Kazoo Revue #5

When I mentioned in the last edition of the Kazoo Revue that this month would be a bit quiet, I had no idea what that would actually mean.

It's all a little bit fuzzy and overlaid with pain, but I found myself towards the end of July visiting urgent care and then the emergency room with extreme pain in my right shoulder. I'm still laid up.

Rather than busking, playing bass and enjoying playing kazoo for you this summer, I've spent a great deal of this gorgeous weather in my LazyBoy.

On the silver lining side, I've used the time to learn and practice recording with the digital audio workstation, Reaper. It's slow, and hard to do with just a trackpad and my left hand. However, I'm learning a lot, and once I regain full strength, I should be able to produce good demos quickly.

Um. There is one other thing.

From the very beginning of Jeremy and his Kazoo, there has been one thing that people keep sending to me and asking me about. The electric kazoo.

Kazoobie Kazoos sells an electric kazoo, essentially a cheap piezoelectric microphone that fits onto a standard plastic kazoo. You can then just plug that into an amp or whatever electric music thing you have and go to town.

I've long avoided it because I find playing kazoo, singing and playing guitar to be complex enough. The acoustic nature of my act makes it easy for me to show up to things like open mics or busking without too much need for a PA or other equipment. I like to be fast, efficient and mobile.

But I had purchased one of these electric kazoos a few weeks back. I was ordering something else off of the Kazoobie website, and it was there, and I figured, “Well. Let's just toss it on, and maybe I'll play with it sometime.” I'm glad I did, because it was something I've been able to do some experimenting with while being off work and play.

I'm far from an electric kazoo expert at this point, but I have discovered some things I really like with the electric kazoo. Perhaps most surprising to me is how cool a kazoo sounds with a big nasty fuzz pedal attached to it. I've always considered the kazoo to be distortion for your voice, so to have another distortion on top of that and have it sound so good is a bit of a surprise. That being said, a lot of guitarists stack distortion, so this is just that - but with a kazoo.

Other things are really fun too. Using an octave pedal on kazoo makes for some really crazy stuff. Especially going down to the lower stuff. A big bassy kazoo sounds cool.

I'm not sure if this is something that will make it into my set or my performances in the near future. But it is a new tool in my kit. Especially if I manage to expand Jeremy and his Kazoo to a full band experience. The electric kazoo could be very interesting. I don't think I would use the mic that comes with the electric kazoo from Kazoobie. I think I would opt for a second microphone on a stand hooked into my effect pedals. But that's all for another day.

This month's secret

What happens when you try to demo a song while restricted to a Lazy Boy using only your left hand? That's for you to judge, but I call it “Frozen Peas”.

You can find it in the same place on my SoundCloud page where last month's secret songs still reside. There's even a little tiny bit of inspiration in there from Saskatchewan performing legend, Bongo Bob.

Like my other SoundCloud demos, it's not going to stay there forever. Check it out now, and let me know what you think!