Abstract:
An innovation of a musical instrument is part of a doctoral dissertation with a scope of designing a new musical instrument. The new musical instrument was named after its sound production method which relies on piston system.ÿ This new instrument is titled Lom Rai. The objective of this study is twofolded: (1) to investigate the body of knowledge in creating Thai Lom Rai musical instrument; and (2) to create and design Thai Lom Rai musical instrument. By employing qualitative research method, the researcher implemented unstructured interviews and participant observer. The Lom Rai was tested by eleven experts who played and evaluated the innovation of Thai wind instruments on five aspects regarding physical design, weight, musical characteristics, performance feasibility, and sound quality. The research results found that the innovation of the Thai Lom Rai musical instrument is a wind instrument that generates wind and sound from a piston system by pressing the finger on the key. The Thai Lom Rai musical instrument has a wide sound range of 4 octaves. It can produce more than 2 to 10 sounds together. It can be used in solo playing, duet playing, and band combinations. Therefore, it is a musical instrument that encourages the player to imagine and create melodies freely Thai Lom Rai musical instrument can be played along with other instruments to create continuity and harmony to the ensemble