Dear friends from all over the world!  Here is our quarterly
rendezvous!  A new "La SeriNet" in English, from the magazine
Musique Mécaniques Vivantes No. 85, is available on the web site of
the AAIMM (Associations des Amis des Instruments et de la Musique
Mécanique): http://www.aaimm.org/spip/spip.php?article899 

So, come along and follow us to visit our mechanical music video
museum.  There is a lot of instruments to discover this time, don't
be afraid!  For your convenience, we gathered them in a few "rooms":
Organs, Pianos, Orchestrions, Music boxes, Street organs, Guitars,
and so on.  Choose your room and enter it, your way will be the good
one.  Yves Strobbe and Jean Nimal, the curators of this virtual museum,
are proud to invite you.

Any questions?

- Yes, you can talk during the visit!
- Yes, your child can finish his ice cream, and even drop it!
- Yes, you can touch!

Would you like to get an idea of what kind of instruments you will
find in our museum?  (More comments on the web site.)

The biggest:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujw7a6P8l4k  A barrel
Welte orchestrion from the Kawagushi Music Forest Museum plays the
Nozze di Figaro (Mozart).

The smallest: two videos of the same musical pocket watch,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqBmIoVxlyY  for the good sound
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LrB-AAJUOs&feature=relmfu  to see
the inside while playing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhJPA7BLLWU  Happy performance of our
friend Mr. Cautin (with his bell and organ P'TITOU) orgue de barbarie
27/29 keys with flutes plays "The Typewriter" by Leroy Anderson.

Eighteen different automatic guitars in an extraordinary gallery.
They are born from personal challenge, stuff experiments, exhibition
"show off" teasers, etc.  They all are together a respectable tribute
to the clever brains who created them!  They use electronic devices,
air or hydraulic valves, Lego Technic parts, electromagnets, mechanics,
paper rolls -- whatever!  As you can hear and see, the result does not
depend on the investment (time or money).  Here are a few examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4MEHKuxUKI  A Russian guitar, with
a very good result.  It is worth listening till the end!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sesQT84zMHY  Rob Clippard shows to us
this MIDI operated guitar with air valves used for medical purpose!
Clippard Air Guitar (music starts at 1:20).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icnmBvpYV98  We did not forget the
Encore Automatic Banjo (replica) called "The King of Slot Machine".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GRNQH7j2EE  Here is a Ragtime West
guitar, with pneumatic reading.  It plays the "Toccata et fugue en ré
mineur de Bach", BWV 565; you hear the Toccata.  The famous jazz man
Pat Metheny used these kind of instruments in his orchestrion tour
(see "Orchestrions").

And many other instruments of all kind on the "La SeriNet 85" page:
http://www.aaimm.org/spip/spip.php?article899 

Please, don't leave this letter too quickly -- I have a present for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTMyl9bRado  Amazing!  One more guitar:
it does not play automatic music but is a mechanical guitar for sure!
Philip Wickenden from Bath (England) plays 1/2 country music ("Ragtime
Annie") with his violin and guitar!  Impossible?  Oh yes, he can do it
with his homemade mechanical guitar player!  Phil built it out of a
sewing machine and a few bicycles!  He plays the violin with his arms,
his left foot makes the musical chords and the right foot makes the
strumming -- Jules Verne might have dreamt it!  For details of Phil
Wickenden's guitar visit  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXJjfb8SrXk 
Your own comments are welcome.

All our best from France,
Jean Nimal