SAD AGGIE

A Sad Aggie is a set of tuned thunder drums. Thunder drums (aka spring drums or thunder tubes) are tube drums with long, narrow, floppy coil springs attached to the head; Remo and other manufacturers produce them commercially. They make an impressive thundering sound when you agitate the spring. In my Sad Aggies, I give the broad-spectrum thunder sound recognizable pitch by tuning the lengths of the tubes and springs. I’ve made two sets: 1) Tall Sad Aggie (shown here), in which the Aggies are spring-mounted on a tall stand, and 2) Sad Aggie HH, which is a hand-held set with a tone hole added in sides of the tubes to allow each tube to play a couple of tones.

In the audio clip, Tall Sad Aggie is joined by Spaghetti and 2+2+1.

In addition to what you’ll see if you click the video icon below, you can also find footage of Sad Aggie in this video, which is an exploration of coil spring sounds and features several such instruments.