Springboard

What might appear to be a musical Zimmer frame is in fact the Springboard, an electro-acoustic coil spring instrument built by Chicago-based musician and instrument builder Eric Leonardson. Inspired by the sounds of metal springs retracting on the screendoor at his home, Leonardson set about experimenting with no preconceived idea of what sort of instrument he would end up with, indeed even if an instrument would materialise.

Over several versions and much tinkering, the Springboard has become an extremely flexible and unique musical instrument, generating a diverse range of sounds, from acoustic bass-like tones, to animalistic grunts and snorts.

Leonardson traces his inspiration for instrument building back to several sources, beginning with life as an art student at Northern Illinois University, where it wasn’t unusual to see musicians playing hubcaps, bowls, and other everyday non-musical items. In the late 80s it was at Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio and Randolph Street Gallery that Leonardson heard Nicolas Collins and Elliot Sharp performing on various invented instruments. In the early 90s Hal Rammel’s instrument invention workshops at the Experimental Sound Studio fuelled Leonardson’s intrigue for instrument invention.

Prior to developing the Springboard, Leonardson had been making music in a studio using a combination of drums, analog synthesizer, 4-track cassette recorder, reel-to-reel tapes, prepared bass guitar, MIDI controlled samplers, drum machine, computer sequencing, turntables, and environmental sounds. As a precursor to his instrument building, Leonardson described his earlier approach as ‘… using the studio as an instrument itself.’

instrument design
The instrument uses an aluminium walker as its base (perhaps a genuine Zimmer frame). Attached across the top of the walker is a 2×6 inch piece of wood. A single contact microphone is mounted inside a small cavity in the wood. Not only is the large mounted spring amplified, but the entire board is transformed into a sensitive microphone for amplifying the vibrations of all the mounted objects, which in the instrument’s latest form comprises coil springs, tuned wooden slats, rubber bands, combs, and a small metal grill.

As Leonardson points out ‘…coil springs, which contain a lot of enharmonic content, produce a cold, hauntingly industrial sound, particularly when bowed.’ The current version of the Springboard has springs attached to each leg of its frame, with the other end of the springs attached to different points along the wooden board.

The Springboard also uses tuned wooden slats or ‘crude daxophones’ (in reference to Hans Reichel’s Daxophone). The slats produce myriad comic and disturbing sounds – murmuring, whining, cajoling, and animalistic snoring. Leonardson is able to bend the pitch of individual slats by applying pressure with his non-bowing hand. This particular component of the Springboard has proven to be a great accompaniment when playing with saxophone players, as well as the extended vocal techniques of Carol Genetti, a frequent collaborator with Leonardson.

For a more mellow set of tones, Leonardson has stretched the large rubber bands around eyebolts and the metal grill, to produce sounds identical in range and timbre to an acoustic bass.

To extract maximum sonic potential each of the objects are bowed, plucked, rubbed, scraped, and struck with brushes, chopsticks, friction mallets, or the player’s fingers.

When the amplification is juiced up, the entire instrument becomes sensitive enough to pick-up the environmental sounds of the room it’s situated in, adding to the overall textures and layers being produced through the instrument. And if that isn’t enough for your ears, Leonardson also amplifies additional objects placed directly onto the instrument – such as music boxes, large rubber bands, a vibrating massager, and a small piezo disk speaker connected to the earphone jack of a pocket radio.

Earlier versions of the instrument (pictured), used a large industrial can with a dedicated microphone fixed to the opening. The can was mounted underneath the wood with a coil spring anchored to it and to the legs of the frame. The can and the spring acted as a resonator and a sympathetic vibrational body for the rest of the instrument. The output from each microphone could also be amplified or processed separately.

In more recent versions of the Springboard Leonardson has replaced the can with other smaller objects that provide more interesting sound possibilities, at the same time as making the instrument much more travel friendly.

From about 1999 Leonardson began using an Echoplex Digital Pro to sample, loop, and overdub sounds in real-time during live performances – both solo and with Plasticene Theater Company. However in most other sessions, such as improvised ensemble performances, Leonardson continues to play the Springboard sans echoplex.

As Leonardson continues to play and modify the Springboard, so too do his playing techniques ‚ ‘…as a drummer I have learned how to become sensitive to the material response of the Springboard. I seldom ever hit any parts of the instrument as one hits a drum. Instead, bows, brushes, friction mallets, chopsticks, my bare hands and fingers apply controlled pressure, flexion, and friction to produce its most intriguing sounds.’

Image: main photo by Michael Erzen (2008)

Music: ‘Measuring Widths’ (1998), with Steve Barsotti on the Spring Frame, from Rarebit (2008) – Transparency CD 0125.
‘The Vulture’s Midwife’ (1998) from Radio Reverie In the Waiting Place (1999) – IEL CD 0011

Further info about the Springboard can be found at Eric Leonardson’s website