musical pillars in Hindu temples; scrapyard percussion; introduction to spectrum analysis; circuit bending with Qubais Reed Ghazala; TransAtlantic Organology; recordings reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VIII #2, DECEMBER 1992
Pre-Columbian Flutes & Ocarinas; drums from food service containers; the Odor Box (altered consumer electronics); drums & drum lacings; systems for mapping molecular light absorption data into patterns of musical scale & timbre (2 articles); motorized guitar objects (driving electromagnetic pickups with small electric motors); recordings reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VIII #3, MARCH 1993
Hybrid Instruments by Ken Butler; a slide bass clarinet; part 1 of a 2-part series on sizing and placement of toneholes for wind instruments; history & description of the theremin; schematic for making a simple theremin; Music Atrium (a hands-on museum sound exhibit for children); review of the Soundscape Newsletter; recordings reviews; Reed Ghazala's Photon Clarinet; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME VIII #4, JUNE 1993
Reinhold Marxhausen's Stardust; Hal Rammel's Sound Palette; clarinet multiphonics; Reed Ghazala's Incantors; toneholes for wind instruments part 2; David Barnes' ensemble of instruments inspired by EMI; Systems for Non-linear Instruments and Notation, Part 1, by Dan Senn; recordings reviews; book reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME IX #1, SEPTEMBER 1993
Drums, rumba boxes and bamboo flutes by the Jamaican maker Rupert Lewis; more on giant lamellaphones such as rumba box by Richard Graham; music by mail order; Modified cimbalom & other instruments by Mike Masley; instruments by Martien Groeneveld; Q.R. Ghazala's Vox Insecta; Part 2 of Dan Senn's Systems for Non-Linear Instruments; book reviews; recordings reviews; history of Marx Company musical instruments; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME IX #2, DECEMBER 1993
A 13-equal ensemble by Buzz Kimball; bamboo saxophones by Sugar Belly Walker & Brian Wittman; Deagan Organ Chimes; extended wind instruments by Brigid Burke and Warren Burt; Q.R. Ghazala's Sound Dungeon; relating timbre & tuning by Bill Sethares; recording & book reviews, spherical resonators by Drew Pear; reprints of brief historical articles on una-fon & bamboo organ; a 34-equal guitar; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME IX #3, MARCH 1994
mallet percussion by Jim Doble; idiochord zithers; historically questionable instruments from Cloud 8 Audio; sound sculpture by Mineko Grimmer; simple hardware store instruments by Barry Hall; inverters by Q.R. Ghazala; early novelty instruments from the firm of Mussehl & Westfal; recordings reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME IX #4, JUNE 1994
Brass intruments of bamboo and tin in Minahassa; instruments by Bill Colvig; Henry Lowengard's Software-o-phones; Ken Lovelett's Bellatope percussion battery; early mechanical instruments; Q.R. Ghazala's video octavox; pickup winding (1st of two articles); book and recordings reviews; more articles on unusual instruments from old magazines; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME 10 #1, SEPTEMBER 1994
Pyrophones, with writings from Michel Moglia, Trimpin, and Norman Andersen; notes on shaker chimes and stone chimes from Ellen Schultze; aeolian harps, with writings from John Oughton & Ros Bandt; McLean Mix & nature sound; pickup winding (2nd of two articles); Chinese stone chimes; electro-mechanical wierdness from ASFi musicworks; Hans van Koowijk's Bambuso Sonoro; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME 10 #2, DECEMBER 1994
aeolian harps, with writings from Tom Pearce and Richard Lerman; nature sound reocrding and use by Catherine Girardeau; nature sound recording in the Amazon, by Douglas Quin; natural wind chimes by Steve Heitzeg; Q.R. Ghazala's Morpheum; metallophone construction by Bill Colvig, plus a history and construction notes on tubular metallophones; book reviews; recordings reviews; invented instruments from Experimental Sound Studio; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME 10 #3, MARCH 1994
Apache Violin; more on tubular metallophones; alfalfa viola (a pitchfork/cigar-box fiddle); the qin (Chinese zither) sounded by wind; the flame componium (an imaginary pyrophone); juggling with banjos; bamboo for musical instruments part 1; pot lid instruments; reviews of events, recordings, and videos; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME 10 #4, June 1995
Stroh violin; review of available nature-sound recordings; the Lautenwerk (early European gut-strung keyboard); twist-tuning for strings; speed bump music; game calls for musical use; surrealist instruments from Johannes Bergmark; Ghazala's Trigon Incantor; bamboo for musical instruments part 2; book reviews; recordings reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME 11 #1, SEPTEMBER 1995
Sound gadgetry in kid's toys; glass harmonica; new discoveries from Cloud 8 Archives (humor); nature sound in recording, part 2; perceptural instruments; bamboo for musical instruments part 3; rotary rasp; Stroh Violin part 2 (appendices); 10th anniversary editorial; book reviews; recordings reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME 11 #2, DECEMBER 1995
Flutes and sound sculptures by Susan Rawcliffe; Ken Lovelett's drums for the 21st century; the monochord; highland bagpipes; patents: variable pitch tuning fork; the Leskowsky collection of musical instruments; sky harps; acoustic reverb devices; book reviews; recordings reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME 11 #3, MARCH 1996
A homemade Leslie effect; several more homemade signal processing effects for recording; digeridoo; an interview with painolist Rex Lawson; patents: tremolo bar, humbucking pickup, keyboard cello, foot-operated bass guitar; marketing unconventional musical instruments, part 1; an improved mouthbow; Thoreau's aeolian harp; interview with Z'EV; musical instruments played by scraping; Sound Culture '96 preview; book reviews; recording reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME 11 #4, JUNE 1996
Liquid percussion, an interactive installation by the composer/sound sculptor Trimpin, plays music for the rainy season; marketing unconventional musical instruments, part 2; innovative percussion instruments; Fred "Spaceman" Long, troubadour from the 26th century; electroacoustic coil-spring instruments; woodcuts from a 19th century acoustics text; harmonic window; book reviews; recording reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME 12 #1, SEPT. 1996
Sound effects in radio, film and theater, part 1; Vietnamese instrument maker Ta Tham, shell trumpets, Grant Strombeck's approaches to instrument making, a Leslie talk box, two innovative keyboard designs; the "Terrance Dougherty;" Two generations of experimental instrument makers; book reviews; recordings; historical patents: plastic ukulele; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME 12 #2, DEC 1996
Bamboo saxophones by Angel Sampedro del Rio; Circuit-bending the Casio SK-1 electronic keyboard by Reed Ghazala; a medieval psaltery reconstructed by Nelly van Ree Bernard; music on transport wires by Alte Pakutsch Gundersen; Sound Effects Part 2 by Ray Brunelle; Jeff Bunting's instruments for just intonation; the Cuban Folkloric Dance Ensemble; alternative approaches to electronic pickups; recordings reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME 12 #3, MARCH 1997
More drums from Ken Lovelett; Kieth Spear's instruments from industrial discards; Colin Offord's mouthbows, moonbells and more; Harry Bertoia's Sonambient® sound sculptures; Philip Ostendorf's Ostenhorn; Art Liestman's Walnut Angklung; an innovative bridge and soundboard design; sound sculpture from Greyworld; recordings reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME 12 #4, JUNE 1997
Free music machines of Percy Grainger; Sirens, part 1; Cat's Cradle; Loop Group Brass; Sound art of Robert Rauschenberg; Two-dimensional keyboard patterns; Casio SA-2 aleatron; Helikon, an early Greek instrument for harmonic measurement; recordings reviews; book reviews, recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME 13 #1, SEPTEMBER 1997
Speech Production & Historical Speech Synthesis Projects; Sirens (Part 2); Balloon Boom; Chinese Wind-Driven Kite Flutes; Slate Marimbas; Building Modular Drums from Plastic Pipe & Plywood; book reviews; recording reviews; recent articles in other periodicals.

