Kazoo

:see ZOO Digital Group for the visual effects technology.

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The kazoo is a simple musical instrument (membranophone) that adds tonal qualities when the player hums into it. The kazoo is a type of mirliton - a device which modifies the sound of a person's voice by way of a vibrating membrane.

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Such instruments have been used in Africa for hundreds of years, to disguise the sound of somebody's voice or to imitate animals, for example, often for ceremonial purposes. It was on such an instrument that the kazoo, invented by an African American named Alabama Vest in the 19th century in Macon, Georgia, is based. The first kazoo was manufactured to Vest's specifications by Thaddeus von Clegg, a German clockmaker in Macon. The kazoo was first publicized at the Georgia State Fair in 1852.

Musical instrument: A musical instrument is a device that has been constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound, and can somehow be controlled by a musician, can serve as a musical instrument; but the expression is reserved generally to items that have that specif...

Membranophone: A membranophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of a vibrating stretched membrane. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, the other three being idiophone, chordophone and aerop...

Mirliton: Mirliton can mean:...

Kazoo related Images and Photos (experimental)

Kazoo Toy Musical Instrument