Chinese brothers create musical instruments from vegetables

London, March 13 (ANI): Two brothers from Beijing have created musical instruments from carrots, potatoes and other vegetables.

Playing music with vegetables has become a passion and a career for Nan Weidong, 43, and Nan Weiping, 41, since the idea came to them two years ago.

The brothers learned to play conventional instruments from their father, a music teacher, when they were children.

Now the pair live and work in a narrow apartment in Beijing, drilling holes in carrots, marrows, lotus roots and Chinese yams to make vegetable instruments that they perfect using an old electronic tuner, the Telegraph reported.

According to the brothers, different vegetables have different scales and are therefore suited to different melodies: a sweet potato makes an ocarina, a bamboo shoot becomes a flute, a yam, a whistle.

But controlling the pitch is still extremely difficult, because changes in the air temperature, humidity and other factors can warp the shape of the holes and put the notes out of tune.

The Nan brothers, whose repertoire ranges from traditional Chinese flute music to modern pop to western folk songs like Auld Lang Syne, have appeared on talent shows in China and can receive payments of 30,000 to 50,000 yuan for a performance. (ANI)