VOLUME 13 #2, DECEMBER 1997
The Talking Machine; Scrappy Scrapers; Mailing Tubes and Styrocellos; The Solar Bug Box; Reconstructions of Ancient Greek Music; Scratching the Surface (Balloons); Scot Jenerik's Fire Music; Historical Patents for Horned Violins.

VOLUME 13 #3, MARCH 1998
The Free Reed; Poeme Electronique; Hunka Hunka Churnin' Wood; Empty Vessels; Sonic Odyssey and Quest for Clarity; Sound Sculpture from Hungary; Ellen Fullman's Long String Instrument; Ramblings on Homemade Harps; From Flutes to Nuts; Bucket Drum Toms and the Marching Marimba.

VOLUME 13 #4, JUNE 1998:
John Kaizan Neptune & Shakuhachi Innovation; TakeDake; "Funny" Music of Neil Feather; Totems of Imagination; Plicker Plucker; One-Footed Drum Kit; Dworkian Register; Electromagnetic Possibilities.

VOLUME 14 #1, SEPTEMBER 1998
Deus ex Machina by Monte Thrasher; Whistling Water Jars in PreColumbian Ceramics by Brian Ransom; Toy Pianos No Longer Toys! By Margaret Leng Tan; more bamboo winds from Angel Sampedro del Rio; How to Scramble your SK-1 by Walter Funk; MicroPiano-izmo: Toy Piano Mutation by zHANg; The Icelandic Lithophone by Elias Davidsson; Mellow Lamellophones (children's instruments) by Robin Goodfellow; Browsing my Mind by Dwin Craig.

VOLUME 14 #2, DECEMBER 1998
Flute-Clock Caper by Robert Moore; Hybrid Winds by Linsey Pollak; Motormouth by Martin Riches; Galloping Gamelan by Robin Goodfellow; Tank Music by Reed Maxson; Hyperbiwa by Jhon Miura Hardy; Bamboo & Music, Part 1 by Richard Waters; Sub-Chant Generator by Reed Ghazala.

VOLUME 14 #3, MARCH 1999
Polymorphous Percussion Construction by Zeno Okeanos; Dolceola by Andy Cohen; New Sax Fingering System by Jim Schmidt; Paul Panhuysen's Long String Installations by René van Peer; Laudable Launeddas and other Reedy Folk by Robin Goodfellow; Aeolian-Bow Kites in China by Mitchell Clark; Clements Centennial Stroh Violin by Cary Clements; Deeper into Fleshtone by Monte Thrasher; Bamboo & Music, Part 2 by Richard Waters.

VOLUME 14 #4, JUNE 1999
Globular Horns by Barry Hall; Freenotes from Richard Cooke; ceramic instruments from Brian Ransom; The Photosonic Disk by Jacques Dudon; Sculptaurals by Ela Lamblin; instrument making in the classroom by John Bertles; Diverse instruments from John Berndt; a guide to circuit-bending by Reed Ghazala; kid-buildable soda-straw instruments from Robin Goodfellow; Stroh Violins Still Being Made, by Cary Clements; Articles We Shouda Done by Bart Hopkin. This issue also has an unusually extensive letters and notes section featuring photos and descriptions of instruments from twelve different builders.