19th Annual Music For People & Thingamajigs Festival (MFP&T)
Thingamajigs presents the 2016 edition of the sound-art festival that started it all. A power-pack of musical works of homemade instruments, found objects, and alternate tunings by some of the Bay Area’s most innovative artists; the 19th Annual MFP&T festival is a step further in Thingamajigs’ search for sounds; as it extends the spirit beyond its artist community. In order to achieve this, the festival will be held over 3 weekends and in different venues around Bay Area.
October - played in alternate tunings
Found objects, innovative instruments, new music and a gathering of unusual performers - Thingamajigs gears up for its biggest annual celebration in October. It all begins on October 1st in a military bunker, gets to bay area streets on Oct 6th and concludes on Oct 16th with a performance by the legendary percussionist Willie Winant.
"Borrowed, Modulated, Enriched"
Tuning Thingamajigs : Ecological implications of tuning practices and theories in a California arts non-profit
By far the dominant tuning system in Western music theory and practice, it doesn't reflect the tuning reality of many of those practices including American popular song and blues. This is not because we are anti-technology. Our tuning is local to factors that the tuner, and the theory it reproduces, can't compass. We 'sweeten' our tunings to sound the way we like them to on our various instruments, tune differently for different songs, and tune differently depending upon which other instruments we are playing with.
