Farmer makes music with eggshells, toothpaste tubes and more

[Video by Qing Feng for chinadaily.com.cn]

Have you ever heard the sounds made by eggshells, toothpaste tubes, tobacco pipes and ping-pong balls? Dou Ming, a 48-year-old farmer, transformed these daily necessities into "musical instruments" that could play a harmonious tune.

Dou, living in Fuyu county, Northeast China's Jilin province, has showed great talent in music since childhood and has taught himself how to play several musical instruments, including the flute and erhu, a type of two-stringed instrument similar to the cello.

As long as the objects could have holes added to them, he gives them a try as instruments.

So far, he has invented around 20 types of instruments with long-stemmed tobacco pipes, used toothpaste tubes, injection syringes, table tennis balls and eggshells. "At a summer night in 2003, when I was smoking my long-stemmed tobacco pipe, I suddenly wanted to see whether it could generate a sound," he said. "To my surprise, the sound was splendid."

After simple modifications, his long-stemmed tobacco pipe became the first homemade musical instrument.

Since then, he began to create other musical instruments and in the following years, he chose as raw materials different daily necessities that could have holes drilled into them.

"I hope I can finish a total of 100 such musical instruments in the future and play more beautiful music," he said.