Brodie Ranzau is a freshman biochemistry and molecular biology major -- he is also a musician. He is a member of Otterbein's marching band, the wind ensemble and the symphonic band. Occasionally, he plays an unconventional-looking instrument that has gained him recognition on campus. It is an instrument that he hand-built from PVC pipes.
Ranzau comes from a musical background. He has been playing percussion since fifth grade and he participated in high school marching band. He built his PVC pipe instrument last spring.
“There was a talent show going on in high school that the seniors always do, so I decided I wanted to do it,” he said.
Ranzau then began to build his instrument with the help of his father. They started by using a spreadsheet online that showed the lengths of pipe necessary to create different notes on the instrument. From there, he said it was mostly trial and error, trimming down the pipes until they produced the correct notes.
Ranzau said that his instrument has the same keys as a xylophone or piano, which makes it easy to adapt nearly any song to be played on it.
Ranzau said he believes the Blue Man Group originally came up with the idea for a PVC pipe instrument because a large version of it is part of their regular show.
A Youtube performer named Snubby J inspired Ranzau and his father to build the instrument. Snubby J, like Ranzau, is a student who built his own PVC pipe instrument and has gotten quite a bit of attention on Youtube from it. Ranzau shared a video of his own performance on YouTube as well.
Ranzau said that so far, he has only played his instrument a handful of times. His performances include his high school’s talent show, Otterbein’s family weekend talent show, Greek Week, and Relay for Life.
While he says he doesn’t know where he will play next, he keeps the instrument nearby, in Battelle Fine Arts Center, in case a performance opportunity arises.
