MacGyvering A Trombone Lyre: A Story With Pictures

As many of you know, I play trombone in the Kiltie Band here at CMU. I picked up the trombone over summer so I really have no idea what I'm doing. Today I realized I was missing another essential part of being a band member. A lyre.

A lyre holds music to your instrument so you can read music and march simultaneously. Since I didn't have one and am an engineering student at one of the best engineering schools in the world, I decided to make one myself.

The next two pictures show my trombone. The first one is unedited. The second one I edited in Paintbrush to show mysef exactly what I wanted.

My plain old trombone

Look at the colors!
In this picture, the red is something that would hold the music up and the blue is a clamp! Incredibly technical, huh?

My next step was to come up with supplies. I found some duct tape, rubber bands, a paper clamp, a paper clip, and the broken pen clip of my luckiest pen. Yes, I have a luckiest pen. I broke it by accident the other day. I'm still mourning.

I started assembling the parts. I put the rubber bands around the trombone, because that way it would hold everything together without getting gross ducktape goo on the finish. I slid the pen clip in the rubber band so I'd have something to work with. I then taped the paper clamp to the pen clip. It was pretty sturdy. To hold the music up I sacraficed the paper clip and made a support rod.

Here's an unlabeled picture of it:
Unlabeled!

And a labeled one:

It holds together pretty well. Hopefully it will make it through the football game Saturday!

Here's a final picture of it holding up the ever popular "Hey Song".
Hey! Huh!

Thu Sep 9, 2004 7:13 pm MST by MattF | Email Article |

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Comments

Alright, I concede. But I'm blaming Kristen. She told me it was "MacGuyver."

Sun Sep 12, 2004 3:57 pm MST by Baxter

Baxter, I'm right, and your wrong. Just check google for MacGuyver. It autocorrects you.

Sat Sep 11, 2004 9:04 am MST by MattF

Yeah, I saw this one episode, where he hacked into a computer system with just a toothbrush and some duct tape. and then he totally rescued this guy in a foreign country who was the uncle of the chick. And then he got this gun from the guard, and he's all like "No, dude, I can't shoot guns. But watch this." and he blasts a guy in the eyes with some acid he whipped up from anti-freeze and cheez-wiz. Dude, getting sprayed in the eyes with no-freeze-cheese is way worse than getting shot. MacGuyver, you one cold dude, yo.

Fri Sep 10, 2004 7:49 pm MST by MacGuyverGuy002938

Yes, my sources say it should be spelled "MacGuyvering." Anyway you can fix that? C'mon, you're freakin' MacGuyver.

Fri Sep 10, 2004 7:46 pm MST by Baxter

Nice work. Let us know if it holds under use.

Fri Sep 10, 2004 9:27 am MST by Anonymous

Great thinking. :)

Thu Sep 9, 2004 11:22 pm MST by Elmer

That's Pretty Cool....I'm impressed with your resourcefullness.

Thu Sep 9, 2004 9:56 pm MST by Jane

genius :)

Thu Sep 9, 2004 9:11 pm MST by kayla

It's close, but I can read it. The upside down Barq's was becase I had taken it out of the fridge before I got side-tracked and started McGyvering.

Thu Sep 9, 2004 8:19 pm MST by MattF

Also, why do you have an upside down can of Barq's on your dresser?

Thu Sep 9, 2004 7:40 pm MST by Baxter again

Holy Freakin' MacGuyver. I can hear the theme song now. If that holds up through the whole game, I'll dig up mine and give it to you. Of course, then you wouldn't need mine. I'll give it to you anyway if I can find it. Are you sure that the music will be far enough away that you can read it while you play? You'd better test it out before the game. They taught you test things in that fancy engineering school of yours, didn't they?

Thu Sep 9, 2004 7:35 pm MST by Baxter

MacGyvering A Trombone Lyre: A Story With Pictures

MacGyvering A Trombone Lyre: A Story With Pictures

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