Flexichord - what´s that?

The Flexichord is a musical instrument built out of devices from two electric guitars and a piece of solid wood, placed horizontally. It was created in 1996 by my friend and brother in law, guitar builder Martin Kuhn, after design and idea by me.

History

It was created as an attempt to liberate myself from the musical life I was living at that moment. Just graduated from Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, playing electric bass in several bands, most of them rather straight jazz/rock, I found myself in a state where most of the theoretical knowledge, the scales and chords did not mean anything to me anymore. I was nearly suffocating under the heavy weight of Rhythm, Melody and Harmony; I was just so sick of it all and searched for some sort of new input. So I simply put the bass in my knees, placed horizontally, just banging the instrument like crazy, trying to escape from all the theoretical knowledge that I found stopping me from appreciate, experience and play music.

After experimenting a lot on my bass with different kinds of preparation, I soon felt a need for a new instrument that allowed me to produce the kind of sounds that I was looking for.

That made me create the flexichord; a 12-stringed guitarlike instrument.

The instrument

There are no frets on the flexichord. The 12 strings are organised in two pairs, 6 and 6, but the strings are in a different order compared to the guitar, that is, actually, they are organised in a constantly changing order. I experiment a lot with putting the strings on in new ways, attempting to surprise myself and get a bit unsure about what sounds will com out from the instrument. This sort of insecurity works as inspiration and is a deliberate part of my playing.

The tuning

The tuning constantly changes and is depending on what mood I am in, or the financial situation for the day; sometimes I have just a few strings on and no money/no time to get new strings, I try to see those moments as a challenge and a way to use limitation as a creative source. Sometimes I tune it tempered, but mostly I prefer at least some of the strings to be a bit “out of tune”.

How to play

I use all kinds of preparations and materials; chop sticks, saw blades, rubber, metal, wood, bowls with water, brushes, fabric, plastic balls, bows, knitting sticks, balloons, rubber bands, stones, picks, coins, etc. etc. I constantly change the arsenal of preparations in order to keep stagnation and predictability far, far away.

                                                                                       Herman Müntzing

                                                                                       Baskemölla, November 2009