THOSE OTHER GONGS

I have made several instruments with flat disk gongs – most notably the set linked to here – and I have written about them extensively here and here. The most important things to note about the flat gongs is that they’re easy to make, and they sound wonderful. The gong set shown on this page, called Those Other Gongs, is a miscellany of flat gongs I had accumulated over the years, mostly from scrapyards, most of them played as they were found without further working. They are mounted outdoors on a large framework, standing as an invitation to individual or group improvisation. They cover a large range from low to high; some have clear pitch and some do not; some are overtone-tuned and some are not; some are cymbal-like sizzle gongs; some have post-strike pitch-bending effects; some are aluminum and some steel.